Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Think girbach is another player we haven't seen on here yet - a less experienced one though.
Never tried a Raleigh start on this setup before, and really like it now! You may notice that i almost always aim for single builds with 03 & 04 - i really don't want to throw away the turn-order advantage you gain from those plants. Raleigh is real nice here because it gets you close to the two cheapest sections of the map (East Coast & Florida) and you have Pittsburgh as an out if people build next to you both ways.
This game is another exhibit in why you want to secure the bottom of the turn order vs. lower-winrate players, as girbach bought 24 way too early and was forced to give me the 25 at cost since they needed to build. 27 may seem really good for that early in the game, but it causes turn-order problems if you try to pair it with something like the 10 (as Selas does here). That's why i'm a bigger fan of 18 even though it looks like a strictly worse plant - it has much better early synergies because of its lower number. $30 seems like a fair price for a turn 3-4 27, i think.
Got a bit lucky with how badly the market stalled after 25, even after i bought 18 later. One interesting decision was whether to bid Selas some on the 21, with oil being so cheap. In retrospect i was probably fine letting him have it since i still had a capacity advantage over him.
Also, the cheap building on this map helped me out a lot. Selas getting the 32 so cheap would've won him the game had building been more expensive, as that would've prevented me from ending it before he could catch up. But as it turned out he was forced to pay $90 for a plant to reach 17 cities, and that sealed it for me. A case where early capacity actually worked - that's much more likely when building is cheap.
If you'd like to learn more about Power Grid, please check my blog for strategy articles on each power plant as well as a guide to 2-player games:
maninmotiongoingnowhere.wordpress.com/power-grid-strategy-individual-plant-articles
Think girbach is another player we haven't seen on here yet - a less experienced one though.
Never tried a Raleigh start on this setup before, and really like it now! You may notice that i almost always aim for single builds with 03 & 04 - i really don't want to throw away the turn-order advantage you gain from those plants. Raleigh is real nice here because it gets you close to the two cheapest sections of the map (East Coast & Florida) and you have Pittsburgh as an out if people build next to you both ways.
This game is another exhibit in why you want to secure the bottom of the turn order vs. lower-winrate players, as girbach bought 24 way too early and was forced to give me the 25 at cost since they needed to build. 27 may seem really good for that early in the game, but it causes turn-order problems if you try to pair it with something like the 10 (as Selas does here). That's why i'm a bigger fan of 18 even though it looks like a strictly worse plant - it has much better early synergies because of its lower number. $30 seems like a fair price for a turn 3-4 27, i think.
Got a bit lucky with how badly the market stalled after 25, even after i bought 18 later. One interesting decision was whether to bid Selas some on the 21, with oil being so cheap. In retrospect i was probably fine letting him have it since i still had a capacity advantage over him.
Also, the cheap building on this map helped me out a lot. Selas getting the 32 so cheap would've won him the game had building been more expensive, as that would've prevented me from ending it before he could catch up. But as it turned out he was forced to pay $90 for a plant to reach 17 cities, and that sealed it for me. A case where early capacity actually worked - that's much more likely when building is cheap.
If you'd like to learn more about Power Grid, please check my blog for strategy articles on each power plant as well as a guide to 2-player games:
maninmotiongoingnowhere.wordpress.com/power-grid-strategy-individual-plant-articles
