Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Once again with a mixture of old vets and newer but still experienced players in this 4er...
Selasphorus has absolutely been on *fire* tonight - he's been in three recorded 4P games thus far and won all of them! This was another case of 13 being let go at cost for the 20 on turn 2, and the player with the 13 winning that exchange. Just talked about this in my last game and it happens again, which tells me i was on the right track with my conclusions there.
What helped was Selas having 03 paired with the cheap 13 while the other players were burning coal left and right. teokop in particular made a massive overbuy of coal immediately after getting the 20, and that massively hurt their early money and subsequent momentum. Selas got the 16 a bit later on, which is a great pairing with the 13; you power 4 cities with a rough equivalent to Plant 21 while having better turn order.
That turn order allowed Selas to land the 30 at cost soon afterward, at a point where he didn't need to use it yet. It was a plant to be saved for Step 2, and that's exactly why he decided to start Step 2 himself. It didn't hurt that he had lots of available space on the west coast - i was a bit surprised at his Cheyenne/Billings start with 03, but this game is yet more evidence that it pays to have multiple options come Step 2.
Selas's closest competitor throughout the game, unsurprisingly, was Stein. He took a different tack from usual here, paying big for the 25 and even 28. Since he was never in the right spot to take the good green plants, this was his best alternative. The problem came in Step 3, when Selas got the 38 quite cheap while Stein had to pay over $70 for Plant 46 at the end to reach 18 cities. Selas overall paid far less for his plants than Stein, and that's what made it an easy win for him.
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
Once again with a mixture of old vets and newer but still experienced players in this 4er...
Selasphorus has absolutely been on *fire* tonight - he's been in three recorded 4P games thus far and won all of them! This was another case of 13 being let go at cost for the 20 on turn 2, and the player with the 13 winning that exchange. Just talked about this in my last game and it happens again, which tells me i was on the right track with my conclusions there.
What helped was Selas having 03 paired with the cheap 13 while the other players were burning coal left and right. teokop in particular made a massive overbuy of coal immediately after getting the 20, and that massively hurt their early money and subsequent momentum. Selas got the 16 a bit later on, which is a great pairing with the 13; you power 4 cities with a rough equivalent to Plant 21 while having better turn order.
That turn order allowed Selas to land the 30 at cost soon afterward, at a point where he didn't need to use it yet. It was a plant to be saved for Step 2, and that's exactly why he decided to start Step 2 himself. It didn't hurt that he had lots of available space on the west coast - i was a bit surprised at his Cheyenne/Billings start with 03, but this game is yet more evidence that it pays to have multiple options come Step 2.
Selas's closest competitor throughout the game, unsurprisingly, was Stein. He took a different tack from usual here, paying big for the 25 and even 28. Since he was never in the right spot to take the good green plants, this was his best alternative. The problem came in Step 3, when Selas got the 38 quite cheap while Stein had to pay over $70 for Plant 46 at the end to reach 18 cities. Selas overall paid far less for his plants than Stein, and that's what made it an easy win for him.
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
