What I Played Today: June 28

Power Grid

I finally played Power Grid, and I don't hate it! I assumed that I would hate it, because it's a game that requires a lot of math, and math is the main reason I'm ambivalent about the 18XX series. But the math isn't that hard, although I did have a calculator on hand because screw this. There's actually a lot of area control and clever bidding required, and the comeback mechanic is pretty clever.

I rode the middle of the pack the whole game, getting some nice tiny power plants early on, but kept getting sweeped in terms of overall production or number of cities, keeping me always in second or third place. This turned out to help me pretty well, as we turned to each new phase, it allowed me to block off the routes the leaders needed to win. It came down to the wire though, as I luckily got enough wind power so that I didn't need to buy resources, so I won by $2. It was a superclose game, but that kind of tension is nice, and the fact that the game area is constantly changing meant that I couldn't really plan ahead, so I had to think on my toes.