RuleRunner

Power Grid rules

Run a power company: bid for plants, buy fuel and connect cities, then supply the most cities to win. Includes the map expansions and Robots.

Players
2–6
Time
90–120 min
Ages
14+
Goal
Run a power company: buy power plants, buy the resources to run them and connect cities into your network. The game ends when someone connects enough cities, and whoever can then supply the most cities with electricity wins.

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How to play Power Grid

Setup

  1. Board and zone: put the board in the middle (Germany for a first game). Choose one contiguous playing zone of connected areas: 3 areas for 2 or 3 players, 4 for 4, 5 for 5 or 6. Cities and connections outside it are never used.
  2. Players: each player takes the 22 houses of one colour, 50 Elektro and a payment summary card, and puts one house on space 0 of the connected-cities scoring track.
  3. Player order: take one house from each player and place them at random, one after another, on the top row of the player order track. With 2 players use the Trust setup lines below instead.
  4. Resource market: fill coal on spaces 1–8, oil on 3–8, garbage on 6–8 and uranium on 14–16 (the cheapest starting spaces are marked). Keep the other tokens beside the board as a supply and sort the money by value beside the board.
  5. Refill card and coal storage: put the resource refill summary card for your player count beside the market. On the USA map the coal storage space beside the market starts empty, because all coal sits on the market.
  6. Power plant market: shuffle the plants with a plug on the back (03–15), draw 8 and lay them face up in ascending order. The 4 smallest go in the top row (the current market), the other 4 in the lower row (the future market).
  7. Spare plug plant: draw 1 more plug-back plant, face down, and set it aside for now.
  8. Remove plants: set the Step 3 card aside and shuffle the socket-back plants. Without looking, put plants in the box face down: with 2 players 1 plug-back and 5 socket-back; 3 players 2 and 6; 4 players 1 and 3; 5 or 6 players none.
  9. Power plant stack: shuffle all remaining plants together into one face-down stack beside the market. Put the Step 3 card face down under it and the set-aside plug-back plant face down on top.
  10. Other pieces: put the auction hammer and discount token beside the plant market, and the two oblong barriers (Step 2 and Game End) beside the scoring track.
  11. Default starting cities (optional): experienced players may each pick a starting city in player order and mark it with a uranium token; see Default Starting Cities. With 2 players, place the Trust cities first and put a Trust house on the 15 space of each marked city (Trust supply 8).
  12. Trust pieces (2 players): the Trust takes 16 houses of a spare colour, plus 1 more house for the player order track, and no money. It has no house on the scoring track. The Trust has its own area for its power plants.
  13. Trust order (2 players): choose the first player at random and put their house on player order space 1. The Trust is always second (its house goes on space 2), so the other player's house goes on space 3.
  14. Trust cities (2 players): place 6 Trust houses on the 10 spaces of 6 adjacent cities, one at a time, the first on any city and each later one next to a Trust house: first player 1, other 2, first player 2, other 1. The other 10 form a supply.

Phases 1 and 2: order and auction

Each round has five phases, and everyone finishes a phase before the next one starts.

  1. Player order: set it with the Phase 1 rules and put the houses on the top row of the track in that order. In round 1 skip this, because the order is random.
  2. Auction: in player order each player may buy one power plant. Put the discount token on the smallest current-market plant. The first player picks a plant from the current market and bids at least its number (1 for the discounted plant), or opts out.
  3. Winning a bid: the last bidder pays the bank, takes the plant and moves their house to the bottom row, then you draw a replacement and re-sort so the 4 lowest are the current market.
  4. Next auction: the next player who has not bought offers a plant; if you lost yours, you may offer a different plant or pass.
  5. Last auction: the last player to start an auction pays only the minimum bid. A discounted plant nobody buys leaves the game at the end of the phase and is replaced from the stack.
  6. Three plants: you may own 3 plants. Buying a fourth plant means scrapping one of the others; move its resources to your other plants where they fit.
  7. First round: everyone must buy a plant, and the player order is set again once, at the end of the phase.

Phases 3 and 4: resources and building

  1. Buy resources: last player first, buy the tokens your plants can use (up to twice what each plant needs; a hybrid twice in total), paying the price of each token's space. Ecological plants need none.
  2. Build houses: also in reverse player order. Your first city is any empty city and costs 10. Each later city must connect to your network: pay the cheapest connection costs plus the building cost, 10, 15 or 20 for the first, second or third house in a city.
  3. Houses per city: 1 in Step 1, 2 in Step 2 and 3 in Step 3, each from a different player. Move up the scoring track as you connect.

Phase 5: Bureaucracy

  1. Earn cash: first player first, choose how many of your connected cities you supply (up to what your plants and resources can power; 0 pays 10) and take that pay from the payment card, then return the resources you used to the supply, not the market.
  2. Resupply: refill the resource market from the supply using the refill card for the current Step. On the Germany map, once nuclear plant 39 is bought, there is no more uranium resupply (nuclear phase-out).
  3. Update the power plant market: in Steps 1 and 2 put the highest future-market plant face down under the stack; in Step 3 remove the smallest plant. Then draw a replacement.

The three Steps

  1. Step 1: the game starts here, with 1 house per city and the left refill column.
  2. Step 2: it starts in Phase 5 once a player has connected 7 cities (6 with 6 players). Once only, remove the lowest current-market plant and draw a replacement. Cities then hold 2 houses and the centre refill column applies.
  3. Step 3: it begins the next phase after the Step 3 card is drawn (shuffle the stack and remove the lowest plant); cities then hold 3 houses and the market is 6 plants.

Two players: the Trust

With 2 players the Trust blocks cities and takes plants and resources, but never wins.

  1. Trust plants: after the first purchase or opt-out, the Trust takes the biggest current-market plant, free.
  2. Trust resources: in Phase 3 it takes every resource its plants need for a normal production, free, and supplies all its plants in Phase 5.
  3. Trust houses: its starting houses block those cities in Step 1. Whenever a player connects a new empty city, the Trust puts a house on its 15 space while it has houses left.

Game end and winner

Expansion rules

Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.

Europe / North America Europe / North America

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Europe resource market: coal on spaces 2–9, oil 3–9, garbage 3–8, uranium 8–9. North America: coal 2–9, oil 4–9, garbage 3–8, uranium on space 9. Use that map's refill card for your player count.
  2. Setup: Europe power plant market: shuffle the plug-back plants and draw 9. The 4 smallest are the current market and the other 5 the future market.
  3. Setup: Europe stack: skip the spare plug plant; do not put a plug-back plant on top of the stack, just put the Step 3 card under it. Remove plants for the player count as usual.
  4. Europe Step 2: instead of the usual replacement, at the start of Step 2 remove the lowest current-market plant without replacing it, so the future market shrinks to 4.
  5. North America cities: New York and Mexico City are metropolises: 2 cities each, joined at 0 Elektro, with at most 1 of your houses in each.

Brazil / Spain & Portugal Brazil / Spain & Portugal

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Brazil resource market: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, biogas 6–8, uranium 14–16. Use the Brazil refill card. On the Brazil map garbage plants are biogas plants and garbage tokens are biogas tanks.
  2. Setup: Brazil plants: always use all biogas plants. Put plants 6 and 14 in the market, then add 6 plug-back plants. When building the stack, set all remaining biogas plants aside, remove plants for the player count, then shuffle the biogas plants back in.
  3. Setup: Spain and Portugal: set plants 18, 22 and 27 aside face up. Resource market: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 6–8, uranium 5–16. Use that map's refill card.
  4. Spain and Portugal uranium: no uranium is added at resupply in Step 1.
  5. Spain and Portugal Step 2: at the start of Step 2 put plants 27, 22 and 18 on top of the plant stack, 18 on top, so 18 replaces the plant removed at the start of Step 2.
  6. Portugal: a player whose network is only in Portugal cannot buy nuclear plants or offer them for auction.

Australia / Indian Subcontinent Australia / Indian Subcontinent

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Australia has 5 regions: use the whole map with 5 or 6 players, or the matching number of regions (not necessarily adjacent) with 2–4. Resource market: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 4–8. In Steps 1 and 2 only spaces 1–8 are used.
  2. Setup: Australia's resource market has no uranium spaces; a separate uranium market of 12 spaces, each starting with 1 uranium token, tracks the uranium price. Remove nuclear plant 17 from the game. Use the Australia refill card.
  3. Setup: Indian Subcontinent resource market: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 2–8, garbage 2–8, uranium 6–16. Use only 8 uranium tokens. Remove nuclear plant 11 from the game. Use that map's refill card.
  4. Uranium mines (Australia): nuclear plants are uranium mines. Each round you buy one card in total, a plant or a mine. Mines do not count toward the 3-plant limit and count for player order.
  5. Selling uranium (Australia): in Phase 5, in reverse player order, you may sell your mines' uranium: the cities they would supply times the highest available price. Put one token per mine from the storage on the highest available spaces. Last-round sales are paid.
  6. Uranium demand (Australia): afterwards remove uranium tokens from the cheapest spaces into the storage per the supply table (the demand of other countries), then refill the resource market.
  7. Connections (Australia): connect any available city; pay the printed connection cost or the general connection cost of 20, whichever is cheaper, plus the building cost.
  8. Australia taxes: at the start of Step 3, CO2 taxes move the 6 cheapest tokens of each resource to the 9 and 10 Elektro spaces; the 1 and 2 Elektro areas close for the rest of the game.
  9. Indian resource market: the limited market has only the 1–3 Elektro areas open at first, 4–5 in Step 2 and all in Step 3. In reverse player order buy 1 token per turn, going round until everyone stops buying. Garbage plants need 1 extra garbage but store no more.
  10. Power outage (India): lay each house you build on its end. At the end of Phase 4, if all new houses total more than twice the player count (not the Trust's), a power outage hits. Stand the houses up; in Phase 5 everyone loses 3 Elektro per network city.
  11. India Phase 5: if the outage is in the last round, Phase 5 is still played once for income. You must supply as many cities as possible.

Benelux / Central Europe Benelux / Central Europe

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Central Europe resource market: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 7–8, uranium 8–16. Benelux: coal 3–8, oil 1–8, garbage 7–8, uranium 14–16. Use that map's refill card.
  2. Setup: Benelux has 5 regions: use all of them with 5 or 6 players, or the matching number with 2–4.
  3. Central Europe nuclear restriction: you may bid on or offer a nuclear plant only with a city in Hungary, Czech Republic or Slovakia. A player with cities only in Poland and Austria cannot. The Trust follows this too.
  4. Wien: with Wien in your network you buy garbage 1 Elektro cheaper per token, but never below 1.
  5. Benelux ecological plants: when the smallest future-market plant is ecological, it joins the current market, so 5 plants can be bought.
  6. Benelux Bureaucracy: in Steps 1 and 2, remove the smallest plant each round and replace it, unless you already removed the discounted plant at the end of Phase 2.

The Robots The Robots

A robot is an extra player run by the human players using puzzle tiles. These rules are from the official Robots sheet (2011).

  1. Setup: sort the puzzle tiles into piles (The First City tile, Phase 2 tile, Phase 3 tile, Phase 4 tile, Special Ability) and shuffle each. Draw 1 from each pile and stack them, head to feet. The robot has its own houses on the tracks.
  2. Setup: set up for the number of players including the robot (two humans and a robot is a 3-player game).
  3. Setup: the robot starts with 50 Elektro, or 100 if its Special Ability tile says so. With two or more robots remove the Early Choice for All tile.
  4. Robot turns: the robot plays every phase as a player would, following its tiles. Humans make all its decisions, and it follows its rules exactly as written, even when that is not optimal.
  5. Robot tiles: it plays by the normal rules except where a tile overrides them (the Golden Robot Rule). The First City tile says where it starts.
  6. Robot choices: for a random choice, one player puts a house of a different colour on each option and holds a matching set; another draws one at random. On tiles, first or last player means the humans; first or last in player order includes the robot.
  7. Robot plants: it bids only as its Phase 2 tile says, raising by exactly 1 up to its limit, and never above its money. When it picks the plant itself it opens at the minimum bid.
  8. Robot limits: it never bids on a plant lower than its smallest, nor on a fourth plant supplying fewer cities than each of its three. It passes if its plants can already supply 2 or more cities beyond those it has.
  9. Robot last plant: with one possible plant left it bids on that. A fourth plant it buys replaces its smallest.
  10. Robot resources: it first spreads its stored resources over its plants (normal plants, then hybrids), then buys a normal production for each plant, the cheaper resource for hybrids, and short of money buys for the plants supplying the most cities.
  11. Robot buying and building: it buys resources as its Phase 3 tile says; the robot builds one city at a time as its Phase 4 tile says, paying for each, taking the cheapest connection and settling ties by a random draw.
  12. Robot Phase 5: the robot supplies cities to earn the most money, using the cheapest resources if in doubt.

China / Korea China / Korea

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Korea has two resource markets. North: coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 7–8. South: coal 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 7–8, uranium 14–16. Use the Korea refill card.
  2. Setup: China: leave out the discount token. Fill the resource market with coal on 5–8, oil 5–8 and garbage 7–8, with no uranium, and use the China refill card.
  3. Setup: China plants: remove plants for the player count (2–3 players: 3, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 20, 24, 30, 33, 46; 4 players: 3, 4, 11, 18, 24, 33, 46; 5–6 players: 3, 4, 33).
  4. Setup: China stack (this replaces the base plant market, spare plant, removal and stack steps), from the bottom up: plants 36–50 shuffled; plants 31–35 (no 33) shuffled with the Step 3 card; plants 5–30 in ascending order with 5 on top.
  5. Korea resources: each round you choose one of the two markets (either one, wherever your network is) and must buy everything from that market.
  6. Korea Trust and restock: the Trust picks the market where it can power the most plants most cheaply (South on a tie), and Phase 5 restocks the north market first.
  7. China power plant market: there is no future market and no replacement when a plant is bought. In the first round put one plant per player in the market (lowest numbers first, 5 and 6 with 2 players) and each player buys one.
  8. China later rounds: in Steps 1 and 2 plants are added only in Phase 5, and there is one fewer plant than players, so not everyone buys.
  9. China Trust and Step 2: against the Trust, after the first purchase or opt-out it takes the second (bigger) plant. At the start of Step 2 remove the smallest plant once and draw a replacement.
  10. China Bureaucracy: in Steps 1 and 2 fill the market to one fewer plant than players (always 2 plants with 2 players), adding at least 1 plant with 2–3 players, 2 with 4–5 and 3 with 6; if there are too many, remove the lowest-numbered, never the largest.
  11. China Step 3: when the Step 3 card is drawn in Phase 5, remove it and the smallest plant, then draw until the market has 4. After that each Phase 5 removes the smallest plant and refills to 4, and a new plant is drawn whenever one is bought.

Middle East / South Africa Middle East / South Africa

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Middle East: put 3 garbage and 1 uranium token back in the box. Fill the resource market with coal (natural gas) on spaces 2–8, oil 2–8, garbage on space 8 and uranium 12–16. Use the Middle East refill card.
  2. Setup: Middle East plants: after preparing the market and stack, remove plants 06, 11 and 14 if they are in the current market.
  3. Middle East Step 1: garbage and nuclear plants are not available: remove any that reach the current market and draw replacements (a plug-back plant leaves the game, a bigger plant goes face down below the stack).
  4. Setup: South Africa: fill the resource market with coal on spaces 1–8, oil 4–8, garbage 5–8 and uranium 12–16, with an empty storage space for coal beside it. Remove oil plant 07 and use the South Africa refill card.
  5. Middle East steps: Step 2 starts after the Step 3 card is drawn the first time, not at 7 cities: shuffle the stack and put the Step 3 card back below it. Step 3 starts after the card is drawn the second time.
  6. Middle East Step 2: at the start of Step 2 remove the two lowest-numbered current-market plants into the box, one after the other, drawing a replacement in between.
  7. Middle East Bureaucracy: during Step 2, put the two biggest future-market plants face down below the stack, one at a time, drawing a replacement after the first.
  8. Middle East oil: resupply always adds the stated oil, moving oil from the most expensive spaces down toward the cheapest space (which holds any number) if the supply is short. Garbage and uranium prices can only fall to 2.
  9. South Africa coal: you can always buy coal for 8 Elektro from the storage space. Coal you use goes there, and refills take coal from it.
  10. South Africa connections: the international connections to neighbouring countries cost a flat 30 Elektro and no building cost, and only one player can use each, by putting a house on its flag space (it counts on the scoring track at once).

Québec / Baden-Württemberg Québec / Baden-Württemberg

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Québec: after preparing the starting market, set aside plants 13, 18 and 22 and prepare the rest as usual. With 2 to 4 players do not remove ecological plants when removing random plants.
  2. Setup: Québec: put plants 13, 18 and 22 face down on top of the stack with 13 on top. Resource prices start at coal 2, oil 2, garbage 7 and uranium 14. Use the Québec refill table. The sheet recommends a region with Montreal or Québec.
  3. Québec Bureaucracy: when putting the highest future-market plant below the stack, never take an ecological plant; take the next highest.
  4. Baden-Württemberg rounds: the first two phases swap, so each round is buy plants, determine player order, buy resources, build, Bureaucracy. If no plant is sold, remove the two lowest plants and draw two.
  5. Baden-Württemberg building: transregional cities such as Strasbourg open only in Step 2, and cost 15 or 20 Elektro. Step 2 starts at 9 cities (2 players), 6 cities (3 to 5 players) or 5 cities (6 players). Resupply uses the Baden-Württemberg refill table.

France / Italy France / Italy

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: France: fill the resource market with coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8, garbage 6–8 and uranium 5–16, and use the France refill card.
  2. Setup: France plants: remove plant 13, put plant 11 in the market, and add 7 shuffled plug-back plants to make 8, sorted as usual. Remove no further plug-back plants with 2 or 4 players, and only one with 3 players.
  3. Setup: France with Set 2: do the opposite, putting ecological plant 11 into the box and nuclear plant 13 in the market.
  4. Setup: Italy: fill the resource market with coal on spaces 3–8, oil 4–8, garbage 5–8 and uranium 14–16, and use the Italy refill card.
  5. Paris: the three cities of Paris connect at 0 Elektro.
  6. Italian phase-out: once nuclear plant 39 (37 with Set 2) is bought, no more uranium is added to the market.

Northern Europe / UK & Ireland Northern Europe / UK & Ireland

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Northern Europe: for each region in play, add its two new plants and remove the old plants with the same numbers. Fill the resource market with coal on spaces 3–8, oil 3–8, garbage 5–8 and uranium 7–16, and use the Northern Europe refill card.
  2. Setup: UK and Ireland: you may choose regions on both islands, but those in Great Britain must connect. Fill the resource market with coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8 and garbage 5–8, with no uranium, and use the UK & Ireland refill card.
  3. Setup: UK and Ireland with the Trust: with both islands in play, its 6 starting houses may be placed in two separate groups.
  4. Setup: UK & Ireland stack: put the Step 3 card as the third-last card, with two plants below it. At the start of Step 3 shuffle those two with all plants put below the stack and use them as the new stack.
  5. Nuclear plants: in Northern Europe you need a city in Sweden, Finland or the Baltic States to offer or bid on one. In UK & Ireland you need a city in Scotland, Wales, England or Northern Ireland (not the Republic of Ireland). With no cities yet you cannot.
  6. Two networks (UK & Ireland): with both islands in play, start a second network on the other island by paying 20 Elektro on top of its normal costs, and count the cities of both networks.
  7. UK & Ireland Step 2: it starts at 7 cities (6 with 6 players) or when all available cities are connected.

Bremen / Manhattan Bremen / Manhattan

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Bremen: put plants 11, 17, 23, 28, 34, 36, 38, 39 and 46 in the box (2 to 4 players also 31 and 50), plus 2 each of coal, oil and garbage tokens and all uranium tokens. With 5 or 6 players use the whole map.
  2. Setup: Bremen: fill the resource market with coal on spaces 1–8, oil 3–8 and garbage 3–8, and use the Bremen refill card. Prepare the stack and market without removing more plants.
  3. Bremen with the Trust: it has 12 houses plus 1 for player order and starts with 1 house on the 8 Elektro space of each of 4 adjacent districts; connecting a new small district blocks it with your house and a Trust house.
  4. Setup: Manhattan (this replaces the base plant market, spare plant, removal and stack steps): put the Step 3 card in the box (and plants 20, 22 and 37 with 2 or 3 players).
  5. Setup: Manhattan stack: shuffle the socket-back plants as the stack; shuffle the 13 plug-back plants, box 4 and put 9 on top. Draw 8 for the market.
  6. Setup: Manhattan: fill the resource market with coal on spaces 3–8, oil 3–8, garbage 6–8 and uranium 10–16, and use the Manhattan refill card. With 2 to 4 players block spaces with houses of unchosen colours.
  7. Manhattan with the Trust: it has 16 houses plus 1. After the 28 blocked spaces, 6 Trust houses block spaces costing 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35; the other 10 form a supply.
  8. Bremen districts: you pay flat district costs instead of connection costs, plus the building cost of 8, 14 or 20. Step 2 starts at 5 districts (4 with 6 players), and the game ends at 13 districts (2 to 4 players), 12 (5 players) or 11 (6 players).
  9. Manhattan building: each space holds 1 house, the first house goes on any empty space and pays that space's cost (10 to 40), and going through spaces costs 5 each.
  10. Manhattan end: the game stays in Step 1 and ends at 18 (2 players), 17 (3 to 4), 15 (5) or 14 (6) districts.
  11. Manhattan plants: at first the 2 biggest future-market plants go face down on a discard pile each round.
  12. Manhattan stack: when it runs out the first time, shuffle the discard pile into a new stack (draw a second plant if needed) and put the biggest future-market plant below it from then on.
  13. Manhattan market end: when the stack runs out the second time, from the next round you can buy any plant and the smallest is removed each round.
  14. Manhattan auction: if you buy the discounted plant you may buy another plant this phase.

Russia / Japan Russia / Japan

These maps are played with Power Grid (Recharged or the original). Everything else is unchanged.

  1. Setup: Russia (this replaces the base plant market, spare plant, removal and stack steps): leave out the discount token and remove plants 06 and 14. Remove 6 (2 players), 8 (3) or 4 (4) socket-back plants. Put the plug-back plants on top and the Step 3 card below.
  2. Setup: Russia: draw 6 plants for the market, of which only the smallest 3 are in the current market in Steps 1 and 2. Fill the resource market with coal on spaces 3–8, oil 1–8 and uranium 6–16, with no garbage, and use the Russia refill card.
  3. Setup: Japan: you cannot use Default Starting Cities. Fill the resource market with coal on spaces 2–8, oil 4–8, garbage 6–8 and uranium 12–16, and use the Japan refill card.
  4. Russia Phase 2: from the second turn, the first time in a turn that any player passes instead of offering a plant, remove the smallest current-market plant and replace it.
  5. Russia Step 3: remove the smallest plant and the Step 3 card, leaving 4 plants in the market and all of them available.
  6. Japan networks: you can have two separate networks (against the Trust, its 6 houses may also form two, with only 2 in starting cities), each starting in one of the six starting cities of Japan (Fukuoka, Kobe, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo, Yokohama).
  7. Japan first turns: in the first game turn you may start 0, 1 or 2 networks; from the second turn you can freely connect other cities from either network. If all starting-city spaces are taken you play with one network.
  8. Japan starting cities: each has two first-connection spaces costing 10, so two players can start there in Step 1; you have one house per city.

The New Power Plants: Set 1 The New Power Plants: Set 1

This deck works with the Germany and USA maps of the base game. Pick one of three variants.

  1. Setup: Variant 1 (new plants only): use this set's plants instead of the base plants, with new plants 52, 54, 57 and 60 back in the box. Draw 8 plug-back plants (01–16) for the market, then build the stack as in the base game.
  2. Setup: Variant 2 (both decks): shuffle both decks together, without new plants 52, 54, 57 and 60 and base plants 16, 17, 18 and the base Step 3 card (use this set's Step 3 card).
  3. Setup: Variant 2 market: shuffle all plug-back plants (03–15 from both decks) and draw one at a time. The first of each number is a fake and goes to an unused area; the second is the original and goes in the market, until it holds 8.
  4. Setup: Variant 2 deck: set the Step 3 card aside and shuffle the rest as the deck. Remove 5 (2 players), 7 (3) or 3 (4) extra fakes with their originals, then put the Step 3 card at the bottom.
  5. Setup: Variant 2: from then on, each time you draw plants, put only the first of each number (the fake) in the unused area and the second (the original) in the market.
  6. Setup: Variant 3 (big deck): play with all base plants and the Step 3 card plus new plants 46, 50, 52, 54 and 57. A new 46 or 50 counts as larger than the base one; use the Variant 3 numbers.
  7. Setup: Variant 3 numbers: remove 1 plug-back and 6 socket-back plants (2 players), 2 and 7 (3) or 1 and 4 (4), none with 5–6.
  8. Setup: Variant 3 zone and end: zone of 24 cities (2–3 players), 32 (4), 40 (5) or 42 (6); Step 2 at 8 cities (7 with 6 players); game end at 20 (2–4 players), 18 (5) or 15 (6).

The New Power Plants: Set 2 The New Power Plants: Set 2

When you use this deck with a map expansion, some maps change.

  1. Setup: Set 2 Variant 1 (new plants only): use only Set 2's plants and Step 3 card instead of the base plants. Shuffle the plug-back plants (03–15), draw 8 and sort them: the 4 smallest are the current market. Then prepare the stack as in the base game.
  2. Setup: Set 2 Variant 2 (both decks): shuffle both decks, removing only the base Step 3 card. Draw plug-back plants (03–15) one at a time: the first of each number is a fake (set it aside) and the second goes in the market, until it holds 8.
  3. Setup: Set 2 Variant 2 deck: then remove extra pairs for the player count (5 fakes with 2 players, 7 with 3, 3 with 4, plus their originals) and put the Step 3 card at the bottom.
  4. Setup: Set 2 Variant 2 later draws: each time you draw plants, set aside the first of each number and put the second in the market.
  5. Set 2 hybrids: the yellow and black hybrid plants use any mix of garbage and oil. They need the printed number in total and store twice that in total.
  6. Setup: with a map expansion, see how Set 2 changes it: France, Italy, Germany, China, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, Russia, Northern Europe, Australia, India, the Middle East, South Africa and Québec change, and their cards list the change.

Fabled Expansion Fabled Expansion

A campaign of 3 games on one map, in which Fabled cards add new rules as their conditions are met.

  1. Setup: Germany or Europe use the 15 cards with a purple border; USA or North America use the 15 with a white border. Lay the 15 Fabled cards for your map face down in the pattern on the sheet, by the numbers on their backs.
  2. Setup: prepare the base game as usual. With 2 players use the Trust. Cards that need neutral tokens use the houses of an unused colour, or pennies with 6 players.
  3. Revealing cards: when a card's conditions are met, reveal it and add its rules; it stays in play until removed and takes priority over the base rules. A card with "and" needs all its conditions, and one with "or" needs any one.
  4. Between games: the campaign is 3 games. To continue later, put the revealed cards on top of the Fabled deck and keep it; you can then play 4 more games with the revealed cards. You can change the player count between games.

All Power Grid rules (132)

General

Steps

Clarification

Player Order

Power Plants

Auction

Resources

Building

Scoring

Bureaucracy

Two Players

Europe / North America expansion

Brazil / Spain & Portugal expansion

Australia / Indian Subcontinent expansion

Benelux / Central Europe expansion

The Robots expansion

China / Korea expansion

Middle East / South Africa expansion

Québec / Baden-Württemberg expansion

The New Power Plants: Set 1 expansion

The New Power Plants: Set 2 expansion

Fabled Expansion expansion

France / Italy expansion

Northern Europe / UK & Ireland expansion

Bremen / Manhattan expansion

Russia / Japan expansion

Expansions covered

All Power Grid expansions and their rules

More about Power Grid