Power Grid WBC 2004 Tournament Write Up - Part II

Round 7
The replacement plants showing up in place of auctioned power plants in round 6 turn up to be low plant numbers that can only power two to three cities, leaving few options for most players in round 7. Frank now desperate to increase his current capacity of powering eight cities, buys plant number eighteen for $18, and replaces his number thirteen plant, increasing his output potential by one city. The rest of the field, not willing to make a similar investment for such a small return and holding their funds for building, pass on the auction phase. As expected from the lack of purchases on the plant auction phase, building becomes very aggressive this round. Richard starts off by building four cities going into Norfolk, Raleigh, Atlanta and Omaha, giving him a total of ten cites. Tim builds cities number seven and eight in St Louis and Houston. Evan builds up to ten cities by going into Tampa, Miami and New Orleans. Eric builds in Cincinnati and Chicago bringing him to nine cities and Frank being the player to have bought a power plant this round, passes on city building. Richard and Even receive $105 for powering their ten cities. Eric receives $98, and Frank and Tim receive $90 for powering eight cities each.

Round 8
As only one plant is replaced in round 7, the plants available for auction again leave much to be desired, with only two and three power city potentials being available. Plant number nineteen, potentially supplying three cites with electricity, is the only plant worth considering. No garbage plants have yet been purchased in the game, making the garbage resources the cheapest in the game, going for only $1 each. Evan ends up with plant number nineteen for $26 and replaces his number eight plant, only improving his potential electrical output by one city. Having no good choices left on the auction block, Richard, Eric, Tim and Frank pass on the remaining plants. Frank opens the building phase by purchasing one city in Fargo. With close to $200, Frank still has plenty of cash, but as he is not able to power more than nine cites, Frank sees little sense in building additional cities. Tim builds three cites in Denver, Cheyenne, and Billings bringing his total to eleven cities. Eric has lots of money for building cities. Eric has spent $102 on power plants, tied for most in the game while, Tim has spent the least, $78. The key savings for Eric was in fuel purchases. He spent a total of only $26 on fuel (2 oil for $6, 4 coal for $10, and 3 uranium for a total of $10.) This was much less than the others spent, and Eric didn't have to worry about running out of fuel, which was a danger for the other players. Eric has yet to use the resources be purchased back in round three for his number twenty five plant. Another money saving factor for Eric is that he has only purchased four power plants since the beginning of the game, two of which he purchased at face value, and one which was only one dollar more than face value. Eric builds in Minneapolis, Duluth, Memphis, Seattle, Portland and Boise, for six cities this round. This gives Eric a total of fifteen cites, which is the game end condition for a five player game. Evan builds his final two cites in Sante Fe and Phoenix. Richard concedes his building phase, as he can power a maximum of thirteen cites. Eric takes the tournament win with a come from behind last turn by powering fourteen out his fifteen cities built. Eric Brosius is the First WBC Power Grid Champion. Final placement supplying cites with electricity are: Eric Brosius- 14, Evan Tannheimer-12,

Tim Swartz- 11, Richard Meyer-10 and Frank Hastings-9.

Rules clarifications for next year?s Power Grid tournament in Lancaster.

I. Board set up.

Players should choose regions of the map to be in play in the same order as the first auction round.

Proceed as follows:

1. Take one city from each player to be u