Power Grid, Deluxe

This is a game that I have been meaning to write a review about for a long time!

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Power Grid whenever I have played it, so I decided I wanted to purchase a copy.  However, when I got to my local game store, I was faced with a dilemma purchase Power Grid or Power Grid Deluxe?  I have to admit, that up until that point I hadn't even been aware that there was another version.  This is noted as a 10th anniversary edition, that has a few tweaks (which I will explain more), but was also more expensive (I could get the original plus a few other maps for the same price).  In the end I went with the deluxe version, even though it isn't compatible with the extensive library of maps available (which definitely interested me; however, I have since found that there is a kit you can buy to make it compatible).

This is primarily a comparison to the original, some of my thoughts about the game in general can be found here.




One of my favourite changes (despite it not actually changing the gameplay) is that the "garbage" resource / fuel type has been replaced with natural gas.  This just makes it seem a little more up to date, and grounded in reality

Resources Tokens

Resources on the board

The other component change is from paper money to plastic tokens.  Both the durability, plus the ease of use has definitely improved.  The complaint I do have is that somehow they are just hard to read in a lot of lights; the depth of the numbers and how shiny they are makes it difficult.  Plus, the colours didn't end up being intuitive to me in terms of value, and I keep mixing them up.

Money Tokens

The maps are still "North America" and "Europe", but they have been re-done and now are more extensive in terms of the real geography covered.  The maps are clean and user friendly, so no complaints there.

North America Map

Europe Map

The cards and the components are well made, and easy to use.  They game play has a few tweaks to the bidding process on each map; this allows the older powerplants no one wants to be removed or sold off cheap, while having different techniques for each map makes them feel a little bit different.

Powerplant Cards

Powerplants on the board

I would definitely recommend this version over the original, but the differences are small enough that I can't see any reason to have both in your library.