Sold my copy after just one play. The most interesting part of the original Power Grid for me is the interaction between players based on different types of resources and tactical pivots on what other people build/need, and this part is completely missing here. Add to that uninspired (if not to say boring) board and fiddliness of stacked cards and special ability cards. I also bought Free Ride USA at their booth at Essen and I like that one so much more after 3 plays.
I have the old Outpost game. This is much closer to Power Grid than it is to Outpost. Outpost does have card auctions in phases but there are multiple resources you produce instead of buy. It also plays seven iirc.
It sounds like they tried to get rid of the regret factor. Letting you swap power plants in and out, letting you build everything while knowing what your resource costs are going to be, and not blocking you in quite as easily. If that feeling of regret, that feeling of being a fool, if that feeling soured you to the original, this is probably a good game for you. If the tension created by all of those possibilities of regret is what made the original game feel so good, this is probably too watered down for you. I love the tension the original creates, but I'm also less likely to bring it out with the less hardcore, so I might like this as an option, depending on whom I'm playing with. What the original solved for me was that I dislike having to spend the entirety of game night trying to convince everyone else that I'm losing, so that they gang up on someone else. RISK and Settlers of Catan were the two games I played more than anything else, before owning a wall full of games. In both of those games, at least with my friends back then, if you ever showed any signs of happiness or excitement that anything went your way, you could reliably expect to get your borders taken out or the thief to be on the 8 next to your cities. In Power Grid, the role of punishing the leader is given to the board, and the criterion for being in the lead is plainly spelled out. This made game nights so much more fun and relaxing for me. Even when someone bought an inefficient reactor, just to buy up all of the cheap uranium (that someone was often me).
I haven't played Outpost yet, but this seems like a problem for me, too. It makes it so you don't have to refine your engine through the game, rather that you can just pick what suits the mood best. Getting rid of various resource types also compounds that. I think Outpost is trying to appeal to a broader audience (more focused on getting combos than the economics, maybe) and may be a lighter game generally, but that also means I'm not that audience.
I played it last week and I think it was a bit too streamlined. Like the theme is mostly absent for me and it mostly feels like an optimization puzzle with a bland board and those connection numbers everywhere. It just didn't feel like I was playing power grid anymore :(
For those that dont own either powergrid or outpost, and don't mind the mathiness of the games, which would you recommend buying? Assuming no expansions and same price.
I would be a toss up for me. I'd say if you like space themes, then go with Outpost. If you like route building on a map where you know the cities and that's enjoyable, go with the original first.
Idk why everyone was always so scared of "mathines". Its really not calculus..not even close to hard math or anything like that. We never had anyine complain or evdn mention anything about math in this game.
Arg, some stuff I like better on this, some less! I like the moments of "oh balls someone took all the coal", btu also like the less faff and maths aspects of these changes. Overall feels like makes it more accessible to less experienced gamers, so good for our usual players.
“I think a lot of people will like it better”. Not so sure about that. It does seem to do some new interesting things, which I think our “cult of the new” brains gravitate towards for the novelty. But if you play lots of games and in the future think to yourself, “gee I have not played Power Grid in the while”, you will just reach for the original Power Grid. For people that play Power Grid a lot though, this could scratch an itch every now and then, almost like an expansion. But that board and art, oh man, it just physically hurts me, sorry 😢
Sold my copy after just one play. The most interesting part of the original Power Grid for me is the interaction between players based on different types of resources and tactical pivots on what other people build/need, and this part is completely missing here. Add to that uninspired (if not to say boring) board and fiddliness of stacked cards and special ability cards.
I also bought Free Ride USA at their booth at Essen and I like that one so much more after 3 plays.
I have the old Outpost game. This is much closer to Power Grid than it is to Outpost. Outpost does have card auctions in phases but there are multiple resources you produce instead of buy. It also plays seven iirc.
It sounds like they tried to get rid of the regret factor. Letting you swap power plants in and out, letting you build everything while knowing what your resource costs are going to be, and not blocking you in quite as easily. If that feeling of regret, that feeling of being a fool, if that feeling soured you to the original, this is probably a good game for you. If the tension created by all of those possibilities of regret is what made the original game feel so good, this is probably too watered down for you.
I love the tension the original creates, but I'm also less likely to bring it out with the less hardcore, so I might like this as an option, depending on whom I'm playing with.
What the original solved for me was that I dislike having to spend the entirety of game night trying to convince everyone else that I'm losing, so that they gang up on someone else. RISK and Settlers of Catan were the two games I played more than anything else, before owning a wall full of games. In both of those games, at least with my friends back then, if you ever showed any signs of happiness or excitement that anything went your way, you could reliably expect to get your borders taken out or the thief to be on the 8 next to your cities. In Power Grid, the role of punishing the leader is given to the board, and the criterion for being in the lead is plainly spelled out. This made game nights so much more fun and relaxing for me. Even when someone bought an inefficient reactor, just to buy up all of the cheap uranium (that someone was often me).
I haven't played Outpost yet, but this seems like a problem for me, too. It makes it so you don't have to refine your engine through the game, rather that you can just pick what suits the mood best. Getting rid of various resource types also compounds that.
I think Outpost is trying to appeal to a broader audience (more focused on getting combos than the economics, maybe) and may be a lighter game generally, but that also means I'm not that audience.
I played it last week and I think it was a bit too streamlined. Like the theme is mostly absent for me and it mostly feels like an optimization puzzle with a bland board and those connection numbers everywhere. It just didn't feel like I was playing power grid anymore :(
For those that dont own either powergrid or outpost, and don't mind the mathiness of the games, which would you recommend buying? Assuming no expansions and same price.
I would be a toss up for me. I'd say if you like space themes, then go with Outpost. If you like route building on a map where you know the cities and that's enjoyable, go with the original first.
Idk why everyone was always so scared of "mathines". Its really not calculus..not even close to hard math or anything like that. We never had anyine complain or evdn mention anything about math in this game.
@ that is the number one complain you’ll get from people that said the game isn’t for them.
Arg, some stuff I like better on this, some less! I like the moments of "oh balls someone took all the coal", btu also like the less faff and maths aspects of these changes. Overall feels like makes it more accessible to less experienced gamers, so good for our usual players.
“I think a lot of people will like it better”. Not so sure about that. It does seem to do some new interesting things, which I think our “cult of the new” brains gravitate towards for the novelty. But if you play lots of games and in the future think to yourself, “gee I have not played Power Grid in the while”, you will just reach for the original Power Grid. For people that play Power Grid a lot though, this could scratch an itch every now and then, almost like an expansion. But that board and art, oh man, it just physically hurts me, sorry 😢
I like the art and the board. Nice and clean and simple. Not every game needs some crazy cool art. I think it works for this game as it is.