fin·an·cier ˌfinənˈsir,fəˈnanˌsir/Submit noun noun: financier; plural noun: financiers a person concerned with the management of large amounts of money on behalf of governments or other large organizations. synonyms: investor, speculator, banker, capitalist, industrialist, businessman, businesswoman, stockbroker; More Origin early 17th century: from French, from finance (see finance).
One little detail, which is my personal favorite touch of the game, is the turn order. Letting the losing players go first on the resources and placing phase, but making the first place player go first at the auction phase. It tilts the game just enough in favor of the under-performing players to give them a foothold back into the game without being overly punishing to the lead player.
I definitely appreciated this gameplay mechanic. I also think it'd be clearer if the game phrased it in the reverse order, i.e. farthest player behind is "first", which means they get resources and placement first (but not auctioning). Generally being first is a good thing, but here in Power Grid, it's the opposite; being first player is bad.
Agreed, it feels really rubbish to be in the lead for this reason, which is exactly how it should be. Rubber-band mechanisms in board games are a good thing.
I actually used this to my advantage by purposefully hoarding enough cash to keep myself in contention and buy up cities but aleays having one fewer than everyone else because it meant I had better stuff and cheaper energy while not really being behind
It can also lead to some great strategic choices, such as purposefully letting the other player stay ahead of you for that one extra turn before catapulting in the lead after you've capitalized on the cheap resources and such. Unless you're way in the lead, you can easily have that mario kart effect where 1st place causes you to get blue-shelled into oblivion.
I love SUSD so much that I find myself rewatching these videos even though I know the subject of the video is not for me. The tone is reviewing perfection.
if I hadn't already been laughing at "But you'd better like mashed potato, because if you don't eat your mashed potato you're going to get fucked." that would have done it, for sure.
This video might be older now, but we tried Power Grid for the first time a few days ago. It was interesting, but I think this review is quite spot on. You find yourself calculating most of the time. If you are planning on having a fun time with your friends, socializing, and talking and etc... this is not the game for you. It is quite German, efficiency above all else, and making a mistake is quite costly, especially in the later phases. I enjoyed it, but as Paul mentions, it is a game you bring out once or twice a year. Unless your group of friends are quite the lovers of this kind of game. We wouldn't touch the stock companies expansion with a 10 foot pole. But that's clearly up to your group to see if it is for you.
I was just looking for a "how to play video" for this game. You were the second one I watched, but I think you just became my favorite board game reviewer. You actually got me laughing out loud (7:20) - gonna watch more of your videos and look for the same flair. Thanks bud!
The part where you explained the math of the stocks was so funny and yet real. Reminds me when someone says ASL or 18XX is easy and proceeds to explain the whole game to a sea of blank faces.
I find that the worst way to teach people a game is to try reciting all the rules to them up front. It's so much to take in with nothing to really latch onto, no experience to attach the memory of that rule or situation to, that it all goes in one ear and out the other. The best way to teach people complex tabletop games like ASL is with small skirmishes as examples. I've also never encountered someone who claimed that ASL was easy, merely that it was not as horrifically complex and impossible to learn as some people make it out to be. And they were right. It still took hours of playing small matches with increasingly more moving parts and different elements, but I eventually go a handle on it. I understand that not everyone is willing to make that kind of investment in a game, because a lot of people have the idea in their heads that tabletop games are something easy that you just sit down and have fun with without any effort going into learning them. The second you tell people that hey, there's a barrier of entry to have fun, they'll likely be turned off even if that game has almost unending potential for enjoyment, simply because there's other games that they could be having fun with for zero effort. And that makes me sad. Won't anyone play Battletech with me? 3025 grognards need not apply.
Congrats Quinns! You kinda sorta played an 18XX game. And you're right, playing the first variant means you're no longer playing Power Grid. You're playing the shares module from 504, with Power Grid simply serving as flavor. I wasn't too keen on it either, mostly because using Power Grid as simply flavor is a bit overwrought. However! I really enjoy the shares module in 504, and 18XX, which both use a simpler mechanic than Power Grid to make money.
My husband and I love this game. We have the robot expansion, and sometimes they are SO efficient, the game turns into my husband and I teaming up to try to make sure they don't win.
Oh god I was so triggered from 3:44 onward, with the glass of water standing there next to his scary elbow, almost knocking it over and drenching this fine game. I mean, the little guy on the box-art literally just shows you what will happen!
I kind of want the Stock Expansion just for the personal player boards. It reminds newer players that you can only have 3 power plants at any given time, so on so forth and it organize's each player's stuff without it being all over the place.
It's a credit to your genius that even review of games I am not interested in buying are so awesome! Loved every minute. Your German accent sounds Swedish to me though and eating while explaining? INEFFICIENT, minus 10 points! ;-)
I bought recharged and after realizing the stock market expansion was out of print i made my own. Love the base game and love the expansion. Feels like two totally different games in one box. Thanks for the recommendation, Quinns
I really enjoyed Powergrid back in the day (and I loved the market mechanics), but IMHO its main problem is that the part you end up spending most of your time doing (elementary maths) isn't the part that's fun. The funmeat is in auctions, blocking, expanding, taking risks, reaping rewards, building an engine, etc. The maths part is just time consuming and kills pace. That problem is exacerbated in the end game, to the point that most of our games ended with people saying "Look, can anyone see a place I can stick a house for 30 quid? I'll be here forever otherwise."
Thanks for reviewing Power Grid Deluxe! Power Grid is my favourite game, but I totally understand why it wouldn't be for everybody. It's certainly not a 'fun' game, but it is such an engaging experience, and I always come out smiling, even if I lost (because I know it was my fault!). I haven't bought the Deluxe version yet, and I might not ever buy it, because it's so expensive. I have upgraded my money to some sweet custom Power Grid card money that I bought from Artscow.
This game is an accountant's dream. As a lover of math and efficiency this game is up the in my favorites. The biggest issue is getting other people to play it because the math itself is incredibly daunting. And it's super punishing if you make any mistake.
"My friends and I always talk and laugh when we are playing games; we can't in Power Grid cause we're all set calculating the whole game..." This reminds me of why I stopped playing Texas Hold'em long ago -- it's an incredible game for a lot of reasons but then poker nights stop being about hanging out and more an intense experience because everyone has upped their skill to a level where focus is constantly demanded.
The power grid voice, explaining your inefficiency has doomed you to last place, has lived rent-free in my head for 3 years now... every time I play any kind of economic euro, I can hear Quinn's german accent saying "yah, is cool"
7:50 - are you missing half of your pinkie toe or is it just naturally 1/4 the length of the toe next to it. Please come back in time 7 years to answer this question, thank you very much.
So... when do we get a video review of a good stocks game? The mechanic sounds interesting, but layering it on top of an existing game is probably not sensible. But there must be a good game based on it, right?
1822, 1825, 1829, 1830, 1846, 1849, 1880, 1889, etc. I hear 1846 and 1889 recommended as good first 18xx games, and that looks like a reasonable recommendation to me.
Power Grid is a tricky one. It's pretty brilliantly designed, but simple enough I was able to play with my family, some of which are not boardgamers at all. And we had fun! But you spend so much time doing math that it feels hard to recommend over other games.
Eating was a great idea. Next time you review a game with an Ancient Greek theme. How about filling your mouth with pebbles just like real life, Demosthenes?
I feel like these kind of games need some amount of hidden information to prevent players from over calculating. I love the idea of buying stocks in other players but a last turn calculation like you showed would slow the game down so much. Maybe a limit on how late you can sell your shares?
While watching the first part of the Stock Market review, I was thinking that this was not the expansion for me, but then I saw the second part and thought, "this is kinda magnificent". I'd love to be the guy who owns every company. I'd even be willing to delay winning the game if I thought I could do it.
Just you, owning 5-6 companies. And all 4 of your friends cheering you on, hoping you can solve the puzzle. I'd write an European Championship analogy, but I'm not smart, nor funny enough to pull it off correctly :(.
OriginalPiMan because if you own stocks you can sell and make your opponents lose money, but for how long? If it's now cheaper, they might just buy it back, but.. that would delay things, oh I just don't know till I try.
You mention that you love games about stocks, well get this - in Denmark we have a game called "Aktiemillionær" which translates to "Stock millionaire". If you are interested in it you can get it for around 5-15GBP used. The rules will be in Danish but I'd be willing to translate them for you if you so wish. Do you have any recommendations for newer stock games Quinns?
Problem I have with power grid is that it's almost algorithmic ally solvable. For example, with the network phase, you can apply a greedy algorithm where you just buy the cheapest connection at any instant. So you buy the currently available cheapest connection, this extends your network, and you check again to see where the next cheapest available connection is. The next cheapest could now be on your newly bought connection, or somewhere else. This guarantees that you get the most nodes/price in your network that you can optimally get, which is exactly what you want. You keep doing this till you have enough money left to power everything, and then rinse and repeat.
Be aware: there are no privates and no between-company trading in PG:TSC. I'm not sure whether the stock market is more volatile than the 18xx games I've played or just differently volatile, but it looks to me like it plays non-trivially differently from the 18xx games I've played. There's also no train rush. On the other hand, one could focus on the parts that are very similar: buying stocks, stocks appreciating in value, being the president of 0 or more companies based on investment, dumping obsolete companies on other players, turn order being decided by share prices, and perhaps a few other aspects. I would say PG:TSC becomes a euro-ish 18xx-light-ish game. I view the shorter play time as an advantage and the less rich/complex machinery is a double-edged sword: some people will like a bigger and more open sandbox while others prefer the game to provide more structure and guidance; PG:TSC leans more towards the structured side. After all, it _is_ German ;-)
I am usually a fan of Quinn's presentation but holy cow does he make a mess at 11:45. Like why would your stock devalue because you another company sold stock? Except if you sold some of yours for it...but he didn't say that. Maybe he just left out part of the rules before?
Here are some ideas on how to counter a committed coal-heavy player. First, run a mix of the other three plant/fuel types. That way coal prices increase every turn while your prices fall every turn. Second, play hard for turn order near the late mid-game or early endgame. Then pick up a hungry coal plant (3c->6, 3h->7) and buy enough coal that your opponent can't fuel their plants on the last turn but you can. Third, depending on the math, run a single coal-hungry plant. This makes you suffer under the increasing coal prices but by driving up the prices faster it makes your opponent suffer even more. I think. Do the math in the particular situation you're in. If you're willing to take the 20 (3c->5) and write it off as a temporary investment, it should be excellent: it's coal-hungry as all get-out but 5 houses is a good reward. Depending on the amount of coal left and the net depletion rate, the 25 (2c->5) may be a better tool for the job. Hybrid plants can do either point one or three, and you can choose each turn which part it does. Some plants can do both parts two and three, although it's hard to know it the early and mid-game whether there'll be enough fuel for you in the end game. If your opponents are tired of losing and you want to keep playing that game, a sometimes useful idea is to teach them the tricks of the trade; that might swing them around. Of course, if they don't like exercising the kind of skills it takes to play the game well there's not much you can do about that, but at least you have a shot if their dislike stems merely from losing.
Didn't the regular old Power Grid had two sides? America and Germany. At least mine has. And by the way I though Funkenschlag and Power Grid was the same game. (I like the standard's style more then the delux.)
This is a game I'll never buy, and never enjoy playing. However, this review is entertaining and charming as fuck, and without it I might've made a poor purchase.
I can totally understand the part where a simple f-upin your turn can put you last the whole game. I made a tiny dumb (non) move of not buying an extra house in a turn and then I immediately regretted it when I passed the turn. I cannot see a scenario where I can ever win from this point on. I almost swore off power grid because of that. Good thing I didn't, the second time went down easier.
I hard disagree with the statement power grid isn't funny. Currently I have played 10 games of it and I was laughing every time. The best moment is when the bidding war goes off and a plant that is worth 33 goes for 50
I played power grid with this group who used excel spreadsheets during their turns - they were economists and financiers IRL. Worst session ever
That...actually sounds interesting. I'd lose and probably not want to play with them again but interesting nonetheless
Magyar Attila appreciate the correction, learned something today
fin·an·cier
ˌfinənˈsir,fəˈnanˌsir/Submit
noun
noun: financier; plural noun: financiers
a person concerned with the management of large amounts of money on behalf of governments or other large organizations.
synonyms: investor, speculator, banker, capitalist, industrialist, businessman, businesswoman, stockbroker; More
Origin
early 17th century: from French, from finance (see finance).
Next time you "correct" someone, make sure you are right beforehand.
I would love that honestly...lol
One little detail, which is my personal favorite touch of the game, is the turn order. Letting the losing players go first on the resources and placing phase, but making the first place player go first at the auction phase. It tilts the game just enough in favor of the under-performing players to give them a foothold back into the game without being overly punishing to the lead player.
I definitely appreciated this gameplay mechanic. I also think it'd be clearer if the game phrased it in the reverse order, i.e. farthest player behind is "first", which means they get resources and placement first (but not auctioning). Generally being first is a good thing, but here in Power Grid, it's the opposite; being first player is bad.
Agreed, it feels really rubbish to be in the lead for this reason, which is exactly how it should be. Rubber-band mechanisms in board games are a good thing.
I actually used this to my advantage by purposefully hoarding enough cash to keep myself in contention and buy up cities but aleays having one fewer than everyone else because it meant I had better stuff and cheaper energy while not really being behind
It can also lead to some great strategic choices, such as purposefully letting the other player stay ahead of you for that one extra turn before catapulting in the lead after you've capitalized on the cheap resources and such. Unless you're way in the lead, you can easily have that mario kart effect where 1st place causes you to get blue-shelled into oblivion.
The very german game making fun of an inefficient player was priceless.
7:19 That was a good one.
I love SUSD so much that I find myself rewatching these videos even though I know the subject of the video is not for me. The tone is reviewing perfection.
Agreed, Shucks is great entertainment.
I rewatch videos about games I own and love already, eventhough our tastes don't always align. They are entertaining for sure. Miss Paul though.
"It's not enough of a pain in the arse." I did, literally, actually, truly laugh out loud at that point.
same reaction
if I hadn't already been laughing at "But you'd better like mashed potato, because if you don't eat your mashed potato you're going to get fucked." that would have done it, for sure.
Love how you mentioned England then proceeded to put a piece on Scotland! Oh..........you southerner!
at 4:44 btw.
Didn't Quinns study in Edinburgh though?
+keios who would know that?
Well. Quinns for one. Also I'm fairly certain it's been mentioned on the SUSD podcast.
Ah, you're presuming I've ever listened to their podcast!
This video might be older now, but we tried Power Grid for the first time a few days ago. It was interesting, but I think this review is quite spot on. You find yourself calculating most of the time. If you are planning on having a fun time with your friends, socializing, and talking and etc... this is not the game for you. It is quite German, efficiency above all else, and making a mistake is quite costly, especially in the later phases. I enjoyed it, but as Paul mentions, it is a game you bring out once or twice a year. Unless your group of friends are quite the lovers of this kind of game. We wouldn't touch the stock companies expansion with a 10 foot pole. But that's clearly up to your group to see if it is for you.
I was just looking for a "how to play video" for this game. You were the second one I watched, but I think you just became my favorite board game reviewer. You actually got me laughing out loud (7:20) - gonna watch more of your videos and look for the same flair. Thanks bud!
Me too. Is anyone aware of a how to play vid for this version? Is the reason I haven't found one that nobody plays it?
It's 3:34 am.
I could go to bed.
Or I could watch this.
I'm gonna take the wise choice, and watch the video.
just happened this to me right now. The video is over and it´s 3.54 am
Same here just 4 years later and it's 3:33 😂
I saw this comment at 3:12 am today. Yep.
The part where you explained the math of the stocks was so funny and yet real. Reminds me when someone says ASL or 18XX is easy and proceeds to explain the whole game to a sea of blank faces.
I find that the worst way to teach people a game is to try reciting all the rules to them up front. It's so much to take in with nothing to really latch onto, no experience to attach the memory of that rule or situation to, that it all goes in one ear and out the other. The best way to teach people complex tabletop games like ASL is with small skirmishes as examples.
I've also never encountered someone who claimed that ASL was easy, merely that it was not as horrifically complex and impossible to learn as some people make it out to be. And they were right. It still took hours of playing small matches with increasingly more moving parts and different elements, but I eventually go a handle on it. I understand that not everyone is willing to make that kind of investment in a game, because a lot of people have the idea in their heads that tabletop games are something easy that you just sit down and have fun with without any effort going into learning them. The second you tell people that hey, there's a barrier of entry to have fun, they'll likely be turned off even if that game has almost unending potential for enjoyment, simply because there's other games that they could be having fun with for zero effort.
And that makes me sad. Won't anyone play Battletech with me? 3025 grognards need not apply.
What is ASL?
@@ivanhoe1585 It is Advance Squad Leader.
"I can extend my network up to England."
*places network in Scotland*
< Cries
I will never trust SDSU reviews ever again.
I was trawling the comments in case someone had said this. Phew ... now I can relax.
11:52 "Here's a player: Number Red" Has the maths gone to your head that much? Red is now a color? :D
Congrats Quinns! You kinda sorta played an 18XX game. And you're right, playing the first variant means you're no longer playing Power Grid. You're playing the shares module from 504, with Power Grid simply serving as flavor. I wasn't too keen on it either, mostly because using Power Grid as simply flavor is a bit overwrought. However! I really enjoy the shares module in 504, and 18XX, which both use a simpler mechanic than Power Grid to make money.
Six years later, and I'm still waiting for y'all's review of Strip Poker.
I'm sorry Quinns, I didn't hear a word you said, I was too obsessed with two.. wait, three, no fo.. FIVE MUGS on the table and only one of you...
I wonder if he is trolling the box cover, with its spilled coffee mug.
My husband and I love this game. We have the robot expansion, and sometimes they are SO efficient, the game turns into my husband and I teaming up to try to make sure they don't win.
The German accent Had me dying laughing
Greetings from Germany
a game about electricity and power grids has three phases.... heh
also holy fuvk this game is german
7:20 is my all-time favorite SUSD moment
7:20 is such a perfect summation of how it feels to play power grid lol
Oh god I was so triggered from 3:44 onward, with the glass of water standing there next to his scary elbow, almost knocking it over and drenching this fine game. I mean, the little guy on the box-art literally just shows you what will happen!
I kind of want the Stock Expansion just for the personal player boards. It reminds newer players that you can only have 3 power plants at any given time, so on so forth and it organize's each player's stuff without it being all over the place.
It's a credit to your genius that even review of games I am not interested in buying are so awesome! Loved every minute. Your German accent sounds Swedish to me though and eating while explaining? INEFFICIENT, minus 10 points! ;-)
I bought recharged and after realizing the stock market expansion was out of print i made my own. Love the base game and love the expansion. Feels like two totally different games in one box. Thanks for the recommendation, Quinns
you guys are awesome!!! It seems people from england do the best board game reviews so far! su&sd and actualol keep it up!
I really enjoyed Powergrid back in the day (and I loved the market mechanics), but IMHO its main problem is that the part you end up spending most of your time doing (elementary maths) isn't the part that's fun. The funmeat is in auctions, blocking, expanding, taking risks, reaping rewards, building an engine, etc. The maths part is just time consuming and kills pace. That problem is exacerbated in the end game, to the point that most of our games ended with people saying "Look, can anyone see a place I can stick a house for 30 quid? I'll be here forever otherwise."
Thanks for reviewing Power Grid Deluxe! Power Grid is my favourite game, but I totally understand why it wouldn't be for everybody. It's certainly not a 'fun' game, but it is such an engaging experience, and I always come out smiling, even if I lost (because I know it was my fault!). I haven't bought the Deluxe version yet, and I might not ever buy it, because it's so expensive. I have upgraded my money to some sweet custom Power Grid card money that I bought from Artscow.
Unfortunately plastic tokens look cheaper than cardboard to me... Well made and entertaining review, thanks.
'Great Impoverished Electric Toad' is the name of my new prog album.
This game is an accountant's dream. As a lover of math and efficiency this game is up the in my favorites. The biggest issue is getting other people to play it because the math itself is incredibly daunting. And it's super punishing if you make any mistake.
7:20 was priceless...
4:47
"I can extend my network up to England"
**places token in Scotland**
Everyone calls uk England. Mostly Engländer do
"My friends and I always talk and laugh when we are playing games; we can't in Power Grid cause we're all set calculating the whole game..." This reminds me of why I stopped playing Texas Hold'em long ago -- it's an incredible game for a lot of reasons but then poker nights stop being about hanging out and more an intense experience because everyone has upped their skill to a level where focus is constantly demanded.
I don't know why but the 'hi' at 11:41 set me laughing.
"Hi"
Translation: "You poor fucker."
The power grid voice, explaining your inefficiency has doomed you to last place, has lived rent-free in my head for 3 years now... every time I play any kind of economic euro, I can hear Quinn's german accent saying "yah, is cool"
This is one of the best thumbnails i've ever seen.
Not if you consider adult movies..
7:50 - are you missing half of your pinkie toe or is it just naturally 1/4 the length of the toe next to it. Please come back in time 7 years to answer this question, thank you very much.
This channel literally saved my life
5:38 gave me chills, how can you do that?!?!
Hilarious and informative.
Agree with the smaller rhino flaw.
Love it.
So... when do we get a video review of a good stocks game? The mechanic sounds interesting, but layering it on top of an existing game is probably not sensible. But there must be a good game based on it, right?
1822, 1825, 1829, 1830, 1846, 1849, 1880, 1889, etc. I hear 1846 and 1889 recommended as good first 18xx games, and that looks like a reasonable recommendation to me.
Or top 10 or 5.
Their is actually a game about that from the same author (Friedemann Friese). It's called "black friday".
When he started making fun of himself in an accent, I spit out my water laughing.
Bravo, love this review! Was funny, insightful, and wonderful
This is like the funniest review you've done
I was hoping you would answer "Is the deluxe edition worth buying to replace the regular edition that I already own?"
Power Grid is a tricky one. It's pretty brilliantly designed, but simple enough I was able to play with my family, some of which are not boardgamers at all. And we had fun! But you spend so much time doing math that it feels hard to recommend over other games.
Eating was a great idea. Next time you review a game with an Ancient Greek theme. How about filling your mouth with pebbles just like real life, Demosthenes?
"If you don't eat your mashed potatoes, you're gonna get f*cked." -Quinns 2016
I feel like these kind of games need some amount of hidden information to prevent players from over calculating. I love the idea of buying stocks in other players but a last turn calculation like you showed would slow the game down so much. Maybe a limit on how late you can sell your shares?
That looks like some of the nicer parts of Camden Town. I bet it's the house where Withnail & I was filmed. I have my beady little eye on this game.
i played this game, based on a SDSU review.
really enjoyed it, but don't really want to own it. Seems excellent for like 2-3 plays?
While watching the first part of the Stock Market review, I was thinking that this was not the expansion for me, but then I saw the second part and thought, "this is kinda magnificent". I'd love to be the guy who owns every company. I'd even be willing to delay winning the game if I thought I could do it.
Just you, owning 5-6 companies. And all 4 of your friends cheering you on, hoping you can solve the puzzle. I'd write an European Championship analogy, but I'm not smart, nor funny enough to pull it off correctly :(.
This is taken from 18xx.
OriginalPiMan because if you own stocks you can sell and make your opponents lose money, but for how long? If it's now cheaper, they might just buy it back, but.. that would delay things, oh I just don't know till I try.
this game with stocks looks insane
. . . i want to try it
hmm should i get the big box game? or just get the base game and maybe the mini expansion, you know the one that just gives you new power plants?
You mention that you love games about stocks, well get this - in Denmark we have a game called "Aktiemillionær" which translates to "Stock millionaire".
If you are interested in it you can get it for around 5-15GBP used.
The rules will be in Danish but I'd be willing to translate them for you if you so wish.
Do you have any recommendations for newer stock games Quinns?
Six!... Six!...
The voice cracked me up too. Thank you so much!
This looks like it would make a great tablet game.
table needs more cups
Problem I have with power grid is that it's almost algorithmic ally solvable. For example, with the network phase, you can apply a greedy algorithm where you just buy the cheapest connection at any instant. So you buy the currently available cheapest connection, this extends your network, and you check again to see where the next cheapest available connection is. The next cheapest could now be on your newly bought connection, or somewhere else. This guarantees that you get the most nodes/price in your network that you can optimally get, which is exactly what you want. You keep doing this till you have enough money left to power everything, and then rinse and repeat.
When playing this game... a little tip. Dont be arrogant anything you buy has a chance of revealing The 50 factory
Have any editions of Power Grid not had double sided maps? Certainly not something unique to the deluxe version.
Power Gird sounds like a much more interesting game to me, if I'm being honest.
Thanks for the review! I'm thinking now about buying the game :P
BTW good job!
what is the song ?
Yah, is cool!
You, good sir, are a genius.
impoverished electric toad
So what your saying is I could buy stocks and sort of convert my tons of maps into an 18XX game sometimes... Sounds good :P
Be aware: there are no privates and no between-company trading in PG:TSC. I'm not sure whether the stock market is more volatile than the 18xx games I've played or just differently volatile, but it looks to me like it plays non-trivially differently from the 18xx games I've played. There's also no train rush.
On the other hand, one could focus on the parts that are very similar: buying stocks, stocks appreciating in value, being the president of 0 or more companies based on investment, dumping obsolete companies on other players, turn order being decided by share prices, and perhaps a few other aspects.
I would say PG:TSC becomes a euro-ish 18xx-light-ish game. I view the shorter play time as an advantage and the less rich/complex machinery is a double-edged sword: some people will like a bigger and more open sandbox while others prefer the game to provide more structure and guidance; PG:TSC leans more towards the structured side.
After all, it _is_ German ;-)
the mic quality on this video had no right being as good as it did
The map looks sort of like 500AD Europe
funniest review.
I love the plastic coins
I am usually a fan of Quinn's presentation but holy cow does he make a mess at 11:45.
Like why would your stock devalue because you another company sold stock? Except if you sold some of yours for it...but he didn't say that.
Maybe he just left out part of the rules before?
My group stopped playing this game, because I always won....always buy coal plants ladies and gents. That's how you win every game.
Here are some ideas on how to counter a committed coal-heavy player.
First, run a mix of the other three plant/fuel types. That way coal prices increase every turn while your prices fall every turn.
Second, play hard for turn order near the late mid-game or early endgame. Then pick up a hungry coal plant (3c->6, 3h->7) and buy enough coal that your opponent can't fuel their plants on the last turn but you can.
Third, depending on the math, run a single coal-hungry plant. This makes you suffer under the increasing coal prices but by driving up the prices faster it makes your opponent suffer even more. I think. Do the math in the particular situation you're in. If you're willing to take the 20 (3c->5) and write it off as a temporary investment, it should be excellent: it's coal-hungry as all get-out but 5 houses is a good reward. Depending on the amount of coal left and the net depletion rate, the 25 (2c->5) may be a better tool for the job.
Hybrid plants can do either point one or three, and you can choose each turn which part it does. Some plants can do both parts two and three, although it's hard to know it the early and mid-game whether there'll be enough fuel for you in the end game.
If your opponents are tired of losing and you want to keep playing that game, a sometimes useful idea is to teach them the tricks of the trade; that might swing them around. Of course, if they don't like exercising the kind of skills it takes to play the game well there's not much you can do about that, but at least you have a shot if their dislike stems merely from losing.
If you were in my group that woulf be punished fast
11:48 Ahh yes my favoritw number, rad
I'd rather eat a can of prunes while watching paint dry on the living room wall than play another Power Grid session. Seriously.
Didn't the regular old Power Grid had two sides? America and Germany. At least mine has. And by the way I though Funkenschlag and Power Grid was the same game. (I like the standard's style more then the delux.)
Is it just me, or does Quinns look at least 1/4 German?
11:40 😂😂😂
111,111 views. That was quite satisfying
Did you deliberately say England while putting a piece on Scotland?
This is a game I'll never buy, and never enjoy playing. However, this review is entertaining and charming as fuck, and without it I might've made a poor purchase.
I can totally understand the part where a simple f-upin your turn can put you last the whole game.
I made a tiny dumb (non) move of not buying an extra house in a turn and then I immediately regretted it when I passed the turn.
I cannot see a scenario where I can ever win from this point on.
I almost swore off power grid because of that.
Good thing I didn't, the second time went down easier.
I hard disagree with the statement power grid isn't funny. Currently I have played 10 games of it and I was laughing every time. The best moment is when the bidding war goes off and a plant that is worth 33 goes for 50
skip to 7:14 its the best part
Power grid TEXAS edition.
5 can play at that game
the link takes me to the us amazon >_>
this... looks like an incredibly annoying and complicated version of ticket to ride
You accuse them of terrorism?
7:20 zat German akzent :D (setup for the punchline begins at 6:51)
will there be a review of strip poker in the future?
That's what 'Card games that don't suck' has been building up to.
Inefficient chewing while reviewing, you lose, & it's cool...
Your german accent is much better than your american accent.
7:19 xd
I hate Power Grid. It was the worst, most boring game night of my gaming life.
Frustrating how he was dancing around the obvious question, which did NOT get answered: is there a stock market expansion for strip poker? 😜
now who wants to see shut up & sit down let's play strip poker?
Thanks for showing your feet :)
THE most boring game I have ever played.