Steve Smith, Doug Gaullo, Doug Faust and Jason Ley	Chris Entwistle, Keith Levy, Derek Miller and Robert Murray

We set another record with the fifth straight year of increasing attendance. 95 played in one heat, 42 played in two, and 24 diehards played in all three!

Heat 1 generated 19 games with a map choice of Germany Deck 2 or Spain & Portugal. 12 were played on the Germany board. All but two were 5-player games.

Heat 2 yielded 18 games with a map choice of Italy Deck 2 or Central Europe. Nine games were played on each board. Again, all but two were 5-player games.

Heat 3 provided another 14 games with a map choice between USA Deck 2 and Benelux. Seven games were played on each board. All 14 were 5-player games.

Player Comments (written on the event form for that game):

Heat 1:
"Game ended before Step 3. Top card drawn on deck was Step 3 card. In Turn 2, the 35 plant sold for 53."
-Turn 2 spending $53 is very high; the buyer finished third.

"Long pause before step 2"
-If you allow it, it will happen. "Doing it" is not always in your best interest though

Heat 2:
"Everyone stayed at six cities for three turns (crappy power plants) and only spaces open were no bottom by Purple (Gordon, who came in third;). Purple bought all of these and went to 11 cities. Paul went from 6 to 15 cities. No step 3 (8 plants left, the step 3 was top card). Only one turn at step 2."
--Gordon could have potentially been second, since at game end he built two more cities than he powered and lost second place by $30. Sounds like a very long stall game, whereby turn position for the final build turn saved Tim a lot of $ in the build phase. Paul ended with 14 power, 11 being the next closest.

"39 plant for 91 to Llew. 38 plant for" (is as written)
-Liew came in third (4-player game) and Paul, who bought the 38, came in last. The other players ended with 16 power; first place won with $92 vs. $67.

"Matt's first three plants were 4, 25, and 26. Plant 32 was taken by Pat for $63 in the fourth round with heavy bidding. Matt built five cities to end the game with his superior power level. Game ended in stage 2; the stage 3 card was next."
-Matt ended with plants 21, 25, 26, and first place. Pat finished in third place.

"Eric built to 15 w/14 capacity. Andrew had 15 capacity but could only afford to build to 14."
-Eric came in first place with $54; and Andrew came in second with $18.

Heat 3:
"Plant 20 went for $26, the same round as the 26 went for $50 and the 31 for $51. Very close at the end, three chances at king maker all passed"
-The winner ended with 17 cities, two with 16 cities, one with 15 - so therefore the board was heavily built. No one ended the game with the 20 plant (no surprise there, I personally hate the 20 and have only ever won one game with it). The 26 plant was owned by Tim, the third place finisher. The 31 plant was owned by Blair, who finished in second place. This game was played on Benelux, one of the fastest boards available.

"Auction for the 32 plant went to $76, with Steve B. losing the bid to Tom. Craig only bought four plants (5, 25, 20, and 39); the 20 & 39 were bought in the last two rounds"
-Steve B. ended in second place; while Tom ended in third. Craig finished in second place. Why no notes on the winner?

"The build order for the final turn was David, Chris, Peter, Jennifer, then lastly Meghan. Peter built to 15 ending the game with 14 power.
-David ended in fourth place with 14 power and $2, Chris ended in last with 11 power and 11 cities, Peter ended in third with 14 power and $15 plus 15 cities, Jennifer ended in second with 14 power and $18, Meghan ended in first with 14 power and $37. I say it all the time about Power Grid "Every dollar counts!"

Semis:
"Bill built three extra cities thinking he would have more money only to be $11 short."
-Bill built four extra cities to end in second place with $52 against the winner, also with 11 power $63.

"Turn 2 Philip got the 20, Chris the 25, and Jen the 36 for cost!"
-I wonder if they all went for cost. If just these three plants were burned every turn, there would quickly be a coal shortage. Chris came in first with the 25, Philip came in second with the 20, and Jen came in last. All three players ended with these plants; and Jen came in last due to not being able to power the 36.

"After stage 3 hit towards the end of the auction round, Jim proceeded to double buy coal on the 36 plant after Doug also double bought coal; then Jim built three extra cities to end the game with 12 power and $15 in second place against the winner with $20 and 12 power also.
-Jim should not have double bought the coal the last turn, especially after Doug's double- buy.

GM Comments:
I left one of my GM supplies at home that I was soon to find out was a BIG mistake: my color coordinated 4" x 6" index cards that match the 8.5 x 11 table placards. With leaving myself little to zero time to make ones on the fly this simple pre-made supply managed to delay things and make me realize how much an aide it really is.

During the third heat we had a Benelux game with both the fifth and sixth plants being wind. Only the fifth was available due to GM ruling. I have emailed 2 Faq concerning this via here: http://www.2f-spiele.de/contact.htm

In 2009 Robert Woodson (our current Champion) sat for me at the Final table as an Assistant GM and filled out my Excel logistics tracking sheet for the Final. His awesome notes were used in the report! http://www.boardgamers.org/yearbook09/pgdpge.htm He also carried home the rare sand plaque in 2010: http://boardgamers.org/yearbook10/pgdpge.htm so he now has both coveted ends of the Power Grid spectrum covered.

Thanks to Brian Mongold for running the Demo; Keith Levy for being there at my frenzied beck and call duing the first heat, Lexi Shea and Maryellen Powers for assisting the first heat's table setups, the gentleman that assisted with writing the table assignment cards for the second heat, our bowler wearing gentleman that helped with the second heat's table setups, the patience everyone had with the third heat being in a smaller room and having a record turnout of 70 where in the last two years seven tables sufficed for the 35 players that showed. I am sorry if I left anyone out - this event would not be possible without all of you!

Totals for the Final were as follows:

Name	C.O.H.	# Plants	Plant	Mats	Cities	$ Earn	Rank/Cities Powered
Jason Ley - Natural	2	5	130	146	292	520	15 - 2nd
Chris Senhouse - Green	6	6	187	119	257	519	13 - 5th
Bob Woodson - Red	5	5	127	139	295	516	15 - 1st
Steve LeWinter - Purple	25	6	133	144	280	532	14 - 3rd
Mark McCandless - Blue	30	6	141	125	272	518	13 - 4th

The Final was played on the Japan board. This map is a very narrow five-region map. Four of the five regions have one city that is a 10/15 (no 20 spot) and all five have one city that is a 15/20 (no 10 spot); this makes for nine less cities. There are six 10/10/20 starting cities; one per region with the Tokyo green region having two of these starting cities. At game start a player may only build 0, 1, or 2 starting cities (the 10/10/20 cities). A significant, game-altering rule on this board is that you can start a second network at any time by building into your second starting city; this enables a player to have two build areas possibly on completely opposite ends of the board! Once you have built your second starting city you can only build off your existing cities similar to any other current game board; Tokyo and Yokohama are both starting cities and a zero connection cost so if one can build two networks on top of one another boxing themselves in; similarly Osaka and Kobe are starting cities with a meager $3 connection cost separating them. Refresh rate is unaltered; but starting resources are altered by -3 coals, -3 oils, +3 garbage, and +1 nuke.

Before the game was even underway a proclamation was made by Bob Woodson: "If I play blue (he had the blue pieces at the time of this statement) then I will LOSE." He gave the blue pieces back and picked Red.

Turn 1: Jason Ley bought the 10 plant and two cities for two networks; Chris Senhouse acquired the 7 plant for $7 and also built two cities and two networks; Bob Woodson purchased the 5 plant for $6 and built one city; Steve LeWinter the 4 plant for $7 and built one city; and Mark McCandless the 9 plant for $9 and built two cities for two networks.

Turn 2: Mark bought the 12 plant for $12, Chris the 13 plant for cost, and Steve the 8 plant for $8. Chris built a third powered city. Steve built another network city in the far east and also a free connection city giving him three powered cities. Jason and Mark sat on their two cities; while Bob bought no plants and no cities, powering only one lonely city.

Turn 3: Chris picked the 22 plant for cost. Steve grabbed the 24 plant for $24; then the always sought after 25 plant made its way into the market. Jason grabbed it for a cool $30! After the 25 plant was bought, Mark passed as the 6/14/15/19 were left in the market, Bob picked up the 15 plant as the last bidder. Bob bought four coals and built his third powered city but still only had one starting network. Mark built his third city, Steve and Jason built to four cities, meanwhile Chris sat on his three cities buying zero resources.

Turn 4: Mark gained the 28 plant for $31, Bob purchased the 21 plant for $22, and Steve snagged the 31 plant for cost! Jason and Steve sat on four cities. Chris built to five cities, Bob and Steve built to four cities but Bob had still not started his second network.

Turn 5: Market stall while everyone passed and Jason reluctantly grabbed the resource cheap 17 nuke plant for cost. Jason spent a hot $30 for extra coal; Steve spent $24 on his resources, while everyone else spent $12-$14. Jason sat on his four cities; while Chris sat on his five cities. Bob built to seven cities, and started a second network. Steve and Mark built to six cities.

Turn 6: Bob and Steve passed in the auction round. Mark took the 19 plant for cost, Chris the 23 plant for cost, and Jason gladly snagged the 26 plant for cost! Having already stocked up on resources, Jason only spent $8 and built to seven cities. Chris and Mark also built to seven cities; while Bob sat on his seven (powering them with the 21 and 15).

Turn 7: Jason and Steve purchased no plant. Meanwhile Mark picked up the currently costly coal 20 plant for cost, Chris paid $71 for the 30 plant, and Bob snagged the 33 plant for cost. Steve paid a whopping $41 on resources, while everyone else spent $10-18. Steve, Jason, and Bob built ten powered cities. Mark built nine powered cities and Chris built eight. Jason connected his two networks to have one pretty area of Natural colored houses (on the pastel region colors it was actually visually pleasing).

Turn 8: Chris paid $51 for the 32 plant and Steve picked up the 29 plant for cost. Steve paid $7 for his resources; while the others spent $31, $42, $44, $50 for theirs. Jason and Bob sat on their ten powered cities. Chris built his ninth powered city.

Turn 9: Jason acquired the 46 plant for a startlingly cheap cost of $47! Bob paid $51 for the 38 plant. Steve purchased the 34 plant for $34, Mark grabbed the 50 plant for 50, and Chris passed on purchasing a plant already having his resources bought for the final round. Jason built to 15 cities as the second player to build, making this the last round.

The final numbers are contained in the chart above. Coal remained pricey throughout the game. The two 7-power plants that did make it into the game gave the top two players 15 uncontested power to separate them by just $3. (Every Dollar counts!)

Constructive comments are of course welcome.

Bruce Bernard, Joshua Arndt, Mark McCandless, Ken Schlosser and Alex Gesing.	Matt Calkins, Jennifer Gorman and Meghan Friedmann comtemplate a power grab.