LeWinter Repeats in Power Grid!

There were 10 games played in the Heat 1 (Germany/Japan), 8 in Heat 2 (US/Russia), and 8 in Heat 3 (Baden/Australia). Thanks to everyone who brought boards and to those who loaned the maps they were not using. We had enough for everyone to play whatever they preferred except for a miscommunication in the first Heat. If anyone ends up at the wrong table from my mistake, please let me know and I can always arrange a switch even after everyone has seated, but not after games have started.

For those planning ahead, I plan to use these next year:

• Heat 1 - Bremen/Africa
• Heat 2 - UK/Middle East
• Heat 3 - Manhattan/Northern Europe
• Semifinal – Brazil
• Final - Spain and Portugal

The games are scheduled for three hours. Most of the games finished in 2 hours to 2.5 hours. I was never asked to adjudicate, which I never want to do, but will if needed. Unfortunately, we had one player abandon a game after 2 hours without telling me. I think it had no impact on the results, but I like the standard policy on the kiosk of “you can be banned from this event forever if you abandon a game" so I recorded the name and badge number.

Across the 26 games played in the Heats, there were 20 unique winners, so all of them made the Semifinal. Four of the 25 semifinalists had a conflict, so the top 29 made it in. Unfortunately, three of the winners did not tell me they were missing it, so a couple of alternates did not know they could have gotten in. The final cutoff ended up being 100 points (one 2nd) instead of 110 points (one 2nd and one 3rd), so not a big difference, but I still prefer for everyone who could have made it to be playing in the Semifinal. I have no problem with dropouts after the Heats but want people to tell me so that the top alternates can play. I also appreciate the several alternates who came to make sure we had 25 people.

Stats on plants for the 32 Total games across the 26 Heat games, 5 Semifinal games, and 1 Final game. I looked at the final plants for the 32 winners. For the third year in a row #26 led the way. This time the winner had it in 12 out of 32 games (38%). Next was #25/#30 (9 times each), then #28/#36 (7 times), and then #20/#29/#32 (6 times). Of the 20 games where the winner did not have #26, it was held by someone at the end 18 times. One of the others was a 4 player, where maybe it was removed. One was an Australia game, where maybe oil got too expensive. Of the 18 times it was bought without winning, that player got 2nd seven times. One winner had #16, but he had #26 and #38 to go with it. #50 was held by 13 players. Only one finished first.

In the Semifinal, the map was Quebec. The winners were Steven LeWinter, Eric Hufford, Thomas Lind, John Byun, and Harold Henning. The final map was India. There are many special rules for India and we reviewed those before the game, but those special rules caused some issues, as discussed below.

In both 2024 and 2025, John Myers (6th place 2025) volunteered to be banker in the Final game and that’s a big help. This year, he corrected me on a rules issue, which I also appreciate. I hope he can be playing in the Final next year and that someone else can volunteer.

Final

Round 1: Harold bought #8 for $8, Eric bought #5 for $5, Tom bought #4 for $4, Steve bought #12 for $12, and John bought #3 for $1 (discount plant). There was no bidding in that round and very little bidding in the game. After John and Tom bought 1 house each, there was no downside to Eric buying 2, so Eric/Harold/Steve all built 2. John built middle West, Tom South, Eric North, Harold North central right by Eric, and Steve built Southwest between John and Tom.

Round 2: Steve put up #15 and Harold bought it for $16. Steve put up #18 and Eric bought it for $19. Steve put up #20 and Tom bought it for $21. Steve put up #26 and John bought it for $27. Steve put up #27 and got it at cost since no one else could outbid him. #6 was available for $1 and the fuel cost was $2 ($1 each for two since trash plants require 1 extra trash for India), but the other plants were better. John/Tom built to 2 cities and Steve/Harold/Eric built to 3 cities.

Round 3: Steve put up #9 for $1 (discount plant) and Eric bought it for $3. Steve passed. Harold put up #28 and got it for $28. #25 became available. John wanted it but said “I have to build houses" and passed. Tom bought #25 for $25, so he now has #25/#20/#4 and he bought no plants for the next few rounds. Tom stayed at 2 houses. John/Harold/Eric built to 4. Steve built to 5 and powered them with #27/#12.

Round 4: Steve put up #32 and got it at cost. He had no plans to use it this round, he could power 5 cheaply with #27/#12. Harrold put up #33 and got it at cost, so he has #33/#28/#15. With uranium at $1-2, he can power 8 for $1-2. John put up #13 and got it for $1, so John can power 6 cheaply with #26/#13. Eric put up #34 and got it for $34, so he can power 8 cheaply with #34/#18/#9. Tom passed on plants because he had #25/#20/#4 and only two houses. Tom built to 4, Harold built to 5, John/Eric built to 6, and Steve stayed at 5. At the end of round 4, Steve had the most money with $93 and Tom had the least money with $56.

After round 4, players had bought plants #20/#25/#26/#27/#28/#32/#33/#34, so a lot of bad ones will be coming soon.

Round 5: Eric bought #29 for $29, thinking “surely a bad one is coming next." He was quite disappointed to see #36 drop. Steve bought it for $46, so now Steve can power 16 in a game going to 15. He had #36/#32/#27. On most maps, he could hold back to buy fuel first, but India fuel is bought one piece at a time. Tom built to 5. Steve built to 6. Harold built to 8. John/Eric stayed at 6.

Round 6: Harrold passed, Steve passed, Eric passed, John bought #21 for $21, Tom passed. Tom built to 9. John built to 10. Eric built to 11. Steve built to 9. Harold built to 12 even though he could only power 11. There was a brownout, so everyone was penalized $3 per house. Harold had not played the map much and had forgotten about that rule but remembered before he said he was done with houses. He then debated whether to buy to 12 or go back to 11. In the end, he bought to 12. I was happy that he was not penalized for forgetting a special India rule.

Round 7: The current market was #17/#19/#22/#23. Harold/Eric/John/Steve passed, so Tom bought #17 for $1. Tom built to 11 powering 11 (#25/#20/#17). Steve built to 12 powering 12 (#36/#32/#27). John stayed at 10 powering 10 (#26/#21/#13). Eric stayed at 11 powering 11 (#34/#29/#18). Harold stayed at 12 powering 11 (#33/#28/#15). In a normal map, Steve could power 10 with #36/#27 and save the oil on #32 that might cost him more than the $13 income difference. On the India map, he was required to power all 12 since he could.

Round 8: The current market was #16/#19/#22/#23. Steve passed, Harold passed, Eric passed, Tom put up #16 for $1 and John was disappointed. John did not want step 3 to trigger and John knew step 3 was one below the top, so it would come out if John bought after Tom bought #16. John and I discussed this later and determined that John’s best move was to bid up on #16 and hope Tom does not buy a plant. Tom’s options would have been #19/#22/#23/#24, none of which allow him to power 15, so he likely passes.

There were 10 coal available and Steve was buying last. If everyone buys a coal in round 1 of buying and everyone but Eric (who could only buy 1) buys a coal in round 2 of buying, then John can buy the last coal in round 3 of buying. At that point, Steve does not have enough coal for #36 and powers 9 with #32/#27. Harrold powers 11 with #33/#28/#15, Tom can only power 7 with #25/#17, Eric can only power 11 with #34/#29/#18, and John can win powering 12 with #26/#21/#16. John had $210 at the start of the round, needed about $125 for 5 houses and about $10 for fuel, so he could actually bid a lot on #16 as long as Tom would not buy a plant.

Back to the actual game, John passed on plants, so he could still only power 10. Steve bought a coal in round 1. Steve bought an oil in round 2. John bought a coal after that and then Steve said “wait – I wanted a coal, not an oil." There was some discussion about which round of fuel we were on, how many Steve had bought, and whether or not he could undo. In the end, it was decided that only two rounds of buying had been made and that he could not undo the oil purchase because new information was given. At the end of fuel buying, Steve only had 2 coal on #36, so he could only power 9.

John told me later he did not realize Steve could only power 9. John thought he needed to block Steve from winning, so John built to 14 powering 10, hurting his turn order. If John had seen that, John would have stayed at the back and hoped for #38/#46. Tom also built to 14 and Harold built to 13. At the end of round 8, John powered 10 with 14 houses, Steve powered 9 with 12 houses, Harold powered 11 with 13 houses, Tom powered 12 with 14 houses, and Eric powered 11 with 11 houses.

At the end of round 8, step 3 was triggered

Round 9: John has $206 with 14 houses but can only power 10 with #26/#21/#13. There are no 7 plants available, so John put up #30. Harold bid $31, Tom bid $32, and Tom got it for $32, so Tom could power 16 with #30/#25/#20. Next John could buy #31 or #42. John put up #31, hoping someone would bid. No one did, so John got #31 for $31 and could power 15 with #31/#26/#21. Next Harold bought #42 for $42, so he could power 14 with #42/#33/#28. Steve passed and could still power 16 with #36/#32/#27. Eric bought #40 for $40, so he could power 15 with #40/#34/#29. If #38 or #46 had flipped, Eric would likely have won. The last three plants in the deck were #38/#44/#46.

The fuel purchase took several rounds. Near the end, Tom said “I’m the only one buying trash, so I’ll buy 3 trash and be done." He forgot that on the India board, #30 requires 4 trash. Banker John Myers said, “after you buy, others can buy." Others bought and John Myers asked Tom “do you want to buy any more fuel?" and Tom said “no." I said to John Myers “I don’t know what to do here." I then reminded Tom that #30 requires 4 trash. He was upset and we discussed a redo, but eventually decided he could not buy another trash, taking him from 2nd to 5th.

In the end, Steve won, building to 16 powering 16 with $60 left over. Eric got second at 15 with $154 left over. John got third at 15 with $125 left over. Harold got fourth at 14 with $183 left over. Tom built to 16 powering 10 with $17 left over.

Overall, Steve was very efficient and played a great game.

The rest of this is a collection of stories about giving advice or help during games and wanting to get a do-over. I put it at the bottom because I thought some may not be interested in this. I think most players have not read the rules posted on every multi-player kiosk. Those rules say “A Player’s move is his own and NOT subject to critique. Excessive persuasion or unwanted negotiation is subject to Disqualification. Notify the GM if problems arise." That is obviously enforced more in some events than others.

When I became GM in 2023, I made several announcements of my version of that, which was “Everyone play your own game" and most appreciated that. The most stressful part of being a GM this year was making rulings where a player made an error in buying fuel. In all cases, I said “the rule is that the player who made the mistake can only undo it if everyone at the table agrees." In all cases, at least one player did not.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that maybe I should not even leave it up to the table and should just say that they cannot. There are a lot of reasons for this, which is why I’m adding this collection of stories. My main issue is that if four players like coaching (giving advice, tips, suggestions, reminders to other players at the table without them asking for it) and one does not, it makes it uncomfortable for that player to stop it. I’m sure some do not think of “hey – you didn’t buy enough fuel" as coaching, but I do and I would not know where to draw the line if I allowed that. The only “coaching" I allow is correcting math errors. If someone says, “I’ll buy a house for $10 and a connection of $22, so I’ll pay $42," then I want players to correct that.

As mentioned above, there were times when players did not buy enough fuel. In the second Heat, I was playing the US map with Joe and Joe did not buy enough coal. He said, “someone could have told me" and he was right. He was upset at himself, not the table, but I could have told him and did not. He was not going to win the game but could have gotten second and made the Semifinal. I got 3rd instead of 4th. My failure to tell him was not because I cared about 3rd versus 4th. It’s because I want everyone to play their own game. If I’m coaching him to help him make the Semifinal, then he knocks out someone else who did not make it and did not receive coaching.

As GM of Power Grid, I made it “experienced players only." The rules of the event say that there is no coaching. Several years ago, players at the Final table might have said “if we all buy coal, we may be able to stop Steve from winning." I never want that to happen. It’s fine if they all independently buy coal and stop Steve from winning, but it’s not fine to tell everyone to do it.

A tougher case was in the Final. As noted above, Tom did not buy enough trash to power #30 and got 5th instead of 2nd. This is a special case because the rules are different from what is printed on the card. I had explained that to everyone before the game started, but there are a lot of special rules and Tom forgot that one. He had little or no experience with the India map, so he was at a big disadvantage and almost got 2nd despite that. After the game, I discussed this with others and decided we need better clarification about trash plants in future India games. I will produce something (likely a special token on each trash plant), but that didn’t help Tom this time. I hope Tom returns. I’m sure he’ll never forget it.