Power Grid: Australia & Indian Subcontinent
Power Grid: Australia & Indian Subcontinent Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 double-sided game board
Australia
Overview
Australia does not have a single connected power network. Only in the populated regions, mainly in the south east are several cities connected to each other. Because of this, players may connect to any city for a generally higher connection cost. Australia does not use uranium for their power production, but they do mine huge amounts of the material to sell to other countries. This offers a completely new game element, even for experienced Power Grid players!
Game Preparation
At the start of the game, the prices of resources begin at: coal 1 Elektro, oil 3 Elektro, garbage 4 Elektro. In »Step 1« and »Step 2« of the game only the areas of the resource market for 1 to 8 Elektro are used.
There are no uranium spaces in the resource market. The uranium is sold in a separate uranium market in Australia. At the start, all 12 spaces of the uranium market are filled with 1 uranium each.
Australia only has 5 regions. In games with 5 or 6 players you always play on the whole map. With 2 to 4 players you may choose the matching number of regions in Australia, the chosen regions do not need to be adjacent!
Before preparing the power plant deck, remove the nuclear power plant #17. Place the removed power plant back into the game box; it is not used during the game.
Playing the Game
Phase 2: Buying Power Plants
In Australia the nuclear power plants are considered uranium mines. Instead of supplying cities with electricity, the players mine uranium and sell it at the uranium market.
The uranium mines are equivalent to the power plants and players buy them in the same auctions. A player may buy a single card during each round - either a power plant or a uranium mine. The uranium mines are not counted towards the limit of 3 power plants (4 power plants for 2 players). In other words, a player may have up to 3 (4) power plants and any number of uranium mines. The uranium mines are considered when determining the player order in Phase 1!
Addendum for the Robots expansion: The robot never buys uranium mines!
Phase 3: Buying Resources
The players may only buy coal, oil and garbage. At the start of »Step 3« the Australian government establishes CO2-Taxes. All prices for the resources in the resource market increase by 2 Elektro. Move the 6 cheapest resource tokens of each type in the resource market to the spaces in the areas for 9 and 10 Elektro. The areas for 1 and 2 Elektro are not used for the remainder of the game.
Example: In »Step 3« the cheapest resources cost at least 3 Elektro per piece.
The uranium tokens are only used to track the uranium prices. They are in either the uranium market or in a separate storage space next to this market. The players only move these tokens in Phase 5: Bureaucracy.
Phase 4: Building
Players may connect any available city in the chosen game area to add to their networks. A player either pays the specified connection costs between cities, which are printed on the game board, or he pays the general connection costs of 20 Elektro, in addition to the building costs for the city. The player may always choose the general connection cost, if this is cheaper than the specified connection costs on the map or if there are no connections between the cities at all. In other words: each city in Australia is connected with each other city for a maximum general connection cost of 20 Elektro. A player always marks all cities of his network on the scoring track! A player follows all other rules when connecting a new city: in »Step 1« each city is only available for a single player etc.
The major cities Melbourne and Sydney each consist of 2 cities with a connection cost of zero Elektro. A player may have a maximum of 1 house in each of the two cities.
Addendum for the Robots expansion: The robot follows its building rules and normally always chooses the cheapest connections. He chooses the general connection cost of 20 Elektro plus the respective building costs of the city, if there are no cheaper connections. The robot chooses a new city randomly. First, the players randomly choose one of the available regions. Second, the players choose a random city in this region. If all 7 cities are still available for the robot, the »last player« chooses a city to be unavailable to the robot. Then, the players use all six colors to randomly choose the robot's city.
Phase 5: Bureaucracy
Besides getting money from powering the cities with electricity, the players also get money from their uranium mines. In reverse player order, starting with the last player, each player may sell the uranium from his mines to the uranium market. A player may decide not to sell his uranium.
If the player decides to sell uranium, each uranium mine produces an equal amount of uranium matching the number of cities it normally powers with electricity. The player multiplies this amount with the highest available number in the uranium market and gets that sum in Elektro. Then, he places one uranium token per uranium mine (not per produced uranium) from the storage on the highest available spaces of the uranium market. Afterwards, the next player sells his produced uranium for the new price and so on.
Example: Paul is the last player. He owns 2 uranium mines, #11 and #23, which produce a total of 5 uranium. The current highest available price is 4 Elektro at the uranium market. Paul takes 20 Elektro and places 2 uranium tokens from the storage on the 2 highest available prices of the uranium market. The next player now only gets 3 Elektro for his produced uranium.
Important: In contrast to getting money from powering cities, which players do not get at the end of the game, players get money for selling uranium in the last round of the game.
Afterwards, uranium markers are removed from the uranium market; this symbolizes the demand of other countries for uranium. Starting on the cheapest spaces remove uranium markers in accordance to the resource supply table on the last page and place them into the storage.
Finally, fill the resources on the resource market in accordance with the Australia resource supply table. The Australia resource supply table is on the last page!
Indian Subcontinent
Overview
The Indian Subcontinent is always in danger of suffering huge power outages if the players increase their networks too fast. Additionally, the players must buy their resources on a limited resource market, which not always guarantees enough resources for all players. The garbage power plants use livestock manure and have a low efficiency. When producing electricity they need one additional garbage.
Game Preparation
At the start, the prices of resources begin at: coal 1 Elektro, oil 2 Elektro, garbage 2 Elektro and uranium 6 Elektro. Use only 8 uranium tokens during the game and place the other 4 uranium tokens back into the game box.
Before preparing the power plant deck, remove the nuclear power plant #11. Place it back into the game box; it is not used during the game.
Playing the Game
Phase 3: Buying Resources
At the start of the game the resource market is very small. The players can only access the areas for 1 to 3 Elektro. At the start of »Step 2« the areas for 4 and 5 Elektro are added. Only at the start of »Step 3« is the whole market completely accessible to the players.
In reverse player order, starting with the last player, each player may buy just 1 resource token per buying turn. The players continue in this manner for several buying turns. If a player wants to stop buying, he passes. The other players continue to buy 1 resource token per buying turn.
The garbage power plants need 1 additional garbage token to produce electricity, but they do not store more garbage. For example, the garbage power plant #24 now needs 3 garbage tokens, but it can only store up to 4 garbage tokens.
Phase 4: Building
The major cities Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi each consist of 2 cities with a connection cost of zero Elektro. A player may have a maximum of 1 house in each of the two cities.
When the players connect new cities to their networks, they show this by placing their houses on their end.
At the end of this phase the players count the total number of houses placed on their end (which were newly connected by all players during this round). If this sum is higher than twice the number of players, at least 5 houses with 2 players, at least 7 houses with 3 players and so on, the players cause a huge power outage. As punishment they get less income in the following Phase 5: Bureaucracy.
Finally, all new houses are placed right side up.
Phase 5: Bureaucracy
The players must power as many cities in their networks as possible with their power plants. If the power plants have enough resources and there is still an unsupplied city in that player's network, resources may require to be moved between power plants using the same resources, until the power plants produce enough electricity even if they now overproduce. Only if a power plant is not needed to supply electricity, may the player choose to produce no electricity with that power plant and save its resources for the next turn.
If the players caused a power outage in Phase 4: Building, all players are punished and receive less income for powering the cities. For each city connected in a player's network, that player must subtract 3 Elektro from his total income. For example, if he owns 10 cities and powers 8 of them, he gets 90 Elektro - 30 Elektro = 60 Elektro!
Important: If there is a power outage in the last round, you also play phase 5 for once, so all players get one more income.
Finally, fill the resources in accordance with the Indian Subcontinent resource supply table. Refill the most expensive spaces first, even if these spaces are not available in the first turns, like uranium.
The Indian Subcontinent resource supply table is on the last page!
Resource Supply Tables
Australia Resource Supply Table
| Resource | 2 players Step 1 | 2 players Step 2 | 2 players Step 3 | 3 players Step 1 | 3 players Step 2 | 3 players Step 3 | 4 players Step 1 | 4 players Step 2 | 4 players Step 3 | 5 players Step 1 | 5 players Step 2 | 5 players Step 3 | 6 players Step 1 | 6 players Step 2 | 6 players Step 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 6 |
Indian Subcontinent Resource Supply Table
| Resource | 2 players Step 1 | 2 players Step 2 | 2 players Step 3 | 3 players Step 1 | 3 players Step 2 | 3 players Step 3 | 4 players Step 1 | 4 players Step 2 | 4 players Step 3 | 5 players Step 1 | 5 players Step 2 | 5 players Step 3 | 6 players Step 1 | 6 players Step 2 | 6 players Step 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 6 |