Power Grid: Russia & Japan
Power Grid: Russia & Japan Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Russia
Introduction
The market for power plants is restricted in Russia. Additionally, the standard rules for exchanging out of date power plants are changed, forcing the leading players to completely rethink their strategies.
Preparation
Do not use the discount token.
Prepare the power plant stack as follows: Remove the power plants "06" and "14" from the game before shuffling the remaining power plants with a plug on the back. Then, shuffle the power plants with a socket on the back and randomly remove 6 power plants for 2 players, 8 power plants for 3 players, and 4 power plants for 4 players. Place the shuffled power plants with a plug on top of the shuffled power plants with sockets and place the card "Step 3" below that stack.
Prepare the power plant market by drawing the topmost 6 power plants and sorting them in ascending order into the market, so only the smallest three power plants are available in the current market.
Fill the following spaces of the resource market: coal - spaces 3–8, oil - spaces 1–8, uranium - spaces 6–16. The cheapest starting spaces for each resource are marked on the map with this symbol. There is no garbage in the resource market at the start of the game.
Depending on the number of players, place the matching resource refill card for Russia on the game board.
Playing the game
Phase 2: Buying power plants
Starting with the second game turn: when a player does not offer a new power plant for auction the first time in a game turn and instead passes, remove the smallest power plant in the current market and replace it with a new power plant from the stack.
Phase 5: Bureaucracy
The resources are filled in accordance with the Russia refill summary cards.
Step 3
At the beginning of "Step 3", remove the smallest power plant and the card "Step 3" from the market (as explained in the base game rules), leaving only 4 power plants in the market. The players can choose among all 4 remaining power plants.
Japan
Introduction
Based on the crowded geographical surroundings, the players can start two separate networks in Japan. The first connections are restricted to certain cities, guaranteeing a tough fight for the best networks.
Preparation
Players cannot choose the variant "Default Starting Cities".
2 players - Against the Trust: the players may place the 6 houses of the Trust in two separate networks but may only place 2 of these houses in starting cities.
Fill the following spaces of the resource market: coal - spaces 2–8, oil - spaces 4–8, garbage - spaces 6–8, uranium - spaces 12–16. The cheapest starting spaces for each resource are marked on the map with this symbol.
Depending on the number of players, place the matching resource refill card for Japan on the game board.
Playing the game
Phase 4: Building
Each player can have two separate networks during the game.
During the first game turn, each player can start 0, 1, or 2 networks. Each player can only place two houses if they start both networks (so not two houses in the same network). The player must place their first houses for the networks in two of the six starting cities: Fukuoka, Kobe, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo, or Yokohama (depending on the chosen regions at game start).
All of these cities have two places for the first connections (cost of 10 Elektro). Thus, two players can place houses there during the first step of the game. As usual, a single player can only have one house per city.
Of course, a player can also choose to build in only 1 or 0 cities in the first game turn. Starting with the second game turn, the player can freely connect any other cities from one or both of their starting cities, including using the second first connection space in the starting cities.
If they start their first or second network later during the game, they still need to choose one of the starting cities. During Step 3 of the game, the player can also use the third connection spaces of the starting cities (cost 20 Elektro). If all spaces of a starting city have already been chosen by other players, the player is forced to play with a single network for the remainder of the game.
2 players - Against the Trust: when the players place the first house in one of the starting cities, they do not place a house for the Trust (the Trust already started the game in one or two starting cities!).
Important: some cities in Japan are smaller and have only two building spots for houses. Players can build houses either at the start of the game (building costs of 10 and 15 Elektro) or only at the start of "Step 2" (building costs of 15 and 20 Elektro).
Phase 5: Bureaucracy
The resources are filled in accordance with the Japan refill summary cards.