Continue if you are looking for games like Power Grid and are curious about what similar games to play next. The objective of the game is to supply the most cities with power when someone’s network gains a predetermined size. Players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.
To determine this list we broke down Power Grid to what it is. This is a pure economic engine builder that is all about network building. You want to reach far and you want to be big and there are shred mechanisms like auctions to help drive that. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. We took all this into consideration and came up with this list of the 5 board games like Power Grid.
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#05 | Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars is a bit of a stretch for the list of board games like Power Grid, but it is here because it shares a few very key traits with the game in question. If what you love about Power Grid is that it is a very long and intense engine building game in a realistic setting, a great option is this Mars exploration and develop game. Network building is not there, but how you terraform the actual planet has implications where you can go.
You are a corporation working with other corporations to make Mars inhabitable, but not in a co-op game way, you are very much trying to defeat others and be the best. You have six resources you can build up and you have countless options you can take and which path to victory you want to strategize toward. The overall goal is to get the most points. Raise the life conditions (oxygen, water, temp), mine, settle, focus on science, focus on nature, many options. For 1 – 5 players, games take 1.5 – 3 hours.
FOR MORE: Terraforming Mars Page | How To Play Terraforming Mars | Terraforming Mars Review | Games Like Terraforming Mars | Buy Terraforming Mars on Amazon
#04 | Keyflower
Keyflower makes the list of games like Power Grid because of its combination of network building and auction strategy and management. In a burgeoning and economic world, it is up to you to put down both those short term and long term plays that are going to keep things running.
Each player starts the game with a “home” tile and an initial team of 8 workers being 1 of 3 colors. Workers of matching colors are used by the players to bid for tiles to add to their villages. Matching workers may alternatively be used to generate resources, skills and additional workers. Throughout the game, players will need to be alert to the opportunities to best utilize their various resources, transport and upgrade capability, skills and workers. For 2 – 6 players, games last 90 – 120 minutes.
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#03 | The Great Zimbabwe
The Great Zimbabwe makes the list of board games like Power Grid because it has the same economic prosperity mechanics with network building at the center to drive growth. You just happen to be in Africa a very long time ago instead of America only kind of a long time ago.
This is a game about building a trade based civilization in ancient Africa. You strive to build the most impressive monuments to one god of your choice, each with their own blessing and win conditions. Building the monuments is done by developing a logistics network stretching across the region. Through this network, you will produce and obtain ritual goods to raise your monuments and bring honor to your true god. For 2 – 5 players, games last 90 – 150 minutes.
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#02 | Steam
Steam makes the list of games like Power Grid because similar to many games here, it is a fantastic economic engine building game that is driven by building up your networks as far and as robust as possible. This is a redesign and release of the original “Age of Steam” that brings in some additional elements that add to gameplay successfully.
You build railroads and deliver goods along an ever changing network of tracks and stations. You build the tracks, upgrade towns, improve your train, and grab the right goods to make the longest, most profitable deliveries. Score your deliveries and add to your income or victory points, balancing your need to invest against your quest to win the game. For 3 – 5 players, games go for about 90 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Steam on Amazon
#01 | Chicago Express
Chicago Express takes the top spot on the list of games like Power Grid because there is nothing more like it out there in both gameplay and mathematics. Driven by your tycoon entrepreneurship, you need to build up your networks spreading and far and as wide as possible. You also just happen to be in a very industrious time in America’s history.
In the game the main railroads drive from the East Coast across the growing eastern US to Chicago. Smaller, more aggressive railroads like the Wabash spring up to further expand America’s extensive railroads. Over a series of rounds you can either auctioning a share of one of the railroad companies, expanding the rail system of one of the railroad companies or develop a piece of land. You are an executive trying to build the biggest network and amass the most wealth. For 2 – 6 players, games last about 1 hour.
