Five-Player Power Grid: Playing the Tournament Table

Welcome to Level 4. You have the rules, the economy, and the reading habits. Now you play the game the way tournaments play it. The World Boardgaming Championships event prefers five-player tables and uses four only when it has to. Five is also the count where Power Grid’s limits all press at once.

The map is exactly full

The base board has six regions of seven cities each. At five players you play on five connected regions, so 35 cities are in the play area.

In Step 1, each city holds one company. That is 7 cities per player, and Step 2 starts when someone reaches 7. The numbers line up the same way at three players (3 regions, 21 cities) and four (4 regions, 28 cities). But at five, with more rivals around you, the cities near your start run out sooner and more players fight over each region’s edge.

What that means at the table:

• Every Step 1 city is one somebody else cannot have. Claiming ground early is worth more than at lower counts.
• The first player to 7 often ends up boxed in. If the other four have filled the space around them, their next cities in Step 2 will be shared spaces at 15.
• Players who fall behind on space will rely on Step 2 to break into crowded areas.

The end comes sooner

At five players the game ends after the build phase in which someone reaches 15 cities. That is two fewer than at three or four. With Step 2 still at 7, there is less time between the two triggers. Your midgame is shorter, and the final-round count from the endgame lesson starts mattering earlier.

Fuel is tight

At five players in Step 1, the refill card returns 5 coal, 4 oil, 3 garbage, and 2 uranium per round. Five companies burning two or three plants each will want more than that of at least one fuel. The resource market lesson shows how to sum it.

Two habits help:

• Spread out. At five players there is almost always a crowded fuel. Being the only player on a fuel is worth a slightly weaker plant.
• Buy order matters more. With four players buying before or after you, your seat in the fuel phase can swing your bill more than at any other count.

The full plant deck

At five and six players, no plants are removed at setup. Every plant is in the game, and the deck is at its largest: 34 cards above the Step 3 card. The plant deck lesson shows how to count it. The upside is that tracking is exact. If a plant has not appeared yet, it is still coming.

Turn order swings hardest

Five seats mean the gap between first and last is wide. The leader opens the auction with four players behind them who can react. They buy fuel and build after four others. Being one city short of the leader often means buying fuel second to last, which may be the difference between a full plant and a dark one.

The midgame habit of stopping one city short is strongest here. But because space runs out, the trailing player cannot wait long. Pick your rounds.

Playing the heat, not just the game

At WBC, heats are scored by wins first and then by placement points: 1,000 for first, 100 for second, 10 for third, 1 for fourth, and 0 for fifth, according to the 2026 event preview. Up to 25 players advance to the semifinal and 5 to the final. The preview notes that in recent years every heat winner advanced, and that the last places went to players with two second-place finishes.

So in a heat:

• A win is worth far more than anything else. Play to win, not to place.
• Second still counts if you play several heats. Two seconds have been enough to advance.
• Playing more heats helps, since wins across all heats come first in the standings.

Regions at a tournament table

At WBC, players choose the regions in player order, which is drawn at random, and the regions must be connected when the last player picks. If you choose early, pick a region you would like to start in. If you choose late, you may be closing the shape for everyone. Ask which region would leave the others crowded.

A five-player checklist

• After round 2, count empty Step 1 cities per player.
• Name the crowded fuel, and avoid it unless the plant is too good to pass.
• Count the plant deck from 34.
• Know who could reach 7 next round, and who could reach 15.

Five-player Power Grid is the hardest version of the game and the one tournament players learn on. Every lesson in this course applies, all at once.