How to Read a New Power Grid Map

Tournament Power Grid rotates maps. The 2026 World Boardgaming Championships preview offered South Africa or Bremen, the United Kingdom or the Middle East, and Manhattan or Northern Europe for the three heats, Brazil for the semifinal, and Spain and Portugal for the final. A player who only knows Germany has to learn a map in the first round of a game that counts.

You can get most of the way with a short routine. This lesson gives you one.

Before you start: read the map’s own rules

Most maps change one or two rules. The expansion boards come with their own rule notes, and 2F-Spiele lists the small changes older maps need for Recharged in its errata. Read them first. They usually touch one of three things:

• Fuel: a fuel that refills differently, a reserve, or a fuel that stops.
• Plants: plants removed, added, or tied to regions.
• The map: special links, separate networks, or rules about steps.

The base board shows the pattern. On Germany, uranium stops refilling once plant 39 is bought. On the USA, coal can always be bought for 8 from a reserve. The expansions lesson summarizes what several expansion maps change.

Ask: does this rule make one fuel scarcer, or cheaper? Does it change when steps arrive? Write the answer down.

Minute 1: choose the regions

If your table chooses regions, look for a connected set that suits the player count. Regions with many cheap internal links make for a crowded, fast game. Regions joined by long lines make players spread out and pay more to meet.

When you choose regions in turn, think about the shape you leave. The last region picked often decides whether the play area is a compact blob or a long chain, and long chains create choke points.

Minute 2: find the cheap ground

Scan the lines in the play area for:

• Clusters of three or more cities joined by small numbers.
• Free links, where a line costs 0.
• Hubs, cities with several cheap lines out.

Mark two or three of these areas in your head. They are where the early builds will happen, and where the Step 1 fights will be.

Minute 3: find the choke points

Now look for the expensive parts:

• Long lines that are the only way between two parts of the play area.
• Cities on a narrow neck between regions.
• Edges and coasts where a city has one way out.

A player who owns the city at a choke point makes everyone else’s route longer in Step 1. If a cheap area sits behind a choke point, the player who reaches it first may have it to themselves until Step 2.

Minute 4: count the space

Count the cities in the play area and divide by the player count. Compare it to the Step 2 trigger. On the base board, regions hold seven cities each, so the count matches the trigger. A new map may not. If the play area holds fewer cities per player than the trigger, Step 1 will end in a land grab. If it holds more, there is room to grow quietly.

Minute 5: plan two starts

With what you have found, choose two start areas:

1. Your first choice: a cheap cluster with room for several cities before Step 2.
2. A backup: in a different part of the map, in case a player who builds before you takes your first choice.

Remember build order. In round 1, the smallest plant builds first, as the openings lesson explains. If you will build late, your first choice will likely be taken, so the backup matters.

During the game

Keep updating the scan:

• After round 1: where did each player start, and which clusters are still open?
• Before Step 2: which cities near you will open their second space, and who can reach them?
• Before Step 3: which crowded areas will open a third space, and who needs them?

Learning maps between events

The best way to learn a map is to play it. The next best is to set up the board alone, choose regions for five players, run the scan, and write down your two starts. Then compare with what happened in your next real game on that map.

After a few maps, the scan takes two minutes. That leaves the other three for the thing that matters: watching where everyone else is looking.