The Power Grid Midgame: Turn Order, Fuel, and Step 2

By the middle of a game of Power Grid, everyone has two or three plants, a small network, and opinions about coal. The opening was about your own company. The midgame is about everyone’s, because every Elektro you save comes from a choice someone else made first.

Turn order is something you spend

Player order follows cities connected, with plant numbers breaking ties. The leader picks first in the auction, then buys fuel and builds last. The player in last place gets the cheapest fuel and the first choice of cities.

So the number of cities you build each round is also a bid for your seat next round. A few habits help:

• Stop one city short when being second costs you little and saves you fuel money.
• Build big when the seat no longer matters, such as the round you trigger Step 2 or the final round.
• Watch the tie. If you and a rival have the same city count, the higher plant number goes first. Buying a big plant can push you ahead in order without a single new city.

None of this means hiding at the back all game. A trailing position only helps if you use the cheap fuel and early building to catch up.

Read the fuel market like a forecast

Fuel prices are public, and so is everyone’s appetite. Each plant shows what it burns, and storage is capped at double. Before you buy:

1. Count demand. Add up how many markers of your fuel the players who buy before you could take.
2. Check the refill card. It shows how many markers of each fuel return each round at your player count and step. Some fuels come back slowly.
3. Decide whether to stock up. Storing extra now costs more today and protects you from a price spike next round.

Buying a fuel down also hurts the players who buy after you. Since the leader buys last, filling your plants with a fuel the leader needs is one of the cleanest ways to slow them down. It costs you money, so do it when it changes their round.

Plant upgrades within three slots

You can own only 3 plants, so each slot should earn its place. When you look at a new plant, ask what it adds over the plant it would replace:

• More cities from the same slot. Upgrading a plant that powers 1 city to one that powers 4 is a large jump.
• A cheaper fuel. Moving off a crowded fuel can save money every round.
• An eco plant. No fuel bill, ever.

When you buy a fourth plant, you must scrap one. Fuel on it can move to your other plants if they can store it; otherwise it goes back to the supply.

Plants plus fuel plus income act a lot like an engine. Our explainer on engine building games covers the same curve from another angle.

The discount token as a tool

Each auction phase, the smallest current plant opens at 1 Elektro. If nobody buys it, it leaves the game at the end of the phase and a new plant arrives. Two midgame uses:

• Cheap filler. When you need capacity now and cannot afford a big plant, a discounted one can bridge a round.
• Churning the market. Passing on the discounted plant lets the market cycle toward bigger plants faster. Watch the backs on the draw pile to see what is coming.

Timing Step 2

Step 2 starts in bureaucracy once someone reaches 7 cities (6 with 6 players). Three things happen: the smallest current plant leaves once, the refill card switches to its Step 2 column, and every city opens a second space at 15.

That last change reshapes the map. Areas that one player claimed in Step 1 open to a second company. Before you trigger it, ask:

• Do I have room to keep growing alone, or will Step 2 let me into a rival’s cheap area?
• Next round, the players behind me build before I do. Will they take the second spaces in my area first?

Triggering Step 2 also means you probably lead turn order next round. Make sure you can afford that seat.

Claiming the map

Each city takes one company in Step 1, so where you build also decides where others cannot.

• Hold chokepoints. A city that sits on the cheap route into a region makes everyone else’s path longer.
• Use free links. Some cities connect at a cost of 0. Those pairs are cheap ways to add cities.
• Leave yourself a way out. If rivals ring your area, Step 2 is your only way through. Plan for that before it happens.

Read the table every round

Before your auction pick, take ten seconds and look at each rival:

1. How many cities can their plants power right now?
2. Which fuel do they need, and can they afford it?
3. How close are they to the Step 2 trigger or the end?

That habit turns the auction from guessing into planning. For the bigger picture on why Power Grid stays close, see our piece on board game balance math.