Hacks and Variants

Your Future Robot Boss Will Treat You Like a Machine

Power Grid + The Robots

I really need to stop playing solitaire Power Grid. It’s making me paranoid and depressed. Power Grid is not a fun game in the slightest. But I am COMPELLED challenge the robot opponent over and over, if only to prove that I can beat a random collection of cardboard puzzle pieces. So far, I have failed every time.

Unfortunately it’s impossible to get anyone to play this monstrosity with me. It’s long, often boring, and there isn’t much interaction between the players. I gave up trying to recruit players long ago. Besides, you don’t really need people to play it. Except for the actual moving of components, Power Grid can play itself.

The instructions for The Robots expansion say that it’s not made for solo games. This is a lie. They say that to avoid scaring players into realizing that robots are coming for their jobs. It is, however, a pretty stale game. The robot is hard to beat, but only because it’s allowed to cheat the rules in one way or another. It’s supposed to supplement an otherwise two player game, but that’s unlikely to happen…