Funkenschlag

Actually, we have the English version of the title game, called Power Grid (but Funkenschlag is a much catchier post title).

Here's the idea: players compete for scarce cities (up to 3 players may occupy a city; any players network of cities must be contiguous), scarce power plants (there are always enough available, but some are better than others) and scarce resources (whose cost changes with availability: e.g. as coal becomes more popular, it also becomes more expensive). A player with a good combination of resources, cities and power plants can make more money, which is used to purchase more of all three in the next round. The only random facet of the game is order of power plants in the face-down stack, but everything else is open and nicely deterministic. [*]

I think a graphical representation of the mathematical model for this game would make nice art.

I thought a simple plot of the bankrolls of each of two players in a two-player contest would give some insight into the game's progress and eventual outcome, but it does not. I'll try again when we put together a 5-player contest.



[*] Except for the unpredictable economic choices of follow contestants: ahh, the bane of economists everywhere!