Delmarva Expansion

Introduction:
The Delmarva peninsula, located on the eastern coast of the United States, is shared by parts of Maryland and Virginia, and nearly all of Delaware (hence its name). Delmarva is composed of only a few major cities, but also many smaller towns. This feature, combined with Delmarvas compact shape, make it an interesting region in which to conduct a game of Power Grid.

Set Up:

Delmarva is divided into only 3 regions. In 2- and 3-player games, only the top (white) and middle (orange) regions are used. In 4-player games, only the middle (orange) and bottom (red) regions are used. In 5- and 6-player games, all three regions are used. Delmarva far surpasses the national average in oil consumption as a power source. When filling the resource track at the start of the game, fill it as follows: place all 24 coal on blocks 1 through 8; place all 24 oil on blocks 1 through 8; place 3 garbage on block 8 and 1 garbage on block 7; and place 1 uranium on space 16.

When removing random plants as appropriate for the number of players (if necessary), first set aside all oil and hybrid plants from the plant deck. Then, remove the necessary number of random plants from the remainder. Finally, shuffle all the coal and hybrid plants back into the deck. In this way, none of the randomly removed plants are oil or hybrid plants, so there should be plenty available during the game.

Phase 4: Building

Delmarva has many towns, but most of them dont require as much power as a typical city. Most of the cities on the board depict an X covering one or two of their spaces. During Step 1 (at the beginning of the game), only cities with a 10 space may added to players grids. Cities with an X where there should be a 10 space cant yet be added to a players grid; although, players may still pay connection costs to build through these cities (say, to get to other cities). All 10 spaces are available for purchase during all three steps of the game. In Steps 2 and 3, all 15 spaces on cities are available for purchase. In Step 3, all 20 spaces are available for purchase. However, as normal, a player cant own more than one space in the same city. Most cities dont have space for a third player, and many dont have space for more than one player. For example: Selbyville, MD is available to add to a players grid through the entire game, and Williards, MD is available from Step 2 on. However, once a player builds into one of those cities, no other players may build into that city. Pittsville can be occupied by a single player starting at Step 2, and a second player starting at Step 3, but it can never be occupied by a third player. Note that in a 2-player game, it is possible for the 20 space on some cities to be claimed if the city is missing its 10 or 15 space.

Example: In Step 1, a player who owns Ocean City could expand to Selbyville for 16 Elektro, as normal. However, the player could not add Williards or Pittsville, as he would need to wait to Step 2 for those cities to be available. He could, however, pay 23 Elektro to expand through those cities into Salisbury or Delmar, MD.
The cities of Dover and Salisbury have very high populations, and so require more power than other cities. These cities are each depicted as two smaller cities stacked on top of each other, and they function exactly like two cities that have a connection cost of 0 between them. A single player may therefore build once in each of the two rows depicted in Dover, for example. However as per normal building rules, no player may build on more than one space on the same row. Likewise, Delmar, DE and Delmar, MD are two separate cities, and both can be occupied by the same player (as long as both the orange and red areas are in play and it is at least Step 2). Finally, because it is so easy for a single player to scoop up multiple single-space cities and prevent other players from expanding their networks, the number of connected cities required to end the game is reduced by 1 (so 20/16/16/14/13 cities for 2/3/4/5/6 players).

Phase 5: Bureaucracy

During all steps, restocking values are exactly the same as in an ordinary game of Power Grid, with one exception: twice as many units of oil are placed on the resource track as normal. This applies to all three steps of the game.