Powergrid – Maps & Variants

This page lists every map available on boardgamers.space and what makes each one play differently: its special rules, and how its Recharged variant changes it. For how to play (phases, auctions, bureaucracy), see the rules links on the Powergrid page.

A few things are the same on every map unless a section says otherwise:

Income for powering cities: 1 city → 10 Elektro, 2 → 22, 3 → 33, 4 → 44, 5 → 54, 6 → 64, 7 → 73, 8 → 82, 9 → 90, 10 → 98, 11 → 105, 12 → 112, 13 → 118, 14 → 124, 15 → 129, 16 → 134, 17 → 138, 18 → 142, 19 → 145, 20 → 148, 21 → 150.
Step 2 begins when a player reaches 10 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 6 cities (for 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 players).
The game ends when a player reaches 21 / 17 / 17 / 15 / 14 cities (2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 players).
Each player starts with 50 Elektro.

The Recharged variant

Every map can be played in its Original or Recharged variant (chosen at game setup). Only USA, Germany, and Japan have a different map layout in Recharged; every other map uses the same cities and connections in both variants. What Recharged changes for everyone is the power plant deck and market:

Random opening market. The 13 lowest plants (3–15) are shuffled and 8 are drawn to form the opening market (4 current + 4 future), instead of the Original's fixed 3–10 market.
Different deck size. Fewer plants are removed for the player count than in Original: 2 players remove 6, 3 players remove 8, 4 players remove 4, and 5–6 players remove none.
Discount plant. Once per round, the first player to auction the lowest-numbered plant in the current market may buy it for a minimum bid of 1 Elektro. If no one takes it, the plant is discarded at the end of the round. The discount plant is not used on China, Russia, or Baden-Württemberg.
Weaker cards on top. Plants numbered 15 or lower are more likely to sit near the top of the draw deck, so the market turns over faster.

Individual maps may add their own Recharged tweaks (noted in each section below).

USA

The classic base-game map. No special rules.

Recharged: adds the rule "You can buy coal from the supply for $8." A few connections are re-costed (Omaha–Chicago, Santa Fe–Houston, Knoxville–Raleigh, Cincinnati–Raleigh); cities are unchanged.

Germany

No special rules beyond the standard game.

Recharged: adds the rule "Stop resupplying uranium after power plant 39 has been bought." Two cities are renamed (Torgelow → Stralsund, Wiesbaden → Mainz) and a couple of connections are re-costed.

Brazil

Special rules: "Play with all garbage power plants." The garbage plants above #14 are set aside and shuffled back into the deck after the player-count reduction.
Resource resupply is rebalanced toward oil and garbage and away from coal (coal is scarce).

Spain & Portugal

Special rules: "Remove power plants 18, 22 and 27 from the deck. Place them on top of the deck at the start of Step 2. You cannot buy a nuclear power plant if you only have cities in Portugal."
No uranium is resupplied during Step 1; uranium restocks only from Step 2.

France

Special rules: "Remove power plant 13. Put power plant 11 on top of the deck."
The market starts heavy on uranium (8 in the market) — a nuclear-friendly map.

India

Special rules: "The power grid will suffer a power outage if too many cities are built in one round, penalizing players $3 per city built. Players take turns buying one resource at a time. The resource market is limited in steps 1 and 2. Garbage plants are less efficient. Their cost is one higher, but their storage capacity is not changed. Players must power as many cities as possible in each round."
The resource market is capped (max price $3 in Step 1, $5 in Step 2, $8 in Step 3) and garbage plants cost +1.
Power outage: building too many cities in one round costs each offending player $3 per city built.

Italy

Special rules: "Stop resupplying uranium after power plant 39 has been bought."
Leaner starting market (18 coal / 15 oil / 12 garbage / 2 uranium).

Quebec

Special rules: "Put power plants 13, 18, 22 on top of the deck. Ecological power plants will never be put on the bottom of the deck."
Wind/nuclear (ecological) plants are never randomly removed during setup.

Middle East

Special rules: "Only coal and oil can be bought for $1, and any number of oil can restock at $1. During step 1, garbage and uranium plants will be removed from the current market. Step 2 will be triggered after going through the deck once rather than by a specific number of cities. Step 3 will be triggered after going through the deck a second time."
Steps are deck-driven, not city-driven: Step 2 starts after the deck is gone through once, Step 3 after a second pass.
An oil-rich map — oil restocks heavily and can sit at $1.

China

Special rules: "The power plant deck is arranged as follows: plants from 3-30 in order, plants from 31-35 and step 3 card shuffled, plants from 36-50 shuffled. The same set of plants are removed in every game. There are several changes to when new plants are drawn. In particular, during steps 1 and 2, plants are only drawn from the deck during the bureaucracy phase."
The deck is largely ordered and predictable, and the same plants are removed every game.
No Recharged discount plant.

Benelux

Special rules: "Ecological plants can enter the market earlier. Remove smallest power plant after each round (unless discount plant was removed)."
Resupply favors oil over coal (the market starts with more oil than coal).

Russia

Special rules: "The power plant market is restricted, and the rules for removing old plants are changed."
The opening market skips plants 6 and 14; no garbage in the starting market.
No Recharged discount plant.

Central Europe

No special rules text, but nuclear power is banned in three regions (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia-Hungary) — you cannot buy or use uranium plants there.

Baden-Württemberg

Special rules: "Phase order change: buy power plants first, then determine player order. If no power plant is sold in a round, remove the two lowest-numbered plants from the market and replace them from the draw stack. Never remove a power plant whose number is equal to or lower than the number of cities any player has powered. Transregional cities (e.g. Strasbourg) are only available starting in Step 2. Step 2 begins when any player connects to 9 cities (2 players), 6 cities (3–5 players), or 5 cities (6 players)."
Phase order is swapped (auction before turn order) and Step 2 comes earlier: at 9 / 6 / 6 / 6 / 5 cities.
Transregional cities open only in Step 2 and cost a fixed connection price.
No Recharged discount plant.

Northern Europe

Special rules: "Nuclear plants may only be purchased by players with at least one city in Sweden, Finland, or the Baltic States. Players with cities only in Norway or Denmark may not bid on or buy nuclear plants. Resources start at: coal 3 Elektro, oil 3 Elektro, garbage 5 Elektro, uranium 7 Elektro."
Each region swaps in region-specific power plants when in play.
Starting resource prices are higher than usual.

Korea

Special rules: "Korea has two separate resource markets: North and South. On your buying turn, choose one side — all resources you buy that turn must come from that side. The next turn you may choose the other side. The North market has no uranium track; uranium is only available from the South. Both markets share a single supply pool. During bureaucracy, North restocks first, then South from whatever remains."
Two resource markets (North & South) sharing one supply; uranium only in the South.

Europe

Special rules: "Europe uses the New Power Plants Set 2 deck (cards with a plug on the back). The power plant market starts as 4 current + 5 future power plants (9 total). When Step 2 begins, remove the lowest-numbered plant from the current market from the game once and do not replace it; the future market then has 4 plants instead of 5."
Uses the New Power Plants Set 2 deck and a 9-plant opening market (4 current + 5 future).
Resource prices cap at $9.

North America

No special rules text. Uses the same $1–$9 resource price tracks as Europe and a lean starting market.

South Africa

Special rules: "Coal storage: there is a separate storage space below the resource market, empty at game start. Coal used to power plants returns to this storage space (not the main supply). The resource-market refill draws coal from storage first, then from the main supply. Players can always buy coal for $8 from the storage space (in addition to the standard market price). Metropolises: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria each consist of two cities (N and S) connected by a 0-cost edge. Cross-border connections: the six 30-Elektro connections to neighboring countries (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eswatini, Lesotho) are available from the start of the game. The 30 Elektro is the complete cost — no house-base cost is added on top. Only a single player can build on each cross-border space (cap of 1 instead of the standard 3). Power plant 07 is removed from the deck."
Game ends at 18 / 17 / 17 / 15 / 14 cities (slightly lower than default).
Features a separate coal-storage market, paired metropolis cities, and single-occupancy cross-border spaces.

UK & Ireland

Special rules: "Two networks: Ireland (Green and Orange regions) and Great Britain (Red, Pink, Yellow, Brown) have no sea connection. A player may run one network on each island. Starting a second network on the other island costs an extra 20 Elektro on top of the normal first-house cost. Nuclear restriction: a player whose network is entirely in the Republic of Ireland (Green region) cannot bid on or auction a nuclear power plant until they build a city in Scotland, Wales, England, or Northern Ireland. Early Step 3: the Step 3 card is placed 3rd from last in the deck (two plants below it). Step 2 begins when a player connects their 7th city (6th for 6 players)."
Two separate islands/networks; starting on the second island costs +20 Elektro.
Step 3 arrives early (Step 3 card 3rd from last).

Australia

Special rules: the five uranium plants (11, 23, 28, 34, 39) are replaced by uranium mines that produce uranium to sell on a separate market rather than powering cities; plant 17 is removed. A Step-3 CO2 tax shifts all resource prices up by $2. Any single build may connect a city for a flat 20 Elektro. Melbourne and Sydney are paired metropolis cities; regions need not be adjacent.
No uranium row in the main market — uranium comes only from mines.

Bremen

Special rules: flat per-district connection costs instead of per-edge costs (you pay for each district you enter, including ones you pass through); small districts hold only two networks. No uranium — all uranium plants (and the three 7-city plants) are removed. Step 2 begins at 5 connected districts (4 for 6 players); the game ends at 13 districts (12 for 5 players, 11 for 6).
The shortest and most compact map.

Manhattan

Special rules: a single region where every building space holds one house at its printed cost (10–40 Elektro); the game stays in Step 1 the whole time. With fewer players, some spaces are blocked at setup. Buying the discounted plant grants an extra purchase. The power plant market cycles through a discard pile as the deck runs out. The game ends when a player connects 18 spaces (17 for 3–4 players, 15 for 5, 14 for 6).
A dense single-city grid with no step progression.

Japan

Special rules: "Users may build 0, 1, 2 houses in round 1. The first house you place MUST be in one of the six special starting cities: Fukuoka, Kobe, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo, or Yokohama whether it be round 1 or after. You get a free jump but that free jump can only go into one of these six starting cities (you still pay for the house, just no connection fee). All of these six special starting cities are [10, 10, 20] meaning two players can go there in step 1 and these cities are marked with 10 on the map. If you build 2 cities in round 1, you must use your free jump even though they might have 0 connection like Tokyo and Yokohama (system will auto use your free jump). In Step 3, the third connection spots (cost 20) are opened in the starting cities and are available for normal or free jump. Some smaller cities have only two building spots (10 and 15, or 15 and 20). These cities are marked with an X. An X at the top means no Step 1 builds, an X at the bottom means no Step 3 builds. If all starting city spots are taken, you cannot use your free jump."
Recharged: identical map and rules — only the global Recharged deck/market changes apply.