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Energy consumption is a hot topic these days due to the rising costs, continued push to use less energy and the switch to green alternatives. Power Failure, from Artana Games, tries to represent the battle energy companies have in building and running power plants, dealing with the carbon output, and satisfying the needs of the cities / consumers all with a small deck of cards and some hexagon shaped blocks.
So, does this card/dexterity game work, feel thematic and more importantly, is it fun?
Turn The Lights On
To set up the game you shuffle the city cards and then place them face down in a pile. From these you place one per player and then one more face up in the middle of the table. These city cards are how you earn points (top right corner) and they have an energy value in the middle of the card which is the energy you need to produce to obtain the card.
Next, you shuffle the action cards placing them in a pile (face down) below the city cards. You then place six face up to become the supply and one more face up to the side to become the discard pile. Each player is dealt a hand of five cards as well as a player mat. The carbon blocks are placed in the middle of the table with three being stacked to start the carbon tower. Finally, a first player is chosen and they are handed the three power cubes.
On your turn, you have three actions (as represented by the cubes) from which you can obtain more cards from the supply, play cards from your hand, or activate either your coal, gas or nuclear power plants. When obtaining new cards if you ever go over the hand limit of six (or obtain further cards when already over six) you have to pay a penalty of placing a new carbon on the tower. When you build any power plant, even the green energy ones, you also have to place a new carbon on the tower.
When you activate the power plants you have to pay the price of running them which could be to discard a card, pay a natural gas card, pay a uranium / nuclear waste card, or a combination of these. Then depending on the type of plant you have to stack a certain amount of carbon on the tower.
There are event cards which provide a temporary change in the rules such as the ability to pick up two cards, or to ignore the carbon tower requirements when activating a certain power plant. These cards and the decision of when to play them can make a significant difference to your game, for example if you power three coal plants in one go the carbon penalty is normally nine blocks which could result in a collapse very easily, however with the Carbon Capture Storage event card you would negate all nine blocks.
Going Green
The green power plants have a very satisfying thematic link to the real world as they do not always produce the same energy levels (except the hydroelectric plant which always produces 1). The solar and wind power plants produce 0,1 or 2 energy at the end of your turn without the payment of cards or a carbon block penalty, rather you look at the current top card of the action pile deck and use that number. This can make the difference between being able to satisfy one of the city cards or not and it is always exciting to see what card will be the next card on the action pile at the start of your turn.
Power Overload
Throughout the game everyone is using the same carbon tower and there is a penalty for all players if it ever collapses (of losing one card) but the penalty is much worse for the player who causes the collapse. If it occurs during your turn that ends your turn immediately. If the collapse occurs as you are trying to build a plant you put the power plant back in your hand. If it occurs when you are trying to power your plants you will lose all of the cards you are using to power the plants and still not obtain the energy.
You stack the blocks using any of the faces and if you are brave you can stack them upright but this will cause the tower to collapse at an earlier stage. This leads to some real ‘gamesmanship’ as you may be confident you can stack at least three more but after that the tower may become unstable, so you make it as difficult for your opponents as possible. This can backfire if the tower is still standing as it gets back round to you.
I Have The Power!
You have managed to build your plants and power them all without toppling the carbon tower, now check your total power output against the city cards and claim a card that you can meet its energy requirements. If there is left over power you may be able to claim a second card. Any leftover power not used does not carry over to the next round and is lost.
Before the next players turn replenish the action and city cards and pass the power cubes to the next player.
The game ends when there are not enough city cards to replenish the supply at which point all other players get one more go before scoring is calculated by adding up your claimed city cards points.
Final Thoughts
This was a lovely surprise of a game. I really like the simple but satisfying gameplay loop of trying to build and run the power stations all whilst trying not to topple the ever increasing carbon tower. The game does not outstay its welcome and plays a lot quicker than the box recommended 45 minutes.
Due to the dexterity portion of the game you will need a stable surface to play on and even then there will still be accidental tower tumbles, but if taken as a fun light hearted game everyone will enjoy themselves.
I have very few negatives about the game, especially as it comes in at such a low price point, however there can be a runaway leader problem if one player manages to build the right power plants at the start of the game.
I would recommend this game to anyone as long as they don’t take it too seriously or have a complete hatred of anything with dexterity in it.
