Power On!
Power On! Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Action Cards x61 City Cards x15 Carbon Cubes x24 Action Tokens x3 Player Aid Cards x4 Energy Conversion Reference Card x1
Action Cards (callouts as printed on the component diagram): Carbon emission value (number of Carbon Cubes to be stacked); Energy source; Generated electricity; Energy tips; Event description; Electricity for Solar or Wind Power Plant; Type of energy source. The diagram shows a Plant Card, an Event Card, and a Resource Card.
City Card (callouts as printed): Victory Points (VP); Energy requirement.
Set up
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Shuffle all 15 City Cards to form a facedown City Deck. Reveal the topmost 3 cards and place them in a row. Place the Carbon Cubes next to the deck.
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Shuffle all 61 Action Cards to form a facedown Action Deck. Reveal the topmost 6 cards and place them next to the deck. Draw 10 Action Cards from the deck and place them face up as the Discard Pile.
Note: In 2- or 3-player games, remove all the cards marked with the player icon (a single figure) from the game.
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Place the Energy Conversion Reference Card next to the Discard Pile for all players to see.
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Each player takes one Player Aid Card and draws 5 Action Cards from the deck as their hand cards.
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The player who had most recently paid the electricity bill becomes the start player (or randomly determine who will go first). The start player takes the 3 Action Tokens and the game is ready to begin!
Game play
Players take turns in clockwise order until the end of the game.
On your turn, you have 3 Action Points (AP) to spend. For each AP, you may perform any one of the following 3 actions:
- Choose one Action Card in the supply and put it into your hand. Your hand limit is 8 cards. If you already have 8 cards in hand, you cannot choose this action.
- Play one Action Card from your hand. If you play (build) a Power Plant, place it face up in front of you. If you play an Event Card, execute its effect immediately and remove it to the discard pile.
- Power one type of your non-Green Power Plants (Coal, Gas, or Nuclear). More details later.
After spending all your 3 AP, if the total electricity you have produced this turn meets the energy requirement of the face up City Card, you may take the card and keep it in front of you as your score.
Finally, refill the supply to 6 Action Cards and 3 City Cards, and the player on your left may take his/her turn.
Note: If the Action Deck is exhausted during the game, shuffle all cards in the discard pile to form a new deck.
Action Tokens: For each AP, you may choose any of the 3 actions. Put an Action Token on the action space you have chosen to keep track of your actions on your turn, so that you won't forget how many actions you have performed.
Powering Green Power Plants doesn't cost you any AP. So if you have Solar, Wind, or Hydroelectric Power Plants, they will automatically provide electricity on your turn.
For one AP, you may power any number of Power Plants of the same type. For example, if you have 2 Nuclear and 3 Gas-Fired Power Plants. You can spend 1 AP to power one Nuclear Power Plant and another AP to power 2 Gas-Fired Power Plant.
Each Power Plant can be powered only once per turn, not once per AP.
Multiple plants of the same type can be powered at once.
Game end and the winner
The game ends immediately when there are not enough City Cards to refill the face up row back to 3 cards.
Players add up the number of stars (VP) on their City Cards and the player with the most stars wins!
If there are ties for the most stars, all the tied players share the victory.
Powering your plants
To power a non-Green Plant, you must spend the corresponding resource and sometimes you also need to fulfill the special requirement (see "Carbon Tower").
Powering a Green Plant doesn't cost you any resource but Solar and Wind Power Plants are "unstable" for your electricity production (see "Solar and Wind Power Plants").
Paying resources: When you need to spend resources, you may choose to discard the corresponding Resource Card or a number of hand cards as substitutes.
- Discard 1 card as Coal resource
- Discard 2 cards as Gas resource
- Discard 2 cards as Uranium resource
Uranium or Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility: This card can be used as Uranium or Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility. You can spend 2 of this card, one as Uranium and the other as Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility, to power a Nuclear Power Plant. You can also spend one of this card and 2 hand cards (as Uranium) to power it.
Note: You cannot discard 2 hand cards to substitute for the required Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility.
Nuclear Power
Powering a Nuclear Power Plant doesn't require players to stack the Carbon Tower, but they must spend one Uranium Resource Card or any two hand cards, in addition to one Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility Card to be able to power it.
For example, if you want to power 2 Nuclear Power Plants, you may spend one Uranium Card and 2 other hand cards, together with 2 Nuclear Waste Disposal Facility Cards, for a total of 5 cards, to successfully power them.
Gas-Fired Power
Powering a Gas-Fired Power Plant costs one Gas Resource Cards or 2 hand cards. In addition, players need to stack 2 Carbon Cubes on the Carbon Tower built by all players on the table.
For example, if you want to power 2 Gas-Fired Power Plant, you may spend one Gas Resource Card and 2 other hand cards, for a total of 3 cards. After that, you must stack 4 Carbon Cubes on the Carbon Tower to be able to successfully power them.
Coal-Fired Power
Powering a Coal-Fired Power Plant costs one hand card of any type. In addition, players need to stack 4 Carbon Cubes on the Carbon Tower built by all players on the table.
For example, if you want to power 2 Coal-Fired Power Plants, you may spend any 2 hand cards. After that, you must stack 8 Carbon Cubes on the Carbon Tower to be able to successfully power them.
Solar, Wind, and Hydroelectric
Powering a Solar or Wind Power Plant doesn't cost any resource or AP. But their electricity production is "unstable" and is determined by the value shown on the card back of the Action Deck, ranging from 0 to 2.
The value on the card back of the deck indicates the electricity produced from Solar and Wind Power Plants.
Powering a Hydroelectric Power Plant doesn't cost any resource or AP. Its electricity production is always 1.
Stacking the Carbon Tower
When you power a Coal- or Gas-Fired Power Plant, you must stack a number of Carbon Cubes on the Carbon Tower built by all players on the table.
- The player who stacks the first Carbon Cube can determine where on the table (within all players' reach) s/he wants to place the cube. All the other cubes must be stacked on the same Carbon Tower. (Only one Carbon Tower on the table at any given time during the game.)
- When stacking, you must stack one cube at a time. You cannot pile multiple cubes together before stacking them onto the Carbon Tower.
- You may stack the cube in any orientation onto the Carbon Tower.
If any cube on the Carbon Tower falls off during stacking, your electricity production is considered a failure. The Carbon Tower collapses and your plants do not produce any electricity. When this happens, the player who caused the collapse must skip his/her next turn. All the other players must discard one hand card. Then, return all Carbon Cubes to the supply. Rebuild a new Carbon Tower when required.
Stack one cube at a time. Stack in any orientation. Stacking multiple cubes at the same time is NOT allowed.
Meet the energy requirement of the City
After finishing all 3 actions, if the total electricity you have produced this turn meets the energy requirement of the City Card, you may take the card and keep it in front of you as your score.
For example, you have powered 1 Nuclear, 2 Gas-Fired, and 1 Hydroelectric Power Plants this turn, the total electricity is 6+3x2+1=13.
The energy requirements of the City Cards are 12, 7, and 6. You can choose to take the "12" or take both "7" and "6".
Note: Any unspent electricity will be forfeited and won't be carried over to your next turn.
Figure caption as printed: Electricity production = 6 + 3+3 + 1 = 13.