Energy Earth: A Concept Board Game
The goal of Energy Earth is to supply houses with power while balancing the effects of pollution causing power plants and a finite amount of resources in the planet.
As the game progresses, more efficient plants become available, thus simply purchasing allows others to benefit from better means of generating power. Players can bid against one another to buy the power plants that will power their houses.
Players must also obtain the raw materials (coal, oil, and uranium) required to run their power plants (with the exception of the’renewable’ windfarm/ solar plants, which do not require fuel, but generally cost more money), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while managing the finite resources on the planet and their pollution causing effects.
The game starts with each player taking 15 gold. A deck of power plants is set to the side of the game board. 6 power plants are drawn from the top of the deck and organized on the [1…6] card slots on the side of the board. At the start of the players turn they have 3 options to them. They may purchase a new power planet, build new cities or clean up polution. However, they may only do 2 of those actions per turn.
At the end of the turn phase, assuming there are resources available, they may power the cities they are able to and earn gold in return. However, with each turn the number of resources dwindles until there is nothing left.
Facts
- 2 Player game, that is expandable to large free-for-all games of up to 4 players.
- Easy to learn & setup
- Suitable for ages 10+
- Infinite replay value!
Resources are scarce and money, at the start of the game, is limited. So when considering how you want to power your cities, you may need to make some sacrifices at the expense of the environment to satiate you need for energy. The power plants come in 5 choices. Coal, Oil and Nuclear all have finite resources available, but they are often cheaper. Nuclear can power the most cities, but has a high pollution cost. Solar and Wind don’t cause pollution but come at a cost: higher price tage and power fewer cities.
Tracking your pollution is and evaluating how you power your cities is a balancing act when it comes to winning the game. The more pollution you have the more points are deducted at the end of the game. Do you build quick and dirty coal plants to power your cities quickly or invest in greener technology that takes more time. The choice is up to you.
The environmental pieces also play a role, putting down new cities requires clearing the old terrain. Trees need to be cleared and mountains leveled. When placing your new cities, do you plan to place a wind tower over a mountain that can power nearby cities on grass fields or do you go for the safer plan of extracting coal over a forest region.
Conclusion
Energy Earth is an amazing strategy game that balances the need for resources with growing your cities in a balanced way. It’s also a fun way to learn about technology and the cost of it to the environment.
Let me know what you think of it in the comments!
