Powerline Board Game First Impressions

Powerline is a roll & write game.

Well, it has the roll, but not the wasteful write part.

In Powerline, players attempt to connect cities with new sources of energy production.

Power Line Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

Six dice are rolled and placed in their colour order on a central board.

Players have 6 meeples that are in the same colour order. These are placed on a matching number on power lines on the player board in that colour order, or reverse order. Dice have to start at the end of a line or continue a line if it’s already been started.

Players can only add to 3 different power lines per round and can only play a certain number of dice a number of times throughout the game.

How do you win?

Finishing a line scores points and connecting all the lines to a city scores points for that city.

There are 3 phases of intermittent scoring for random round goals and after 15 rounds the player with the most points is the winner.

Main Mechanisms

This is roll and write without the writing. Instead, you place the meeple in a space to calculate where you want to place them all. Then, when complete, you replace them with a token to mark it permanently.

USP

A super restrictive roll and write with plenty of rules for not just where to place, but how many you can place.

Because you don’t write and throw several sheets of paper away, the game is carbon neutral.

Theme

The theme is about connecting cities with green energy which adds to the whole “green planet”, and “carbon neutral” aspect of the game, which I agree with of course.

But, in reality, it could be roads or anything. The theme makes no difference for gameplay purposes.

Setup

Boards out… Tokens, dice and meeples are placed in specific places but it won’t take long to do. There are 3 intermittent scoring goals that I think you randomise by drawing 3 tiles before starting the game.

Components & Artwork

The components are fairly standard for a game of this type, they do the job and look OK.

The art is cute and very green.

Ease of Teaching

The game is open information and very easy to teach. It will be easy to pick up after the first round or two. There are just those awkward, restrictive placement rules to get across then players will be fine.

Similar Games

Any roll and write to be fair! Qwixx and Welcome To… are my favourites.

For the green theme, you can plant trees in Evergreen.

Power Line Review

Positives

Working out the best placement for your meeples is a lot of fun.

The carbon neutral aspect is good to know. I always prefer dry wipe boards to disposable paper in these types of games anyway.

Good turns are very satisfying but…

Negatives

…only being allowed to play 5-6 meeples in a round a total of 4 times in a game is too restrictive.

Due to these restrictions, the last few rounds are really dull, sometimes only placing 1-2 meeples when 4+ may have been possible on other turns.

The boards have different numbers but everyone uses the same die rolls so some people will complain about luck I’m sure. I assume those restrictions are in place to mitigate this a bit? Make sure everyone can place the same amount of tokens per game.

It is multiplayer solitaire, some of the goals should have been ‘first come, first served’ so you care what your opponents are doing.

Powerline Summary

Powerline is a good solo puzzle and a morally positive game but it just lacks a little something to make it stand out.

Jesta ThaRogue