Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up!

Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up! is, for me, one of the most underrated euro-economic games released in recent years. It has excellent production quality, is very straightforward about what it wants to do, and looks wonderful spread across the table, yet I rarely see it returning to gaming groups. We had played it once or twice when it came out and set it aside for a while, waiting for the expansion. Now that we have tried it, I can say it is an entirely worthwhile addition.

At its core, the game is an economic confrontation in which every choice carries weight and the balance can shift quickly. The expansion brings rule changes that demand you read the table carefully again and adapt how you build your position over the course of the game.

The new stock market proved to be the major trap in our game. We did not assess it correctly, allowed our opponent to exploit the situation without hesitation, and ended up losing by an almost double margin. It is the kind of defeat that hurts, while also making you want another attempt immediately.

It was a strong game, and the loss does not change my opinion: this game deserves far more table presence. There will be a rematch, this time with a better understanding of the changes and the stock market. And next time I definitely want us to try the AI opponents as well, which we left out of our first game with the expansion.