Power Grid: The First Sparks

About this board game

Power Grid: The First Sparks is a Stone Age strategy game for 2–6 players, played in about 60 minutes. As a clan leader, you must develop useful technologies, gather enough food, and expand across the game board.

Based on the mechanisms of Funkenschlag, this 2011 game transports its familiar phase order, player order, and technology cards into the early history of humankind. The result is a faster, more direct experience in which every turn and decision can shape your clan’s future.

Each round presents important choices. Select technology cards that offer the greatest advantages, decide when to spread your clan, and identify hunting areas that can provide enough food to support your growing population. You may also need to secure valuable parts of the board before other clans reach them.

• Develop new hunting technologies and gain knowledge.
• Hunt for food to feed your clan.
• Spread across the game board to reach new hunting areas.
• Balance expansion with the cost of settling near rival clans.

Empty spaces are cheaper to settle than spaces already occupied by another clan, making the timing and location of expansion central to your strategy. Reaching new areas can open opportunities, while claiming sections of the board can limit your opponents’ choices.

In The First Sparks, growth is the path to victory. The first player to increase their clan to 13 members wins, provided they can feed and expand their people successfully along the way.