Funkenschlag

Each player owns a company, which supplies electricity from power stations to many cities. During the game you build power stations, buys raw material to power stations and create a network to supply various cities.

Game Help

Player Dashboard

This game plays best with the BSW window maximized. Player information is shown on the right hand side of the screen. Next to your name is a grey box with 2 numbers (e.g.4/4) This shows the current generation capacity you have and the number of cities you have on your network. In this example, Aggerhexe can generate for 9 cities, however only has 5 five on his network.

Each player's power stations are shown. The colours are the raw materials each uses. The first column is the id of the powerstation, the second the number of cities it can supply and the third is the quantity of raw material versus the maximum raw material requirement to this power station.

To the right of the power stations is the players colour (used to show the building of the city networks on the board) as well as your own funds. Other player's funds are not shown.

Button Functions

On the left of the screen is a button selection. Here you can activate some of the hidden windows to get access to stats and information. Here is a short overview:

Power Plant Market: opens automatically during the power station auction. Otherwise you can be opened here, in order to find out which power stations are available for the next round.

Power Plant Manager: here you can look at the power plants of each player. The Power Plant Manager can be opened by clicking a players name in the player announcement window.

Calculator: Here you can see a view of your Capital, Raw Material, Cities and Plants.

Payment Card: This window shows how much you earn for every city you power.

Raw Materials: This window shows you how many of each raw material is replenished during each phase.

All windows can be closed with the red button on the top right of each window.

Flow of the game

The current stage and phase, and active player are shown in the window in the top left of the screen.

There are three stages to the game. Each stage can have multiple rounds. Each round always consists of six phases:

• Determine the sequence of play
• Power Plant Auction
• Raw Material Procurement
• Developing City Network
• Fire Up Plants
• Income and Power Plants for Auction

Determine the sequence of play

The sequence of play is determined at the beginning of each round. Where you are in the play sequence is a fundamental part of the game. The player announcement window displays the sequence of order of play. The player in first place is the one with the most cities. If there is a tie then it is the one with the most cities and highest ranked power station. All players are therefore sequenced in this way.

Exception: During the first round of the game, order sequence is determined after Phase 2 (once Power Plants have been buying)

Power Plant Auction

Each player receives 50 Electro at the beginning of the game as starting capital.

During Stage 1 and Stage 2, eight power stations are shown, however you can only chose from the top row of four. At the beginning of the game, power plants 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10 shown. The first power plant used as a replacement for the first purchase is always the 13. In a two or three player game, eight power plants are removed at random, with players four power plants are removed.

Power Plants are therefore always sorted in numerical rank (the number in the top left corner of each card). The amount of raw material needed to fire up the plant is shown on the bottom left and the number of cities you can power is shown on the bottom right. The following types of power plants are available:

• Coal (brown)
• Oil (black)
• Hybrid (black/brown) - Can be power by either or a mix of.
• Garbage (yellow)
• Uranium (red)
• Wind Power (green) - no resources required to run
• Merger (blue) - requires no raw materials

The leading player from the previous round must make the first bid for a power station. You may only bid for power stations in the upper row (Once Stage 3 is reached you may select from any). Click on the desired power station to bid on. Bids may be raised by clicking on the ‐+DEN to your desired value then click on ‐OK. Other players can raise their bid or pass when it is their turn. Once you pass, you can no longer bid for that power station. If you pass when it is your turn to comence bidding on a new power station can no longer acquire a power station during this round. The player who offers the most amount of money wins the bid. If you already have 3 power stations (4 with two players ), you must demolish one of your existing ones (see more below).

Then next power station is drawn from the top of the deck. The power stations are then re-organized in numerical sequence. The leading player (who neither won the bid or passed) can now start bid on a new power plant. This continues until all have acquired a power plant or passed.

The highest power station is now removed from play (from the 8 shown cards) and replaced from the deck.

Demolishing Power Stations

If you must demolish a power station off, in order to make room for one you just purchased, the raw materials placed on this old power station are moved automatically to the new power, if it can process the same raw material and sufficient storage capacity. Otherwise you can move the raw materials yourself to another one of your power stations, provided it can store/use this same raw material. If you do not have a power station, which can use the raw materials, it is removed.

In rare cases the following may happen. You decide to bid on power station #29, a hybrid station which can only store two raw meterials max. You win the bid and decide to demolish one of the other hybrid stations which can typically store up to four raw materials (e.g. #5, #12 or #21). Since power station #29 can only store two raw materials, you must decide where to disposition this extra material. If none of your other power stations can receive these materials (coal or oil) you will need to decide which materials to give up.

As in this example, you have raw materials from a previous power station (e.g. #5, #12 or #21), and since power station #29 can only hold two raw materials and none of the other stations iyou have can use these, you must give them up.

Simply drag the red 'X' over the two raw materials to be given up then select 'OK'.

Raw Material Procurement

Players each now buy raw materials, needed for firing their power plants. Power plants can only store the material type associated with them. They can store up to 2 times what they can burn in a given round.

The raw material market is a strip of cells each with a different value. In the above strip you will see the currently material available. The first eight segments have 3 slots available for coal, oil and garbage and one slot for uranium. Further up are the more expensive segments where only is available. The number shown on each segment is the market value when buying this material.

They player in last place begins this phase. He can buy the material at the best prices, since as material is bought it becomes more scarce and the price goes up. On your turn simply click on the raw material you then want click the green 'OK' button. if you try to buy too much the game will bleep at you. Each player takes their turn (from last player to first player) to purchase material for this phase. If one type of material runs out, then you may wish to consider building a power plant using a different energy source. Raw material is replenished each after round but not enough!

You may wish to view which power stations you have and what maretial you have already purchased. Open the Power Plant Manager (2nd button or click on your name).

Developing City Network

When there are 2/3/4/5/6 players, 3/4/5/6/7 areas are in play. The inactive areas cities are covered by clouds.

The player in last position gets to connect cities first.

In the first round you can start in any city. Simply click on the city you wish to buy. All further cities must then be networked to that city and the further away from it you go the more expensive the connection. During Stage 1 each city may only be connected by one player. During Stage 2, two connections are possible, and in Stage 3 three connections are possible. A player may not connect the same city twice.

You must pay for the infrastructure to connect each city. The connection cost is 10 Elektro for the first connection, 15 for the 2nd (Phase 2) and 20 for the third (Phase 3). You must pay for the pipeline cost between the two connecting cities as shown on the board.

In the above example, if pink wished to connect his city (bottom lower left) to the city with only yellow in it, it would cost 14 (pipeline) + 15 (connection) = 29 electric. In the top area blue could build for 8 (pipeline) + 20 (connection) = 28 electric.

You can pass through cities without connecting to them (Stage 1 and/or Stage 2 connections may have been taken), however you must still pay all the pipeline costs from a previous connection to your new connection. Just click on the city you wish to connect and you will see the cheapest way automatically determined. Click 'OK' to confirm.

If during the game, power plants whose face value equal to or less than the number of cities the lead player has connected, are shown in the auction area, they are taken and removed from the game.

The third function button opens a calculator to help calculate the cost for connecting cities. Simply open the calculator and click on the desired cities. The calculator can be used to cost raw material and show how much money is left on hand. You can "reset" the calculator and start again. To ensure that you don't don't don't don unnecessarily, you cannot place unplanned cities while using the calculator!

Fire Up Plants

Electric is paid out for each city supplied with electricity. You must fire power plants with raw material (which is then used) to make this energy.

The power plant manager opens automatically and shows your power plants and raw material. Click on the ¢fire button on each appropriate with the appropriate power plant to provide electricity for your connected cities. The raw materials on this power plant then go up in flames. Hybrid power plants let you choose which material to burn. When you have decided which plants to fire up press 'OK'.

Income and Power Plants for Auction

Electro is awarded according to the number of cities provided electricity. The value table is shown on the left. This can be accessed via the fourth button.

The raw material is then filled up according to the table shown left. The amount changes depending on the number of players and which stage in the game. This can be viewed from the fifth (or bottom) button.

Sometimes there may be sufficient material to refill as per the table. When this happens, only the material which is available on hand is added.

At the end each during Phases 1 and 2, the highest power plant is removed and placed on the bottom of the deck. A new one is taken from the deck and placed in order in the market area.

Game stages

The game consists of 3 Stages

Stage 1

Each city can only be connected by one player.

Stage 2

Stage 2 begins when (2 players = 10 cities)/(3-5 players = 7 cities)/(6 players = 6 cities) are connected. The next power plant in the market is immediately removed from the game. Two connections per city are now possible.

Stage 3

At the beginning of the game the ‐stage 3 card is placed on the bottom of the deck. As soon as it appears, stage 3 begins. The nearest power plant is removed, and three connections per city is now possible. Six power plants are now shown in the market and any can be bid at auction.

End of the Game

The game ends, when at least one player reaches the following:

It is NOTE the player who has connected the most cities, who wins. It is the player who can supply the most cities with electricity!

If one or more players tie, then the game is decided by who has the money most left.

Game Options

map

Italian Market

French Market

The French map has more of a bias to Atomic Energy. Wind power is not available. The #13 Wind Power is removed from the gameand replaced by the #11 Uranium.

EnBW Edition

The EnBW Edition differs from the rules of the other editions in the following ways:

Player order is decided after the auction phase rather than at the beginning of each round.

Each region consists of only six cities, the seventh city is designated as a national city. It can only be connected during Stage 2 on the cost of a level 2 connection.

Phase 2 therefore begins 1 city earlier than in other editions (after 6 towns).

If no power plant is sold the next two are removed instead of just one.

setmap

This option allows you to specify specific maps and their segments using a binary code:

USA: green|brown|red|yellow|turquoise|purple

Germany: purple|blue|yellow|red|brown|turquoise

France: purple|red|turquiose|yellow|brown|blue

Italy: brown|purple|red|yellow|turquiose|blue

Baden-Württemberg: red|yellow|turquoise|pink|blue.

Example: if you want to play the USA map with green, red and yellow, then you have to choose that map first (see /option map) and then enter the following line in the main chat: /option setmap 101100

Tactics and Tips

• The order of play is extremely important in this game. The leading player must buy material at the most expensive values and is first to be forced to make a bid for the power plants.
• Keep an eye on your opponents power plants and the material the have in hand or need to purchase. Quite often players need the same raw materials. If you go last then the mayerial will be very expensive. Look out for alternative types of power!
• Keep an eye on the market and what raw materials the other players need and are rare. This can make or break the game! It can be very annoying, if your fellow players purchase the material you need to fire up your stations right under your nose, even though you have the most cities! Maybe you should have diversified your types of power plant to make better use of the available material on the market.