Power Grid is longer, more complex and more "mathy" than the other games you've mentioned in this thread. It's the kind of game that you ought to be taught to play by an experienced player, otherwise you might feel overwhelmed. There's a lot involved in just "running" the game that an experienced players can do and the rest of the players don't need to care about.
Some advice if you do get it -
- Don't get overwhelmed when you're reading the rules on dealing with the "Step 3" card. The first time you play just wait until that card comes out and then look up what you're supposed to do in the rule book.
- The game ends when someone connects 17 cities, but the winner is the person who powers the most cities on that turn, even if the number is less than 17. That's very important. You don't need to be able to power 17 cities to force the end of the game. And if you have a plant that uses the same resource as an opponent's plant, you could potentially buy enough resources to prevent them from powering all of their plants.
- Turn order is very important. The last place player always has the most advantageous spot in the turn order, and the first place player always has the least advantageous spot. It can be beneficial to hold back at times.
- It's not always beneficial to buy a power plant, especially if doing so could potentially make a better plant available to your opponents. But remember that if nobody buys a power plant, the cheapest plant goes away so the power plant market can't stagnate.
- Because the game ends when 17 or more cities are connected, and because you'd like to be able to power as many cities as possible, and because you can only have 3 power plants, plants that could add up to 17 are "end game" plants. 5s, 6s and 7s are plants that you're probably going to want to have at the end of the game. 4s are borderline.
- Pay attention to the way the resource distribution shifts during the game. It's different for every map. Coal may start out cheap (a lot get added each turn), but at the end of the game when coal production drops you might regret having a coal plant. If people are consuming more coal than is being produced each turn, coal will get more expensive and eventually run out. If a resource runs out and you can't buy enough to power your plant, that could cost you the game. Turn order is important, because last place buys resources first.
Most of what I just said isn't going to make sense until you read the rules at least, and probably not until you play your first game.
Before you think about buying Power Grid you should watch this:
http://boardgamegeek.com/video/1465/power-grid/board-games-with-scott-020-with-designer
Edit: Friedemann was a little unclear about the game ending/winning conditions. You don't need to power 17 cities to win, you only need to power more than anyone else (and of course you have to have connected cities to power them, so if you can power 16 and you've connected 15, you only power 15)
And read the rules: http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=5
Pandemic is a good game. It's cooperative, so it's more like solving a puzzle together.
Ticket to Ride Marklin is the best TTR game IMO.
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