Monopoly was one of my favorite games as a kid! I think of sitting at the dining room table at
Papa and Grandma’s, getting upset when we had to pause the game because of some
‘adult’ thing (like eating lunch – psh!).
There was hiding my $500 bill under the pillow next to me, to pull out
when everyone thought I was broke.
Convincing grandma to allow us each to start with a color group with
hotels on it, and letting me choose first.
Putting money in free parking, and giving an extra five hundred dollars
to the lucky person who landed there, and thinking those were the real rules.
Years later, no one ever seems to want to play. “It takes too long” is the complaint I hear. But over winter break last year we bought a
copy on impulse, and played a few games. *
Of course, there was the usual amount of fighting and screaming over
rules, and who was being a jerk to whom, but I had fun.
It ignited the spark to play again in me. Being my modern, competitive self… I started
looking up monopoly strategy online.
Everything I know, I learned here and here.
In short, statistically, the most landed on space is…
jail! That makes the orange and red
color groups the most profitable properties.
Owning all 4 railroads is the cheapest, most reliable source of
income. Never buy utilities at full
price. Later in the game, you WANT to
stay in jail, to avoid paying rent.
I started finding people who wanted to play, and winning
with my strategies. I knew what to trade
for and that it was worth giving up Boardwalk for Tennessee Avenue and Reading
Railroad. It was interesting to see them
making decisions that were not optimal, and seeing them feeling
smug about the decision.
So read the links above, double check that you are using the
official rules, and let’s roll some dice!
I want to live large, buying and selling outrageous property on a whim…
if only for an hour or two.
*The copy we bought was the Electronic Banking US Cities Edition. It uses credit cards and a little calculator
device that keeps track of your balance, instead of cash. It makes cheating by stealing money from the
bank… difficult. All prices are inflated
by a factor of 10,000, and the names of properties are all, as expected, US
cities and the like. There are airports
instead of railroads, and Boardwalk is the New York Skyline (for a mere
4,000,000 dollars! Sign me up for THAT
real estate agent!). It is lot of fun,
but sad not having the traditional names for all of the cards. The credit card system speeds up gameplay a
lot. I highly recommend it!
