Monopoly help!

[Zain]

hi guys i need some help, my little cousins form out of town are comming and they want to play monopoly

i need a good plan/tatic to help me win, but not by much

I tend to roll pettry badlly

thanks in advance

[chiasaur11]

Get the oranges.

Kill for them if you must, but controlling the Orange squares is the key to victory.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Fight for the railroads. He who controls the railroads controls the galaxy. Then work on collecting both sides of the Free Parking corner. Try to get all three on each side. Barter for the missing peices if you need to. He who controls them makes it very difficult for other to get through that corner untaxed.

[Xefas]

Monopoly is primarily luck based. If you roll really badly, you'll lose. There are a few things you can do to compensate for a few bad rolls, but largely, its just luck.

It also helps to know if you are/which houserules you're playing with. Most people tend to have a couple. The most common ones I've seen are 'no auctioning off land that people don't buy' and 'free parking = lots of cash'. Which makes things exceptionally long and tedious.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Try to smooth-talk your way into good deals.. That's very important. Social is a big part of that game.

[Xefas]

Try to smooth-talk your way into good deals.. That's very important. Social is a big part of that game.

Good point. Never ever seem like you want to win. Never let on that you're in the lead. Keep your money inconspicuously obscured somewhere. If something bad happens, brush it off nonchalantly. Make small talk.

If no one suspects you, and you're way in the lead, and then something good happens to someone else, make it seem like you're envious and that they're beating everyone by a long shot. Make it 'us' versus 'him'. Have everyone gang up on someone who isn't you. Use your knowledge of their past experiences to play people against each other.

You want to be the only person getting good deals (or deals at all, really). You can win if everyone hates each other so much while playing that they'll only deal with you.

You should be the only one walking away from that board with a smile on your face.

Ruin their day. Ruin it.

[Joran]

Monopoly is primarily luck based. If you roll really badly, you'll lose. There are a few things you can do to compensate for a few bad rolls, but largely, its just luck.

It also helps to know if you are/which houserules you're playing with. Most people tend to have a couple. The most common ones I've seen are 'no auctioning off land that people don't buy' and 'free parking = lots of cash'. Which makes things exceptionally long and tedious.

Oddly, the US National Monopoly championships played with something called a speed die, which was supposed to increase the pace of the game.

[Turcano]

Get the red properties; Illinois Ave. is statistically the most landed-on property in the game, and putting a hotel there makes the second-highest cash draw in the game (the first being a hotel on Boardwalk).

[Al-Ashrad]

Make sure you get to be the shoe... or maybe the terrier.

[chiasaur11]

Make sure you get to be the shoe... or maybe the terrier.

You mad?

Battleship all the way.

[SilentNight]

I personally am a fan of the reds and yellows. Not to be overlooked though are the Mediterranean and Baltic. For about $600 you get two properties that hit for $250 and $500 apiece.

[Al-Ashrad]

You mad?

Battleship all the way.


Well, there is the thimble too... the thimble rocks. Quite.

Anyway, one of the cousins may end up snagging the battleship. Let them... the battleship just drags you down...

[chiasaur11]

Well, there is the thimble too... the thimble rocks. Quite.

Anyway, one of the cousins may end up snagging the battleship. Let them... the battleship just drags you down...

The raw firepower more than makes up for the loss of speed.

A couple of salvos and suddenly their prime oceanfront property is a smoking crater.

[SolkaTruesilver]

The raw firepower more than makes up for the loss of speed.

A couple of salvos and suddenly their prime oceanfront property is a smoking crater.

If we were playing Risk, I'd agree with you. But... THIS. IS. MONOPOLY! :smallfurious:

You win by having the other players agree to your greatness. As such, I've never (NEVER) lost a game while playing the Horse. Glory all the way.

[Levyathyn]

For serious help, buy just one house on every property when you can afford it. It's not as good as having more, but having all of your props covered with a little extra dough will cover you while you build up to a couple of hotels. Railroads help, as do water and power, but focus on collecting all of one property if you can.

Top hat. Forever. =P

[billtodamax]

Top hat on top of the thimble. It's my piece every time.

[Levyathyn]

Top hat on top of the thimble. It's my piece every time.

HAVE YOU EVER LOST?! I DON'T THINK IT'S POSSIBLE!

[billtodamax]

Never. Once. High-five!

[raitalin]

First of all, buy everything that you can get that another player doesn't already have a piece of. If someone has one piece consider the purchase if they've got something else you want, or you have something they want. If the other two properties in in a set are split between two other players don't buy it, but drive up the auction price. If the other two pieces are owned by the same player buy it just to keep it from them and never trade to give someone a monopoly unless you're getting one in return, preferably when you have the cash to build and they don't. Don't trade for anything other than monopolies or your fourth railroad, unless you can get a real steal.

The Railroads are great early in the game, but virtually worthless later on. I often use people's love of the railroads to get something more valuable from them, but having a railroad next to a monopoly you own can be helpful. I like the utilities, but don't go out of my way to get them.

I love the purples, they're own of the few that gives you a return on your investment right away. The magenta and orange are also great since people are sent to jail so often they get hit more frequently.

If you can get someone to give you a buttload of cash to complete the dark blue monopoly, take it. Especially if someone has already pulled the "Advance to Boardwalk" card. They'll take a while to build there and they aren't landed on that often.

I find there's essentially one right way to play monopoly and the only real variables are trading and dice rolls, which is why I don't really enjoy it anymore. There are sooooo many better board games.

An interesting variant, from Star Wars monopoly:
When you roll doubles you can take the extra move or do the following, corresponding to what you roll:

2: Move to any square on the board
4: Get 200 dollars.
6: Take a CC card
8: Take Chance card
10: Take 50 from each player
12: Challenge a player to a duel for one of their properties. Both players roll a d6, if you roll higher you take the property, but you can't break up monopolies this way.

[Castaras]

If I get the orange set, I always win.

the dark purple set is a good gamble to go for if the "Advance to Mayfair" card hasn't come up yet.

But the Oranges, Reds, and Pinks are wonderful sets of cards.

[Duos]

I like the green/red corner. Despite being expensive, they both give really good returns with houses, and that particular corner is the go to jail one, meaning they can't land in a safe spot between your monopolies. I also find that the utility spaces are under rated-they plug gaps in between monopolies and can be very costly on a high roll.

I also use the dog inside the shoe for luck. It has never failed me.

[Erloas]

Personally I like the very first purple areas. Sure they are cheap and don't have huge returns, but they are cheap and people are much more willing to trade you a monopoly in them. They aren't going to finish a game off, but they are a great property for early in the game to start taking in cash, and slowly drain your opponents. They make it so you can afford to actually make good use of those higher end properties.

Personally I always avoid the railroads. Mostly because too many people are always going for them and their precived value is much higher then their actual value. Buy them if you can and use them to get good trades for someone that puts too much value into them.

The dark greens aren't worth it. The reds and yellows are pretty good, but they seem to be hard monopolies to actually pick up. I generally like to take a corner because its harder for someone to make a round without giving you some money.

[Linkavitch]

I recently found a remarkably good strategy. Try to go second, maybe third in the line-up. Only buy properties in a color if one of the other properties is already purchased. Then, when the other players are trying to get their monopolies together, they suddenly find that you have all of the missing pieces! Like a bunch of the other people have said, concentrate on trading for one corner and taxing the life out of them.

[snoopy13a]

Most of the time, my monopoly games have gone like this:

1) Everyone buys everything they can

2) Nothing happens until one person gets a monopoly

3) Once that occurs, things get ugly as the other players see that they'll need monopolies or they'll lose. So, people try to make deals with others and things can get nasty.

4) Two player games can be very boring. Often, one person will get a monopoly and the other won't. So the person with a monopoly may simply not make a deal and just wait until they win.

5) Few people are willing to put in the time needed to calculate the Income Tax. To be fair, outside of the first few turns and when you're about to lose at the end, you generally have more than $20,000 in assets. For the record, it is 10% of all assets, not just cash.

The oranges are supposely the best properties as they take advantage of people getting out of jail. Railroads are great, especially early on and in games without Free Parking money.

The funniest thing about Monopoly is that:

1) Early on in the game, you absolutely do not want to go into Jail under any circumstances
2) At the endgame, you want to go Jail. Better spending time in Jail than on that hotel on Broadway

[SolkaTruesilver]

1) Early on in the game, you absolutely do not want to go into Jail under any circumstances
2) At the endgame, you want to go Jail. Better spending time in Jail than on that hotel on Broadway

We always played as in a player in Jail has no control over his dominion properties, so he doesn't earn any money...

Was it wrong?

[chiasaur11]

We always played as in a player in Jail has no control over his dominion properties, so he doesn't earn any money...

Was it wrong?

Yes. I'm pretty sure the rules let you still get money while in jail.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Yes. I'm pretty sure the rules let you still get money while in jail.

... then what stops you from staying in jail and doing nothing about it in the endgame, taking no risk and cashing all the money?

You know, it makes some of the Mafia Bosses' actions much more logical now..

[chiasaur11]

... then what stops you from staying in jail and doing nothing about it in the endgame, taking no risk and cashing all the money?

You know, it makes some of the Mafia Bosses' actions much more logical now..

You eventually gotta pay up and go. Three turns is the maximum time in the brig.

[ericgrau]

There is one, and only one thing you need to know: Trade as much as you can, because trades are almost always mutually beneficial. Give the other person more than what you get without flinching, as long as it lets you make a trade. For example, you give player 2 a good monopoly while you get an ok one from him. You also give player 3 a good monopoly while you get an ok one from him. Player 2 has a good monopoly. Player 3 has a good monopoly. You have TWO monopolies. Player 4 is screwed more than anyone, because he didn't trade.

I once offered to give someone his last orange for my last light blue after making another trade or two with others. I had won the previous two games, so he was suspicious. He asked his girlfriend, "Is this a good trade? Is this a good trade?" He was looking back and forth and scratching his head. She said, "Yes, it's a good trade," because it was.

Ask for $50 or so if you want to make your "bad" trades seem less suspicious, or fight a little bit and give in, etc. Oh, and don't get the greens. The greens are the worst.

[Mystic Muse]

best way to make it good?

throw away the monopoly board and blow things up in video games:smallbiggrin:

honestly DON"T get the other players at each others throats. try to get the players to be nice to each other. plus this way you're the only one who takes the game seriously and then you swoop in and DESTROY them.

and yeah avoid boardwalk and parkplace or barad dur and mount doom(I play the LOTR version) NOBOD EVER LANDS THERE!!!!!!!!!!. and I mean ever. try to get yellow, red and/or orange. those are all good for taking away a player's money.

[ImmortalAer]

I find that the bottom left corner is the most economical, buy all six of those, and any random square you can get your hands on.

While the random squares don't help at first, they will later on when your holding bits and pieces of everyone else's set and they cannot build houses/whatevers on them.

Do NOT trade these, even for excessive amounts until you have a corner built up. Do trade the random cards for parts of your corner.

Slowly buy the top right corner over the course of the game, either from the players or if you get it and it's avaible after setting up the first corner.

Keep your money in a heap, not stacks. Bluff when nessecary.

And that's how I've managed to win every game of monopoly I've ever played. Aside from the one game where the dice gods were after my kneecaps.

[tcrudisi]

Oh, and don't get the greens. The greens are the worst.

This explains why I always lose at Monopoly. There are many reasons why I hate the game, but on the rare occasion I decide to play, I always go after the green squares -- at all cost. Yeah, I lose. Every time. But I feel a sense of accomplishment when I control all the greens.

Curse you green, for being both my favorite color and having North Carolina! /sigh