Monopoly. Pretty much everyone has played it at some point. We here at Solitude think it’s the king of all boardgames (although it can’t match Uno or Downfall in the broader scope of games) and were curious as to other peoples tactics. A quick survey revealed some interesting approaches:
- Medium Is The Message – the orange and red blocks are the properties to get with this tactic. They form a significant chunk of the board and are quite a good building block. Not too pricey, good returns.
- Scattergun – Grab at least one from every set and force everyone to operate through you. If you can stop sets being consolidated by players, you can control who makes progress in the game. Not a good long term tactic though, as you yourself don’t have any great capital.
- Favourite Colour – Simply pick the properties who belong to set colours that you like. Not the most tactical of all tactics, but in the particular instance of this person it might pay off. Incidentally, they went for blue, pink and yellow; good strong corner and some more diverse, upscale property.
- The Middle Man – Buy both utilities and all four train stations. This provides a large income when it pays off, but leaves your empire a little scattered for my liking.
- Rich Hostages – Get Park Lane and Mayfair. In my opinion, these properties are next to worthless on their own (until the endgame) but are great bargaining chips as so many other players want them. People like to appear opulent, so capitalise on it.
- Poor Man’s Row – The brown and blue properties of the first side are key. Snap them up early while people are clamouring for more ambitious streets and then build as many hotels as the house rules allow on them. Suddenly dirt cheap properties become the scourge of everyone.
- They’re Not Making It Anymore – They don’t make land anymore, so buy everything you can. Absolutely without regard. Similar to Scattergun, the greater risk of bankruptcy is balanced by the chances you might just get a set.
My final suggestion is to not buy more than two stations. The returns on them just aren’t worth it. If you’re buying a side or a corner, get the stations that are nearby but no more.
Any other tactics?
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you can use a combination of these tactics to build your empire
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The second straight with the pinks and oranges and the third straight with the reds and yellows only have 1 space you can’t buy making them opportune places to buy, also corners are good except for the corner piece which is not able to be bought too.
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A good tactic that I use is to try and get the orange cards, because they are statistically best. Other good colours are: blue, red, and yellow, as these also earn a fair amount with buildings.
I always ignore the green and the purple/dark blue (Park Lane and Mayfair), they are expensive, and costly to improve, but if you get a chance to buy them, do so. Someone will usually collect these, so you can make money back.
In addition to this, but houses when you can, and aim for 3 houses on each property, but more is always better. By houses so that you know that ou will have enough money to pay the highest rent of the other players.
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Train stations are good.. If you are buying at retail price thats $800 for all 4.
Do not need to build houses on these and they each return $200 rent.. considering there is 4 on the board of 40 spaces there is a 10% that any given roll will end on these spaces..
If 4 ppl playing thats 30% someone will land on it everytime your go comes around. that means that in 3.3 goes you will have paid off 1 station.
therefore in 13.2 rolls you will have paid them all off. Most games last last more than 13.2 rolls -
at the start buy the two browns.
they simply hotel on both.very good at the start cost very little and can bring in a nice bit of cash. then buy the pink and oranges. this gives you a big chuck on the board. if not enough cash get 1 hotel on one of them still good chance of someone landing on it
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What i always do is capture the yellow and buy the water works along with the railroad. that way they have to go past 5 of my squares and a jail
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I always try to get white, and orange. I only take Dark Blue, and Green, if I get the opportunity because I know I can hostage them, and get ridiculous deals off of them. I usually don’t take railroads, or utilities, because utilities usually don’t pay off, and railroads are only worth it if you own many. Jail isn’t always a bad thing. When your in jail you get the choice to get out whenever within 3 terms, for a small fee of 50$. So I always wait for a 10 to get free parking, or I milk it to avoid dangerous properties. Those are all the tactics I’ve learned through play, although I haven’t played much.
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The tactics you mention here are totally rubbish. The best properties in the game are the orange and red ones, because of a high probability to get to them when getting out of jail.
The best tactic is to buy every firsts of a set, everything that keeps another one from completing a set, and everything that gets you nearer to a complete set. The Utilitys and Stations are the best investment you can make in the game.
Just buying the two near your streets is idiotic since it doesn’t matter where they are for the chance of a player to stop at them. -
I used the tactic of buying one of each set and i won!!!
I dont see the point in utilitys but stations are good.
Aim to get red and yellow with at least 2 houses on each then build them up.
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