The Winning Monopoly Strategy?

[Mr Light]

I bought this PC version of Monopoly and I've been playing it today. I lost four out of four games. What the hell am I doing wrong? Aside from the damn computer CLEARLY cheating since I manage to land on Income Tax over and over and over and they never do! What is the strategy to winning Monopoly?

Should you buy every property you come across, or hold out for the bigger ones?

Should you trade with someone to give them a monopoly if it gives you a monopoly?

When you land on a hotel and get screwed, should you mortgage off everything to make the payment? At what point can you safely un-mortgage them?

 

[Mallory]

I buy everything I land on, even if I have to mortgage other properties to do it. I un-mortgage them as soon as I have the money to do so. And I never give over a high end monopoly in exchange for a lesser one.

 

[Emher]

My brother always buys EVERYTHING when we play it and always wins. hence no one will play him.

 

[nx1701g]

Play as the Government and declare imminent domain. You'll win every time.

 

[Jadzia]

1. Make your money work for you.

2. Look at the ratios of cost vs rent. Buy most of what you land on, but avoid those with low rent:cost ratio, because they're a waste of money. IIRC, the best choices (UK version) are the light blue and orange sets, 1/3 of the way around the board. Get those full of houses asap.

3. Also, watch what your opponents are buying. If they have more real estate than you, then be prepared to pay the kind of rent they're asking.

4. Re-mortgaging is what you end up do when you're loosing.

Should you trade with someone to give them a monopoly if it gives you a monopoly?

Only if it strengthens your hand more than it strengthens theirs.


Good Luck

 

[chrisspringob]

One thing to keep in mind when trading / deciding what to buy: Not every space on the board is equally likely to be landed on. You would think that after a few turns, all of the spaces on the board would be equally likely to be landed on, but that's not true.

That's because there are various things that can send you to jail, and so the spaces that you're likely to get to after leaving jail are the most common. St. Charles Place (one space after jail) is (I think) the least landed on space on the board. The orange properties are far more valuable than you would expect given their prices and placement on the board, because they're likely to be landed on after leaving jail. Someone has worked out the various probabilities for each space on the board, and cost/benefit of buying each property. I'm sure you can find that on the web somewhere.

At least this is the case with classic Monopoly. I think I read somewhere that modern versions may have changed some of the prices around to more closely reflect their actual value, but I may be misremembering.

 

[Braxton]

Buy the properties near Free Parking, mainly the orange group (if you can't get this group, get the red group, or get both if you can manage it). These properties are landed on the most and have the best return of any property in the game. Avoid yellow at all costs, they're pretty much useless IMO and people tend to 'overshoot' them.

 

[Brolan]

The most important thing to know about the game is that a lot of it is luck, so don't get upset if the dice screw 'ya.

 

[Jadzia]

One thing to keep in mind when trading / deciding what to buy: Not every space on the board is equally likely to be landed on. You would think that after a few turns, all of the spaces on the board would be equally likely to be landed on, but that's not true.

Ah yes, I remember that... that's where the light blue and orange come in

Two dice rolls sum to 6,7,8 more likely than any other result. So buy squares 6,7,8 squares on from GO (light blue in UK) (there are goto GO cards) and 6,7,8 squares on from jail (orange in UK) (there are goto jail cards). This is usually more significant to your income than the cost vs rent ratio.

 

[Omnius]

Play with real friends, you can cheat on them, but not on the computer .

But honestly, I play a lot of (different) board games and imho Monopoly is really one of the least interesting ones (next to Risk).

 

[auntiehill]

Most definitely buy everything, but also worry about having enough rent to make it around the board without going broke.

Orange, Red and Green Spaces seem to always do well for me.

 

[Dayton3]

Focus on the "2nd" & "3rd" sides of the board when acquiring property.

The "1st" side of the board (the one with Baltic and other low rent properties) doesn't have enough overall value to focus your efforts on and won't hurt you that much even if the opposition builds hotels there.

The "4th" side of the board (with the infamous Boardwalk and Park Place) doesn't give you enough of a statistical advantage if you don't control the "3rd" side of the board.

The major mistake most Monopoly players make is to focus on the ultra high rent 4th side of the board and neglect the 2nd & 3rd.

The 2nd side can be particularly lucrative once you build hotels there.

Note, you can see I grew up in the era before home video games.

 

[wamdue]

well buying Mayfair & Park Lane and a few spoiler property's (to stop other players buying a complete set) works for me, however I find the red property's a good investment.

 

[Jadzia]

Play with real friends, you can cheat on them, but not on the computer .

With a few 500's tucked in your socks? I remember from whenever I've played, everybody seemed to have been acutely aware of just how many 500's every player had.

 

[Holdfast]

I tend to buy everything I can (but see below) and then negotiate for monopolies. A judicious bribe usually does the trick.

Early in the game, the blue, pink and orange properties give the best yields. Later yellow & green. Finally (if you ever get there) red and purple. Brown is mediocre throughout but generates some decent pocket money. If I land on the expensive properties early in the game and I've already got lots of blue/pink/orange then sometimes I skip the expensive properties in favour of getting monopolies and winning by doing a "hotel rush" on those few properties. This is risky (if it flops, the other players have the killer properties for the endgame), but really, the truth is that most players get bored of the game and start doing silly deals and alliances before you get close to the true endgame so it doesn't really matter.

 

[wamdue]

the green ones will kill you, if someone builds on them

 

[tharpdevenport]

If it allows two players, play yourself and one of you be really bad at it.

 

[chrisspringob]

Also, if the computer keeps beating you, maybe you should adopt whatever tactics the computer seems to be using? Does the computer buy every property it lands on or not?

 

[the Dagman]

Buy everything you land on, even if you have to mortgage another property. Try to get at least one of each color property. That way no one can have a monopoly unless you allow them to. Buy every rail road and utility, even if they are asking a high price. If there are no monopolies allowed by you, then the most anyone will have is two of any one color. Buy their second one. The more properties you have, the more "free" spaces you will have to land on as you round the board each time, and the more probable your opponents have to pay. Doing this will bring all your opponents down to where they are desperate for money and you can pick off their prime properties and make monopolies, or just wait for their eventual bankruptcy. Which, since you will have accumulated the greatest number of properties, is more likely to happen on one you own and then you clean them out. I never lose.

 

[troisboobs]

I used to be addicted to online monop years ago, the orange and blue properties are k3y!!! If you get orange you automatically win, I swear!!