Winning at Monopoly
I will be the first to admit it: I’m a big dummy when it comes to competitive games. I really don’t “get” how to win them until I’ve had time to play them, by myself, on a computer over and over and over. It wasn’t until I got backgammon on my phone that I finally was able to “get” the game. (The secrets, at least as far as I’ve internalized them, are to never leave a point unprotected if you can help it and to roll that doubling cube over the moment you’re confident that you’ll win. I know, I know: Not great insights. Like I said, I’m a big dummy.)
So, now, after playing Monopoly who knows how many years, I’ve gotten it on my phone, I’ve finally figured out how to win. I think. I don’t have this problem with Trivial Pursuit, which people no longer want to play with me, for the most part, but Monopoly’s always been a craps shoot.
So, with my affable computer opponents, I first played a strictly by-the-book series of games unlikely any that I’ve ever played in real life. There was no magic pile of cash waiting at Free Parking, when someone didn’t want to buy a property it was put up for auction and trading properties was a big part of the game.
In that scenario, my eventual plan was two-fold:
- Get all the railroads ASAP. The computer opponents didn’t value them highly, but four railroads (or even three) get the kind of results you can only get from properties with multiple houses on them, for the most part. And if you get a card charging you maintenance fees for your houses and hotels, those railroads cost you nothing. Railroads are also located on every side of the board, meaning there’s always the chance of sucking a bunch of cash out of your opponent’s pockets.
- Block every monopoly you can. Instead of working on assembling your own monopoly, grab a property from every single set on the board, spending as much cash as you need (even mortgaging your own properities if you must) to do so. If, along the way, you manage to grab your own monopoly, great, but simply preventing anyone else from getting one will give you time to eventually win with just the railroads.
- A third part of the two-part plan, in case the railroads aren’t getting the job done fast enough: Once you’ve blocked every other monopoly and go around the board enough times to put together enough capital to fully develop a high-end monopoly up to hotels instantly, trade with whoever has the other half of the Park Place/Boardwalk top-end monopoly. The best scenario is offering someone the other half of the Baltic Avenue/Mediterranean Avenue two-some, because a fully developed set of those two bring in a pitiful amount of revenue compared to Park Place/Boardwalk, meaning they’re unlikely to make a dent in your bottom line, even if you land there several times.
Obviously, this relies on computer players, who are (at this version of the game) unable to figure out your fiendish plan and work to prevent it. In theory, the players at the board will figure it out at least some of the time. But this strategy should at least be able to beat fellow dummies like me.
It even worked once I tweaked the rules on the phone to get rid of auctions and to stick the big pile of cash at Free Parking. At worst, this all just slows the strategy down, but that’s all.
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