- Monopoly can be a frustrating game, but we spoke with two gaming experts about how to ensure a win.
- Develop as much as you can, as quickly as you can.
- Snatch up red and orange properties, but don’t bother with utilities.
If you’re going to tackle the iconic but lengthy and often frustrating game of Monopoly, you might as well ensure a win every time.
1. Develop property as aggressively as you can
Early on in the game, players tend to be choosy with which properties they buy, but Monopoly and honestly that’s the worst strategy.
Always develop as aggressively as you can. Once in a while you go bankrupt and you’re out, but more likely you end the game quickly by bankrupting other players.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is turning their noses up at smaller properties. Buying everything in sight will help you have leverage options later on.
2. Buy orange and red properties, as they are the most landed-on
Statistically speaking, the orange and red properties are the most landed-on colors during the game. Focus on buying those to rack up the rents fees.
More specifically, the most landed-on red and orange properties in Monopoly are Illinois Avenue (red), Tennessee Avenue (orange), and New York Avenue (orange).These are also valuable Monopolies for you to bankrupt your competitors with.
Whoever owns the most red and orange properties in the game may give you a good idea of who will win in the long run.
3. Don’t save your money
While money in the bank sounds great, unlike real life you should aim to have minimal amounts of money in the bank at all times. Money in the bank isn’t being invested, and isn’t earning you anything. Your Monopoly banker isn’t going to pay interest! It’s almost always better to be purchasing items with your hard-earned cash, for the chance to deliver return on those investments.
4. Don’t bother with utilities
This may come as a surprise, but many professional Monopoly competitors don’t even bother with buying utilities.
You only have a 3% chance of making money from either the railroads or the utilities throughout the game. Plus, unlike other color properties, utilities can’t be upgraded.
5. Develop three houses or hotels as quickly as possible
Remember the rule of threes: Always develop three houses on your monopolies as quickly as possible, and then aim to build three hotels on your properties. This will allow you to squeeze as much rent out of your properties as possible. It is a smart to only start developing more than three houses (by moving on to hotels) when all of his streets have three houses each.
Once you move on to building hotels, the same rule applies.
Once you have your houses developed, aim to build up to three hotels as quickly as possible, as that’s when the rent really jumps up to a significant amount.
6. Later in the game, don’t try to get out of jail right away
Jail is not necessarily a terrible option.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but if you land in jail later in the game, when hotels fill the board, you can save money by staying there for your entire three turns (unless you roll a double), until you get out of jail.
That way, if you’re running low on cash, you won’t have to dole out your remaining savings to your competitors by landing on their monopolies.
7. Create a housing shortage by using up all the houses
A little-known classic rule of the original game is the housing shortage. Once 32 houses have been placed on the board, you are not allowed to buy more. So by simply buying all of the houses as quickly as possible, you can easily run your opponents into the ground.
If no one else has a monopoly, and you have one or two, a more long-term strategy is to try to shorten the housing market. If you have 32 houses on the board, that means there’ll be no more houses for anyone to build with, and you’ll be well on your path to outlasting the competition.
Blog by Julez for Styles Rebel Radio
Style's Rebel Radio 