Monopoly Strategy
The chart above breaks down what it costs to buy properties and upgrade them. Showing a return on investment.
Most players will do anything they can to get Boardwalk and Park Place. If you look at the chart above it comes in third on return. The challenge is this give you 2 spots for your opponent to land on where the two monopolies better than it give you three. On the flip side you are only buying houses and motels on two properties while also collecting the most money if an opponent lands there. It is also true that anyone landing on a fully developed Boardwalk or Park place is out of the game or on the brink.
The monopolies that deliver the least are the greens with the reds and yellows only being slightly better. For the greens if you fully develop them you would need an opponent to land there 3 times to get your money back. Baltic and Mediterranean fall in next. Though cheep and can be quickly upgraded you get little return. Though Mediterranean is the one that is the brings the duo down with limited return. Baltic on the other hand is second behind Boardwalk on return.
So what is the best monopoly. The light blues are the best bargain on the board, it is cheep, yet it’s rent is not to be sneered at. Next best is the fuchsias monopoly of Virginia, States, and St. Charles. Right in there with these two is the orange. An opponents is more likely to land on an orange monopoly than any other monopoly.
Not to leave railroads out but your return goes up the more you have. With them being what they are and not upgradable, they often have little impact on the game. The water works and electric company have even less impact on the game, especially as it goes on.
The biggest thing to keep in mind the more expensive monopolies will become more impactful the longer the games goes on as there have been more opportunities to land on them.
In the early rounds, you buy everything you can. Even if you don’t want it you can use it for trade bait. You also don’t want to let it be auctioned and go for less than market price. If you find that you have been around the board a couple of times and are significantly behind other players in the number of properties you have, you might have to take drastic measures to catch up. Offer cash and/or properties to acquire a low-cost monopoly if possible.
One thing that is often overlooked is where to build when you do get monopolies. Building on the lower cost monopolies often lead to a higher return on investment. Putting $400 into Baltic/Mediterranean will yield . An often missed strategy is where you place your houses if you can’t build evenly. A different way to look at it is to raise your minimum someone would owe you if they landed on that monopoly. Another thing that gets overlooked is how much to invest. If your opponents are running low, don’t invest more in the expensive properties than you need to make them go bankrupt. This allows you to keep money on hand if you land on one of their properties.
If you really want to be competitive, you can also create a housing shortage. If you get three monopolies that have low cost houses, you can build to four houses on each and use up all the houses. This would limit the houses everyone else has access to. It also limits the amount you are spending by not buying hotels which often does not scale up as much with the investment. In a casual environment you won’t be invited over to play again if you use this strategy.
At the end of the day it does come down to some dice roles and getting lucky with those. If you don’t get any properties