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Tips & Strategies (18)

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3
I Got What I Wanted
39 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Don't complete sets straight away.”

Try not to complete sets unless you can defend them. It’s easier to recover from losing a single card in a set, than losing the whole set itself.

Personally, I try not to complete a set until I have a “Just say no” card and a large bank roll.

Of course if you have hotels and plenty of rent cards for that set, it can be worth giving into the temptation.

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3
My First Game Tip
Noble
24 of 24 gamers found this helpful
“Deal Breaker Delete”

The tides of battle can turn fast and no other card can turn it faster in a 2 player game than the Deal Breaker. If you have a problem with 2 player games always being decided with the deal breaker card it is easy to take it out of the to take that huge swing out of the game. Personally I like it in as it adds to the feel of the game.

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3
I'm Gettin' the Hang of It
24 of 24 gamers found this helpful
“Hold on to your big bucks!”

On occasion, you will run across a $10M card, and a few $5M cards. Don’t play these into your back too quickly! Keep them back until you have enough small change to cover smaller rent payments, so you don’t wind up coughing over your $10M card on a $1M debt.

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2
USA
24 of 25 gamers found this helpful
“An interesting power move..(Force Deal -> Deal Breaker)”

I discovered this combo mid-game awhile back, which is always the best to way discover something fun in a game like this.

Use a Force Deal to swap two non-complete deeds with an opponent. Ensure the card you are giving them will complete one of their sets. (Obviously, make sure this move doesn’t win the game for them). Next action, use a Deal Breaker to take the newly completed set from them.

Especially useful for players that tend not to complete sets to avoid deal breakers. You just finished it for them, and steal it anyway. 🙂

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3
Critic - Level 2
Amateur Reviewer
24 of 25 gamers found this helpful
“ALWAYS keep cash in play!”

A lot of people when first playing this game don’t realize that cash in your hand is worthless. You can only pay from the cash in play in front of you and there are cards early in the game that will force you to pay up. If you have no cash, you will have to give your properties up and give your opponent an early lead.

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3
My First Game Tip
Noble
24 of 25 gamers found this helpful
“A few things to keep in mind.”

Always get cash out first, do not lead with properties if you can help it. Always hold onto a No Thanks for a big play like a Deal Breaker that would ruin you. Also not making a set can protect you from the Deal Breaker. Do not play out all your cards each turn just because you can. Holding onto property cards whilst getting money out is very important. Smile and have fun.

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6
Count / Countess
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
BoardGaming.com Beta 2.0 Tester
Cryptozoic Entertainment fan
26 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Flush Out the "Just Say No"”

You need to assume the other player has a “Just Say No” card.
(One way to know they have one is when you see them holding this one card off on the side or if they have 3 cards in their hand but only play 2)

Before you lay out some devastating attack on an opponent try to flush out their “Just Say No” card by asserting a weaker attack, but do it with gusto as if that move is going to win you the game. This may trick them into playing that “Just Say No” card to stop you. After you feel certain it’s gone then steal all their properties or charge that exorbitant rent.

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5
9 of 9 gamers found this helpful
“Watch other players board”

If you see another player is getting close to having 3 sets use one of your cards to do a swap and take away one of their non completed sets of 2 or 3.

Complete your sets quickly to protect them from being broken up.

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5
Novice Reviewer
Novice Advisor
Knight
Baron / Baroness
24 of 26 gamers found this helpful
“Keeping Track Of Property Values”

You can make the game a bit longer by keeping track of property values of the course of several games. When a game ends, simply write down each player’s monopoly property values and then play until 1 player reaches a goal value (say $100 million).

This allows people to play a bit more strategically for a long term goal win instead of game to game, and also extends the length of the “game” to be longer.

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7
Arrowhead
I play red
Stone of the Sun
24 of 26 gamers found this helpful
“It's my birthday! And I don't have to play cards if I have to...”

Play cards if I have to…

In the beginning of the game you can skip putting anything down for one turn. Especially, when you have a “It’s My Birthday” in your hand. Allowing your opponents to place things down first gives you chance to steal it on your next turn with your birthday card. By doing this, you’ll acquire more cards than you could’ve put down on your previous turn.

If you don’t have a birthday card in your first hand, you can still skip your turn in the beginning to prevent your things from getting stolen. Especially, if you have all property cards in your first draw. This will give you a chance to acquire cash or action cards for the next turn.

-Enjoy Yourselves!

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6
Unicorn Clan - Legend of the Five Rings
Gamer - Level 6
Novice Reviewer
25 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Hotels on Houses”

Many players pick up the game quickly enough that they can play without reading through the rule book. Don’t forget that you must have a house on a property set before you can add a hotel to it. This is NOT printed in the cards anywhere and it is an easily missed sentence in the rules.

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8
BoardGaming.com Beta 2.0 Tester
Went to Gen Con 2012
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
Advanced Reviewer
25 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“For Two Players... Maybe Three”

When my girlfriend and I play the game, we take out half the cash. We found after a few times through that we would both have a nice stock of cash we were just trading back and forth without any real damage or interaction between us. Taking out half the cash forced us into a position where we would have to give up some of our properties when rent was due.

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5
Novice Reviewer
Novice Advisor
Knight
Baron / Baroness
25 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Paying For Property”

Basically whenever you want to play a property card, you must “pay” for it by spending money equal to 1 less than the value on the property card itself.

This slows the game down slightly and gives more value to money in the game.

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5
Novice Reviewer
Novice Advisor
Knight
Baron / Baroness
25 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“2-Player Variant: 4 Monopolies To Win”

Because of the inevitable turtling that happens, especially in 2 player games, where someone will complete their monopolies all at once, you can try this variation:

As the Title says, simply change the win condition to needing to complete 4 monopolies to win the game.

This also slows the game down a bit which can be a plus or minus depending on your opinion.

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5
Tide of Iron fan
“When playing with two or three players”

My wife and I play this game a lot. We like the back and forth nature of the flow of cash when there are two players. We don’t remove any cards. But we try to wait to lay down that property that completes a high value color set until we can defend it with “just say no” or “deal breaker” cards. Money isn’t the only thing that will go back and forth on two player games. Properties are stolen a lot with sly deal and forced deal cards. I lay down my lower value properties first, especially if I don’t have a stack of cash to pay for those high rents or the card that makes you pay five million. Use your last turn to lay down the completing three properties to win.

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8
BoardGaming.com Beta 2.0 Tester
Went to Gen Con 2012
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
Advanced Reviewer
25 of 29 gamers found this helpful
“Using Wild Property Cards”

Wild property cards have two colors representing one of the property sets the wild belongs to. The game rules allow you to move this card or switch the use of color at anytime during your turn. To make things a bit tougher or to make you think a bit more about strategy, make switching your wild one of your three actions you can perform so it cost you something to do.

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8
BoardGaming.com Beta 2.0 Tester
Went to Gen Con 2012
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
Advanced Reviewer
24 of 28 gamers found this helpful
“Hard Core Mode”

When playing with fewer players tweaking the game is almost necessary. Getting to three properties with two people is a bit easy. When my girlfriend and I are playing a two player game we have to get to five properties, with three people its four properties, then you can relax with four players getting the three.

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4
Private eye
Noble
“All rents are wild- for 2 players”

As others have mentioned, when only playing with 2 people, this game can just be a game of “pass the money back and forth” with no real danger to the property cards. In order to increase the odds of property being exchanged, when playing with only two people, just make all rent cards “wild” rent cards that can be used on any property. This way, the resources will become more restrained and the game will become more interesting.

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