MONOPOLY®: The MEGA Edition: Winning Tips to Own It All
by
Matt McNally
U.S. National MONOPOLY® Champion
With plenty of new twists, MONOPOLY®: The MEGA Edition stretches the role of skill versus
luck for both long-time fans and new players alike. The MEGA edition offers players a wider
range of potential outcomes and therefore more challenging games. Smart players will be able to
recognize these possibilities in advance and use their skills to maximize the likelihood of
winning. Of course, given the new scope of the MEGA edition, players should first master the
techniques of winning the traditional game. A few great books – like “The Monopoly
Companion” by Phil Orbanes or “The Monopoly Book” by Maxine Brady – are great places to
start honing these techniques. But remember, there’s no substitute for the hands-on experience
of playing the actual game! Once you’ve sharpened your MONOPOLY® know-how, study the
tips below to help you prevail in MONOPOLY®: The MEGA Edition on a consistent basis and,
ultimately, be the player who owns it all.
1. Don’t wait. The first challenge of the game is to obtain a monopoly, but you may not need to
trade for the final property. In the MEGA edition, you don’t need an entire color-group set to
begin the house and hotel building process; you need all but one property. Take advantage of
this and begin building as soon as possible, focusing your attention on the color group you can
most afford. More often than not, you’ll gain the complete monopoly when a player goes
bankrupt to you. You’ll realize that it’s wise, and economical, to build to the three-house level
before this occurs. The goal is to collect large rent sums, so don’t delay.
2. Build monopolies aggressively. Focus on acquiring just one color group and play it with
determination. If you want to win, you have to risk putting all your eggs in this one basket.
Developing multiple groups at the same time, to less than three houses, won’t bring in enough
cash to cripple the other players, even though there would be more spaces on which your
opponents could land and pay rent. Further, the positives and negatives of each property group
are more balanced in the MEGA edition. Now, landing on cheaper color groups can have a
major impact on any opponent’s financial health. And the more expensive color groups can be
easier to acquire in trade because their development may well take longer (and therefore pose
less of an immediate threat).
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Dark Purples and Light Blues: To build skyscrapers in “Mega” you need to own all the
properties n a color group. This is essential with these properties. Build hotels and
skyscrapers here as soon as you can. Since every player starts play with an extra $1000
($2,500 total), you need to make your opponents’ visits to these spaces cost as much as
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possible. For a relatively small investment, skyscrapers on these properties can demand a
fearsome rent. Unlike the traditional game, rent due on these properties with skyscrapers
can be severe enough to cause a wealthy player to declare bankruptcy. If it happens to be
a very cash rich game, you can instead use these properties to block houses from other
player’s attempting to build on their stronger monopolies. Note: Even though there are
more properties in the MEGA edition, the housing market remains the same. It’s now
possible to use 16 houses on the light blue monopoly set alone – half of the available
houses in the entire game!
Light Purples, Oranges, Reds, and Yellows: These are now, by far, the best properties in
the game to own. They all exist ideally beyond jail. They are visited more frequently
than other color groups and have the best chance of dealing a bankrupting blow to an
opponent. Their highest benefit is their affordability factor. An entire set could cost you
anywhere from $580 (Light Purples) to $1080 (Yellows), leaving you plenty of money
from your initial $2500 to invest in houses, hotels, and skyscrapers – the factors that
really increase rent on a property.
Greens and Dark Blues: One of two situations must arise in order to make these
properties work for you: Trades for monopolies in the game must occur much later than
normal (approximately 45 minutes into a game), or the game must start with six or more
players. In either case, these properties gain value when more cash is involved in the
game. Consider these properties of privilege; to effectively own and develop them,
you’ve got to have sufficient cash. If you spend more than half of your cash acquiring
Green or Dark Blue properties, what will you really have left to invest in them? If a
monopoly deal is struck for these properties without enough cash in the game for trades,
or without enough players landing on them for rent, these color groups won’t be able to
get off the ground. But remember . . . if they can be established and developed, you’ll
have a choke-hold on the game!
3. Mortgage all non-essentials. After you’ve acquired a color-group, don’t waste time trying to
collect small amounts of rent all over the board. Instead, mortgage all color properties that aren’t
part of the color group you’ve acquired. You should also mortgage any single railroads or
utilities. It’s better to liquidate these assets and re-invest the money into housing, creating a
better return on your investment in the long run. After all of the properties have been sold by the
bank, the speed die will alter the predictability of the moving tokens. If you roll Mr. Monopoly
on the speed die, you must move ahead to the first property on which you’ll have to pay rent to
another player. This is the main reason to mortgage all non-essentials – i.e., property that’s not
part of the monopoly group you’re developing. This may move opponents who roll a Mr.
Monopoly on the speed die directly to your high-priced rental properties with houses, hotels, or
skyscrapers. More than likely, mortgaging properties will move your opponents around the
board more quickly, and force them to pay huge rents instead of nickels and dimes on other
scattered properties. Thoughtful players can even move properties in and out of mortgage,
depending on specific threats that arise. If a player is nearly bankrupt, you may want to unmortgage a property right in front of another opponent’s monopoly. This can help ensure that
the opponent on the verge of bankruptcy will have a better chance of stopping just before that
game-ending rent. Consequently, that player might remain in the game, continue to travel
around the board, and – eventually – go bankrupt on your monopoly . . . to you.
4. Don’t underestimate the railroads and utilities. Although these properties have previously
never compared to a color group in the traditional game with respect to rent values, they have a
far greater advantage in MONOPOLY®: The MEGA Edition. Look at the comparison chart
below:
Oranges:
Reds:
Rails:
Cost of 4 properties:
Cost of houses to the 3 house level:
Cost of 4 train depots:
$760
$1200
-------
$920
$1800
-------
$800
------$400
Total Investment:
$1960
$2720
$1200
Avg. payment for landing on developed property:
$575
$725
$400
Times of rent paid to recoup investment:
3.409
3.752
3.000
** These statistics do not account for any rent paid prior to these monopolies reaching that level.
However, it is far easier to develop the railroads than any color group on the board, and the
railroads also have a higher rent than most color properties before development begins.**
Oranges and Reds may remain the best color property groups to own, but train depots help boost
the power of the railroads to a new level. After you own two or more railroads, purchasing train
depots should yield you a successful rate of return on both the property and the building. Not
convinced yet? Do you remember what happens to tokens with the speed die when all the
properties have been sold? The railroad monopoly is set up perfectly around the board to take
full advantage of this rule. The railroads can prevent opponents from continuing to the Light
Blue, Orange, Yellow, and Dark Blue color groups when a Mr. Monopoly is rolled on the speed
die. Their divided distribution around the board makes it easier and more likely that opponents
will land on several railroads as they advance. The utilities embody this principle as well, since
they are similarly distributed. Though they may not pay off as well as the railroads, they will
almost always provide much needed cash when you own all three. The average roll of a pair of
dice is “7.” Multiplied by 20 (when three utilities are owned), the average rent payment can be
calculated as $140. If players who have fully committed their total assets to houses on the Light
Blues encounter this challenge, they might be forced to break down six houses to pay the
unforeseen rent. That’s a big deal late in a game! While the railroads and utilities still lack the
power of a knockout blow, they can prevent opponents from building aggressively. They are
also useful as a revenue source for your continued investment into a color group.
5. Ride the bus. Take a bus ticket whenever possible, unless you’ve got a very strong hunch
that another ticket will be played and expire all bus tickets before your next turn. You’ll also
want to avoid holding on to more than two bus tickets at a time, because chances are they’ll
expire before you can use them.
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Early Game Play: First, determine if you can actually acquire a color group with one. If
so, make this your immediate priority. Quite often, during early moments in a game,
you’ll land on the 1st property of a color group and a Mr. Monopoly will have appeared
on the speed die, moving you to the 2nd property of the color group. (Two sides of the
new Speed Die feature Mr. Monopoly and he grants you a bonus move to the next
unowned property. After all properties are owned, he moves you ahead to the next rent
you owe.) The Bus appears on one side of the Speed Die and it grants you a bus ticket for
use on a future turn. If you get one, USE YOUR BUS TICKET AND PICK UP THE 3rd
PROPERTY ON YOUR NEXT TURN. Boom! Natural monopoly! Begin building. If
this opportunity does not present itself, there is a second possibility. Determine where
you can block a color group from an opponent’s domination.
o Example: You are player A, player B owns two Orange properties, and player C
owns one Orange property. Use your ticket to get the fourth Orange property. It
doesn’t help you acquire a monopoly yourself, but it stalls a potentially dangerous
trade between players B and C, or a potential natural monopoly.
If the first and second situations do not present themselves, use a bus ticket to provide a
better trading situation down the road or a better token position on the board. Bus tickets
used during early game play should always be used to acquire property.
Late Game Play: When the focus has shifted from acquiring property to building, use
bus tickets to bypass opponent’s monopolies. Since bus tickets can move you forward on
no further than the next corner, monopolies that fall on the right hand edge of each side of
the board have a slight advantage over monopolies on the left hand side. It’s a bit more
difficult to bypass a monopoly in the earlier position of a side than it is in the later
position. Keep this in mind when trading with opponents as you attempt to acquire a
monopoly.
As a proud champion of the classic game, I am often asked to discuss the influence of luck
versus skill on winning. To sum it up briefly, sometimes you can do everything right in a
game . . . and lose. Other times, you do little right . . . and win! The real trick is to play
consistently, enjoy each game for what it is, and leave the table knowing you did everything
strategically possible to own it all. More often than not, you’ll be smiling. And with Monopoly®:
The Mega Edition, there are more opportunities to smile than ever before.