Monopoly. You all know it, right? Well with nearly 300 million copies sold world wide I’ll take that as read. But you probably also know that it’s got it’s issues – the interminable length of time it takes, the nastiness of grinding all the losers into the dust and the contempt that is bred by the familiarity of a 90 year old game.
Well, in fairness to Hasbro, the current producers of Monopoly, they have attempted to address these issues by delivering three new expansions that add new enhancements and modifying the rule set. In a refreshing change to the game industry norm each of these three are released at the pocket-money price of under a tenner!
Which one should I choose?
So should you try one of these and if so which one is best for you? Well the answer is “yes you should” and hopefully I can help make your mind up. Though you could get all 3 for the sort of price expansions often cost. However you do need a clasic Monopoly board – might be a good chance to refresh your copy with the new spruced up upgraded edition that’s just been released.
Note that all 3 lead with a sticker on the box saying “Makes the game go Faster” which they all achieve in different ways, so someone has been listening.
Is Parking ever Free?
1st up is Monopoly Free Parking Jackpot. This riffs on the old house rule of all money paid to the bank is put into a pool to be scooped by the next person to land on Free Parking. In my view this is the pick of the bunch. You get a lot of goodies for your (small) outlay including a spinner, much beloved by the younger players, and the super desirable Gold Deal Mobile. This little beauty lets you cruise around the board not paying rent and snapping up any unowned properties for free!
You get this classic automobile by landing on Free Parking as well as scooping up the cash pool and get a Bonus Card. These bonuses are often geared to getting the properties bought quicker and, given that this version of the game ends when all properties are bought, speeds things up.
Chance and Community Chest are replaced with Spin Spaces and spinning the Spinner. While there’s a 50-50 chance of a good or bad result the Good results are so much better including scooping the pool or driving the Deal Mobile! Either way you’ll get a Bonus Card.
Spinning, then, is probably a good idea, particularly if the pool is building up or someone else if having too much time in the Deal Mobile. In your turn you can have a spin by spending a Spin Chip which you get 2 of at the start. You can also choose to take a Spin Chip instead of a rent you are owed. Not worth it if you’ve got a hotel on Mayfair but an undeveloped Old Kent Road?
Well, do you feel lucky?
I want it all I want it now
I always want to buy as many properties as possible. But have you ever felt you’d like to buy Go; Just Visitingl; Go To Jail; Chance; Community Chest or the Tax squares? Well, I must admit I haven’t but if you do now you can.
Possibly of more interest are the sale cards. These can be bought to provide bonuses and instant win conditions. Yes! Instant win Monopoly.
Before the start of the game you construct the Buy Die by adding 3 x Buy; 2 x Swap and 1 x Discard stickers to a blank D6.
Each turn after your normal roll and actions you roll the Buy Die.
Rolling Buy let’s you pay for one of the 3 cards on the rotating carousel Sale Vault for the price on it; Swap let’s you replace a card from the Vault with the top card from the deck and Discard means you force another player to discard the Sale Card of your choice from their hand.
This last may seem harsh but it might be the only way to stop someone completing their instant win. Some of these Instant Wins are steep like owning all 4 stations or building a hotel on Mayfair but some are easier like just landing on Go! Bear in mind though that everyone will know what you’ve got as the cards were bought from an open sale.
They’re just waiting to roll that Discard!
Who’s a naughty boy then?
I fought the law and the law won.
If you get tired in normal Monopoly of kicking your heels doing nothing whilst languishing in Jail now you can collect useful Corruption cards or even Super Corruption Cards which will give negative actions on other players.
The board modifications include two clip-on corner attachments for Jail and Go To Jail, which now also houses the Super Jail, plus spaces for the Corruption and Super Corruption cards. Tax squares now become Go To Jail but you can only be sent to Super Jail by another player’s action.
You also construct 2 dice this time: the Escape Die, rolled instead of taking a Chance card, where you get an even chance of gaining Corruption cards or going to Jail and the Heist Die instead of a Community Chest card where there are 4 chances of gaining cash from a bank heist and 2 chances of going to Jail.
Each turn in Jail get a Corruption Card or in Super Jail a Super Corruption card. You can stay for up to 3 turns but you can’t get out by rolling doubles. To leave you must pay cash to the bank or in the case of Super Jail to the player who sent you there or you can give them the Super Corruption cards you’ve just gained.
This game ends when all of the property is bought or the 1st player goes bankrupt then the richest player wins but you can’t win if you are in jail at game end.
You pays yer money and yer makes yer choice
All 3 of these add-ons are worthy additions that solve the major drawback of Monopoly: the game length. When calculating the richest player add the value of their properties plus 1 round of current rent values and any cash on hand.
Any of the 3 add-ons can be added to a standard board or probably any of the customised variations that have the same non-location spaces: Go; Jail; Free Parking; Chance; Community Chest; Tax etc. but they can not be normally used with each other (though maybe with a bit of modding and house rules you could combine some elements).
So which is best? To summarize:
Free Parking Jackpot seems the most fun with The Spinner and the Gold Deal Mobile.
Buy Everything can be very short and induce most player interaction as you jostle for the Instant Wins.
Go To Jail seems the most chaotic with a lot of take that elements.
For me it’s Free Parking Jackpot. Who wouldn’t want to ride the Golden Deal Mobile!
