Strategy guide

Buy early, buy often

Early in the game, buy almost every property where you stop. Each property that you do not buy can go to a rival, and you need full countries to build. Cash in your hand earns nothing, and Income Tax takes 10% of it. Keep only a small reserve at the start: cities with no buildings charge only $2 to $42, so early rent cannot hurt you much.

Know which countries pay

A country is worth what its rent brings back. The table shows the World board: how often a player stops on each country in one turn, what the country costs with three houses on every city, and how many turns of other players its rent needs to pay that back. With three opponents, divide the turns by three to get rounds.

Italy, India and the United States pay back the fastest, and Italy is the cheapest of the three. Mexico is the best cheap country: all three cities with three houses on each cost only $780. Portugal is the cheapest, but players seldom stop there and its rents are small, so it needs more than twice as long as Italy.

The cities that players stop on most are the ones that Chance cards send them to. On the World board, a player stops on Cairo in 3.4% of turns and on Mumbai in 3.3%, more than on any other city. Porto gets only 2.2%. Each board has its own trip cities: the board guide lists every card.

Build to three houses

The third house is the best buy in the game. On Rome, rent goes from $13 to $55 with the first house and to $160 with the second, but the third house takes it to $480. The fourth house adds $195 and the hotel $225 more, so they also pay well, but the first two houses alone earn little.

So do not stop at one or two houses. Save until you can put three houses on every city of a country, and then build all of them in one turn. With even building, a country of three cities needs nine houses for that: $450 for Mexico, $900 for Italy and $1,800 for Japan.

Airports and utilities

Airports pay only as a full set. All four together cost $800 and charge $200 each, and a player stops on one of them in about 12% of turns. That pays back in about 34 turns, as fast as Italy. With two airports the rent is only $50, and they need about four times longer.

Utilities are the weakest properties. With both utilities on the World board, the average rent is about $70, and a player stops on either of them in only 6% of turns. Buy them when you have spare cash, and use them in trades.

Read the dice

Two dice give 7 more often than any other total: one roll in six. Totals of 6, 7 and 8 together come up in 16 of 36 rolls. So the tiles 6 to 8 steps in front of a player are the ones they are most likely to hit next. You can build only on your own turn, so look at where your rivals stand before you end your turn. If a rival is 6 to 8 steps before your country, build there now.

Use Jail well

Paying the $50 fine does not let you move this turn: it ends your turn, and you move on the next one. Rolling for doubles costs nothing, and with doubles you move at once. So the fine only buys you a sure move one turn earlier.

Early in the game, pay the fine, because each turn on the board is a chance to buy. Late in the game, when the board is full of houses, stay in Jail and roll. You cannot stop on a rival's city from Jail, and you still collect your own rent, unless the room uses No rent in Jail.

Keep a cash reserve

Once rivals have houses, keep enough cash for the highest rent you could hit on your next roll. Debt does not end your game, but getting out of it is expensive: the bank pays only half the price of the buildings you remove and of the properties you sell. If you go bankrupt, the players you owe get only half the value of what you had.

When the room uses Mortgages, mortgage a property instead of selling it. You get the same half price, you keep the property, and you can buy it back later for 10% more. A mortgaged city still counts toward your full country.

Trade to complete countries

You can build only on a full country, and on most boards you need trades to get one. The best trade gives both players a full country: you each get a reason to accept. When you need one last city, offer cash, a spare airport, or a city that the other player needs.

Think about who else gains. Do not sell the last city of a country to the richest player at the table, and look out for trades between two rivals that complete a country for one of them. If a player declines, send a counter-offer with a little more. A Get out of Jail card counts as $50 in a trade.

Watch the cards

The Chance and Treasure decks are shuffled only once, at the start of the game. When a deck runs out, the same cards come again in the same order, except that the deck skips its Get out of Jail card while a player holds it. The game log shows every card, so a player who keeps track knows what the next card will be. That tells you, for example, whether the next Chance card sends someone to your city, or whether a repair bill is coming.