Mayfair or the dog gets it... (Monopoly)

Member Name: sunbeam

Product:	Monopoly
Date:	26/04/01 (1513 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brings families together...

Disadvantages: ...and sometimes pulls them apart!

"Advance to Mayfair" hubby read from the card with an evil grin on his face. "ARGH" I screamed as he picked up his car playing piece and plonked it on Mayfair and shouted, "BUYING IT!" and then childishly stuck his tongue out at me as I reluctantly handed the card over.

So what are we playing you're wondering? Monopoly. What should be a friendly family game often turns into a recipe for all that is evil between myself and my hubby. We recently got the game due to Webrewards a site that I collect points on and the idea was that it would be something to do on those days when someone had a 'headache'...heehee

As soon as the board comes out it becomes serious, who will be the overall victor, who will be crippled with bankruptcy, and who will shout "Divorce!" first. No that's not part of the game just something that we shout...

I'm assuming you all know the rules of Monopoly but just in case you don't...

Monopoly is the one of the most common board games around, most people have it hidden somewhere near the divorce papers. The board is made up of the streets of London, divided into 6 different coloured groups of 3 and 2 coloured groups of 2. Old Kent Road being the cheapest and Mayfair being the most expensive. You simply go around the board buying properties as you land on them and then charging rent by screaming "Pay up!" as the other player lands on it. There is more to it than that but I'll get to that soon. Each property comes with a card that tells you how much rent you can charge, how much houses cost and what it costs to mortgage it.

So after fighting over who is going to be the dog playing piece (I usually win that fight with blackmail or puppy eyes), you roll the die and then off you go, in for the kill. Other than the basic streets there are stations and utilities that you can buy. My hubby always goes for these because if you
have all four stations you can charge £200 for someone landing on one, usually me. I personally think it's because he's a closet train spotter.

Right so you're off around the board, the first time around you can't buy anything, don't ask me why that's the rules! Every time you pass "Go!" you pick up £200 from the bank. If you land on a "chance" or "community chest" square you pick up the appropriate card and follow the instructions. If you're my hubby that tends to be "collect £200" and if you're me it's usually a "Go to Jail" card.

Jail?

Oh I haven't told you about that have I? Well jail is where I spend most of the game, I figure once I'm in there I might as well stay in rather than be crippled by landing on hubbies hotels and giving him more cash to smirk over. If you land on the "Go To Jail" square then you go and sit on the "ugly guy in jail" square in the opposite corner and you get three chances to throw a double to get out. You can pay £50 to get out earlier if you want, or use a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card (picked up from "Chance" or "community chest"). Hubby usually already has both of these...<sigh> Oh but he'll offer one to you for a measly £1000...

Now for hotels, houses and all that. Once you have all three properties of a certain colour, say "Mayfair" and "Park Lane" (either purple or navy blue, now let's not argue) then you can firstly charge double the rent and secondly buy houses. On each property card it will tell you how much a house is. For these it's £200. (cheap eh?) You have to spread them out evenly between the two properties, but once you have four then you can swap them for a nice shiny red hotel. Once you have these you'll know you're doing well because the other players faces will crumple and they will f
earfully throw the dice when they get near there. Of course with each purchase of a house the rent goes up accordingly.

The aim of the game as I said before is to bankrupt the other players; this can be done several ways. They can lose all their money from paying you extortionate amounts of rent or they can lose it through the stupidity of buying too much too soon. For example, If you buy lots of houses then you can be crippled when you pick up that good old card that charges you for building repairs on each house.

Once you've ran out of money it's time to start selling your little green houses (green in colour, not glass..lol) back to the bank at half the price and then mortgaging your properties. The bank will give you an amount back and you can pay off your debt with it. Of course this means that street is no longer active...until you can buy it back.

The first game we played was all lovey-dovey, if I was running out of money and picked the "It's your birthday collect £10 from each player" card then hubby would give me £100 because he "loved me". I only had to flutter my eyelashes and he would hand over Mayfair for £50 but then it all changed...

Here's how the game tends to go now in our house...

Firstly, I always have the dog, if you try to take the dog playing piece off me then prepare to die because that's mine. Secondly, I always have "Park Lane" and "Mayfair". I don't want any other properties but them. Hence the evil look on my hubbies face when he gets the chance to purchase one.

It's part of the game to do deals, but in our house it gets nasty. Here's the situation...wifey has two greens and need the third one Bond Street to complete the set...hubby has it. Now in an average game in an average household, little wifey says to hubby "Give you £300 for Bond Street" and average hubby would say, "sure wifey!&qu
ot;, deal done. But oh no, not in our house. Wifey (namely me) says "Give you £300 for Bond Street" and my hubby replies "£600". I then reply smiling sweetly and fluttering eyelashes with "£300 and a kiss?". Hubby replies stubbornly, "£500, Park Lane and a cup of coffee". By now I'm getting a little rattled and start to threaten. "£350 for Bond Street or you sleep on the sofa"...and so on. The end result you ask? Well after being determined he won't con me I get Bond Street for £550, a cup of tea and my last bar of chocolate...hmm

I've given you the official rules but here's one of ours, you may want to try it yourself...

There is a useless square on the board called "Free Parking". It means nothing and does nothing, so we've invented a use for it. All the money from fines and house repairs goes into the middle of the board and whoever lands on "Free Parking" rakes it in! It would be a great rule if hubby weren't always the one that landed on it...humph.

My strategies for winning are to try and buy "death row". This is a name fondly given by me to one side of the board. If you buy all the greens and then "Mayfair" and "Park Lane" then you can usually cripple the other players quite quickly. I'm not saying this always works, but it's a pretty safe bet.

If it doesn't work then try fluttering your eyelashes, or good old blackmail. I guess my hubby should be giving out the tips as he usually wins, but he'll probably charge you £800, Park Lane and a cup of tea for the privilege...

Now where did I put the tiddlywinks...

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