ITT: I make a tier list of Monopoly Properties

[Caliban of Sycorax]

This list takes into account price to purchase, price of building houses, location on the map, price of rent, and also the prospect of landing on the property. This is /slightly/ personal experience based, but I also take into account the other factors.

Railroad Tier

Reading Railroad

B&O Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

Short Line

High Tier

Connecticut Avenue

Vermont Avenue

Oriental Avenue

New York Avenue

Tennessee Avenue

St. James Place

Illinois Avenue

Indiana Avenue

Kentucky Avenue

High Middle Tier

Virginia Avenue

States Avenue

St. Charles Place

Middle Tier

Boardwalk

Park Place

Baltic Avenue

Mediterranean Avenue

Low Tier

Marvin Gardens

Ventnor Avenue

Atlantic Avenue

Electric Company

Water Works

Bottom Tier

Pennsylvania Avenue

North Carolina Avenue

Pacific Avenue

Discuss.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Octavian

[MacLovin]

IMO, the properties on the first row need to rise bit.

Especially the ones like Oriental Ave and it's "color"

It's decent for earlygame

[Life]

Oriental and its buddies need to be in God tier or close to it. If you manage to get all of them very early (we're talking about 2nd run of the map), you can have Hotels on that trio very quickly and cheaply (50$ an upgrad). That tends to sting a lot in the earlygame and gives you a very good chance of winning simply because you're stealing all of the early money and can build more expensive stuff later in the game.

[MacLovin]

Oriental and its buddies need to be in God tier or close to it. If you manage to get all of them very early (we're talking about 2nd run of the map), you can have Hotels on that trio very quickly and cheaply (50$ an upgrad). That tends to sting a lot in the earlygame and gives you a very good chance of winning simply because you're stealing all of the early money and can build more expensive stuff later in the game.

I've actually had that happen to me many times

My friends were using loaded die against me, and then I get that bunch

And Proceed to win.

Ever since then, I am not allowed in any Monopoly games with friends/Older people

[Life]

I've actually had that happen to me many times

My friends were using loaded die against me, and then I get that bunch

And Proceed to win.

Ever since then, I am not allowed in any Monopoly games with friends/Older people

What it does is that it turns the earlygame into a race for your opponents. You can count on someone landing on one of those spaces at least once every three times, not to mention the Chance card that says "Go to Oriental Avenue". In return, they start racing to build up enough liquid assets in order to soften the constant hits on their wallet in the earlygame. That puts them in a very bad place.

I've beaten a lot of people by grabbing one property early, trading for a second halfway through the first run (like on the third side) and then snagging the last property by the second go around, be it with cash or just landing on it. A lot of people underestimate the true damage it does on your wallet because you're not paying shittons like landing on a Hotel!Boardwalk. It might not put your opponent out of commission with a single blow but it puts them in a very uncomfortable spot early and gives you a very good shot at putting houses on a more expensive group.

In the same vein, Baltic and Mediterranean need to rise. Maybe to Mid tier.

[MacLovin]

What it does is that it turns the earlygame into a race for your opponents. You can count on someone landing on one of those spaces at least once every three times, not to mention the Chance card that says "Go to Oriental Avenue". In return, they start racing to build up enough liquid assets in order to soften the constant hits on their wallet in the earlygame. That puts them in a very bad place.

I've beaten a lot of people by grabbing one property early, trading for a second halfway through the first run (like on the third side) and then snagging the last property by the second go around, be it with cash or just landing on it. A lot of people underestimate the true damage it does on your wallet because you're not paying shittons like landing on a Hotel!Boardwalk. It might not put your opponent out of commission with a single blow but it puts them in a very uncomfortable spot early and gives you a very good shot at putting houses on a more expensive group.

In the same vein, Baltic and Mediterranean need to rise. Maybe to Mid tier.

Yeah

The Dark Blue and dark Green properties need to drop a little

BEcause, it is not very likely that one can get all of the d.blue/d.green properties.

Because a lot of people will not trade.

[Anouleth]

Yeah

The Dark Blue and dark Green properties need to drop a little

BEcause, it is not very likely that one can get all of the d.blue/d.green properties.

Because a lot of people will not trade.

The reason why people don't trade them is because they're good.

[MacLovin]

The reason why people don't trade them is because they're good.

Yeah.

So unless you get the d.blue duo or the d.green trio

You won't be putting hotels/houses on there

I think they need to drop a little.

[Life]

The reason why people don't trade them is because they're good.

This is the exact reason why they should drop. It's much more difficult to make a set with either of them because nobody is willing to give them up. And they only become big cash-cows late in the game. They're pretty highly overrated.

[MacLovin]

This is the exact reason why they should drop. It's much more difficult to make a set with either of them because nobody is willing to give them up. And they only become big cash-cows late in the game. They're pretty highly overrated.

Yeah

Now the first 2 rows of properties need to rise.

Because setting a foundation in earlygame>Getting cash cows lategame.

[buttmuncher.ops]

if any of you guys have Pogo.com accounts we should totally test the validity in a private Monopoly game online. would only need 3 peeps. hit me up in IP.Chat.

i agree that railroad tiers should be the highest and i'm not sure if you organized the names within tiers based upon usefulness but i feel the utilities should be at the top of the tier they're in.

[Guy Starwind]

I'm glad other people agree with me that the light blues are the best. Cheap houses/hotels and people have to pay around 500. However, I'm not sure if there is a chance card that says advance to Oriental Ave? I know we have one that says advance to St. Charles, Illinois Ave, and Boardwalk. Unless it's in the original or new versions of the game I don't think that card exists.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

I agree. The Light Blues are my go-to properties. They're extremely easy to get and extremely easy to get hotels on. The only reason I had them so low was because of the lack of money you get from them, however, they tend to be good starters.

Dark Blues are a tough placement, because while tough to get, they have a massive reward. They can easily eliminate most opponents with $2000 rent on Hotel!Boardwalk. However, I do agree the cost may outweigh the benefit. Dark Greens are fine as is, for now, because I do not see the value in the two beginning properties. They aren't easy to get and have little payback, even at the low cost to buy and place houses/hotels on. Unlike the Light Blues, you most likely won't get them on the first runaround, maybe not until the third runaround, and by then you're most likely looking to complete a color to start building on it.

I organized railroads by my own experience with video game Monopolies (and thus an RNG) and based it off of frequency of pieces landing on them. This, of course, is arguable and I really think that the differences between all four are minimal.

What are people's opinions on the Utilities? They're not hard to get and tend to get traffic to them, but since the payoff is variable, should they drop a little?

So here's a few trending topics, I guess:

Light Blues up

Dark Blues down

Dark Greens down?

First two up?

Utilities?

[MacLovin]

Baltic+Med up.

Yeah, I've tried the computer Monopolys before.

And then got accused of rigging it...

Also- the Reds need to rise just a wee bit.

Also-the lavender/magenta/purple/pink ones need to rise.

Getting "boxcars" allows you to move 12 spaces and snag one.

[Life]

They can easily eliminate most opponents with $2000 rent on Hotel!Boardwalk.

Just got destroyed by it. It's fine where it is. Massive risk, massive payoff.

[Stark]

Dark Blues above Oranges? IIRC it's been statistically proven that Oranges and Reds are the most landed on properties and they are extremely efficient for the money you put in. (Oranges more so then Reds.)

My personal opinion would be:

Oranges

Reds

Purples/Yellows/Dark Blues/Light Blues in some order. These are pretty tough. Dark Blues have killer rents but low odds of landing on them, while light blues can be built on early and become really powerful, but have a lower upper end late game. Purples and Yellows are somewhat worse then Reds/Oranges, but are still solid and Yellow benefits from a good house cost/rent ratio.

Greens

Dark Purples

With railroads being medium/high and utilities being pretty low. The thing about railroads/utilities is you will never really be able to take out another player with them. Railroads especially are a decent source of supplemental income considering there's 4, but again, it's hard to justify trading for them when you could give someone else a killer monopoly that they can build on. Therefore, it's hard to get all 4 and fully benefit.

[Anouleth]

This is the exact reason why they should drop. It's much more difficult to make a set with either of them because nobody is willing to give them up. And they only become big cash-cows late in the game. They're pretty highly overrated.

So all good properties are actually average because it's difficult to make a set with them, and all bad properties are actually average because it's easy to make a set with them? Personally, I don't think that a tier list with only one tier is very informative.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Anouleth

[Life]

With railroads being medium/high and utilities being pretty low. The thing about railroads/utilities is you will never really be able to take out another player with them. Railroads especially are a decent source of supplemental income considering there's 4, but again, it's hard to justify trading for them when you could give someone else a killer monopoly that they can build on. Therefore, it's hard to get all 4 and fully benefit.

I disagree. Railroads singlehandedly kept me in the game that Hotel!Boardwalk destroyed me. I started a couple turns down due getting stuck in jail on the first move and paying rent for the entire first round since I couldn't pick up a property. There's 1 railroad every 10 spaces and having all 4 (very easy to trade for a 3rd) is a $200 blow. Sure, it won't take out your opponent but what if they roll a 6+4? That's $400 in your pocket in 2 rolls.

[Raven]

Not everyone lives in America and plays the American version of Monopoly, so maybe the tier list can be changed from the names to the colours.

[NinjaMonkey]

Utilities?

Surely they are a shoe-in for Not Even Worth It Tier, considering that they are rarely landed upon?

[Life]

Surely they are a shoe-in for Not Even Worth It Tier, considering that they are rarely landed upon?

Do you ever wonder why people think you're mentally retarded? It's because you say stupid shit like this.

You have a better chance of landing on both utilities on a single run through a game board than landing on any 2 properties of the same colour group. Especially from the purples and dark blues. I'm not going to do the math but doing the latter involves rolling a 2 or a 3, a total of 3 possible dice combinations out of a shitton (and you have to get a 2 for purples and dark blues).

Please don't post again in this topic until your brain is equivalent to that of a high school student. Since right now, my 5 year old cousin is smarter than you.

[Aleph]

I dunno about you guys, but I ALWAYS manage a hotel on Boardwalk.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Not everyone lives in America and plays the American version of Monopoly, so maybe the tier list can be changed from the names to the colours.

I'll color-code it and link a board so people know which is which. :3

Surely they are a shoe-in for Not Even Worth It Tier, considering that they are rarely landed upon?

For reasons listed above, no. First, there are cards in Chance and Community Chest that direct players to the utilities. Second, they are actually fairly easy to land on. Electric Company moreso because it's in a high-traffic area. Third, owning both actually nets a decent amount of money--especially on high rolls. More money than owning three railroads.

As for the other proposals, I do think the Oranges and Reds could rise, Oranges more because it's easier to place hotels on them, and the money isn't too radically different from the Reds. (IIRC it's $200 difference in the most expensive). I also want to move the Light Blues up. However, I don't want too many of the properties to be in higher tiers. I'll see what I can do. I'm keeping the Dark Greens, Baltic/Med, and Yellows as-is for now. I may even swap Dark Green with Baltic/Med only because of the massive amounts of money you have to shovel into them.

EDIT:

Oranges and Light Blues moved to High. Oranges because of high traffic and fairly easy Hotel building, Light Blues because of the extremely easy Hotel building and also semi-decent traffic especially coming off of Go.

Utilities and Purples are in High Middle, in that order. I may switch them in the near future. Utilities have decent traffic and decent payoff, especially before you have Houses/Hotels on properties (equivalent to owning three railroads, roughly). Purples have very high traffic, extremely easy Hotel building, and decent payoff.

Reds and Dark Blues to Middle. Reds because of the great traffic but building Hotels on them is tough especially if you're also building on a higher tier. Dark Blues have the best payoff but the risk is too high sometimes.

Everything else is the same.

Edited December 17, 2011 by Octavian

[Anouleth]

I'll color-code it and link a board so people know which is which. :3

For reasons listed above, no. First, there are cards in Chance and Community Chest that direct players to the utilities. Second, they are actually fairly easy to land on. Electric Company moreso because it's in a high-traffic area. Third, owning both actually nets a decent amount of money--especially on high rolls. More money than owning three railroads.

On average, they earn 70 when a player lands on them. Which isn't really much at all. And on average, it's 28 when you only own one. Also known as "jack-shit". You could try and spin them as being low-cost and low-return, but so are the Dark Purples.

[Life]

Utilities are way too high. The amount of money that you pay when someone owns two is $120 max. That's not a good total. And it's completely reliant on high rolls. Assuming a 7 (my go to number since it's got the highest possibility of being rolled), that's $70. To outdo freaking Hotel!Baltic (costs $550~600 to get there so 3 passes), you need to land on it 4 times vs. once for Baltic. If I land on Hotel!Baltic once every other pass, the utilities pretty much can't beat it. Hotel!Mediterranean? Forget it. Try 7 hits to 1.

Low tier please. They just don't pay enough.

EDIT: Anouleth ninja'd me about the Utilities.

Edited December 17, 2011 by Bblader