ITT: I make a tier list of Monopoly Properties

[Caliban of Sycorax]

It's a variable return, at best. I know PEMN but in my plays of Monopoly owning both has been a good income at times, especially when trying to get enough money to build hotels. I may drop them, at least below the Purples, but they aren't bad enough to be any lower than, say, the Dark Blues. Low risk and variable payoff >>>High risk and great payoff.

[Life]

It's a variable return, at best. I know PEMN but in my plays of Monopoly owning both has been a good income at times, especially when trying to get enough money to build hotels. I may drop them, at least below the Purples, but they aren't bad enough to be any lower than, say, the Dark Blues. Low risk and variable payoff >>>High risk and great payoff.

You're really overrating their usefulness. For two of them, they cost $300 at least (more if you have to trade for the second). Hotel!Baltic and Hotel!Mediterranean cost double that but the payout is somewhere in the x5.5 range.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

In that case I'll drop them, but how low should they go? Below Dark Blues at the least. I don't think they should go below the Greens because of the massive payout you have to perform on them to get them to be even slightly useful.

[Life]

In that case I'll drop them, but how low should they go? Below Dark Blues at the least. I don't think they should go below the Greens because of the massive payout you have to perform on them to get them to be even slightly useful.

Low tier. No exceptions. Above Yellows.

The other gripes I have are Orange above Light Blue (especially when it's easy to pull one on the first roll of the game) and Purples at the bottom.

[Stark]

Below the Greens could go either way. I personally feel they should be below, as even as clunky and expensive as the Greens are, they do have the potential to hand you the win in a drawn out game. Utilities... not so much. And for the same reasons as utilities, railroads need to drop. They have a somewhat better situation, yes, but still a lot of the same flaws, namely an utter inability to cripple or bankrupt someone, ever, and no way to build on them. I can say that I, at least, would never take the railroads over any monopoly not Greens/Dark Purples.

[Life]

Below the Greens could go either way. I personally feel they should be below, as even as clunky and expensive as the Greens are, they do have the potential to hand you the win in a drawn out game. Utilities... not so much. And for the same reasons as utilities, railroads need to drop. They have a somewhat better situation, yes, but still a lot of the same flaws, namely an utter inability to cripple or bankrupt someone, ever, and no way to build on them. I can say that I, at least, would never take the railroads over any monopoly not Greens/Dark Purples.

I can't see a reason why they should go under the Greens. The Utilities together cost $300. That's less than the price of a single Green deed. Even assuming that we pay $150 for the first one and then trade $350 for the second (pretty fair deal IF you're not raping the rest of the board with houses on either Light Blue or Orange), that's still less than 2 Green deeds.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Low tier. No exceptions. Above Yellows.

The other gripes I have are Orange above Light Blue (especially when it's easy to pull one on the first roll of the game) and Purples at the bottom.

Okay. Good enough for me.

I agree about Orange and Light Blue switching. Only reason why is because of higher traffic to Orange. It is, however, easier to get Hotels on Light Blue. I'll make the switch now.

My reasoning for Purples/Browns/Cheapass is because rolling to get them isn't easy. On the first runaround you need exactly three to get Mediterranean. Since three can only be achieved with two possible combinations (one/two and two/one) it's not easy, whereas you need six (one/five, two/four, three/three, four/two, five/one), eight (two/six, three/five, four/four, five/three, six/two), or nine (three/six, four/five, five/four, six/three) for a Light Blue. Your odds of getting two in one turn is less but more possible than snagging Mediterranean (getting three/three to snag Oriental, and then rolling two or three to get one of the others). Not to mention CPU's tend to trade those fairly easily (getting Park Place/Boardwalk requires an arm, a leg, half of your properties, and half of your money). Although you most likely can Hotel Baltic and Mediterranean in one fell swoop, it's getting them that's not as easy.

[Life]

Getting them to Hotel including the effort to get them in the first place is still way easier than half of the shit above them. It's so much more difficult to get Green or Yellow to deliver similar results simply because of their costs. I think Purple's rightful spot is at the bottom of Mid tier.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

So Greens to Not Even Worth It and Purples/Browns to below Dark Blues is what I'm possibly reading. In that case should Utilities go to Bottom?

[Anouleth]

Low tier. No exceptions. Above Yellows.

The other gripes I have are Orange above Light Blue (especially when it's easy to pull one on the first roll of the game) and Purples at the bottom.

Um, I don't know how you play, but on the first go around the board, people aren't allowed to buy properties.

Moreover, being more likely to land on the property works both ways. Your opponents are more likely to land on it and get to it first. Overall, the chances of being the "first" to get any individual property are never going to be greater than 1/nth, assuming that the starting player is determined randomly, and that n is the number of players in the game.

[Life]

So Greens to Not Even Worth It and Purples/Browns to below Dark Blues is what I'm possibly reading. In that case should Utilities go to Bottom?

I'd keep them still in Low. There's only two of them and they ARE pretty cheap.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Um, I don't know how you play, but on the first go around the board, people aren't allowed to buy properties.

I have never heard of that way before.

And I've moved the Purples/Browns up to below the Dark Blues for now. However, now I'm wondering if the two could switch, simply because of the extreme risk differences.

[Life]

I have never heard of that way before.

And I've moved the Purples/Browns up to below the Dark Blues for now. However, now I'm wondering if the two could switch, simply because of the extreme risk differences.

Naw. Dark Blue can take you out of the game and they WILL be traded for.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

True, true. Getting them is a pain but once you have them it's so worth it. However, they have low traffic. Then again, their traffic is about equal to the Purples/Browns. And buying them is actually pretty good because the two combined cost less than buying all three Yellows.

[Life]

Then again, their traffic is about equal to the Purples/Browns. And buying them is actually pretty good because the two combined cost less than buying all three Yellows.

Not exactly. I'm also assuming trading material. Trading for that 2nd Blue is going to be damn expensive.

[Stark]

Okay, I knew I would have to defend Orange at the top, so here goes. Fully developing the Light Blues costs a total of $1070, for a spread of $550/600 in rent. Conveniently, the Oranges match this spread exactly at 3 houses, costing $1460. So, for an extra $400, the Oranges completely match the Light Blues. $400 is not actually that much considering you have all your other unpaired properties as mortgage reserves to dip into. In exchange, Oranges can actually be developed further, 2 more levels. After 1 rent at 3 houses you will have almost enough to take them up to hotel level, where they vastly outstrip ($950/1000) the Light Blues for the rest of the game.

Also, due to the positioning of the Jail and Go to Jail squares, the route between those two will statistically be more traversed throughout the game, leading, overall, to properties being landed on more the closer they are to Free Parking. Oranges are so great for the same reason it's easy to land on a Light Blue turn 1: It's extremely likely to throw a 6, 8 or 9 out of jail. Light Blues are on the other side of jail, which is a very unfortunate position for this reason.

For this same reason, the Light Purples should drop, at least to below the Reds. It's much harder to land on a Light Purple out of jail, and the total cost of buying and fully developing them is only $120 less then the Oranges for a $100-200 dip in rent at hotel level. Red also benefit from their proximity to Free Parking (High chance to land on the second turn out of jail, and possible though unlikely on the first.) Their rents also start to reach a "killer" level at three houses and above, which isn't hard to achieve.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Agreed. Especially against smart players and/or computers. You have to be willing to make a few sacrifices. My strategy is of course buying some of the lower tier ones (like greens and yellows) and bartering those off.

Also, this is a question for people out there: how is the ranking of the Railroads? Should they be rearranged at all, or are they fine as is? I tried to do it based on traffic to the areas but I wonder if anyone else has an alternative.

[Life]

Your analysis is very nice but you forgot to take one thing into account. The fact that people would rather part with a light blue than an orange.

The trading value of Light Blue is very high simply because it is so cheap. You hit a Hotel!Oriental and it's going to bend you but not break you. And that's what people think about. It's much easier to achieve the monopoly with Light Blue than it is with Orange.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

The thing is, on the first runthrough, you're probably picking up a Light Blue, Purple, and Orange. The one issue is, of course, trading. Your odds of getting all three of any of those is tough. Blader's right, getting Light Blues is the easiest because people are more willing to part with them, even if they're aware you can easily begin building if you get the piece they own. Merely because of the low rent cost and most people can get it.

[Stark]

Yes, but realistically, after the first round of trading, everyone is going to end up with single Monopoly. Giving another player a monopoly without getting one in return is suicide, leading to three way trades when needed. The same goes for giving 2 Monopolies for 1 in the long term. You might end up with some railroads/utilities/Dark Purples from the deal but honestly those make only a minor difference. For the reasons stated above, I'd take the Oranges above the Light Blues every time. Obviously, exceptions exist, but barring extreme luck/terrible players you will likely have a single monopoly until another player bites the dust.

[Life]

There are no designated rounds of trading because deed distribution isn't equal. It's pretty bullshit to say that everyone will end up with a monopoly after the first bunch of trades since that's not necessarily true. It MAY happen or it may not. A trade of 3 deeds and money for a single orange monopoly is very reasonable in the earlygame (depending on the deeds of course).

Edited December 17, 2011 by Bblader

[Caliban of Sycorax]

It's not hard to have more than one, it of course depends on the number of players. Odds are you can snag the Jail/Just Visiting corner with a few well-planned trades of your more useless Yellows and Greens. Since they're higher base value people are more likely to trade those away (at base two Purples is less than one Green).

[Stark]

I wouldn't say that every game each player will only get one Monopoly. But in a game among skilled players, where no one is ridiculously lucky, that is the most likely outcome due that the fact that if a single player has the only Monopoly, and it's a decent one, that player will almost assuredly dominate the game. Even in situations where, say, a player completes a Monopoly on their own without trades, this will encourage others to make trades among themselves to get Monopolies of their own. Also, there is a good reason why it's easier to trade for the Light Blues then the Oranges: The Oranges are better to have! You will have to trade highly for them, but that gives you the most landed on properties that not only are cheap to build on early but have a solid lategame. Obviously, if you playing against people who will trade you your 3rd Light Blue for an incomplete Green/Yellow, you're at an advantage. Same goes for the Dark Blues being worse in a game where players go OMG BOARDWALK and value it at 5 billion dollars if you try to trade for it. I would think for the purpose of this list we should assume players are at relatively even (and high) skill levels.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

I'd like to assume that as well. Once again it also depends on how many players. With eight it's much harder to get even one Monopoly, but with three to five it's much easier.

[Stark]

Eight also leads to absurdly long games... the most I've ever player with is six and that took a LONG time. I would also assume 4-5 in general, though it is playable with 6-7 as well. The more players you add, the more likely Monopolies are to be divided among 3+ players, and the more headache-inducing trades get.