The game being discussed here is Monopoly City Streets, a free online game that you can play in your web browser that is loosely based on the board game Monopoly and is intended to be part of a brilliant marketing campaign strategy by Tribal DDB, a digital marketing agency. You can play the game here, and read the rules here, and read a few FAQs here if you are interested. I also have other resources on the sidebar of this blog.
I have done some analysis of the possibilities and run a few simulations based on my first two days of game play and have found a strategy that should allow players to at least double their score for every day of game play.
Day One
The trick is to buy a street in the middle of no where worth a little over 1 million and load it with either Green Houses or City Centre Cottages. When Hazard Cards come up, simply discard them. DO NOT use them unless you find yourself under attack from someone else stupid enough to use one. When you have built all you can build the first day, you will notice that your rent due the next day will be close to or more than what you have just spent developing your property, say around 2 million. Also be aware that your login welfare check will be 1 million. That will give you around 3 million for the next day of game play.
Day Two
When you login, you should have about 3 million to spend. Here is what you should do for this day...
Sell houses back to the bank, and place Grid Buildings in their place. You should sell only enough houses to make room for new buildings. Grid Buildings cost 500,000 and for properties worth more than 1 million, they will pay for themselves in one day.
You should buy 6 Grid Buildings (or more if you can afford it) for your one street. These buildings will bring in 3 million the next day to add to the nearly 2 million (plus or minus a few hundred thousand) and your 1 million welfare check. This means you will have around 6 million in income the next time you log in.
We Interrupt this Tutorial with A Word About Bonus Buildings...
You should also clear a section of your road for placing a bonus building at the beginning of your game play, even if you have to build houses on them at the end of game play for a small loss...it'll be worth it for the added protection a bonus building will give you. My current thinking on Bonus Buildings is to have at least 3 of them on every street you own to make it very for the Hazard Gangs to attack you. Only a coordinated attack from a multi-account player, an alliance of players, or one player who is filling a very long road with small houses could harm you. As you progress in the game, you might want to consider the added protection that 6 or more could offer you, especially if your road is long and you find yourself on the local or national leader boards. It will be open season on your property then as all the Lilliputians use their Hazard Cards on you.
Day Three
When you log in, you should have around 6 million in cash to spend. (I will have 6.8 million due tonight at 8pm EDT when I login as I have been proceeding using this strategy). See my Day Two Score.
You should continue selling smaller buildings to the bank and replacing them as space allows with the larger Grid Buildings. You should be able to build at least 12 of them, plus or minus a couple.
At the end of day three, you should find yourself looking forward to an income of 9 to 16 million the next time you login for game play. The numbers will vary widely due to the possibility of receiving Chance Cards that fine you a substantial portion of your accumulating wealth. So far, I have managed to avoid fines, and can't help but speculate it might be related to having not used a Hazard Card on anyone. That may just be wishful thinking on my part. I know that if I had had a hand in designing this game...your chances of drawing penalties would be directly proportional to the number of times you had offensively used Hazard Cards on other players, and to a lesser degree on retributive use of Hazard Cards.
Day Four
I will stick with my baseline of doubling your income everyday, and suppose an Income of 12 million for this day of game play.
You should purchase a road worth not less than 5 million and immediately place as many Grid Buildings on it as you can afford, which, in this scenario, would be 14 Grid Buildings which would bring 7 million plus the next day. (If the rent does indeed go up proportional to the value of the road, them you could be due as much as 49 million!!!). Now you see what I mean by exponential growth.
Conclusion
This pretty much outlines my strategic thinking for the game of Monopoly City Streets.
This is all based on starting out in the middle of nowhere, avoiding unnecessary conflict with others, and very patient in-game reconnaissance looking for long roads to purchase... as well as not being set upon by opportunist Hazard Card users.
Feel free to poke holes in this hypothesis, and I'll let you know after my next day of game play if things are proceeding apace with my expectations.
Ultimate Goal
My ultimate goal is not to stay hidden in the boondocks forever. At some point, I plan to emerge and do battle for Real Estate Supremacy in the weeks before the game terminates.
