h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are so many versions of Monopoly aavaiable today. Here in the states you can get one of your home city or your favorite sports team. My son has collected versions from around the world. His first version other then the original was from England. He picked it up when he visited there. When we use that board, it brings back wonderful memories of the countryside and the wonderful people he met.

The countryside? I'm guessing he never went down The Old Kent Road when he went to England.

(For those not so familiar with the standard UK version, it's set entirely in London, and bits of London fairly near the centre. You have to go quite a long way out of London to find anything approximating countryside. And the Old Kent Road is one of the first properties on the UK monopoly board.)

*waits to be told that there's actually a round-Britain version...*

The really disappointing thing about all of these "localised"or "themed" versions of Monopoly is that the underlying structure of the game isn't altered at all, so it's not really a different game - they just rename the squares (and presumably change the reasons for giving or receiving money in Chance of Community Chest).

As a result the basic strategic points don't change, and these are my main tips:
Try to get three houses on ANY set as soon as you can, because there's such a a huge jump compared to the rent for two;
Buy the 3rd, 4th and 5th sets if you can, because they give the best cost/return ratio;
Buy stations unless the ones already sold are split, in which case it's not worth it - if you have just one and the other three belong to other players, mortgage it as soon as you're short of money;
Buy your way out of jail straight away at the beginning of the game, stay there as long as you're allowed once the bulk of the properties are sold.

I would mortgage other unimproved properties for which I did not have a set before mortgaging a station. Compared to the purchase price, the yield of 12.5% is equivalent to that on an unimproved Mayfair. An expected (4x7=) $28 rent for a utility, compared to a purchase price of $150, is even better. Naturally the relativities compared to the mortgage value are the same.

I found an article that calculated the incidence one could expect to land on each specifc property. The set before Free Parking had the greatest incidence, as there are so many ways of getting to jail (interesting that an old set that I had, I (possibly incorrectly) recall, had gaol) and two ways of getting out are a double 3 and a double 4. I think that the set after Free Parking had the next greatest incidence, followed by the set after jail.