Monopoly Game Lovers: You Will Love Triopoly!

We are positively Monopoly freaks. I mean to the point that we even gravitate to the damn Monopoly slot machines in Atlantic City. How sick is that? When we recently stumbled upon Triopoly, it was a no brainer. OURS!

Much like Monopoly, Triopoly (not to be confused with Tripoly) is all about accumulating the most property first, preferably entire monopolies, and then building like crazy in order to bankrupt your opponent. This involves moving around the board using two dice. Only with Triopoly, there are three boards. Yep, that's right. Three boards of different sizes stack on top of each other and the monopolies span all three levels, and sometimes involve up to 4 very expensive properties. This isn't easy, folks.

Besides the three boards, two dice and 8 different game tokens (I use the computer token, the plane is a bit hard to move, my friend likes the briefcase.. which I say is really a purse...), you also get 16 gas stations, 22 shopping malls, and 22 sky scrapers. Yep, another complication. You can build a gas station to raise your rent on any property even if you don't own the entire monopoly, but you must have the monopoly to move up to the malls and sky scrapers. It gets a bit hectic to keep track at times... but that's part of the fun!

Along the board are spaces for both travel and Stock Market. These are cards similar to Monopoly's Community Chest and Chance cards. The stock market will always involve money or snaking property from someone else, and the travel cards can move you anywhere on the board.. usually to a level you dread. See, in the beggining of the game you want the third level cuz that's where all the high dollar stuff is. You wanna try to grab as much of that as possible while you still have your $3,500 starting money in your hand. It won't last long, and if you let your opponent grab it all up you're in deep doo-doo later on. We get cut throat on this. I think my friend has some lasting bruises... if you have sensitive ears you absolutely do not want to be in the same room with us while we're playing. heh.

Another twist is the two gambling spots and the lotto spot. Lotto is on ground level and starts with $500. All the money you lose from the stock market also goes in there. Kinda like the way some folks play Monopoly against the rules and put all losses in the middle. It's a sweet deal to land on that lotto, let me tell ya.. especially when your opponent had just tossed 2 grand in there. HA!

The gambling spaces are on the upper two levels. These can make ya or break ya in a hurry. In fact, I think more of our games have been lost to Monte Carlo than to each other... You get up to 3 rolls of the dice, but you must roll at least once when you land here. You bet either 10 times or 100 times the roll prior to rolling. Man, ya just gotta go with the 100 times or you're a wuss. Even numbers win, odd numbers lose. New Game! is a frequently heard thing around these parts after rolling 3 consecutive 11s. Man that hurts.

There are two versions of Triopoly, we have the International version. Trying to find the US version is becoming quite the ordeal. With the International version there are a number of mistakes. For one, the mortgage value on the face of one of the Russian properties says $80, while the back says $60. The actual rule book has a few badly worded areas too, which makes you have to kinda vote on what it really means, and I think some of those cards were meant for the US version since they refer to things like Atlantic City, which is not in this version. Still, this game rawks hard.

While there is some strategy to Monopoly, Triopoly is all about strategy. Should you waste money on a gas station for possible immediate returns or wait and see if you get the set so you can start with the more valuable malls? See, you get not one dime for giving up a gas station later. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Plus, with folks hopping around on all three levels it's a bit of a crap shoot on which properties to develop to catch them. Things change in the blink of an eye and going from feast to famine (and back again) often happens in one roll of the dice.

If you are into competitive board games at all, you should hunt this one down. It's worth the effort. I would say this one should be reserved for more mature players (like us.. snicker... snort). 14 and up should grasp it easily enough. Younger depending on their ability to concentrate.

Five stars for Triopoly from me. It's addicting, and has supplanted Monopoly from the top game of choice in our household... but then we're warped. heh. Go forth and trounce the competition!

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