With several Star Wars playlists blasting on Spotify, and a barrage of film quotes in our arsenal, this month's Monopoly contest used a Star Wars board that drew just on the Original Trilogy.
As it was Clare's choice, she got to pick her counter first and chose Princess Leia, Rachel took R2-D2. Pete was Boba Fett, and I was Luke.
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| Left to Right: Boba Fett, R2-D2, Leia, and Luke |
Although the temperatures weren't quite Tatooine levels, it was still hot and sticky when we sat down to game - even with the back doors wide open - leading to a fractious (but good natured) contest of cut-throat commercialism.
Pete pretty much led from the off, if such a thing is possible in Monopoly, while I dragged along behind the others. Everyone else had almost completed a couple of laps of the board before Luke finally limped back to the Go square for the first time.
It was quite a development-heavy game, with more hotels (space ports) and houses (colonies) seemingly popping up than usual, which meant three of us were pretty much 'cash poor' for the majority of the game.
Conversely, Pete somehow engineered an enormous property portfolio empire and a personal fortune that rivalled (if not exceeded by the end of the game) that of The Bank.
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| The underused 1,000 credit coin - more Monopoly themes should employ coins! |
My only moment of financial "happiness" was trading in a couple of 500 credit notes for the 1,000 credit coin... which I then promptly used to purchase two-thirds of Endor off of Rachel.
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| Rachel's collection of property, around the game's mid-point |
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| The start of Pete's empire: space ports on Dagobah |
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| The rebels strike back: I build space ports on Hoth... |
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| ... for all the good it did! |
Clare went out first, when I somehow bankrupted her, but then the rest of us fell in quick succession to Pete's impressive array of Imperial space ports on high value sites.
I was next out and then Rachel, pleased with her second place, which has helped her slightly in the overall rankings.
I was next out and then Rachel, pleased with her second place, which has helped her slightly in the overall rankings.
With his victory in this game, Emperor Pete pulls ahead at the top of the Monopoly Club league table, while at the tail end Rachel is clawing her towards Clare's third place spot (although we have to remember Clare has a game in hand, as Nick subbed in for her during one of our early games).
The Star Wars board had some nice theming touches, starting with the counters being divided into Light Side and Dark Side, which then determined which style of colony (houses) and space ports (hotels) a player could build.
A particularly welcome touch, and seemingly rare in the games we've played, was having sets of properties united by their in-universe locations (e.g. there were three green properties all on Endor; two dark blues on Coruscant; two slightly different shades of blue on Dagobah etc).
Chance and Community Chest were labelled Rebel and Imperial, with their all-important text themed to the Star Wars universe, and accompanied by appropriate clip art.
The miniature movers were sculpted after Star Wars characters from the Original Trilogy, and reminded me an awful lot of old school RPG minis produced for the legendary West End Games d6 roleplaying game from the late '80s and '90s.
Unfortunately, I found the figures occasionally difficult to identify, especially against the darker squares, and developed a tendency to move the wrong one (usually Clare's Princess Leia) instead of my own. Much to the amusement of my fellow gamers!
It's Pete's choice which of his many, many themed Monopoly boards we play next time, and so we'll have to wait and see which he chooses (Ghostbusters and Game of Thrones were mentioned, but he has a lot to pick from).
A particularly welcome touch, and seemingly rare in the games we've played, was having sets of properties united by their in-universe locations (e.g. there were three green properties all on Endor; two dark blues on Coruscant; two slightly different shades of blue on Dagobah etc).
Chance and Community Chest were labelled Rebel and Imperial, with their all-important text themed to the Star Wars universe, and accompanied by appropriate clip art.
The miniature movers were sculpted after Star Wars characters from the Original Trilogy, and reminded me an awful lot of old school RPG minis produced for the legendary West End Games d6 roleplaying game from the late '80s and '90s.
Unfortunately, I found the figures occasionally difficult to identify, especially against the darker squares, and developed a tendency to move the wrong one (usually Clare's Princess Leia) instead of my own. Much to the amusement of my fellow gamers!
It's Pete's choice which of his many, many themed Monopoly boards we play next time, and so we'll have to wait and see which he chooses (Ghostbusters and Game of Thrones were mentioned, but he has a lot to pick from).
