There are golden lands in life, then what about board games? Yes! there are golden blocks and you can use them strategically to ultimately win the match.
2 conditions separate golden block from normal block; 1. The most visited block 2. High toll.
Taking over a property where players land on the most has 3 advantages.
- Higher chance in collecting toll from opponents
- You don’t have to pay the toll at the most frequently visited block of the game! Because you own it!
- Higher rate to revisit? Higher rate to bet on
Paris is the city with the highest toll. If you own a Lv.4 Paris…nuff said!
But you will notice that players don’t really land on Paris that much… and it’s not much of a help that way so I wouldn’t consider it a golden block.
Maldives is located in between Fortune Road entry and Minibattle and many players land on this property.
But to get a Lv.4 toll, you must take over all 4 vacation spots and that is extremely hard.
Also, a Lv.4 toll is only 75% and this is equivalent to a Lv.4 Seoul(almost) so…in order to fulfill the condition to be a golden block, it must be frequently visited by players and has expensive toll
Then…Where are the golden blocks?
Cities such as Berlin, Rome, Sydney, London and New York can be considered a golden block.
▲ Golden Blocks
1. Berlin, Rome – End of Fortune road is...too much
1~3 blocks of the fortune road has benefits but…4~6th blocks are the “welcome to reality” blocks.
Berlin is at the 4th block of the fortune road, and Rome is at the 6th block. Two cities can be reached from Lottery won, and takeover certificate block.
The two cities are are also located not so far from the National Tax Service (5 blocks, 7blocks away) so it can become a big burden to players who just payed tax.
Tolls are seemingly high too. Lv.4 Berlin is 105%, and Lv.4 Rome is 113% higher than the starting money, so give a buff to these cities and you will be sitting in a room full of Gold! Muhahaha!!
If you own both Berlin and Rome, you can try to get 4~6 dice counts from the Fortune road for a faster progress. Berlin is more frequently visited whereas toll is higher in Rome. Taking over Praha may activate the color monopoly but for Rome, players need to take over Madrid and Sydney to activate color monopoly.
2. Sydney, London – Whoever lands on the Golden Ox…
Golden Ox multiples the toll and no doubt all the players want it.
Sydney and London is right next to Golden Ox, and this means that players who try to use dice control to land on Golden Ox actually lands more on the cities next to it. Risk is especially higher for cities like Tokyo and Prague because Sydney, Golden Ox, London is all in range of a dice roll.
Chance to land on the Golden Ox block is lower than landing on London or Sydney so this also makes it harder for the opponent to takeover the Golden ox. Sydney and London ranks 3rd and 4th in the toll rankings, and this can be a huge burden for the opponents.
So, takeover both cities upgrade or protect using skill cards and make the upper part of the board block a misery road for the opponents. Having at least one of the cities will be a great asset to deter dice control by opponents.
3. New York – Meet friends with benefit
New York ranks the 2nd highest toll but it’s efficiency is higher than Paris, the city with the highest toll out of all. Paris is right next to the Misery road, so players need to go far away from the Misery road or just land on it since it’s better than being bankrupt.
New York is also advantageous for its location because it’s 6~8 blocks away from Berlin, Hawaii and Rome, located right after the fortune road. So if a player lands on a Fortune road, that player has a high chance to land on New York! The toll pretty much explains it’s title, “2nd highest toll”. Lv.4 toll is 143% of start money and it’s not cheap at all!
- Skill Cards x Golden Blocks
Investigation skill card protects a city player owns for 3~5 turns. This skill card is used when opponent doesn’t have a takeover certificate and when the toll of my cities can’t bankrupt opponents. Try to protect your cities using Investigation and upgrade them by using Rapid Growth and Reconstruction. Upgrade your cities ASAP and it will be easier for your to bankrupt opponents.
Steal Property can be used to takeover any property opponent owns. Use it wisely or you will just waste it!
Revenge can be used to steal property but you can also use Discount Coupon together to takeover an expensive city.
▲ Skill Cards to protect my property
▲ Stolen property? I can steal it again!
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