Warhammer 40,000 Monopoly

With the Games Workshop licensing expanding, the brand of Warhammer comes to new products and merchandise. There is clothing, video games and even funko pops, and of course some classics like board games. But when you're thinking about Warhammer and board games, you're probably thinking of Heroquest or maybe one of the newer incarnations like Warhammer Quest. So Monopoly comes as a bit of a surprise. But here it is - Monopoly Warhammer 40,000.

Monopoly comes as a white label product for quite some time now. There are multiple localized variants of Monopoly, branding it with cities and replacing the well-known streets of Monopoly with those of the branded city. But the customizing doesn't stop there, so we now have Monopoly Game of Thrones, Walking Dead or Lord of the Rings, replacing the streets with matching places and the player figures with icons from the setting.

So let us take a look into the box and see, what Monopoly Warhammer 40,000 contains. Opening up, we see the tray, instructions and two stacks, one for the cards and one for the money.

 There are 14 hotels and 35 houses (that is 2 more hotels and 3 more houses than stated on the box), along with a pair of dice. That is the standard set up for every Monopoly set. Of course, as were talking here about the Warhammer 40,000 variant of the game, the houses and hotels aren't called like that in the game, they are renamed outposts and fortresses. And the figures are replaced with matching counterparts from the 40k universe. Therefore you won't find hat, iron or thimble in here, but 6 different icons, a Space Marine Helmet, an Eldar rune, an Orc choppa, a Tyranid ripper, a Chaos icon and a Necron monolith. They are cast from a dark metal and seem to be washed, to darken down the recesses.

There are two thick batches in here as well, one is a deck of cards and the other one as stack of Imperial credits. The credits are available in the values of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500. The card deck covers the community chest cards and chance cards, but they are renamed to fit in, so you'll find fate and honour cards in here instead.

And of course, the streets and other real estate are given matching names as well. The streets are different planets from the 40k universe, so Boardwalk (the most expensive street in Monopoly) is Holy Terra, Park Place is Titan, the homeworld of the Grey Knights. The four train stations are Eldar Craftworlds in this set up. The electric company and water works are two forge worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Free Parking, Jail and such aren't renamed.

As mentioned above, the streets and locations are rebranded on the gaming board. It covers a very present Primaris Space Marine / Death Guard half-and-half artwork, which is known from the current Warhammer 40,000 edition. The cheaper streets are war torn planets like Gorkamorka or Armageddon, in the middle you'll find some homeworlds to Imperial Regiments. Among them even Cadia (Cadia stands!)

Everybody thinks that they know the rules to Monopoly. But that is a common misassumption. So please, for the overall gaming experience and fun of the group, do read the rules. There are a couple of house rules that came from somewhere and are stuck in the people's head. There for I'd like to point out some Monopoly a lot of people tend to get wrong.

• Free Parking does not give you access to the "holy grail" money pool in the middle of the board. It actually does nothing, it just a break for you.
• Fees and such are not put in the middle, the go straight into the bank.
• If a player does not wish to buy the property they land on, it goes into auction and the other players can bid on it. Including the player who didn't want it in the first place. This makes acquiring streets much faster and easier, as you do not have to land on them (yourself) to buy them.
• Being in jail is less dramatic than you might remember. You just can't move unless, you get free (buy paying a fee, having a get-out-of-jail free card etc. etc.), otherwise you are capable to claim your rent, if somebody lands on your property.
• Landing on Go is not a bonus, you do not get any special treatment or additional money.

And please take the time to read the rules on bankruptcy. Most of the "bad" experience that you might have had with this game on family game time, will certainly come from misinterpretation of these rules. The game is much faster than you might remember or have played it. Of course, this does not change the fact, that Monopoly is a game of chance. It has little amount of strategy, as you have no direct option to act against your other players.

The black plastic tray offers a good sorting solution during play. While transporting or storing, you have to stack them again, as the dividers are too narrow / store the items too high for the lid to be closed.

Conclusion
To be honest, when I heard the rumours, that the IP of Warhammer would be used beyond the introduction miniature board games or dungeon crawlers, I expected something around the edges of maybe Risk or Commands & Colours. So Monopoly comes a bit as a surprise, but a fun one. And that is what to keep in mind, it is family fun game, a casual board game that everybody can enjoy. The rules are easy and compact, they fit on a double parallel fold.

This is a fun item to have in your collection or works good as gift, if you want to get something your fellow wargamer, who might have the rare case of unpainted miniatures and you do not want to add even more unpainted miniatures. It works well for a casual meet up or game night, especially with unexperienced players who might not enjoy the more complex or longer games to begin with.

The game is currently available for 25 EUR, which is really good price compared to the RRP of 39,95 EUR. The 40 EUR price badge is the common price for these branded Monopoly sets.

Monopoly is a brand by Hasbro, distributed by Winning Moves in Germany / Europa. Warhammer 40,000 is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.