It is another Sunday, and just like every other Sunday, I participate in the Rento Sunday Tournament organized by the Team behind the development of the Rento game. If you do not know by now, Rento is the mobile version of the board game Monopoly. It is packed with more options, strategy cards, more lands, and special dice. So it is no surprise that the weekly tournament comes with a special dice, less capital, and fast mode, to avoid delaying any player.
Each round has four random players on a board, and as you win, you migrate to the next round filled with another set of different players who are winners from their boards. The more wins you get, the further you go in the final standings at the end of the tournament. But if you get kicked out in the next round, not to worry, you still get a gift for winning your previous round, like I did in the last two weeks' edition.
In today's tournament, Lady Luck was not in my corner, or better still, she left me out to dry when I was close to winning. The game started with everybody having prebought lands, meaning lands that belonged to them, but only a few lands were still up for grabs if you were lucky enough to get them. For me, I got some low-income areas, but I didn't let that ruin me or slow me down. Immediately, I began to bargain, trade with another player who had a land I wanted, and yeah, after a couple of offers, a deal for Qatar in exchange for Greece was made.
This deal gave me a whole lane, and instantly, I built my hotels. Take note, in Rento, when you get an edge, you press on it immediately. With this, I felt things were finally in my favour and the game would go my way, coupled with another player entering my hotel twice, thereby giving me capital power. Then, the drought season befell upon me faster than I could say Jack Robinson, nobody came knocking on any of my hotels anymore. Little did I know that my prompt act of building hotels on my lands woke my opponents up, and they began to trade with one another to avoid immediate bankruptcy.
Then my problem became clear: the lands were too cheap, therefore, my hotels were cheap to pay for, unlike my opponent's hotels in Sweden, Norway, and Finland that cost a fortune. I thought that since I had six hotels in low-income places would outnumber three hotels in high-income places. Well, I was so wrong, and now I see that when it comes to real estate, it is all about location, most importantly, prime locations.
It only took me a couple of entries into my opponent's hotels to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sold off all my hotels, brick for brick, which was painful, but in the end it was fun. Monopoly is a game of chance, and making good use of that chance to win.
Well, that is it for this weekend of relaxing with games; work starts tomorrow. Although I will still play games after work but it will not be the same as playing on the weekend when you have two free days to yourself.
See you in the next game.
