Monopoly

Went "north" over the Easter weekend and during our travels visited the wind farm at Walkaway.  It's an impressive wind farm.  Apparently it's the largest one in Western Australia - the wiki article is brief but interesting.


The day after visiting the wind farm I sat down to play the new Monopoly U-Build game.  I quite like the idea, you choose basically how long you want to play for, set up the board to meet this requirement and roll the dice.


There are some changes, however, one is the introduction of "hazard pieces".  These are bright (fluro) orange and if you "build" one of these next to property the residential rent on these properties are set to zero (you can move these during the game).  Industrial rents are not affected.  Now there are three of these - power station, prison, sewage works - and I can understand somewhat why you might not want one of these in your neighbourhood.


Another new concept in the game is the introduction of "bonus pieces", these, to my way of thinking are the opposite to the hazard pieces.  If you build one in your area you're protected from the building of a hazard.  These are bright green in colour.  And again there are three - a park, a school and a WIND FARM?!?!?!  


Who in their right mind would want a wind farm in their back garden?  They are NOISY, very, very NOISY.  The girls likened the noise to the sound of an airplane.  I would rather have the prison thanks (well, if you can shield the lights).


The girls and I concluded that the creator of the game had never even seen a wind farm let alone been near one.


The fact that skyscrapers DOUBLED the rent also interested me.  Apart from these things we had a lot of fun playing and Miss 8 wiped the floor with me.