LOTR Monopoly

Monopoly, the boardgame, has been making a comeback of late in my world. Actually, boardgames in general have become more fun lately. Part of it has to do with perception, part of it has to do with the people who you play the games with. Anyone who's anyone has played some form of Settler's of Catan in recent years. There's the thrill of going with a new strategy and having your numbers get rolled, and the pain of defeat as a barbarian hoard annihilates your cities. Anyway, I played a rousing game of Monopoly last night, the special LOTR edition. Basically, it's the same gameplay as the original version, with the exception that everything has been renamed to match middle earth (Boardwalk=Mount Doom), and there's a ring involved. The ring gradually moves around the board and when it reaches Mount Doom, the game ends. It's nice, in a way, cuz it speeds things up and brings the game to a sensible end. However, last night, when the ring landed on Mount Doom we continued to play. There were two of us left and we decided to duke it out. It could have gone either way, as my worthy opponent had Mount Doom and it's counterpart, both with 'Fortresses', as well as several other properties built up. However, the dice landed in my favour, and by the end of the game I owned Middle Earth, heaps of cash and bragging rights. (Hence this post).
I'm rather high on caffeine right now. It's barely after 9AM and I've already had two large Tim Horton's coffee's.