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Bohnanza is a German-style card game based on the game mechanics of trading and politics, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and released in 1997 (in German) by Amigo Spiele and (in English) by Rio Grande Games. It is played with a deck of cards with comical illustrations of eleven different types of beans of varying scarcity, which the players are trying to plant and sell in order to earn money.[1] The principal restriction is that players may only farm two or three types of beans at once (limited by the number of fields they own), but they obtain beans of all different types randomly from the deck and so must engage in trade with the other players to be successful.
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![]() Box art for the game Bohnanza. | |
Designers | Uwe Rosenberg |
---|---|
Illustrators | Uwe Rosenberg, Klemens Franz, Atelier Löwentor, Björn Pertoft |
Publishers | Amigo Spiele / Rio Grande Games |
Players | 2-7 |
Setup time | approx. 5 min. |
Playing time | 30-60 minutes |
The original game is for 3–5 players and takes about 1 hour to play, but the Rio Grande edition adds alternative rules to the official rulebook to allow for games for 2–7 players. The name Bohnanza is a pun on the words Bohne (German for "bean") and bonanza (an English word for "an exceptionally large and rich mineral deposit"[2] as well as a reference to the long-running Western show Bonanza).
Name | Total in Deck | Number Needed to Harvest | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | German | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
Coffee Bean | Kaffeebohne1 | 24 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 12 |
Wax Bean2 | Weinbrandbohne1 | 22 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Blue Bean | Blaue Bohne3 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 |
Chili Bean | Feuerbohne | 18 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 9 |
Stink Bean | Saubohne | 16 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
Green Bean | Brechbohne4 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
Soy Bean | Sojabohne | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
Black-eyed Bean | Augenbohne | 10 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Red Bean | Rote Bohne | 8 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Garden Bean | Gartenbohne | 6 | - | 2 | 3 | - |
Cocoa Bean | Kakaobohne1 | 4 | - | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Field Bean | Ackerbohnen5 | 3 | - | 26 | 3 | - |
^1 The Coffee, Wax and Cocoa Beans were added in an expansion in the German edition. In the English edition of the game, they are included in the standard set. They are also included in the 25th anniversary edition.
^2 The English edition of the game changed the Weinbrandbohne (Brandy Bean) into the Wax Bean.
^3 In German, blaue Bohnen is slang for bullets, explaining the illustration of the blue bean dressed as a cowboy.
^4 In German, green beans are called Brechbohnen, from the verb brechen, meaning "to break" (as in "breaking" the beans from the bush in order to harvest them); but brechen in German can also mean "to vomit", explaining the illustration of the vomiting green bean.
^5 Only included in the 25th anniversary Edition; Field Bean originally included in an expansion.
^6 Only playable in a 4-5 player game. When Harvested, it grants the player an extra field by turning over the playmat to show three fields.
Each player is dealt a hand of cards to start (typically five cards, though hand size varies with expansion sets and number of players). A rule unique to Bohnanza is that cards in hand must be kept in the order in which they are dealt at all times; they may not be rearranged.
Each player has two fields (or three in a three-player game) in which to plant beans. In older editions of the game, a third field could be bought by any player at any point during the game for three coins, though in more recent editions this ability has been removed. Each field may contain any number of bean cards, but all beans in a field must be of the same bean type. If a bean of a type different from those already growing in a field is planted into that field, the beans previously in it must be "harvested" for coins. A field containing just one bean may not be harvested by a player unless all of their fields have 1 or fewer beans in them. Each player also has a trading area to hold cards gained through trades and a treasury to hold the player's earned coins.
Cards in the hand are kept hidden. Cards in trading areas and fields are visible to all players. The number of cards in each player's treasury is kept secret from the other players. The discard pile is face up, but only the top card is visible; players may not examine the pile. When the deck runs out, the discard pile is reshuffled and re-used as the deck.
During their turn, each player does the following:
This turn sequence can be summarized with these four phrases: "Must plant, may plant," "Turn up two," "Trade and plant trades," and "Draw three cards."
Each bean card carries a list of how many beans of that type are needed in order to obtain one, two, three and four coins when harvesting a field. To harvest a field, a player counts the beans in it and consults the list to determine the largest amount of coins he or she can obtain from them. (If not enough beans were harvested, this may end up being none at all.) The player places that many of the cards face down in his or her treasury (each card has a coin on the back). The rest of the cards go on top of the discard pile, face up. Because some of the cards are set aside as coins, the number of cards in the deck becomes fewer with each reshuffle (in practice, the first reshuffle marks approximately halfway through the game).
As mentioned, a field containing just one bean may not be harvested by a player who also owns a field containing more than one bean.
When the deck runs out, the discard pile is reshuffled and re-used as the deck; this happens twice. The game ends instantly the third time the deck runs out. At that point, all players harvest all beans in their fields. The player with the most coins in their treasury wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most cards remaining in their hand wins the game.
Rules adapted from description at ToothyWiki:Bohnanza, as permitted by ToothyWiki:CopyrightMatters
Uwe Rosenberg and Hanno Girke have designed a number of expansions to the game, some of which were released as limited editions by Lookout Games.
Bohnanza has inspired six spinoffs; additionally, one Amigo card game, Nicht die Bohne, is named in parody of the game.
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