Bohnanza
| Designer(s) | Uwe Rosenberg |
|---|---|
| Illustrator(s) | Uwe Rosenberg, Klemens Franz, Atelier Löwentor, Björn Pertoft |
| Publisher(s) | Amigo Spiele / Rio Grande Games |
| Age range | 10+ |
| Setup time | approx. 5 min. |
| Playing time | 20-40 minutes |
Bohnanza is a German-style card game of trading and politics, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and released in 1997 by Amigo Spiele in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. It is played with a deck of cards with comical illustrations of eleven different types of beans (of varying scarcities), which the players are trying to plant and sell in order to raise money. The principal restriction is that players may only be farming two or three types of bean at once, but they obtain beans of all different types randomly from the deck, and so must engage in trading with the other players to be successful. The original game is for three to five players and takes about one hour to play, but the Rio Grande edition adds alternative rules to allow games for two or seven players.
The name is a pun on the words "bonanza" and "Bohne" (German for "bean"). The official English release preserved the name Bohnanza.
^1 These beans were added in an expansion in the German edition. In the English edition of the game, the beans were included in the standard set.
^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" referring to the verb "brechen" meaning "to break" ("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
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 in which to plant beans. A third field may be bought by any player at any point during the game for three coins. Each field may contain any number of bean cards, of any one 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 who also owns a field containing more than one bean. Each player also has a trading area to hold cards gained through trades and a treasury to hold the player's earned coins.
...
Wikipedia