Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 25, 2008 10:06:10 GMT -5
Quickly: there's a reason this is considered a must own classic card game.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
In Bohnaza players compete to make the most Thalers (gold) by planting various types of beans. Each player starts with two fields in which to plant their beans and a hand full of beans to plant. Each field can only hold one type of bean and cards must be played in the order dealt, which makes for the main strategy of the game. At any time players can sell off one of their crops getting paid thalers based on how many beans they have in their harvest. Higher combos of beans pay more money. To make things interesting each bean has a set rarity, noted on the card, determined by how many of that type of bean are in the deck. Cards range from the Rare Coco bean (only 4 in the deck) to the
common Coffee Bean (24 in the deck). Even a pair of coco beans is worth more then 4 coffee beans.
Gameplay is broken down into four turns. First players MUST plant the next bean in their hand (often requiring the selling of a current crop to make room). Then they have the option to play a second card from their hand.
Next is the trading donating phase. The active player turns up two cards from the top of the draw deck. They then have the option of keeping one or both of the cards. In addition they can offer those cards or any cards in their hand for trade or donation. Trades are made between players with cards from their hands or the two face up cards just put up in this phase. Trades must involve the active players.
Up next is the planting phase. Here all cards just traded and the two face up cards from the deck MUST be planted. This again often results in players having to sell off a crop in order to plant the new beans, often much earlier then they would have liked to.
The last phase has the active player draw 3 cards, and place them in order at the back of their hands.
Play continues until the deck has been recycled three times. At that point the player with the most thalers wins.
There is one additional rule: at any time a player can spend three Thalers to buy a third bean field. An expensive prospect, but one that allows you to have three types of beans growing at once.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]This has what I consider the most important trait in a good game: easy to learn hard to master. Which means the basic gameplay is very simple to learn and teach but due to the game mechanics there is a good amount of strategy involved. Mechanics like having to play your cards in order and being forced to plant anything you trade for really up the strategic value of the game. As we played at the last Pints and Pawns we kept finding new levels to the game and the strategy involved. This included things like realizing that you get your thalers from the beans you just planted, meaning once they are sold and converted to gold those beans are no longer in play. This is huge when someone say trades in three coco beans, making the single bean left in the deck utterly useless. The production value on this one is pretty good. The cards are full sized, nicely coated and have simple yet amusing art on them. Great to see a game that's good with so many players (up to 7 according to the rules).
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Some unnecessary packaging. I'm not sure why a game that contains one deck of cards needs such a large box. I'm sure it's for marketing purposes, but I would have preferred something more portable, especially in such a great pick up and play party style game. The instructions seemed overly complex for some reason. Reading them I didn't know what to think of the game and didn't expect to like it much, only when actually playing did I 'get it' and ended up loving it. Not sure exactly how you could have improved them, but I think they were too verbose. I think a one pager that was more concise may have been better.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]This game involves a lot of trading and potential backstabbing. Personally I love it, but I know some groups prefer less cutthroat play. I was very unimpressed with the two player rules. Really the game should have just said it's for three or more players. Due to this being a trading game the trading mechanic doesn't really work with two players, so instead they made up some variant rules where one player could discard cards, and the other has the option of picking them up. It's just not the same as the normal gameplay, and seems tacked on.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I am very glad Bohnanza is in my gaming collection. It lived up to and even exceeded the hype. Its a easy to learn difficult to master game that is great for large or small groups. It's a lot of fun while still having enough depth to keep more dedicated gamers happy. I have to agree with most of the press and say this is a must have game. The only complaint I can really make is that it's a three or more player game instead of a two or more player game as advertised.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]
In Bohnaza players compete to make the most Thalers (gold) by planting various types of beans. Each player starts with two fields in which to plant their beans and a hand full of beans to plant. Each field can only hold one type of bean and cards must be played in the order dealt, which makes for the main strategy of the game. At any time players can sell off one of their crops getting paid thalers based on how many beans they have in their harvest. Higher combos of beans pay more money. To make things interesting each bean has a set rarity, noted on the card, determined by how many of that type of bean are in the deck. Cards range from the Rare Coco bean (only 4 in the deck) to the
common Coffee Bean (24 in the deck). Even a pair of coco beans is worth more then 4 coffee beans.
Gameplay is broken down into four turns. First players MUST plant the next bean in their hand (often requiring the selling of a current crop to make room). Then they have the option to play a second card from their hand.
Next is the trading donating phase. The active player turns up two cards from the top of the draw deck. They then have the option of keeping one or both of the cards. In addition they can offer those cards or any cards in their hand for trade or donation. Trades are made between players with cards from their hands or the two face up cards just put up in this phase. Trades must involve the active players.
Up next is the planting phase. Here all cards just traded and the two face up cards from the deck MUST be planted. This again often results in players having to sell off a crop in order to plant the new beans, often much earlier then they would have liked to.
The last phase has the active player draw 3 cards, and place them in order at the back of their hands.
Play continues until the deck has been recycled three times. At that point the player with the most thalers wins.
There is one additional rule: at any time a player can spend three Thalers to buy a third bean field. An expensive prospect, but one that allows you to have three types of beans growing at once.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]This has what I consider the most important trait in a good game: easy to learn hard to master. Which means the basic gameplay is very simple to learn and teach but due to the game mechanics there is a good amount of strategy involved. Mechanics like having to play your cards in order and being forced to plant anything you trade for really up the strategic value of the game. As we played at the last Pints and Pawns we kept finding new levels to the game and the strategy involved. This included things like realizing that you get your thalers from the beans you just planted, meaning once they are sold and converted to gold those beans are no longer in play. This is huge when someone say trades in three coco beans, making the single bean left in the deck utterly useless. The production value on this one is pretty good. The cards are full sized, nicely coated and have simple yet amusing art on them. Great to see a game that's good with so many players (up to 7 according to the rules).
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Some unnecessary packaging. I'm not sure why a game that contains one deck of cards needs such a large box. I'm sure it's for marketing purposes, but I would have preferred something more portable, especially in such a great pick up and play party style game. The instructions seemed overly complex for some reason. Reading them I didn't know what to think of the game and didn't expect to like it much, only when actually playing did I 'get it' and ended up loving it. Not sure exactly how you could have improved them, but I think they were too verbose. I think a one pager that was more concise may have been better.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]This game involves a lot of trading and potential backstabbing. Personally I love it, but I know some groups prefer less cutthroat play. I was very unimpressed with the two player rules. Really the game should have just said it's for three or more players. Due to this being a trading game the trading mechanic doesn't really work with two players, so instead they made up some variant rules where one player could discard cards, and the other has the option of picking them up. It's just not the same as the normal gameplay, and seems tacked on.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]I am very glad Bohnanza is in my gaming collection. It lived up to and even exceeded the hype. Its a easy to learn difficult to master game that is great for large or small groups. It's a lot of fun while still having enough depth to keep more dedicated gamers happy. I have to agree with most of the press and say this is a must have game. The only complaint I can really make is that it's a three or more player game instead of a two or more player game as advertised.