BrettspielWelt

Bohnanza - Online Guide

Starting The Game

With /join 3-5 players can join the game. With /start the game begins. Alternatively, you can use the Game Tool!

Object of the Game

Bohnanza is a fun card game about planting and harvesting different types of beans. The main element of the game is trading in beans (or swapping beans). In Bohnanza, you can haggle like crazy and sometimes, you can even be just a teeny bit mean ...

Game Board

1. Player Dashboard
2. Bean Trade Selector
3. Phase Button
4. Bean Market
5. Offer Window
6. Cards in Hand | Exchanged Cards (and moveable divider)
7. Bean Photo Album
8. Game Info (round number - cards remaining in deck - discard count)
9. Request area

1. Active player symbol
2. Player's name
3. Cards in hand/exchanged beans (still needing cultivated)
4. Bean fields
5. Bean-Gold Holdings

Flow of the game

The most important rule in Bohnanza is that you may not change to order of your cards! So you always play with the left-most card, and new cards are added to the right of your hand.

Each player starts with five cards in their hand and two empty bean fields where he can plant. As soon as he has earned three gold beans, he can buy a third bean field.

The game consists of four phases. Phase 1 (playing card(s) from your hand), Phase 2 (The main part of the game where the players engage in spirited trading and dealing), Phase 3 (cultivating beans) and Phase 4 (drawing cards). Phases 1,2 and 4 pass very quickly.

Phase 1

The active player must play the first (left-most) card from their hand, that is, plant it into one of their bean fields.

After that, they may plant the next bean card from their hand or they can elect to skip planting the second bean, and click on the Phase button. The game then moves on to Phase 2.

Rules for planting beans:

• A field may only ever contain beans of the same type.
• A bean field may contain any number of beans.
• If you have no matching or free bean field available, you must harvest a bean field in order to make room for planting.

Harvesting beans

Rules for harvesting bean fields:

• If each field contains more than one bean, any field may be harvested.
• If one field contains exactly one bean and the other field(s) contain more than one bean, a field with more than 1 bean must be harvested.
• If each field contains only one bean, any field may be harvested.
• Fields may be harvested even if they do not earn any payment.
• Fields must be harvested in their entirety.
• A number of beans of the type harvested equal to the payment earned are removed from the game. So for example, if you harvest four soybeans (Sojabohnen), two of them are removed from the game.

Payment earned by harvesting a beanfield depends on the type and the number of beans that were planted.

Each bean has a scorecard, which can be shown in a window (by hovering over that card type). The window shows how many of that card are still in the game (in the example, there are 12 Soybeans), the name of the bean and the scorecard. The scorecard shows the number of beans which need to be harvested to gain 1/2/3/4 gold. (In the Soybean example, you will be paid 1/2/3/4 gold for harvesting 2/4/6/7 beans). The more often a bean occurs in the game, the more of it must be planted to earn the same reward.

Phase 2

Phase 2 is the core of the game. Two cards are drawn from the draw pile and placed face up. The active player can either plant them or trade them with the other players. To plant both beans, the active player clicks on the Phase button. Both beans must now be planted according to the rules given above.

Note: In Phase 2, no cards may be taken into players' hands. All cards that are acquired in this phase must be planted immediately at the end of Phase 2.

In most cases, players won't want to plant both bean types, because they might be required to harvest beanfields which won't yet bring any return. Players therefore try to get rid of the face-up beans. To do that, players make offers in the marketplace or wait for offers from the other players. Players may only trade with the active player. The active player may make offers or respond to offers from other players.

Placing offers

To trade beans: Click on the beans that you want to give away, from your hand or from the two face-up cards - they then appear in the offer window at the top (In this example, the fire bean - Feuerbohne was selected to give away). For the beans that you would like the receive, click the cards that are depicted in the Bean Photo Pool (on the left hand border of the game area) - they then appear in the offer window at the bottom (in this example, the Saubohne). To send your offer to the market, click on the arrow of the offer window. The offer will then appear - bordered in your player colour - on the market. To erase the offer, click on the X.

You can change the beans in the offer window at any time until you have sent the offer. Simply click on the additional beans as described above, or delete the ones you have by clicking on them.

Accepting offers

All offers are indicated in the bean market. Place the beans, which you would like to give away in the upper portion of the window, and the ones you would like to have, in the lower.

If the active player wishes to accept the offer of a fellow player, he simply clicks on that offer.

After that the swap window opens, both players involved in the deal should drag and drop the required beans to the appropriate faded picture shown in the lower portion of the window. Once you have moved the appropriate bean to those faded pictures, the pictures are no longer faded. Once both players have satisfied the deal, the window disappears and the cards are placed to the right of the players cards in the Exchanged Cards area.

If a fellow player wants to make the deal offered by the active player, then he simply clicks on the offer. The offer is copied in the agreeing player's colour, to let the active player know that someone is interested in that offer. If several players have the same interest, the active player can select which one he wishes to accept. The trade window will then open for those two players.

The active player can end phase 2 at any time, by clicking on the phase button. After this no more exchanges can take place during this round!

Phase 3

When the active player ends phase 2, all acquired beans must be planted by each player in his own fields. The cultivation rules from phase 1 apply here.

Phase 4

The active player then draws three cards from the draw pile, which are added to the right side of his cards in hand.

The round ends and the next active player starts his turn.

End of the Game

The game ends, when the draw pile is exhausted the third time. If this occurs during step 2, the game continues until the end of step 3 for the currently active player. If there are not enough cards for him to draw two, he draws just one. If this occurs during step 4, the game ends immediately. All beans, which have been planted, may be sold now. Who ever has the most Bean gold, wins. If two or more players tie with the most gold coins, the player with the most cards in his hand, among those tied with the most gold coins, is the winner.

Further Details about the Trading Phase

• The active player may trade the two cards drawn in phase 2 and cards from his hand.
• Beans already exchanged may not be further-exchanged .
• You may give away cards instead of trading. This is done by leaving the lower section of the offer window empty.
• You may at any time remove your offer by right clicking your proposal. The active player can decline all offers if he wishes.
• To amend you offers simply mouse click, as described below:
  - Left clicking on your cards in hand = you wish to give
  - Left clicking on Bean Photo Album = you wish to receive
  ALTERNATIVELY
  - Right-clicking on your cards in hand = you wish to receive
  - Right clicking on Bean Photo Album = you wish to give.
  The Bean Photo Album, reverses the selection logic.

You can also make an open offer, e.g. “I am offering a red bean, what will you give me for it?” You do this by clicking on the Question Mark instead of a picture from the Bean Photo Pool.

To signal to the active player that you do not have interest in the current offer, or that you have no interest in an exchange, you can click the phase button during Phase 2. The 2 tailed blue arrow will then be given a 'no trade' mark.

The player dashboard will also show if your offer has been declined. You can click on the phase arrow to remove the 'stop' icon and look for further interest in offers.

If a player doesn't click anywhere in the game window for longer than ten seconds during the commercial phase, a small hourglass symbol will appear next to his name. This will disappear as soon as he clicks anywhere again. In this way, the active player can recognize whether a fellow player is still composing a transaction and this could influence the decision to end the trading phase.

Supply and Demand

You can also use the 'Bean Trade Selector' buttons to help select your offers. Drag the green arrow on to either a card in hand or a bean from the Bean Photo Pool to indicate which you would like. Similarly drag the red arrow for the bean type you wish to give away. To remove an offer, drag the small X on to the appropriate arrow.

The selected beans are shown in the Desire range above the market for all players: to the right the beans are shown which you wish to give away and who are desired by others. To the left the beans are shown that you would like and which others want to give away. This way you have an overview of what the players are willing to trade which can help you compose your offers.

Tactics and Tips

• In the trade phase, keep an eye on your cards and those being traded. If they don't fit your plans, try trading or giving them away.
• Not trading or accepting gifts, can sometimes give the other players grief…. ; -)
• Always to it pay attention where you take the trading card from your hand. Sometimes it is better to take one from the left of your hand, sometimes from the right of your hand.

Game Options

hiddenmoney

The amount of bean gold is not shown.