Gamehelpbohnanza

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 Germany) by Amigo Spiele and more famously in England by Rio Grande Games.

It is played with a deck of cards with illustrations of eleven different types of beans of varying scarcity, which the players are trying to first plant and then sell in order to make money.

Gameplay

Each player is dealt five cards to start the game. In Bohnanza, cards in hand are kept in the order they are dealt and must be played in that order as well. On BGA this means the first card in your hand is the rightmost (and bottom-most if your hand gets large enough for multiple rows). Each turn consists of two main phases, then the Draw phase to finish the turn.

For games with three players, each player will have three available fields in which to plant beans. For games with four to seven players, each player will have two available fields in which to plant beans. You can purchase a third field for 3 coins (in a 4-5 player game), or for 2 coins in a 6-7 player game.

Planting Phase

On their turn a player *must* plant the first bean in their hand, unless they have no cards in hand at all. They then may choose to plant the next bean or not. Players must always plant at least one bean to start their turn, and never plant more than two in this phase. If a player does not have room to plant a bean they may harvest one of their fields first to make room, possibly earning money for the beans in the process. (See planting and harvesting below)

Trading Phase

After planting one or two beans, the player then draws and reveals two cards from the draw deck. All players may then offer trades using the revealed cards and the (still hidden) cards in their hands.

All trades must involve the player whose turn it is (referred to as the active player). Other players may not trade with each other at this time. Players may offer bean cards and request bean cards in any amount, including offering or requesting a bean for nothing, or requesting multiple beans for one. Most of the game revolves around making beneficial trades in order to plant your beans, or to avoid having to plant beans that you do not want to. Cards that were traded this turn will be planted this turn and cannot be traded again, even by the active player. BGA hides traded cards until it is time to plant them to help avoid confusion in this regard.

Once either the active player or all other players have chosen that they are done trading, beans that were traded and any revealed cards that were not traded must be planted. Unlike beans from a player's hand, these may be planted in any order and all of the beans must be planted at this time.

Draw Phase

Once all beans have been planted, then all players (starting with the active player) draw one card, adding it to the back of their hand, and play passes to the next player.

An example of trading on BGA is offered below.

Planting and Harvesting beans

Beans can only be planted into empty fields or into fields that contain the same type of bean. If a player must plant a bean and does not have a field into which it can be legally planted, they must first harvest a field. Harvesting bean fields often (but not always) earns a player money. The amount of money is determined by the type and number of beans in the field. Bean cards have stacked coins and numbers across the bottom of the card that indicates how many beans of that type are required to make a particular amount of money when harvested. There is also a number on the top of the card showing how many of that type of bean are in the deck to start.

When a field with enough beans to be worth money is harvested, one card for each coin is removed from the game and placed in the harvesting player's "gold pile". The rest of the beans are placed in the discard pile. For instance, blue beans require four beans in a field to be worth one coin, and six beans in a field to be worth two coins. When a five-bean field of blue beans is harvested, one of the blue bean cards is put in the player's gold pile and the other four blue beans are put in the discard pile.

When harvesting fields a player may choose any field to harvest with one restriction. Fields with only one bean card may not be harvested unless all your fields have only one bean card. Thus a player with a blue-bean field with one card, a stink bean field with two cards, and a garden bean field with one card *must* harvest the stink beans and gain no money for the field.

In the BGA implementation, fields are only harvested, when necessary, in order to plant a bean of a different type, and at the end of the game.

In a 4-7 player game, once a player can afford a third field, they may purchase one at the cost shown (3 coins in a 4-5 player game, or 2 coins in a 6-7 player game).

Game End

The game ends after the draw deck has been exhausted three times. Each of the first two times the draw deck is exhausted the discard pile is shuffled into the new draw deck. At this point players automatically harvest all their fields and the player with the highest total money wins. Ties are broken with turn order, the win going to the player furthest from the starting player.

Example Trade

On BGA the trade system is set up so that the active player has the FINAL say in any trade. He can send out a trade offer to the other players, and the other players can send trade offers to him.

For example, if the active player (player A) sends out a trade offer, and another player (player B) sees it and wants to accept the trade, player B will click on it, then click on the green check mark to accept it. This marks the trade as "Approved" by player B, and player B can then click on "Wait of offers" to see if the active player finalizes the trade. Meanwhile, player C also liked the offer from the player A, so she decided to "approve" the trade offer also. Player A sees that two players (B and C) approved the trade offer he has sent out. Since he really does not want to trade with player C (since she is currently winning), he decides to finalize the trade offer with player B. He clicks on it, then clicks on the green arrow, and this finalizes it and it's done.

Once the active player clicks on "Done trading", then this ends the trading phase for all players that turn (trading is closed). Or, if all players except the active player click on "Done trading", this also ends the trading phase. Traded beans must now be planted.