Bohnanza is the first in the Bohnanza family of games and has been published in several different editions.

As card games go, this one is quite revolutionary. Perhaps its oddest feature is that you cannot rearrange your hand, as you need to play the cards in the order that you draw them.

The cards are colourful depictions of beans in various descriptive poses, and the object is to make coins by planting fields (sets) of these beans and then harvesting them.

To help players match their cards up, the game features extensive trading and deal-making.

This great card game is about planting, trading, and selling beans - 8 kinds of beans (this English version includes all the cards from the original game). Players try to collect large sets of beans to sell for gold. There is limited growing space and always new beans to plant. To avoid planting unwanted beans, players trade them to other players who want them for their bean fields.

In the game, you plant, then harvest bean cards in order to earn coins. Each player starts with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number on it corresponding to the number of that type of beans in the deck. Unlike in most other cards games, you can't rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you've picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game.

On a turn, you must plant the first one or two cards in your hand into the "fields" in front of you. Each field can hold only one type of bean, so if you must plant a type of bean that's not in one of your fields, then you must harvest a field to make room for the new arrival. This usually isn't good! Next, you reveal two cards from the deck, and you can then trade these cards as well as any card in your hand for cards from other players. You can even make future promises for cards received right now! After all the trading is complete — and all trades on a turn must involve the active player — then you end your turn by drawing cards from the deck and placing them at the back of your hand.

When you harvest beans, you receive coins based on the number of bean cards in that field and the "beanometer" for that particular type of bean. Flip over 1-4 cards from that field to transform them into coins, then place the remainder of the cards in the discard pile. When the deck runs out, shuffle the discards, playing through the deck two more times. At the end of the game, everyone can harvest their fields, then whoever has earned the most coins wins.

Bohnanza is a game invented by the legendary German game designer Uwe Rosenberg in 1997. On paper, this is technically a card game that involves managing the cards in your hand to collect valuable sets in order to win the game. It requires careful strategic planning, perfect timing and skilled negotiation to achieve a smashing victory.

In reality, Bohnanza is all about beans and how fun could be planting and harvesting them while making jokes about them. The first joke is actually in the game name that is made up by the German word "bohne" (yes, it means "bean") and bonanza (to stress that there are a LOT of them). The quirkiness of this game and how much fun it could pack in such a small box are two of the reasons this game is still on the market after 25 years. It is also a very well thought yet simple strategic game but that is a plus.

Number of Players 3-5 players. Ages 10+

1997 Fairplay À la carte Winner
1997 Meeples' Choice Award
1997 Spiel des Jahres Recommended
2003 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Nominee
2005 Vuoden Peli Adult Game of the Year Nominee
2007 Juego del Año Finalist

Components:
104 Bean Cards
5 Bean Field Cards
1 Rule Booklet



Released: 20 September 2023