To Bean or Not to Bean

On the face of it Bohnanza, a set collection game about bean farming that’s been around for over twenty five years, doesn’t look like anything to get excited about. Pull it off the shelf and get it to the table though and you’ll soon find how a simple premise and minimal components can be elevated to greatness by some elegant rules and a sprinkling of player led chaos.

At its set collection'y core you start each turn by planting one (or two) beans from your hand into the field spaces in front of you, either matching a bean type already sown or into a blank field if you prefer. The aim being to eventually harvest the piles of cards to score points depending on how many you’ve planted (different beans giving different ratios of cards to points) thus freeing up a field space to allow you to start planting more.

What lifts it into something way more fun than that sounds so far is the inspired rule that you have to plant the beans in the order you receive them into your hand. If you've already filled all your field spaces with other types of bean then sorry, you're going to have to harvest something before you can take your turn as not planting anything just isn't an option.

Not content with that fun little wrinkle the second half of your turn sees you draw two cards from the central deck face up onto the table. You then have the choice to plant one (or both) directly into your fields, as before, or sit back and open things up to the table. At which point your friends launch into a frenzied round of deal making and bartering as they try to tempt you with whatever combinations of beans from their own hands they feel will entice you into giving them the delectable beans you've just uncovered.

The key 'ah ha' moment comes when you realise that not only is this bidding process clearly useful for actually getting cards you may need, it also gives you a chance to get rid of some cards which may be sitting near the front of your hand and would otherwise will mean you having to find a way to plant them on your next turn, messing up your carefully cultivated fields before they can reach their maximum scoring potential.

It's this little push and pull between trying to get cards you want as well as loose cards from your hand all the while trying to ensure whatever deals you do aren't gifting points to your opponents that turns Bohnanza into far more fun than a game about bean farming has any right to be.

Wonderfully Bohnanza is one of those rare games that can serve as a perfect gateway game for any age of potential gamer with its quick teach and laughter filled playtime while also still entertaining a table of seasoned players with its elegant choices. In this hobby often obsessed with the new hotness its lovely to find a genuine classic that’s still as fun to dive into now as it must have been over a quarter of a century ago.