Joseph Kopena
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Bohnanza is a popular game which a fair number of people have reviewed. My contribution in posting this review is to highlight some differences in our feelings compared to conventional wisdom about it.
To start off, this is a great game. In the week since I gave this to my girlfriend (also a gamer) for the holidays, she and I have played eleven times, mostly with ourselves but a few rounds with others as well. It has been an unexpected success: I picked it up largely on a whim upon seeing it in a local store, knowing only that it is generally well regarded. Afterward, having researched it a bit online, I was slightly concerned that most people seemed to feel it didn't work as well for two players, our primary mode of play.
Two Players
For those unfamiliar with the game, I'll simply state that Bohnanza is a totally different beast as a two player game compared to the original rules for three and more players. Many of the the basic concepts remain, such as not being able to re-order your hand and always playing from the top, but it's otherwise very changed.
In particular, the trading mechanic disappears. Normally, part of each player's turn is a trading phase, wherein the other players may exchange beans from their hand for beans in the current player's hand or two cards they reveal from the deck. This is essentially how you manage your hand (since you can't reorder it), ensure you get cards you need, and discard those you don't. It generally involves a lot of discussion, negotiating, and cajoling. Deals range far and wide, from the very straightforward "You need a Chili Bean, I need a Blue Bean, let's swap," to the less tangible "Well, if you give me a Green Bean now, I'll help you out in the future," to the positively out-of-game "Annie, I'm your brother, if you don't give me that Cocoa Bean I know you have, I won't pick you up when you call for a ride anymore..." This trading is a hoot and is the guts of the main game.
However, all of that disappears in the two player game. Instead, the current player essentially flips over three cards from the card, matching beans from the discard pile are lumped in, they take what they want, and then the remainder is passed to the other player to take or discard as they please. It's very different. Whereas the majority of the game with more players is spent haggling over bean swaps, the two-player version has little direct interaction. My girlfriend and I play nearly silently the whole game.
Most reviewers and opinion givers seem to feel that dropping the trading mechanic is a big loss to Bohnanza and that the two-player version is not as good. In our opinion, however, it's as good---just a completely different game. The original, multi-player version is a lot about talking and competing with other players to get the deal you want out of the currently active player. The two player game is about watching your cards, doing a little qualitative mental calculating (e.g., which Bean is roughly more likely to come up again of the current options), and indirect interaction such as preventing the other player from easily picking up beans they need. Again, my girlfriend and I play nearly silently, focused almost entirely on our own hands and working out our plans. That may not work for many people, but if it does the two-player variant of Bohnanza is just as good as the more traditional version and a great 20--30 minute game.
More Players
On the other end of the spectrum, Bohnanza is frequently billed as a party game. Toward that claim, it does indeed support a large number of players (seven by the core rules, maybe more with other variants). Based on our experiences with four player games, however, we have trouble seeing that. We're willing to give it a try, but it seems the game would be very slow, with large amounts of time spent trading. The sheer number of options and competing bids with more players would seem to slow that phase down significantly. Many players may also have notable downtime as they sit out trade sessions for which they don't have the cards in hand to offer much, or simply don't have the need or wish to participate at that moment. It also seems that negotiating in larger groups could easily devolve to who can be loudest and most aggressively talkative. That's fine, but it's a different game that we would not be as interested in, and presumably others would feel the same as well.
The mechanics also, although incredibly simple and quite elegant, are somewhat subtle. Simple rules such as not reordering cards in hand are critical to play and slightly more tricky than they sound on paper. Despite the seeming simplicity, it definitely does not come across as a "beer & pretzels" game, at least not with any significant amounts of hydrating going on. It also sounds difficult in a large game setting to properly indoctrinate & oversee that new players, especially non-gamers, follow these rules.
Non-Gamers
On that note, however, the game is very simple. The rules, though incorporating several elements that will be unfamiliar to gamers and non-gamers alike, may be explained very quickly. Most people will also rapidly pick up the patterns and get on with the game. For that reason we believe it will work well in smaller settings (2--5 players) for introducing to non-gamers, and we've had success doing so. The friendly theme and great, simple and funny, bright artwork also help with that along with nice design touches such as having each bean's worth & availability printed on every card.
Conclusion
To sum up, this is a great game for any number of players. Despite some popular perception as not being as strong for two players, we believe it is just as strong in that variant, though possibly mostly for quieter, more strategic players. On the flip side, it's not obvious that this is a great party game, so players are forewarned to carefully consider purchasing it for this purpose. However, you can't really go wrong with Bohnanza---it's a great game---so it's definitely worth checking out and trying your hand at a little bean farming.
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Brian Foster
United States
Kirkland
Washington
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Joseph, your comments express my feelings exactly. Bohnanza is definitely two games in one. My wife and I bought the game this year and it is one of our favorites. We learned it first as a 2-Player game, and later we taught it to another couple. They are not gamers, and they can never remember the name Bohnanza (It's just the "Bean Game" to them) but they love it.
My wife and I think that people who learn the game in the multi-player version probably won't like the 2-player version as well. While it's true that the multi-player is lots of fun with all the trading and bartering, the 2-player games are fun for us since the final scores are usually close. Last night my wife won 12-11 by selling three different beans on her very last turn! To me, one sign of a good game is when you play your best but lose a close game and it's still fun. That's why we like Bohnanza so much.
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Joseph Kopena
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Hi Brian,
I'm glad we're not the only crazy ones! I was thinking last night as I posted this that people would read & think "Playing almost silently?! These people must have problems..."
I've also been noticing that scores tend to be very close but better players generally prevail over time. So, there's some randomness (we've had some overwhelming wins as well between reasonably matched players) and you may not win a given match by playing better, but you'll win more matches and do better over time as there is a very solid skill/planning element as well. The closeness makes it much more tense, and gets everybody involved (as opposed to if one or more people were obviously trailing far behind). It also affects our trading a lot, with people in our group frequently trying to gauge coin stacks and then preferring to trade with those they deem not the leader.
Thx!
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Thanks for posting a review of this great game.
jkopena wrote: Bohnanza [...] does indeed support a large number of players (seven by the core rules, maybe more with other variants). Based on our experiences with four player games, however, we have trouble seeing that. We're willing to give it a try, but it seems the game would be very slow, with large amounts of time spent trading. The sheer number of options and competing bids with more players would seem to slow that phase down significantly. Many players may also have notable downtime as they sit out trade sessions for which they don't have the cards in hand to offer much, or simply don't have the need or wish to participate at that moment.
I have played this game with different groups of 6 people a few times and none of the problems you mention above have occurred. If only one other person wants to trade with you, it goes very quickly. If more than one person wants to trade with you, it takes a few seconds longer to wrangle a competitive deal, but more people are involved in the process so fewer people are waiting. Plus, everyone who is not engaged in trading is interested in knowing what cards are out there so that they can plan their own trades. But either way, since the decisions are so simple, and since they involve dealing with other players, I can't imagine Bohnanza ever having downtime
jkopena wrote:
It also seems that negotiating in larger groups could easily devolve to who can be loudest and most aggressively talkative. That's fine, but it's a different game that we would not be as interested in, and presumably others would feel the same as well.
I think you are stretching your point here. While the more pro-active player may have a bit of an advantage, it's only a trading game, not a negotiation game. In negotiation games (games in which player alliances and counter-alliances are made and unmade) personality plays a larger role because decisions reached at one time qualitatively affect the character and sometimes victory conditions of the rest of the game. In trading games like Bohnanza, trades do not have those kind of stakes. They are merely a mechanism for collecting stuff in a social way, and any 'negotiation' pertains only to one or two cards among many. A shy person can best a loudmouth simply by trading with someone else.
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Joseph Kopena
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Hi Neil,
Thanks for the comments. I think it would definitely be interesting for our group here to try Bonanza with more players. Certainly any downtime I'm talking about is not to the scale of some wargames I could name or anything like that.
My note about the loudest people was drawn largely from my own conscious tactic sometimes of continuing to repeat a trade of mine that I know to be inferior, just keeping it out on the table and hoping that the current player will simply just decide to go for it if they're overloaded on their other options. As somewhat of the game manager of our non-gaming friends, I also worry about the shy people not being as involved and feeling boxed out. Notably for me, however, one of the players in our round tonight that I was concerned about getting frustrated at the pace of trading and not making as many deals through being somewhat more quiet actually came up and trumped everyone at the very end through some solid endgame moves.
We've also seen a lot of less straightforward trades, e.g. futures trading (you give me those two X beans, I'll give you any bean of type Y I get next turn). Our groups also seem to have many discussions along the lines of "Don't trade XY to her, trade XZ to me---she's got more points, she's going to clobber us!" and a lot of posits such as "Dude, don't trade him that, he's totally going to screw you over next turn!" I've seen other people talk here about such trades, but I could also believe many groups (particularly among relative strangers, e.g. at a club), would not have those kinds of discussions and the game would move even faster. I'm curious to hear more about what kinds of trades you & others have seen in their plays.
Thx!
- joe
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Hi Joe,
I like your description of trades. Those kind of trades -- except future trades -- occur in games I have played too -- and they bring back fond memories of fun times with Bohnanza.
I think it is excellent that you are attuned to the experiences of people you play with, and to any potential frustrations felt by quieter fellow gamers.
cheers,
Neil
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So are my partner and I the only people that play the game with the standard rules but just with the two of us? We have a great time bartering away...I have never actually played it with anyone else but I can imagine the early part of the game is a bit easier (and more quickly paced) with more than two people.
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