Bohnanza is truly a unique game among card games, and I don't mean just it's theme. I've gotten a lot of miles from my copy with a lot of different people.
Description:
Bohnanza is a card game about bean farming. Yes, I did say bean farming. It's only components are a very large deck of cards. Each player is attempting to collect large sets of similar beans in their fields. The most innovative mechanic is the inability to reorder your hand. On your turn you have to plant the first card in your hand, but since you can't reorder your hand, you will be forced to break up your nice sets of beans unless you can get rid of the unwanted beans somehow. Due mainly to this restriction, trading beans becomes a very important part of the game. On each player's turn they are allowed to make trades with any other player (and even greatly encouraged to do so). Over the course of the game you will harvest fields of beans for points and the player with the most points at the end of the game wins. The player who can collect the largest sets of similar beans will generally have the highest score.
1. Analysis Paralysis / Downtime
<PERSON> does a great job of keeping all players involved in all turns. You need to pay attention to what the active player has to offer in addition to what he is interested in acquiring. Even if the active player doesn't have anything to interest you, you can take this time to scan the fields of the next few players and compare their needs to the cards that are clogging up your hand. There is still the potential for some excessive downtime. Some players just vacillate way too much during even the simplest of negotiation games.
2. Multiplayer Solitaire / Player Interaction / Competitive / Casual
Bohnanza is a pure negotiation game, so there is tons of player interaction in it. It works great in a casual setting where almost all trades will be one for one and donations will often be given (trading a card for nothing just to get it out of your hand.) The artwork does a great job of keeping the atmosphere light for the casual crowd. The competitive crowd has room to take it to the next level. They will find enjoyment in discerning more precise values for their trades. They might know that one of their cards is worth two or even three cards from their opponent. They will drive harder bargains and negotiate the most beneficial deals. Expect competitive games to actually take a little longer in this case.
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Runaway Leader / Effective Elimination / Catch-Up Mechanics / Score Obfuscation
Scores are kept hidden in this game so it does a pretty reasonable job of making everyone feel like they stand a chance of winning. There is the chance for a player to get very beneficial draws to create large sets very easily. If there is a recognizable leader (uncommon) then it's quite possible for players to try and gang up on this leader. This just doesn't happen much in the games I have played. Denying yourself trading opportunities often hurts yourself just as much or more than your opponents. There is no score escalation though, so if someone manages to gain an early lead it can be hard to catch them. The score obfuscation helps to ensure that everyone still feels in the game anyway.
4. Fiddliness / Elegance
Bohnanza does a really good job of being an elegant game. The components are simple and the rules are very approachable. The only hiccup might be in some of the turn composition detail. In particular, explaining to someone why they are unable to harvest fields comprising a single bean can be a bit counterintuitive. Overall though, I think most people would be happy to slap the dubious title of elegance on Bohnanza.
5. Theme / Enjoyment
Bohnanza is not exactly dripping with theme. It does have some absolutely great artwork to go on the cards though. They may have slapped on a theme, but at least they made it a super cute theme. I don't think anyone can help but smile occasionally when they ask "Do you have any Stinky Beans?" Now, I won't say that everyone will always have a good time with this game. In particular, if you are playing competitively and get into some heavy negotiations between three players, someone is going to loose out. In particular, if two offers are identical, it may come down to who the active player is going home with. Most people can shrug this off and enjoy themselves; some can not.
6. Tactical / Strategic
Bohnanza actually has a pretty good blend of tactics versus strategy. In the short term you need to be able to quickly evaluate trade potentials and jump on opportunities that benefit you. There are a couple long term decisions to be made as well though. You have the option to expand your farm once during the game, but it doesn't mean you should automatically do it. 629