Board Games: Bohnanza

by Jen. 6/20/2024

Hello Atomic Empire Peeps!

My name is Jen (JenMcG, if you're on our Discord) and I've been at Atomic either as a customer or on on-staff since first moving to Durham in 2009. I'm lucky enough to get to share my thoughts on board games with you as we move forward.

I'm going to open with one of my all time favorite games - Bohnanza. I recommend it for all game collections as it plays well at all group sizes (it is a 2 to 7 player game), can utilize house rules of many varieties so that kids as young as 5 or 6 can play it, AND it's not super complex so your non-gaming friends will still have fun playing it.

What do you need to know about it?
* It's a card game based on farming beans (or flowers). What makes it different - you must play the cards in the order they are dealt and can only have one type of item per field. This creates a sub-game of 'bean negotiation and trading' as you trade with other players to optimize your fields and harvest as profitably as possible.
* The flexibility for folks lies in that you can utilize house rules to play as many/few times as you wish. Trying to teach a young child: play 3 hands and use a goal of your choosing for who wins (could be points, type of beans, etc). Want a quick, light after dinner game: play thru the deck once.

With that, I leave you until next time!
Jen McG

We have three versions available:
Bohnanza: 25th Anniversary Edition (Bean farming that plays 2-7)

Bohnanza (2021 Amigo Edition) (Bean farming that plays 3-7)

Bohnanza: Dahlias (Flower farming that plays 3-5)