Bohnanza - Tips & Strategies

In a game where the discard pile is shuffled multiple times, it is difficult to keep track of what cards have been played (scored) and what remain.

I’ve found that it is beneficial for a player to track the rarest of beans (4 – Cocoa, 6 – Garden, 8 – Red). These beans give the greatest payout for the fewest cards, assuming you can get them. Later in the game, knowing how many of each are left will help you decide if it’s possible to score some of these beans. Alternatively, if you know there is only one of a given bean left in the deck, you may be able to trade it to someone who wasn’t tracking them, but is excited to get a “rare” bean, tying up their bean field.

Beyond these beans, I have not found it overly beneficial to try and count the number of other beans in play. If you’re up for trying, go for it, but focusing on the three most rare beans, I believe, will give you the most bang for your mental buck.

The rules allow for trading a bean for the same type of bean from another player. There are times (especially towards the end of the game) where this can be beneficial for both people. If each of you are working on the same type of bean (e.g., coffee), you can trade a coffee from your hand for a coffee from someone else’s hand. This allows you to, in essence, get beans from the middle of your hand, out sooner. If you’re going to have to sell a type of bean to plant the first one in your hand, offering a bean for the same type may net you an extra coin.

One note – there are groups that do not consider this proper play. Some people feel strongly that this shouldn’t be allowed, and it is worth checking in advance to ensure playing this way (while allowd by the rules) won’t spoil the fun for some at the table.

One of the bigger decisions in the game for a player is whether or not to get a third bean field. I think that really depends on three things: how many people are playing, how quickly you’re expecting to get coins, and what your strategic approach to the game is. Allow me to explain…

How many people are playing? If there are less (3 or 4) people playing, you’re going to have more turns and you’ll have access to more beans because more beans are available. You may want to consider getting a third bean field to pick up some extra cards, or to keep people from messing with you and forcing you to harvest something you’d rather not harvest. If there are more players (5 or more), there is going to be a lot more beans on the table, and so it may be more difficult to get points. I personally choose not to purchase a third bean field when playing with this many people, and it usually works out for me. Instead, I try to go for 4 coins for each field, and there are many games where I’ve won by only 1 or 2 coins, and the second place person had a third bean field. So I saved my coins and tried to be as efficient as possible.

But that leads me to my next point. When I have lost with that particular strategy, it is because someone was able to get a third bean field very early in the game (the opening draw pile was still quite large). When that happens, they have the entire game to use a third field, which is very helpful. If you’re going for a third bean field and it’s the second time going through the draw pile, that might be a waste of your hard earned resources.

The third factor is based on what your strategy allows you to do. I like to try to get 4 coins for everything, so I’m not going to be able to get an early third bean field very often. But if you like to wheel and deal and harvest like crazy, you can probably pick up some early coins which will allow you to get that third bean field before everyone else, and that will be a major benefit to you.

If you are in lead and want the game to end quick and the deck is about to finish for the 2nd time, instead of harvesting one of your fields (probably maxed) keep it. If you harvest it once the 3rd round starts, the game will end faster, which is in your favor (since you are in lead)

Pay attention which cards are being cashed in during the game. As cards become coins, the rarity of the remaining cards alter their perceived value.

While this is readily apparent for the very valuable beans like cocoa and garden beans, keep a rough track in your head of low valued beans, like wax and blue beans.

Understanding what to plant when is absolutely key to Bohnanza, and understanding that the bean values change dynamically is an important part of your decision making process.

There is an expansion to this game called Mutabohn (limited edition of 2500 copies and very hard to find). This expansion has a new variation of planting as well as bonus cards for planting bean fields in a certain bean order.

You can use your current cards to play this expansion without having to buy it. The only thing you don’t get are the bonus cards… which honestly, I think is an unfair advantage to other players anyway. The bonus cards can give players an extra 30 – 70 thalers. Yikes!!

In summary, the new rules allow you to “mutate” the beans.

Here’s how it works:
You are allowed to plant different beans on other beans if:

a) The new bean you’re planting has a card number greater than the card you are planting on top of (the card number refers to the number of cards in the deck)

b) The card number on the new bean is the next incremental number in the series (which is usually an increment of +2). A 10 can be planted on an 8, a 20 can be planted on an 18, etc.

When harvesting a field of “mutated” beans, use the beanometer of the last bean that was planted.

Here’s an example:
You have a Red Bean already planted which is a number 8. You can plant a Black-eyed Bean over it which is number 10. (you still downwardly fan out the cards like you would normally do). You can keep going with this so long as each additional bean is either the same as what was planted last or is the next increment of bean number.

Example: you could plant a field in following order: red bean (first bean in field), black-eyed bean, black-eyed bean, soy bean, soy bean, green bean, and green bean. This would be worth 4 thalers since there are 7 cards and the last bean planted was the green bean.

The Pros and Cons:
Cons: You count the beanometer of the last planted bean so you have to collect more beans for them to be worth more.

Pros: If you don’t have the same card as what’s already in your fields, it gives you more options for planting.

Here’s a tip that works well for me. I play Bohnanza with my friends quite often and I’m often in the mix to win. At the beginning of my hand, I look at my beans and pick one bean that there is a lot of (coffee bean, wax bean, etc.) and one bean that doesn’t have as many (soy bean, blue bean…you get the idea). If I’m not going first, this could also depend on what players play and what is revealed in the trade phase.

Anyway, I go all out for those until I max them out for 4 coins. Very rarely do I harvest early and start over. I want max coins for each field, because, at the beginning of the game, you’ll see pretty much every card in the deck, and assuming you can negotiate and trade, you’ll be in the mix to get a lot of those cards.

So in theory, you could get 4 coins for each field by the second time you shuffle the bean pile. That’s 8 coins, and you free up your bean fields. After that, go for what you think will be most available. You’ll kill it. Isn’t this game fun?!?

It’s a simple tip, but it will get you a long way in Bohnanza: Be friendly. If there’s even a single other player at the table who you can trade favors with, you’ll both come out ahead of the people who are playing hyper-competitive and cutthroat.

Blocking other players from the resources they need isn’t as strong of a strategy in Bohnanza as it is in many other games. Rather, keeping your word, offering tempting deals, and going out of your way to help other players who’ll return the favor tends to be rewarded.

This is a new rule from the expansion Lady Bohn. At the end of a player’s turn, instead of drawing three cards (or more depending on the number of players) have every player draw one card, starting with the player whose turn it is. In this way if you trade away your entire hand, you don’t have to wait until your turn to get new cards.

The iOS game is a lot of fun. When you can’t find someone to play and need a little Bohnanza-time, this fits nicely. If you haven’t played before or need a refresher, it includes a nice tutorial too. You can play with 3 or 4 players and one or two of them must be human (pass and play).