Some strange bean farming, a magical city and a pacific island
With only 5 people it was not a large turnout, but it was enough to play one our Monday night favourites,
Bohnanza. We haven’t managed to get this to the table before on our pub nights and having played Space Beans at our last pub meeting I thought why not try another bean based game. Bohnanza is a simple card game on the theme (loosely) of farming. Each player has an imaginary 2 fields within which to plant their beans and a mixed hand of bean cards. The unusual thing about this game is that you cannot re-arrange your hand of cards, you must play them in the order they are dealt. Given that the aim is to get as many beans of one type in your fields the trick is to trade unwanted cards with other players maybe even give them away – if other players will take them. Bohnanza is not a game for those backward in coming forward as you need to be both vocal and creative in the deals you suggest.
When the time came to tot up the points Simon and I had come joint first just one point ahead of those in second places and 2 points ahead of the third place, so a very tight game with the players taking many different creative approaches in seeking to either acquire or discard cards.
With our first game complete we split into two groups of three with Oliver, Simon and Robin embarking on a game of
Discworld:Ankh-Morpork later to be won by Robin as The Dragon King of Arms who had successfully managed to confuse his opponents to his real identity. This subterfuge allowed him to profit from the steadily increasing levels of trouble whilst convincing them that he was actually Chrysoprase (whose victory condition relates to Money not Trouble)!
Martin, Gwen and I tried one of Martin’s new games
Tobago. Another game by Zoch but picked up on e-bay at under half price for a brand new unopened game. In this treasure hunting game the game board represents a tropical island and the players each have a Land Rover like wooden token with which to travel around the island collecting treasure and magical amulets. There are 5 treasure types on the island and a number of different landscape types e.g. mountains, beach etc the trick is to narrow down the field of search.
To do this players can choose to either travel around using the Land Rover or play a search cards (each player has 5 and takes another one each time they play one) each of which specifies a type of terrain or proximity to a landscape feature e.g. statues, huts or palm trees where the treasure may be or is not. As these cards build up under the respective treasure types so the field of search is narrowed down until there is only one possible location.
This is denoted using little square cubes. So if the first card for the white treasure denotes that the treasure is on a beach then white cubes are put on all the beaches and the player who placed the card puts one of their tokens on the card. If another player then places a card that gives a proximity to a hut then all those tokens of the relevant colour that do not meet this combined formula are removed with a player token being placed on the card. Gwen and I both thoroughly enjoyed this game feeling that it would be well received by our Monday night crew, with the right balance of simplicity / tactics.
Having completed Discworld the other guys embarked on another game
Dominion. This is another game we rate highly and whilst we sadly had to pack up before the guys could complete their game both Simon and Robin commented about how much they liked it – a game they had never played before.
More photo's from the evening can be seen
here.
Our next event at the
Blue Anchor, Crowborough is in two weeks time on Sunday 19th February starting at 7pm - £1 per head. More details can be seen on our Facebook Page
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