| Game
Overview
Bean Trader is the board
game version of the highly popular card
game called Bohnanza. Bean Trader is based
in the ficticious North European region
of Hanse, which comprises of 10 cities.
Each city is connected by a road or bridge
and each city can supply the players with
2-3 different bean varieties. The game features
a total of 8 bean varieties and this sets-up
the aim of the game. The players must travel
to the various cities to buy and trade beans.
Once acquired they must try to sell them
for the best price they can fetch and the
most money acquired by games end will determine
the winner. The game starts with each player
getting a set of travel cards and 1 bean
of each variety, which they place on in
their bean wagon (represented by a wagon
chart - each player has one). The main deck
is made up of Order cards and these cards
help to determine the starting position
of each player. Each Order card also lists
a set of beans, the city that wants them
and the price the city will pay for delivering
them. The players can have any number of
order cards in their hand at any 1 time
and these cards may require the same bean.
So players need to carefully assess which
orders will make them more money once they
are fullfilled. But it isn't that simply.
Movement between the cities is a costly
business in Bean Trader. For each city travelled
to or moved through in a single turn, the
player must pay 1 card from their hand.
Like Bohnanza, the order of cards in a players
hand cannot be altered once they are drawn.
Cards paid to move are not lost, instead
they are placed at the back of a player's
hand. The penalty however is that if the
Toll card was played in order to move the
player must pay 20 dollars (Thaler in Bean
Trader) for the privilege. The good news
however is that this can be avoided at times.
When a player reaches a new city they may
find they cannot fullfill their order as
they are missing a bean or two. So they
can invite 1 person to join them in the
city regardless of where they are on the
board. This can help another player by making
their next move a shorter one, therefore
requiring less cards to move and hopefully
avoiding the play of the Toll card. In return
the player making the invitation can ask
for a bean trade or even a donation, to
allow them to complete an order and make
more Thaler. As well as completing orders
in a city, players can also buy beans from
a city and the cost for doing so will fluctuate
based on the current supply. A city can
have its supply reduced to 0 but thankfully
certain situations will allow a card to
be drawn from the supply pile which will
re-supply some cities with various bean
varieties. The game is over when the last
supply card is drawn and final scoring occurs.
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