High Bohn Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Overview
• Preparation
• The Building Cards
  • Legend for building cards
• Buying Building Cards
• Playing With Building Cards
• The Buildings
  • Garden bean: Gold mine
  • Red bean: Indian tipi
  • Black-eyed bean: Bank
  • Soy bean: Farm
  • Green bean: Saloon
  • Stink bean: General store
  • Chili bean: Blacksmith
  • Blue bean: Jail
• Game End
• Cognac Variant
  • Cognac bean: Distillery
• Summary Card

Components

Contents:

• 36 building cards
• 22 Cognac beans
• 5 summary cards

Players: 3–7. Age: 13+. Length: 60 minutes.

Overview

Note: High Bohn is not a stand-alone game and may only be played with the basic Bohnanza game. The rules are the same as the basic game, except as described herein.

Preparation

For High Bohn, the players use all the bean types, except cocoa, coffee, and wax, and the "3rd bean field" cards from the basic game. From this expansion, use the building cards that match the bean types found in the basic game. Leave the Cognac bean cards and the four distillery building cards in the box. They are used in the COGNAC VARIANT (see page 11 of the combined booklet; see the Cognac Variant section below).

The game preparation is the same as with the basic game. Players sort the building cards by type and price and place them aside. Each player takes a summary card.

The Building Cards

For each bean type, there is a corresponding building. For example, the Saloon belongs with green beans and the bank with black-eyed beans. For each building there are four cards, one each with the price of one, two, three, and four gold coins. The higher the price, the better attribute the building offers its owner.

Note: although a player discards the gold coins invested in buildings, they are not lost as the building price counts toward a players total score at game end.

Legend for building cards

(Example building card "4 bank")

• bean type
• building name
• explanation of the attribute
• bean with building
• attribute symbol
• price of the building

Buying Building Cards

A player may only buy a building by spending gold coins of the corresponding bean type. For example, to buy one of the four Saloons, a player must spend gold coins with green beans on the other side and to buy one of the banks, a player must spend gold coins with black-eyed beans on the other side.

Note: this is contrary to the basic game where the bean shown on the other side of a gold coin has no significance!

The price of a building is shown by the golden stack of gold coins at the bottom of the card. Thus, the 3 Saloon costs 3 gold coins, but each must have a green bean on the other side. Similarly, the 1 Bank costs one gold coin with a black-eyed bean on the other side.

A player may only buy one building of each building type. Thus, for example, a player may buy only one saloon or one bank. A player may buy several buildings at once when he has the necessary gold coins. There is no restriction as to which building of a type is bought first, second, etc. The price of a building does not direct the buying order of the buildings.

Basically, a player can buy buildings at any time, even when he is not taking his turn. If several players want to buy the same building at the same time, the player currently taking his turn has priority. If he does not want the building, the other players have priority in clockwise order from the player taking his turn. Players place the gold coins they pay for buildings on the discard stack.

A player may immediately begin using the attribute of a building as soon as he buys it.

Playing With Building Cards

On a player's turn, the game is played, as in the basic game, with four phases:

1. 1st phase: plant bean card(s)
2. 2nd phase: draw, trade, & donate bean cards
3. 3rd phase: plant drawn, traded, & donated beans
4. 4th phase: draw new bean cards

The play of the phases can be altered by the attributes offered by the various buildings that players have acquired. These attributes can change or nullify the normal rules as written for the basic game. These attributes apply only to the player who owns the building.

The 1 buildings offer their owners no special attributes during the game. However, they do offer their owners something at game end. Like all other building cards, players may earn bonus gold coins for their buildings at game end (see GAME END).

Depending on the number of players, players will remove some building cards at specific times during the game. When and which cards are removed is described below, based on the number of players:

• With three players: when two players each have a building of the same type, for example, the 2 farm and the 4 farm, players remove the other two building of this type from the game. In this case, the 1 farm and the 3 farm. The third player cannot buy a farm building.
• With four players: when three players each have a building of the same type, for example, the 1, 3, and 4 bank, players remove the fourth building of this type from the game. In this case, the 2 bank is removed from the game. The fourth player cannot buy a bank building.
• With five players: players remove no buildings from the game. So players may buy buildings of a type until all are gone. Of course, this means that after the fourth building of a type is bought, the fifth player cannot buy a building of that type.

The Buildings

The attributes of 2, 3, and 4 buildings allow players to change the rules during play. These rules are described on the cards. In addition, this information on these cards is detailed below.

Garden bean: Gold mine

The owner of the 2 Gold mine pays only 1 gold coin for a "3rd bean field".

The owner of the 3 Gold mine uses the beanometer on the gold mine card instead of that on the garden bean cards when harvesting garden beans. In addition, he can harvest a single garden bean even when other fields have more beans. This only works for garden beans. The 4 Gold mine is an additional bean field. If the owner buys a "3rd bean field", he has four bean fields.

Red bean: Indian tipi

At game end, the owner of a Indian tipi earns an additional gold coin (from the discard stack), for each 8, 6, or 5 gold coins in his earnings stack, depending on which Indian tipi the player owns.

Black-eyed bean: Bank

The attribute of the Bank must be taken at the exact time indicated on the card. If the player does not use the attribute at that time, he may not take it later.

Soy bean: Farm

The attribute of the 2 Farm allows a player to plant soy beans in a field that already has other beans (numbered 14 or higher). If a soy bean is already on a bean field, the player cannot use the 2 Farm for that field. The player may continue to plant both kinds of beans in the field until he harvests it. The owner of a 2 Farm may also not use that attribute with a bean stew field (see also 3 and 4 Saloon).

The owner of the 3 Farm must always, like others, plant at least one bean card in phase 1. He may also plant two or three bean cards in phase 1, instead of only two.

With the attribute of the 4 Farm, the owner earns 5 gold coins from a harvest that would normally earn him exactly 4 gold coins. The attribute of the 4 Farm works very well with some other buildings. For example, the 3 Saloon, the 4 Saloon, and the 3 Jail. For example, if a player owns the 4 Farm and the 3 Jail, he can harvest eight blue beans for a total of 5 gold coins.

Green bean: Saloon

The 2 Saloon is like a "3rd bean field", but only green beans may be planted there. For this "field", the normal harvesting rules apply. This means that a player may not harvest a single bean from the 2 saloon when other field(s) have 2 or more beans. Also, a player may not harvest a single bean from another field when the 2 saloon has 2 or more beans on it. And, the saloon allows a player to break the rule and have two fields with green beans, as long as the 2 saloon is one of the fields with green beans.

The owner of a 3 or 4 Saloon may choose to plant one bean each of different types in one or more of his fields. In such a field, the player may not have 2 beans of the same type. This planting is called bean stew.

When a player harvests a bean stew field, he uses the beanometer on the 2 or 3 saloon card he owns. He places the gold coins so earned under the saloon. Thus, he may not use such gold coins to buy buildings or a 3rd bean field. At game end, these gold coins are added to the player's earnings stack (before applying Indian tipi). When a player buys a 3 or 4 saloon, he may immediately use its attribute in a normal field with just one bean planted, converting the field to a bean stew field.

Stink bean: General store

The owner of a 2, 3, or 4 General Store, may store one, two, or three beans (depending on which general store he owns) directly on the general store card. The General Store can act as a store house for beans played in phase 1, drawn from the draw deck in phase 2, or received in trades or donations in phase 3, that the player does not want to plant. Such stored beans may only be traded or donated to other players. The player may never plant beans stored in his general store on any of his bean fields. Also, a player who receives a bean (either in trade or donated) from another player's general store, must plant it and may not place it in his general store.

Chili bean: Blacksmith

The 2 Blacksmith is like a "3rd bean field", but only chili beans may be planted there. For this "field", the normal harvesting rules apply. This means that a player may not harvest a single bean from the 2 blacksmith when other field(s) have 2 or more beans. Also, a player may not harvest a single bean from another field when the 2 blacksmith has 2 or more beans on it. And, the blacksmith allows a player to break the rule and have two fields with chili beans, as long as the 2 blacksmith is one of the fields with chili beans.

The owner of the 3 Blacksmith uses the beanometer on the 3 blacksmith card when harvesting chili beans instead of the beanometer on the chili bean cards. The owner of the 4 Blacksmith may harvest a field with only one bean. The field harvest may be any bean type.

Blue bean: Jail

The owner of the 2 or 3 Jail uses the beanometer on his 2 or 3 jail card when harvesting blue beans instead of the beanometer on the blue bean cards. The owner of the 4 Jail must watch for any harvest of blue beans by any player (including himself). When any blue bean harvest results in a payment of at least one gold coin, the owner of the 4 jail, takes one gold coin from the discard stack as a bonus for having the 4 Jail. He also gets this bonus when blue beans are harvested at game end, if such a harvest results in a payment of at least one gold coin.

Game End

With three and four players, the game ends when the draw deck is exhausted for the third time. With five players, the game ends when the draw deck is exhausted for the fourth time. Now, players can buy more buildings. This begins with the player who was taking his turn when the game ended and continues clockwise until all players have had their chance to buy buildings. Now, the game is scored.

Each player counts the gold coins in his earnings stack, including gold coins from building like 3 or 4 saloon. Next he adds the Indian tipi gold coins and the prices he paid for all his buildings. If a player owns four or more buildings, he earns bonus gold coins for his buildings as shown below:

• for 4 buildings = 1 bonus gold coin
• for 5 buildings = 2 bonus gold coins
• for 6 buildings = 3 bonus gold coins
• for 7 buildings = 5 bonus gold coins
• for 8 buildings = 8 bonus gold coins

The player with the most gold coins is the winner!

Example: a player has 6 gold coins in his earnings stack. He owns the following buildings: the 2 Saloon, the 2 Blacksmith, the 4 Jail, the 3 Goldmine, the 4 Indian tipi, and the 4 Farm. His six buildings have a combined value of 19 gold coins. His 4 Indian tipi earns the player an additional gold coin for each gold coin in his earnings stack - in this case, 1 gold coin. As he has six buildings, he earns 3 bonus gold coins for the buildings. Thus, his total score for the game is 6+19+1+3 = 29 gold coins.

Cognac Variant

For this variant, add the Cognac beans and their associated buildings, the Distilleries. Thus, there are nine types of beans and nine types of buildings in the game. The High Bohn rules are unchanged, except for the special attributes of the Distillery building cards.

Cognac bean: Distillery

The player buying the 2 Distillery must use the attribute immediately after buying the building. When a player harvests a field of bean stew, he must give one of the gold coins earned to the owner of the 3 Distillery. The player harvesting the bean stew chooses which gold coin to give to the owner of the 3 Distillery. At game end, when a player harvests a bean stew field, he must also give one gold coin to the owner of the 3 Distillery. At game end, the gold coins collected under the 3 distillery are added to that player's earnings stack (before applying the Indian tipi).

The owner of the 4 Distillery uses the beanometer on the 4 distillery card instead of the cognac beans when harvesting cognac beans.

Summary Card

Transcribed from the printed High Bohn summary card (one per player, shown on page 1 of the booklet). The card's wording is reproduced as printed, including its use of "thalers" where the booklet text says gold coins.

Summary card for High Bohn

• At game end, the owner of 4 or more buildings earns bonus thalers:
  • 4 buildings = 1 thalers
  • 5 buildings = 2 thalers
  • 6 buildings = 3 thalers
  • 7 buildings = 5 thalers
  • 8 buildings = 8 thalers
• Number of each building type:
  • 3 players, max. two each
  • 4 players, max. three each
  • 5 players, max. four each
• At game end, score:
  • building purchase prices
  • thalers in earnings stacks
  • bonus thalers for four or more buildings