Mutterböhnchen
Mutterböhnchen Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Concept and Game Material
The game Mutterböhnchen contains a game-tracking card for the draw pile, 8 baby beans (with 2 rattles), as well as 24 special beans. All our beans are male, though not outstandingly manly. Mutterböhnchen can only be played with the card game Ladybohn — Manche mögen's heiß! (AMIGO Spiel + Freizeit). In the following explanation, knowledge of the original rules of Ladybohn is required.
Additions to Game Setup
From the game Ladybohn, take 2 male beans from each bean type, shuffle them, and distribute them equally to the players. These cards will be face-down, acting as coins for the players. Players may not look at what type of beans their coins are. (With 3 or 5 players, there will be 1 card left over. Without looking at it, shuffle it back into the deck. With 6 players, there will be 4 left over; similarly, shuffle those leftovers into the deck.)
Shuffle the 32 bean cards from Mutterböhnchen together with the ones from Ladybohn. Set the combined bean deck face-down on the game-tracking card, as depicted in the illustration to the right[2]. The first time the draw deck becomes empty, shuffle the discard pile to form a new deck, and place it on the game-tracking card so the "2. Zugstapel" is visible. The back of the game-tracking card is for the third and fourth draw deck.
Additions to Ladybohn
First, the gameplay for 3 to 6 players is explained. Thereafter, the modified two-player rules are explained. All the rules of Ladybohn apply, with the following additions:
The Bean Fields
In a 4- to 6-player game of Mutterböhnchen, nobody can buy a "3. Bohnenfeld".
In a three-player game, everyone starts with three bean fields.
Gameplay
Phase 1: Play bean cards from your hand
This phase of the turn is unchanged in a game with 3 to 6 players.
Phase 1½: Attack of the Little Rascals
In Mutterböhnchen there is a new phase number 1½, the attack phase: It takes place between the phase during which you play beans from your hand, and the trading phase. For this phase, the rattles on the baby beans are of importance (see "Attack of the Little Rascals").
Phase 2 to 3: Trade, donate, and plant beans
The game phases 2 (trading phase) and 3 (planting phase) of the original game are merged.
Trading rules
In Ladybohn, the players that were trading were not allowed to tell whether the offered beans were men, ladies, or babies. In Mutterböhnchen, you are also not allowed to tell whether the beans in your hand are "mama's beans".
Planting rules
In Ladybohn, only babies could be "foisted" onto your opponents. This rule has become easier. In Mutterböhnchen not only the babies, but all beans cards can be "foisted" onto your opponents. Specifically, this means:
- If you receive a bean through a trade, and you have an existing bean field of that type, you must immediately plant it on the existing bean field. You can not prevent this (e.g. by a rapid harvest).
- If you receive several beans of the same type through a trade, you can decide in what order you immediately plant them, if they match the type of an existing bean field.
- For any traded beans that don't match any existing bean field, they can be planted later in the trading phase — just like beans revealed from the deck[3].
The interaction of Lady and baby beans
In Mutterböhnchen, when you plant a lady bean on a bean field that has a baby bean, you may move the baby bean upward in the bean field 2 positions. (In Ladybohn the opposite was true: If you plant a baby bean on a bean field that has a lady bean, you may move the lady upward 2 positions. This rule still applies.) It is important to note that the advancement of the ladies in Mutterböhnchen is optional, which enables you to use the rattle(s) of a newly planted baby bean (see "Attack of the Little Rascals").
Phase 4: Draw new bean cards
This phase of the turn is unchanged in a game with 3 to 6 players.
Harvest Rules
Unlike Ladybohn, when you harvest Gartenbohnen, you will take the coins for the harvest from the bottom of the discard pile, instead of the top of the discard pile. (You still discard all the harvested Gartenbohnen, rather than converting any of them to coins.)
The Mutterböhnchen
The titular "mama's beans" are 24 male beans with special (dis)abilities. The special (dis)abilities have no effect as long as the "mama's beans" are in your hand. They differ in the following manner:
For "mama's beans" that have their text near the center of the card:
- The text on the card is only important as long as he is lying readable in a bean field.
- The "mama's bean" loses his quirk as soon as his text is covered by another bean card in the bean field, or if he is harvested.
For "mama's beans" that have their text at the top of the card:
- The text is in effect as long as the "mama's bean" is planted in a field — no matter which position.
- The "mama's beans" do not lose their special (dis)ability when they are covered by other beans in the bean field, but rather only after they are harvested. (Because of this rule, it is important that you do not fan the beans in your fields in such a way that only the Bohnometers of the cards are visible.)
When beans are planted, you must always plant them sequentially. (That is to say that it is impossible to plant several beans simultaneously in order to avoid the effect of certain "mama's beans", such as the Junggesellen (bachelor).)
Attack of the Little Rascals
As already mentioned, between the playing hand cards phase and the trading phase there is now an intermediate attack phase. This phase has the number 1½.
On your turn, if at least one of your bean fields has a baby bean on top, you can perform an "attack of the little rascals" on another player. Designate a player, who must now shuffle his stack of coins. Then you select and reveal 1 card from your opponent's coin stack. If and only if you can use that type of bean on one of your existing fields, you may (and must) plant that bean immediately. (Remember: Coins are just the backs of bean cards.) Otherwise, return the card to your opponent, and it will remain a coin.
- If you have a baby bean with two rattles, then you may reveal 2 coins from the same player, instead of just 1 coin, but you may take at most only one card. (The other card is returned to your opponent as a coin.)
- If you have 2 bean fields, each with 1 baby on top, you can attack two different players. You may not attack the same player twice. Even if one of your baby beans gets covered after the first attack, you may still perform the second attack, as planned. If the first attack puts a new baby bean on top, you may not start a new attack with this new bean.
- Both special cases can combine with one another.
- Special rule: In the three-person game, if you have babies on top of all 3 bean fields, you may double-attack one of your opponents.
The defender is always allowed to harvest and sell beans quickly before an attack. The attacker, on the other hand, must always plant captured beans immediately on the appropriate bean field before she can harvest.
Tip: Try to remember who has harvested many of each type of bean, so you can choose your target appropriately.
Playing and Winning the Game
When playing with 3/4/5/6 people, the game ends as soon as the draw pile becomes empty for the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th time.
So that the final round does not involve excessively hard bargaining of "mama's beans" or baby beans, which could ruin entire bean fields, at the end of the game, each player (in clockwise order) may place any 1 matching hand card on each of her existing bean fields. Start with the player whose turn normally would have come next. Even now, lady beans and baby beans can pull each other up 2 positions. Then each player harvests and sells her bean fields.
The player with the most coins wins. In the event of a tie, the winner is the one whose first turn came later. (This is a rule that is recommended for all Bohnanza variants.)
Gameplay for a Two-Person Game
The Ladybohn and Mutterböhnchen rules of the multi-player game apply, with the following exceptions:
Of the two "3. Bohnenfeld" cards, only one is needed. At the beginning of the game, give it to the second player. The third bean field is not purchased, as in other Bohnanza variants, but rather the opponents take turns possessing it. A third bean field may only be started by the person who currently has the "3. Bohnenfeld" card. When you start a third bean field, you must immediately give the "3. Bohnenfeld" card to your opponent. (It is possible that both players have a third bean field at the same time.) You lose your third bean field as soon as you harvest one of your three bean fields. You may only harvest bean fields on your own turn.
A game turn comprises 5 phases:
Phase 1: Takes bean cards from your opponent's offer (for the term "offer", see Phase 4), on your own bean fields or on the discard pile.
The following rules apply to both Phase 1 and Phase 4:
- Beans of the same type must be planted together or discarded together — you may not separate them.
- You may plant the beans in any order you like.
- (As in the multi-player game, each baby bean you plant can move 1 lady bean in the same field 2 positions forward, and each lady bean you plant can move 1 baby bean in the same field 2 positions forward.)
Phase 2: Plant your foremost hand card. If you want, you may also play your second-foremost card. At any point in this phase, you may discard any 1 bean card from your hand.
Phase 3: Attack of the Little Rascals: First, determine how many single-and double-attack you have. Resolve all attacks (in any order) against your opponent. Immediately plant coins, whose beans match your bean fields, on the appropriate bean fields. Return any coins that do not match once all the attacks are carried out. As in the multi-player game, in a double-attack, you take at most 1 coin.
Phase 4: Reveal 3 bean cards from the deck. These cards form the offer. Now, as long as the top card of the discard is the same type as one of the beans in the offer, add it to the matching offer stack (for this, it doesn't matter whether the beans are men, ladies, or babies). Take all the bean cards of a stack if you can use it. Leave the beans you don't want lying there (see Phase 1).
Phase 5: Draw 2 bean cards to the back of your hand.
End of the Game: The game ends when the draw deck is empty for the first time. At the end of the two-person game, each player can add any 1 matching bean card from her hand to each of her existing fields.
(The playing time is about 30 minutes.)
Comments on Employing the "Mama's Beans"
Following are explanations of the text on the "mama's beans", sorted by bean type.
Once again men! How I hate them, every single "mama's bean" (paraphrased from Greta Garbo).
- Arbeitstier (Workaholic Gartenbohne): If the Arbeitstier happens to be the first hand card you plant on your turn, causing the rearmost card in your hand to be planted thereafter, that rearmost card does not count as the second card planted from your hand. You may still plant a second foremost card from your hand.
- Faulpelz (Slacker Gartenbohne): If you have both Faulpelz and Warmduscher in effect, you will draw no beans at the end of your turn.
- Wühler (Go-Getter Gartenbohne): The Wühler's ability only applies to his own little rascals.
- Choleriker (Hothead Rote Bohne): In a 2- to 3-player game, you have up to 3 bean fields, so it means on the card "fields"[4].
- Flitzer (Streaker Rote Bohne): Do not reveal a replacement card for the Flitzer. If nobody wants the Flitzer, set him aside, face-up, and he can (rather, must) be planted during the active player's trading phase. In a two-player game, the Flitzer is not activated if he's added to the offer from the discard pile — because he won't have been "exposed"[5].
- Warmduscher (Wimp Rote Bohne): Warmduscher's owner draws his bean card after the active player has drawn her 3 cards.
- Prügelknabe (Whipping Boy Augenbohne): Bean gifts that are not placed directly onto bean fields can be planted at any time during the trading phase.[6]
- Loser (Loser Augenbohne): In a multi-player game, if have any 1 bean on one field, and 1 Augenbohne on the other field, and you trade for the Loser, then you must now harvest your 2 Augenbohnen immediately. Unfortunately, the Loser's beanometer means that the harvest will be without income.
- Hampelmann (Jumping Jack Augenbohne): The Hampelmann relates to planting beans from your hand. In a multi-player game, this is Phase 1; in a two-player game, Phase 3. You are allowed to plant the Hampelmann as your first card from the front of your hand, and then any card as your second.
Cards
| Card (German) | Card (English) | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Aktivist | Activist | If 1 Sojabohne is revealed in the trading phase, it is immediately placed on the Aktivist beanefits[8] for all! |
| Arbeitstier | Workaholic | If you plant the Arbeitstier, you must immediately thereafter plant the rearmost bean in your hand |
| Chauvischwein | Chauvinist Pig | allows lady beans in his bean fields only if they are under the bean field |
| Choleriker | Hothead | starts under the bean field, but for each bean planted in his other fields, he moves forward 1 position |
| Einsiedler | Recluse | has a simple beanometer |
| Faulpelz |
The Aktivist and Kavalier entries end in small-print fragments in the source ("beanefits for all!" and "to Mom"); they are reproduced as printed, with the Aktivist fragment's wordplay explained in footnote 8.
Translator's Footnotes
These footnotes are from the English translation and are reproduced as printed.
- Mutterböhnchen is a wordplay on Muttersöhnchen, which is the pejorative "mama's boy".
- i.e. with the "1. Zugstapel" exposed, and the "2. Zugstapel" tucked under the deck.
- The German rules say also like beans planted from your hand, but that apparently is a mistake, as it conflicts the basic tenets of every Bohnanza game.
- Just recapitulation here.
- Ahem.
- Although you must accept all gifts, you still have the time to juggle your fields to make room for them.
- The German rules say Brechbohnenfeld by mistake.
- The word is Mindestbohn, a wordplay on Mindestlohn, which means "minimum wage".
- A slightly pejorative term for a guy who identifies with women.
- As in the pull-string puppet for which the exercise is named.
- Comrade-pig, literally, but it's an idiom used for someone who plots against his friends.