Game: Nicht die Bohne!

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rober — 2008-11-14T10:41:20+00:00

overview

Thread: Re: NdB with 3 and a huge comeback

TrimChris — 2008-03-25T19:01:31+00:00

Just played a 3 player session today and it is indeed a different dynamic. The first round there was some positive progress by all. The second and third rounds we had figured out how to maximize screwage so all players got negative scores in those rounds.

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

Mutombo — 2007-12-10T18:53:11+00:00

But this isn't Uwe's game.

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snerreifke — 2007-11-19T10:10:04+00:00

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

dlminsac — 2007-10-18T02:57:45+00:00

I have played with 3 a few times. Now I will not play with less then 4 and with 5 being the best. This is a game of generated chaos. It is best as a negotiation game which in a way adds to the chaos as someone often will not stick to the plan. I love this as a quick end of night filler. Uwes best.

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

Sprydle — 2007-09-20T15:33:46+00:00

Brain wrote:
docreason wrote:
This game may actually work best with 3 players. It makes for a very tight AND very nasty game with 3. More players is more chaotic mayhem. Still fun, just a different game.

I disagree. I find it with 3 to be too predictable and not worth playing.

So far, I've only played with 4 and 5, but I expect we would like it with 3 as well--it would become in some ways more predictable, but that's part of what makes games like this more intense and nasty with 3. But I do disagree that more is "chaotic mayhem." For the reasons I stated above, knowledge of what you won't score, as well as open knowledge of what everyone else needs by way of the open scoring areas, and what is being offered, you have very good control over how and by whom your card will be chosen. Fewer players increases your ability to plan farther beyond the current play. More players tightens your focus to the current play, but if you're not retaining the same "current play control," you're not watching your fellow player's score areas closely enough.

For instance, Sticheln, is a crazy intense game with 3, but many people don't like it with 3. Because you can predict, or downstream think, further into the game, it becomes far more brain burning as you set you opponents up beyond just the current play. I'm sure this game would work the same way. We'll play it with 3 in the next few days to verify.

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

Brain — 2007-09-20T15:23:29+00:00

docreason wrote:
This game may actually work best with 3 players. It makes for a very tight AND very nasty game with 3. More players is more chaotic mayhem. Still fun, just a different game.

I disagree. I find it with 3 to be too predictable and not worth playing.

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

Warbanner — 2007-09-20T15:23:01+00:00

Thanks for the excellent review. Must remember to put this on my want list.

Thread: Re: Bean there, ain't done that!

docreason — 2007-09-20T14:04:59+00:00

This game may actually work best with 3 players. It makes for a very tight AND very nasty game with 3. More players is more chaotic mayhem. Still fun, just a different game.

Thread: Bean there, ain't done that!

Sprydle — 2007-09-20T08:51:08+00:00

A Review of Nicht die Bohne

This is a fantastic card game which uses a mechanic I have not come across before. It's not a trick-taking game, rather more of a trick-manipulation game. It can be a little hard to track down, being strictly a German game, but it is still available in North America at http://www.germangames.com.

Nicht die Bohne is a 3 to 6 player card game published by Amigo and comes in a small, flat box. The cards are a little thin, but have a nice texture and appear to hold up well, despite the thinness. Although the cards are "beans" they are not anthropomorphic like Bohnanza, they're, well, just beans, albeit in 4 colors. There is also a wooden "bean disk" and a score pad. The rules are in German, but there is a translation here on the Geek, and actually, by the time you read the 3rd paragraph down from here, you'll know the rules--yes it's that simple. The rules are no more difficult than in No Thanks! but there is a fair bit more strategic and tactical depth to the gameplay.

The deck consists of 4 suits--the aforementioned 4 colors, red, yellow, green and blue. The standard cards are numbered from 1 to 10 in each color. In addition there are 3 different multiplier cards--3 minus cards in each color (multiply by -1), a 2X card (multiply by 2), and a "Nicht die Bohne card (multiply by 0). These cards all multiply their respective colors, affecting your final score, and each can be good or bad depending on the situation.

At the start of the game the entire deck is dealt out to the players, and one player is chosen as the "start player" and given the wooden bean disk. Look carefully at your hand--you will have NONE of those cards your holding, at the end of the game! This gives you a delightful bit of inside knowledge (and also is the first strike against the comments left by some about excessive chaos).

The game plays as follows. The holder of the bean disk chooses a card from their hand and places it face UP in front of them. Everyone looks at that card and then chooses a card from their own hand, placing it face DOWN in front of them. When everyone is ready, the face down cards are turned up. The holder of the bean disk then gets to choose one of those cards to take and place face up in their "scoring area." This is open-knowledge, so place the cards you take so that they're visible to everyone. Then the player whose card was chosen gets to pick someone else's face up card (other than the bean disk holder's). When the last person's card is chosen, they then take the bean disk holder's card and the bean disk--they then are the player to place the face up card for the next play. Simply continue this until all the cards have been played, then add up everyone's score. A Nicht die Bohne in a color makes all of that color equal to zero for you, 1 or 3 minus cards makes the stack in that color a negative value, while 2 Minus cards brings it back to positive. A 2X card will double the value of that color (positive or negative!). You add the totals for all 4 colors that you have in your score area, and the highest point total wins.

Although there is some chaos in the very beginning of the game, it rapidly diminishes because you know what cards you won't be picking up (every card in your hand) and you can also see what cards the others are collecting. The value of the multiplier cards changes as play progresses because while that 2X card may work great with the 8, 9, 10 you've collected, if you get stuck with Minus card, that total suddenly becomes -54, and you suddenly become desperate for another Minus in that color. Remember Minus times Minus equals a positive value again. Just don't forget, there are 3 Minus cards of each color, so you're not safe until they're all out.

The strategies vary during the game as well. You often want to avoid the bean disk, because people often put a bad card as the face-up offer. If the bean disk holder puts down a Minus card, you might want to play a highish card that they're collecting, so that they'll be inclined to chose your card. Conversely if you want that Minus card, you'll want to put a bad card down yourself, so they won't choose yours. But don't forget to watch what your fellow players are looking for as well. You might throw out a Minus card the bean disk holder doesn't want, but if another player really wants it, they may take it too early and you still won't get the bean disk card.

If you end up with the Nicht die Bohne card (on purpose or not!) for a color, while making that color valueless, it also becomes "safe" for you and you can attempt to spoil everyone else's collection in that color. Since negatives can't hurt you, you can sweep up those extras to make sure the one or two other players who might have them are stuck with those negative totals.

There is a heavy screwage factor in this game, because it is near perfectly balanced between you wanting to try and collect high value cards for yourself, while trying to ensure the right people get stuck with the Minus and Zero cards. Once someone has a high value color collection forming, you can be sure everyone will try and force them to take the Minus card, or at least the Nicht die Bohne card. Once you're about halfway through the hand, it becomes easier to manipulate specific players into taking your card, or not. Of course the table-banter escalates as well, as players try to make the case to take card X so player 2 will be stuck with card Y.

This game could be considered a filler since you can play a hand in about 15 to 20 minutes with 5 players, yet its surprising depth will often mean it will be played several times in a row, taking an hour or so. It is fantastically easy to teach, but it takes a couple hands to come to grips with the strategies. I love the "reverse" thinking involved in trying to manipulate how the cards are taken, and I really love the "downstream thinking" necessary--meaning the thought process of "Ol' Bean Boy put down a red 8 because they want me or Chuckles there to cough up a good blue...but I know Sneezy really really doesn't want that red 8 because they've got a red Minus and a 2X...Sneezy'll probably play a Green if they've got it since Chuckles really wants Greens...." It's *almost* a recipe for Analysis Paralysis, but it never reaches that point because you only "downstream think" for the current play--the card which is offered by the bean disk holder is what sets the plays and the "think" in motion.

Thread: Re: 2 variants easy to implement

ethim — 2007-08-03T19:08:11+00:00

Oh well! We have been playing this the wrong way then. It was still fun. So the 2nd variant should then be:

2) "If only you had read the rules properly" variant:

All the players reveal their card at the same time, even the player with the disk.

Thread: Re: 2 variants easy to implement

Kubigaruma — 2007-08-03T18:37:58+00:00

By the way, your number 2 is not a variant. The rules instruct you do this.

Thread: Re: Out of print?

ethim — 2007-08-03T18:25:18+00:00

Hi,

I have another solution which might be a bit cheaper than ordering from oversea. The canadian online store below will ship to the US.

http://www.germangames.com/game.asp?gameID=103

Thread: 2 variants easy to implement

ethim — 2007-08-03T18:17:41+00:00

While playing this game, we though of 2 variants.

1) "7-8 players" variant:

Just remove the 10s from the game and Voilà! 56 cards easily dividable amoung 7 or 8 players.

2) "Choose your battle wisely" variant:

To add a bit more information for the decision making just do this. Instead of all players revealing their cards at the same time. First the player with the disk announced the card he is "offering". Then all the other players choose their offerings and reveal them all together. This help you plan according to the fact that you care or not about receiving the card offered by the player with the disk.

Thread: Re: Out of print?

Great Dane — 2007-07-13T07:45:17+00:00

The game is NOT out of print.
It can still be ordered from Amigo (order #9910) =
http://www.amigo-spiele.de/Amigo_Produkte_Karten_Bohne.Amigo

However, as it is an older title which isn't widely popular it may be difficult to find a retailer willing to stock it.

Thread: Out of print?

lstr — 2007-07-13T02:31:14+00:00

I can't seem to find this from US online merchants. Any leads?

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Horconboy — 2007-01-07T14:43:24+00:00

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Horconboy — 2007-01-07T13:32:19+00:00

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Horconboy — 2007-01-07T13:17:28+00:00

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Horconboy — 2007-01-07T13:08:29+00:00

Thread: Review: Nicht die Bohne

bwridge — 2006-09-07T21:56:23+00:00

Nicht die Bohne is a fun, clever card game that I can recommend to both casual gamers looking for some light fun as well as to more serious gamer types who are competitive no matter what sort of game they play.

Nicht die Bohne uses a 60-card deck with four "suits," or colors: red, blue, yellow, and green. Each suit consists of 10 bean cards with a point spread of 1-10, these are the cards that give you points at the end of the game. Along with these 10 cards, each suit also has 3 types of special cards: the negative, the doubler, and the nicht die bohne card.

The negative card gives a negative value in the corresponding color to the possessor of this card. For example, if I have 8 points in red, then gain the red negative, I now have -8 points. The interesting point here is that there are three negative cards for each color, and two negatives cancel each other out to become a positive. For example, in the example given above, if I were to pick up a second red negative, I would be in the positive again.

The doubler gives a x2 bonus in the corresponding color. This also applies to negative scores as well.

The nicht die bohne card gives the owner of each card a flat zero points for the game in its color.

What's fun about these special cards is that their value to the players involved will change as the game goes on. The negative cards, for example, are usually bad, except when you already have one, in which you're desperate to get a second (but not a third). The doubler is great if you have positive points to double up, but it can be a game-loser if you're in the negative. The nicht die bohne card is usually bad, but if you're looking at a negative score in one color and you have little hope of changing it, it can wipe out the negative value and give you a flat zero points in that color, which is an improvement. The clever Nicht die Bohne player will be aware of the changing values of these cards as he plays them. Now, on to game play.

The deck is dealt in its entirety to all the players and one person is chosen to play the first card. The leading player will play a card face up on the table and place the small wooden bean token (included in the game box) on his card, indicating that his card will be the last one picked. The other players will then choose a card from their hands and play it face down. Then,when all are ready, cards are revealed simultaneously. Now, the leading player gets first pick among the other face cards and chooses the most appealing card. Once he is done, the player whose card he picked now has second pick. And then the owner of the card he picked has third pick, and so on. The original lead card goes to the player whose card is picked last, and that player becomes to the lead for the next card. This continues until all hands are depleted. Once finished, tally up the scores and the game goes to the player with the most points. Simple...

It may seem almost random in terms of playing cards, but an astute player will do well by playing good cards to avoid the junk leads, and by knowing what every player at the table wants and is trying to avoid. I've played this game a number of times but I still instinctually dump a negative card on the board as a "bad" card, only to be surprised to see someone gladly pick it up to cancel an earlier one. There's also a lot of room for screwing your buddy as an act of revenge for some dastardly deed he performed in a previous game. For example, let's say none of the cards left to choose from are of any interest to you. In this case, simply figure out which cards out there are bad for your opponents and leave those on the table. Did your buddy get stuck with a negative yellow after accumlating some 20 points in that color? Tough break for him...

Nicht die Bohne is fun, easy to pick up, and plays quickly. I view it as an ideal filler game that allows for plenty of socializing at the table. It's worth a look.

Thread: NdB with 3 and a huge comeback

Brain — 2006-03-30T19:39:53+00:00

I introduced a couple of friends to this game and we tried out a three player game. I had only played the game before with more than three, and I was accustomed to a different dynamic.

With three, you are able to choose who gets your card with the bean token on it, just by taking the other card. This led to people hording the negatives and zeros until the end. I hadn't figured this out in the beginning, and the others were new, so the first round was low-scoring.

Me: -1, Nate: 4, Steve: 1

The second round, I tried an interesting ploy where I stuck both of them with negatives in green, and then started firing off the high green cards (while holding the 3rd green negative in my hand). This ended up backfiring because one of them got the 0, and then they both retaliated, really messing up my round.

Me: -50= -51, Nate: +27=31, Steve: +17=18

The third round, they wrote me off as out of the game, and I played shrewdly, working to limit both of them. I ended up with a huge score, and pulled out the win at the last moment by getting the last green negative to reverse a pile.

Me: +103= 52, Nate: +4=35, Steve: + 20=38

Thread: Nicht die Bohne - Session Report

gschloesser — 2006-03-15T23:34:13+00:00

This is one of my all-time favorite card games. It is deliciously nasty, but it does require an unspoken “group think” in order to truly shine. While there is always the temptation to select the card that will benefit you the most, sometimes it is better to take a less appealing card so that an opponent is stuck with a devastating card.

Gail and I introduced Alison, Paul and Rhonda to the devilish joys of this nasty bean game. We only played two rounds, though, as the Torres game finished, leaving Robert and Jennifer seeking a game.

Round 1: Rhonda 36, Alison 27, Greg 21, Gail 19, Paul –59 (yes, -59)
Round 2: Gail 99, Rhonda 66, Greg 46, Alison 42, Paul 10

Ratings: Greg 8, Gail 8, Paul 7.5, Rhonda 7, Alison 6.5

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GeoMan — 2005-06-16T13:16:27+00:00

Thread: Nicht die Bohne - Session Report

gschloesser — 2005-06-01T04:40:29+00:00

This is one of my favorite card games, and many in our group share the sentiment … especially Lenny. So, he was thrilled when we chose to play it. We were joined by Jerry, John and Laura.

True-to-form, the leaders were smacked, but usually not hard enough to suit John. Indeed, Jerry managed to hold onto his lead throughout the game. In the final round, we managed to hold Jerry without any points, but his lead was large enough to hold off Laura, who fell one point short of the win.

Round-by-round cumulative scores:

Round 1: Jerry 60, John 45, Lenny 24, Greg 23, Laura 23
Round 2: Jerry 129, Greg 85, Lenny 67, John 45, Laura 27
Round 3: Jerry 138, Greg 112, Lenny 107, Laura 83, John 25
Finals: Jerry 138, Laura 137, Greg 135, Lenny 100, John 100

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Metaphora — 2005-03-23T20:58:59+00:00

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Metaphora — 2005-03-23T20:57:46+00:00

Green cards

Thread: Session Report

j-berman — 2005-03-12T12:11:25+00:00

This card game is often referred to as "that other bean game". While the theme, like Bohnanza, is based on beans, that is where the similarities end. This game can be quite tense and often calls for all sorts of negotiations.

Essentially, their are fifteen cards in four suits (red, yellow, blue and green colors). The cards range from 1 to 10 points. There are also five special cards: one zero card (the Nicht die Bohne! card), one "2X" card and three "minus" cards. The entire deck is shuffled and distributed to each player. One player places a card face up and places the bean counter on that card. The other players pick a card and simultaneously reveal them. The "bean token" player then chooses which card to take from the opposing players. That player then chooses which of the remaining (and non "bean token") cards to take. This continues until the final player has to take the card with the bean token. That player now reveals a card face up, places the bean token on it, and play continues until the deck runs out.

The beauty is in the scoring. At the end of each round (you play a number of rounds equal to the number of players). The number cards are worth their face value. The "2X" card multiplies everything in that color by two. The "minus" cards can change the sign of the total! One minus makes the hand worth negative points, having two minus makes them positive, and having all three negatives makes them negative again. Finally the "zero" card makes everything worth zero in that color - regardless of what was taken previously.

You probably see how this game can get really nasty. You have the ability to hurt other player by what you play and/or what you take from the cards played. In this game, Justin collected three of the four "zero" cards in the first round. He maintained the majority in "zero" cards in the next round, where Geoff maintained lots of single "minus" cards and "2X" cards - a terrible combination. In this round, Brian also dropped from 30+ points in green to zero when he was forced to take the "zero" green card late in the round. With the "zero" cards maintained by Justin in the previous rounds and the significant beating Geoff took from the "minus" and "2X" situation in round 2, Brian was able to keep the lead. Hence, Brian played conservatively in the last round, focusing mainly on keeping his present score. This resulted in him taking three "zeros" and while he won the game, it was close at the end.

Costing only several dollars, this game comes with some nice components. Aside from the cards, a little wooden bean token and a scoring pad makes this well worth the price. One additional thing done in the game above: Cards taken are kept face up so that everyone else knows what you have. This makes bookkeeping easier and makes for a tenser game. Its a light game that makes a good, although mean, filler.

Thread: Re:Session Report

GeoMan — 2004-10-17T22:22:39+00:00

ethim (#52398),

You need at least 4 people to enjoy this...

Thread: Session Report

ethim — 2004-09-02T23:14:03+00:00

Sylvain, Mike and I sat down for a game of Nicht die bohn even though we suspected that 3 players was not optimal.

I explained the rules in about 1 minute. The game is VERY chaotic with 3 players. You end up choosing who to piss off the most instead of trying to help yourself. The player starting plays his worst card and choose which cards he wants. The other have no choice at all. I ended up winning with a whooping -24 (I want to remind people that the goal is to have the highest score).

Mike: -29
Sylvain: -44
Martin: -24

It is a good game, just not really for 3 players.???

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2004-08-23T15:33:52+00:00

Lenny had helped me upgrade my Windows to the XP version last week, but I was having a few nagging problems. While we took a break to fix the problems, Jim, Mike, Steve, Kurt, R.J. and Jules went to an old favorite: Nicht die Bohne.

When Lenny and I returned, they were in the second hand. We both enjoyed watching the match, which included numerous outbursts of glee and/or frustration as the cards either benefited or harmed the players.

Kurt soared into the lead with an impressive 69 points in the first round. His scores dropped rapidly after that, however, as the other players silently conspired to stick him with the negative cards. The race tightened considerably in the second round, but R.J. broke out of the pack in the final round to claim the victory.

Finals: R.J. 131, Mike 109, Kurt 91, Jules 87, Kurt 81, Steve 73

Ratings: R.J. 6.5, everyone else 7

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2004-03-14T14:28:26+00:00

It has been right at two years since this deliciously evil card game has seen table-time during a Westbank Gamers session. It was long overdue. John, Keith, Michael, Jerry, Jason and I tried to pass-off unwanted beans to our opponents and collect beneficial beans for ourselves.

Just about every threat was dealt with, except the most important one. Jason struck out to an early lead, which is usually the kiss of death in this nasty game. We did manage to curtail his scores in the subsequent two rounds, but it wasn’t enough. Jason managed to lead from start to finish, an extremely rare feat to accomplish in this “hack the leader” game.

Round-by-round scores:

Round 1: Jason 41, Greg 34, Jerry 29, John 25, Keith 6, Michael 2

Round 2: Jason 71, Greg 64, Jerry 54, Michael 42, Keith 28, Jon 25

Finals: Jason 89, Greg 75, Jerry 73, John 70, Michael 69, Keith 62

Ratings: Greg 8, Jason 7, Keith 7, Michael 6.5, John 6

Thread: Session Report

telbert — 2003-12-23T20:11:45+00:00

The trick taking game that hit the table tonight was Nicht die Bohn.

We played 2 hands of this, primarily to ensure that Andy didn't win after performing an action which would be seen as blatant cheating in some circles. Hence this game shall always be known as yet another game where Andy tried to bend the rules. Oggie was either extremely unlucky, very badly stitched up by everyone else or hopeless in the first round managing to get negatives for 3 of the colours and totally an impressive -21. Whether by fair or dishonest means (changing his card after seeing everyone elses card regardless of how briefly, does seem a little dishonest) Andy managed to accrue a round winning 56. The second round saw Tel manage to win 4 -ve cards as his first 4 cards, luckily from him in 2 colours so they cancelled each other out. Oggie managed a storming round, but Boog did enough to claim victory in the game.

A good solid game.

Final Scores
Boog 100, Paul 89, Steve 88, Andy 69, Tel 51, Oggiue 45

Ratings / 10
7's all round

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Psauberer — 2003-02-02T16:31:44+00:00

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-09-16T17:22:46+00:00

To finish off, we played one round of Nicht die Bohn (a game is normally three rounds). Jeremy walked away with the game while I grabbed second and newbie Sean got third.

Score:

*Jeremy* – 88 – 0 = 88
Rick – 38 – 0 = 38
Sean 40 – 10 = 30

The game is very cutthroat with three players and while it’s fun, I think it’s best with four.

And that’s all, folks!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-09-08T02:06:35+00:00

As the Settlers group was STILL playing, we opted for a game of Nicht die Bohne. This was Jeremy’s first game, and it seems he enjoyed it quite a bit!

In the first round the knives were out early as we tried to screw each other as much as possible. Perhaps because of his newbie status, Jeremy was able to escape unscathed with huge points while the rest of us got hammered and went into negative territory.

Rounds One Score:

Jeremy – 82
Rick – -2
David - -12
Patrick – 24

The second round started to the call of “Get Jeremy!”. It turns out we did a pretty crappy job of getting him as his still got no negative points, though he did get a Nicht die Bohn or two. All of us got good positive scores and David, Patrick and I were able to pull ourselves out of the negative hole while Jeremy bolstered his positive score.

Round Two Score:

Jeremy – 112
David – 69
Rick – 61
Patrick – 19

In the third round the knives were finally out for Jeremy who got a score of -30 for the round. Yes! (Not that I’m taking any pleasure in Jeremy’s misfortune...) David also got hit hard with -11. Patrick and I were able to make up quite a bit of ground with scores of 49 and 24 respectively. In the end, I got the win just three points over Jeremy.

Final Score:

Rick – 85
Jeremy – 82
Patrick – 68
David – 58

Ratings:

Rick – 8
Jeremy – 8
Patrick – 8
David – 8

Eights all around, for what Jeremy called “the experience”. We were all agreed that the game is quite fun, though it’s pretty chaotic – you can’t really strategize too much. It has a huge screw-your-neighbor factor, which our group loves in games and this game has it in spades. Add it that it’s ridiculous simplicity, and you have a winner.

And that’s all, folks!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-08-17T13:34:43+00:00

After a long game of Wallenstein, we thought we should have a quick game of something light before we called it a night. I suggested one of my favorite light games – Nicht die Bohn. Corwin had not played the game before – I can’t believe I hadn’t cornered him into playing it yet. I went through the ridiculously simple rules and we got started. We only played one round.

This was a hilarious game as both William and Corwin got stuck with negative cards right from the beginning while Jeff cornered the market on Nicht die Bohn cards – three of them! It became pretty obvious towards the end of the game that I had the game in hand. Next time we have to play the other two rounds to give you guys a chance to come back!

Score: (Positive – Negative = Total)

*Rick* - 64 – 11 = 53
William – 31 – 14 = 17
Jeff – 4 – 0 = 4
Corwin – 12 – 30 = -18

Ratings:

Rick – 8
William – 6
Jeff – 4!
Corwin - -18!

Apparently Jeff and Corwin felt their score reflected their enjoyment of the game!

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-08-11T04:04:07+00:00

For a closer, I suggested Nicht die Bohn. This game was new to Chester and Wes.

In the first round Wes skunked us with a score of 45 while Joe and I both had 5. Chester humiliated himself with a rousing score of -27.

In the second round Wes was a marked man and only came out with 4 points. Joe and I both scored big, he had 51 points and I had 67 points. Chester further humiliated himself with another deficit of -25. At the end of round two the scores were Rick – 72, Joe – 52, Wes – 49 and Chester - -52.

Into the third round, I was now the marked man – I had 36 positive points but was brought down by 13 negative points. In the end, Joe got the win and I came in second only one point over Wes. Chester made a huge 57 point gain but was unable to overcome his big deficit and ended up with just 5 points.

Score:

*Joe* - 94
Rick – 85
Wes – 84
Chester – 5

I’ve got to say, this was by far the most cerebral playing of this game that I’ve ever played. Most of the time this game is played pretty quickly but with four players you really can consider all your options and everybody did, very carefully. It did slow down the game, but made it more strategic.

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-07-15T19:48:44+00:00

Dan, William and I got together on a Friday night for a few three player games. First off was Nicht die Bohn. I had heard from Joe at our last session that the game was particularly nasty with three players, and it is!

At the end of the first round, William screamed into the lead with 80 points. I had 26 and Dan had, uh, -6 (I think he was lulling us into a false sense of complacency).

The second round found William losing big points, but still staying in the game. I pulled into the lead with 59 points – William was one point behind with 58 and Dan had 22.

The third and final round found William again getting huge points and winning the game. Dan did pretty well too, getting second place while I was in negative territory in the last round, leaving me with third.

Score:

*William* - 132
Dan – 78
Rick – 50

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-07-15T19:48:25+00:00

Joe, Shari and Ann then arrived and played a quick two round game of Nicht die Bohn while the rest of us were finishing up.

After the first round Ann was in the lead with 80 and Joe was close behind with 77. Shari was third with 37 points after having 68 positive points and 31 negative. Yikes!

Shari did much better in the second round, getting 25 points with no negatives. Anne and Joe barely registered, scoring only 4 and 2 respectively due to big negative scores. Still, Ann was able to pull off the victory with her big first round score:

Score:

*Ann* – 84
Shari – 63
Joe – 39

Note from Joe – “With three players you can play a lot of screw your neighbor. Being dealt high cards is not a good thing – strategically you need to have negatives and zeros.”

Having recently played it with three, I agree with his thoughts.

Thread: Session Report

Deleted User 1 — 2002-07-15T19:48:16+00:00

It’s time for another regular session of the Terminal City Gamers. Tonight we start the festivities with our favorite light and nasty game – Nicht die Bohn. The players are Jeff, Dan, William, Patrick, David and me (Rick).

After the first round the scores were close with Patrick and Jeff tied for the lead with 45 and David close behind with 43. William and Dan were next and I brought up the rear with the brilliant score of -7 (Hey, they were picking on me!).

In the second round David scored 64 points and William scored a huge 70 points – that vaulted them into first and second place with 107 and 101 points respectively. I did slightly better, moving up to 24 points, but still kept a lock on last place.

In the final round everybody hammered away at the leader, David. He fought a valiant fight but was only able to capture second place while Dan snuck in from fourth place to grab the win!

Score:

*Dan* - 120
David – 115
William – 113
Rick – 96 (I scored big in the last round, everyone took pity on me!)
Patrick – 91
Jeff – 34 (With scores of 45, -13 and 2. Good on you Jeff!)

A fun, nasty game.

Thread: Session Report

Dan Bosley — 2002-07-04T16:51:02+00:00

Patrick left, so the 6 of us embarked upon the Night of the Bean! This game kind of grows on you. I liked it more this time than the previous time I played it. Knowing that you don’t get to keep any of the cards in your own hand, and must offer them up to the other players, makes for some fun second-guessing. High for high, or low for low? Or....High for low or low for high? And as the game goes on, and more and more cards are on the table, the decisions become less and less arbitrary. A nice, stick-it-to-your-neighbor game.

And although it’s a bean-theme, it has nothing to do with Bohnanza.

End of Round One:
Rick - 56
Andrew H. - 46
Toby - 46
Andrew N. - 36
Dan - 36
Joe - 11

End of Round Two
Rick - 75
Andrew H. - 75
Andrew N. - 70
Dan - 68
Joe - 62
Toby - 55

End of Round Three (end of game)
Rick -*128*
Dan - 109
Andrew H. - 101
Andrew N. - 93
Toby - 78
Joe - 69 (Joe had now come in dead last in 3 games - so we decided to end the “Joe must lose” portion of the night....) And Joe took advantage of that in the very next game - Alles im Eimer.

Nicht die Bohne ratings:
Andrew H. - 8
Rick - 8
Joe - 8
Toby - 7
Dan - 7
Andrew N. - 6

Thread: Session Report

Dan Bosley — 2002-06-27T11:40:34+00:00

Rick had then arrived, so we embarked upon Nicht die Bohne - Night of the Bean. This is a re-creation of some of those classic horror movies from the 50’s. Well, not really. But it sounds like it should be.

A deck of bean cards is dealt out. As in real life, there are 4 colors of beans, and they come in positive number values. There are also some 2X multiplier beans, 3 negative sign beans of each colour, and also a card for each color that zeros out your score for that color bean.

This is a math game! You want to maximize your bean scores. Negatives are bad of course. And a negative card with the 2X card are REALLY bad. But if you can get two negative cards, they cancel out (math! hurray!).

The thing is, the cards you are dealt will never belong to you. All your scoring cards will come from the hands of the other players.

Each turn, the beanmaster displays one card from his hand. The beanmaster’s card has a token placed on it, which means it must be the last card chosen that round. The other players look at the card that the beanmaster has played, and then all choose one card from their hand. The cards are simultaneously revealed.

Now the beanmaster checks out the cards on the table. He then chooses one of them to go in his scoring pile. And the player who had his card chosen, now gets to choose himself from the remaining cards on the table. And so on. The last player who has a card chosen must take the beanmaster’s card. And that player becomes the beanmaster for the next round.

This mechanic makes for some interesting decisions. If you really, really want the beanmaster’s card, you may want to play a card that nobody wants - hoping that you will be the last player chosen, and thus getting to take the beanmaster’s card yourself. If you really, really DON’T want the beanmaster’s card, then you may want to play a higher or better card, hoping that someone will choose your card earlier in the round, thus helping you to avoid taking the beanmaster’s card.

And of course, all of this is modified by what each player’s current scoring-card situation is. You sometimes may want to take one for the gipper - taking a card yourself that wasn’t necessarily the best for you -but which may force another player to take a card that they REALLY don’t want.

The game is interesting, and lends itself to some quirky cardplay. In our game, Rick jumped out to a huge lead in the first round (there are 3 rounds), and didn’t look back after that. He had 93 points at the end of the 1st round - the next closest at that point was William with 39 points. The rest of us just sat in awe at Rick’s huge bean score. We were in the presence of a true Bean-Master. Truly amazing.

However, he didn’t do quite as well in the next 2 rounds - but that huge lead in the 1st round was enough to ensure him the victory, even with Anne and William nipping at his heels.

In the game tonight, there was actually two tiers or levels of scoring - the A-team and the B-team. It was kind of like the A-team and B-team were playing two different games - check out the scores:

Rick - *138*
Anne - 129
William - 120
Big gap in scores here
Dan - 75
David - 66
Steve - 65

I would like to point out that I won the B-team score....

We didn’t rate the game, because we forgot. Tsk, tsk.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2002-05-18T20:38:34+00:00

With Lenny around, it wouldn't be long before Nicht die Bohne made an appearance. Sure enough, he grabbed this nasty little bean game and enticed Vickie Watson, Elaine Lohroff, Ken Girton, Gail Schloesser (my lovely wife!)
and myself into a match.

This is one of those games that you lead at your own peril. The leader is usually mercilessly set upon by the other players, causing him (or her) to suffer tremendously in the following round. We don't allow group collusion,
so everyone must spot the evil sequence of moves on their own.

This game proved no exception as one leader after the next was hammered. Gail was leading going into the final round, but was hammered, allowing Ken to sneak in and claim the victory. What a fantastically evil game!

Thread: Session Report

telbert — 2002-04-17T16:47:00+00:00

We ended the night with a couple of hands of Nicht die Bohn. The Card game where the aim is to maximise your scores across four colours, trying to avoid the -ve and zero cards.

Neither Boog nor Tel had managed a win so far on the night but both scored big in the first round. Boog scoring the higher. Kev hadn't quite worked out the tactics for the game so was bemused at one point to discover he had the choice of 5 -ve cards after starting the round with an 8. Into the second round and Oggie amassed a big score but was 5 points short of catching Tel who claimed the victory. Despite only scoring 4 in the second round Boog hung on for third from Kev then Steve. Andy had the honour of the wooden spoon.

An entertaining way to end the evening, as the game does not require too much thought - although Kev tried.

Final Scores
Tel 103, Oggie 98, Boog 76, Kev 64, Steve 55, Andy 38

Ratings / 10
Tel 8, Oggie 8, Boog 8, Kev 7, Steve 8, Andy 6

Thread: Session Report

telbert — 2002-03-21T18:48:03+00:00

We finished with one hand of Nicht de Bohn. A great little filler of a game that allows people to try to really screw up other players. Each of the 4 colours has the same 15 cards and at the end of the game a player scores for each colour. The numbered cards (1 - 10) score at face value, the zero card cancels this players score in this colour, the x2 card doubles the score and each -1 card multiplies the score by -1. Play starts in each round with the starting player playing a card face up. All the other players then simultaneously play a card. The starting player takes whichever card he wants apart from the starting card. The Player who played the card chosen, gets to choose next, and so forth. The last player gets the starting card and becomes the starting player for the next round.

The secret of winning this game in our group is to not score too heavily unless you can be certain that your scores can't be negatived or zeroed by the rest of the crowd. While everyone was busy trashing each others scores, Boog managed to quietly acquire a reasonable score spread over the 4 colours.

A fun game even for Tel who would have got a bigger score by not playing.

Final Scores
Boog 59, Paul 38, Andy 34, Steve 11, Tel -15

Ratings / 10
Boog 9, Paul 7, Andy 7, Steve 8, Tel 7

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2002-02-19T17:11:15+00:00

It was past ten o'clock, so Lenny asked for a rather short game and suggested one of his favorites, Nicht die Bohne. The same crew from Dampfross participated.

Lenny, Spouey and Steven all did well during the first round, a dangerous position as it usually has the effect of setting up the leaders for a big fall. However, things weren't as nasty as they could have been as a few potentially devastating card selections were overlooked by a few folks. We don't allow group collusion when playing Nicht die Bohne, forcing everyone to 'spot' these moves on their own. This makes the game much more enjoyable, at least for us, but, as a consequence, it is possible that certain optimum card selections and sequences may be overlooked. So be it.

Spouey captured a narrow lead over Lenny in the second round and managed to fight off attempted assaults in the final round to capture the victory.

Round-by-round scores:

Round 1: Lenny 65, Spouey 48, Steven 46, Keith 33, Greg 10, John 8
Round 2: Spouey 78, Lenny 73, Steven 66, Greg 62, Keith 57, John 43
Finals: Spouey 125, Greg 116, Lenny 103, Keith 62, John 53, Steven 51

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

While Jerry, Darren and Willerd were still dueling in Bluff, I gathered Bill, John and Ashton for what I thought would be a quick game of this nifty card game from Horst-Reinter Rosner I had brought back from Germany. Quick it wasn't ... our three round match lasted in excess of one hour! Lots of concentration and heavy thinking going on in what I had thought was a 'light' card game.

The game rules and mechanics are very simple, but do require one to warp his thinking outside of the normal patters. There are four sets (colors) of cards, each color with two sets of cards numbered
1 - 10, three 'minus' cards, one x2 card, and one 'Nicht die Bohne' ("Not the Bean") card. These are all shuffled together and dealt out evenly to the players. The game can accommodate from 3 - 6 players, but I suspect that it would actually play better with 5 or 6.

The start player places one of his cards face up on the table and marks it with the wooden bean token. All other players then simultaneously play a card face-down from their hands and they are then revealed. The start player then chooses one of the cards (not the one marked with the bean token) and places it in his field in front of him. The player whose card was chosen then selects one of the other cards. This continues until only one player hasn't had a selection, and he gets the original card marked with the bean token. He will now be the 'start' player for the next round.

What are you trying to accomplish? Well, once all cards have been played and collected, the scoring round is held. Players score each of their colors independently. You tally the numbers on each of one the cards for one color you managed to collect. If you have either 0 or 2 negative cards, the result is positive. If you have 1 or 3 negative cards, however, the result is negative. This figure is then doubled if you collected the x2 card ... which, of course, could be either a negative or positive result. This same calculation is done for each of your four colors collected and the totals added for a final result.

The game is played over three rounds and the player with the highest cumulative total is the victor.

Again, sounds easy enough. The warped thinking required, however, is that when you are the 'start' player, you usually want to lead with a card no one would want. This forces your opponents to play cards you desire so you will choose their card, allowing them to pick next. They are all trying to avoid being the last player to have his card selected, otherwise they will get stuck with the nasty lead card. So, to get a good card, you have to lead with a bad one. Hmmm.

However, you don't want to help your opponents TOO much, so sometimes it is wiser to offer horrible cards that your opponent will have to take, even if it means you getting hurt, too. With more players, however, this gets more and more difficult to accomplish.

One also must keep a careful eye on the number of cards which have already been played, especially the 'negative' cards. Getting stuck with one negative cards isn't a tragedy IF the other two negative cards have not yet been played yet. However, one must be careful to not to get stuck with that last negative card if it will result in an overall negative score for you for that color.

During the card selection process, with four players, it is not too difficult to decipher which cards will likely be selected by whom. That's the one real problem I see with the game. It tends to bog down as a player contemplates, "If I take the yellow 3 from Bill, then Bill will likely take the Blue 1 from Greg, which means Greg will have to take the negative green from Ashton, who'll then get stuck with the yellow negative. But, if I take the negative green from Ashton, then Ashton will take .....". You get the idea. The game is one which is very susceptible to such analyzation and calculation, which with four player greatly bogged the game down. A later playing with 6 players actually sped up the game as such analyzation and calculation proved to be too cumbersome and difficult, so players didn't try to do it.

The final problem I see is that there is a potential Kingmaker problem during the final hand(s) of the final round. It occurred in my first game, but I don't know if it was just a rare fluke or something which can surface regularly. Ashton choice was up and if he took one particular card, I would win. If he took the other card, John would win. Simple as that. Sadly for me, he took the card which earned John the win. But in either case, I don't like this 'kingmaker' situation.

One rule we steadfastly enforced following the first round was 'no helping other players'. Let them play their own game, for better or worse. Otherwise, it would be very easy to coach players to take this card or that one.

In spite of the sour ending on the final hand and the tendency for us to over analyze, the game was fun and, to my surprise, quite vicious. In the most recent edition of Counter magazine, Stuart Dagger accurately said, " This is not a game where you have a huge amount of control, but it is one that often offers plenty of scope for group malice." Due to this 'malice', I don't know if this game is really destined to be a 'family' game that I originally envisioned. But that's OK ... a little viciousness within a circle of gamers can be a fun thing!

Ratings: Bill 7, Ashton 7, Greg 6.5, John 5

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

This was my second playing of this entertaining and vicious card game from Horst Reiner Rosner. My first playing was at the Westbank Gamers session Wednesday night, so a full report of the game's mechanics can be found under the GAMING SESSION REPORTS tab under the 12/8/99 Gaming Session Report. I will say that my theory that the game would play better with more than four players was correct. The game actually went much quicker as players didn't try to over-analyze each play as this would prove too difficult. This absence of attempting to carefully analyze who would take what card on each and every had made for a swifter and more enjoyable game.

Unfortunately, I have somehow misplaced the small score sheet, so I don't have the exact round-by-round scores. I do know that Walt Burgoyne captured the victory over Mike, Shanna, Peter, Jason, Alan and I.

The ratings were also strong ... 6's & 7's around the table.

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Neil, George, Ken, Jim, Derk

I hadn’t actually heard much about this game prior to playing it. Well, other than it was a bohne card game from Amigo, which I normally assumed was akin to Bohnanza, however, that is not the case here. Ken had picked it up somewhere, and after reading the rules, he was anxious to try it. Neil was there at the end of a Saturday session, otherwise we’d probably have played a trick-taking game. Anyway, this little card game has a lot of neat little mechanisms. There are four suits, with cards one through ten in each suit. The idea is to take these cards for their point value. However, there are some other cards that can mess you up. Each suit has three negative cards, which make your points negative when you take them. But taking two negatives in one suit cancel each other. Additionally each suit has a Nicht die Bohne card, which makes all the points you have in that suit are nulled (sometimes a good thing).

The first player takes a card from his hand and displays it face up with the little ‘first player’ token on top. All the remaining players then place a card face down in front of them. When the cards are revealed, the first player takes his choice of all the cards except the one with the Bohne token on it (all the cards in your hand will be given to others). The player selected to trade with the first player then takes one of remaining cards, except the one with the Bohne on it. The last player to get picked for a trade gets the Bohne card and gets to be the first player for the next round. This continues until all cards have been played.

I actually don’t know what a complete game was, point-wise. But when we stopped playing, I had a pretty good lead. This is a very good game, and not because I was winning. It takes the interesting trading scheme from Andromeda and makes it quicker and more enjoyable. Plus, the game tends to have a pretty good sentiment about it. I think most people will play this game to maximize their score, and not necessarily to dump others, while dumping is still an option if several players collude.

Derk: 49+77+63=189, Neil: 51+69+17=137, Ken: 45+18+63=126, Jim: 10+74+30=114, George: 60+43+8=111

I think the scores are a little separated because I got a monster hand for the final round. I had three of the four ten’s, and at least two nine’s. What that meant is I could pick who would want my high point cards, but I’d also take the second trade, which is fairly juicy. Neil was going to win the game until about a third of the way through the last hand, he got zapped for a bunch of negative points. This game is kinda similar to David & Goliath in that you’re angling for a particular card in a set, only with less dumping of players. Plus whatever card you get, you know it’ll never be yours.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

This is a clever Essen release which has been mostly overlooked. That's a shame, as it is quite a fun and nasty card game with some interesting twists. Since the game hasn't gotten much publicity, I'll repeat my the description from 12/8/99 Gaming Session Report:

The game rules and mechanics are very simple, but do require one to warp his thinking outside of the normal patterns. There are four sets (colors) of cards, each color with two sets of cards numbered 1 - 10, three 'minus' cards, one x2 card, and one 'Nicht die Bohne' ("Not the Bean") card. These are all shuffled together and dealt out evenly to the players. The game can accommodate from 3 - 6 players, but I've found that it would actually plays better with 5 or 6.

The start player places one of his cards face up on the table and marks it with the wooden bean token. All other players then simultaneously play a card face-down from their hands and they are then revealed. The start player then chooses one of the cards (not the one marked with the bean token) and places it in his field in front of him. The player whose card was chosen then selects one of the other cards. This continues until only one player hasn't had a selection, and he gets the original card marked with the bean token. He will now be the 'start' player for the next round.

What are you trying to accomplish? Well, once all cards have been played and collected, the scoring round is held. Players score each of their colors independently. You tally the numbers on each of one the cards for one color you managed to collect. If you have either 0 or 2 negative cards, the result is positive. If you have 1 or 3 negative cards, however, the result is negative. This figure is then doubled if you collected the x2 card ... which, of course, could be either a negative or positive result. This same calculation is done for each of your four colors collected and the totals added for a final result.

The game is played over three rounds and the player with the highest cumulative total is the victor.

Again, sounds easy enough. The warped thinking required, however, is that when you are the 'start' player, you usually want to lead with a card no one would want. This forces your opponents to play cards you desire so you will choose their card, allowing them to pick next. They are all trying to avoid being the last player to have his card selected, otherwise they will get stuck with the nasty lead card. So, to get a good card, you have to lead with a bad one. Hmmm.

However, you don't want to help your opponents TOO much, so sometimes it is wiser to offer horrible cards that your opponent will have to take, even if it means you getting hurt, too. With more players, however, this gets more and more difficult to accomplish.

One also must keep a careful eye on the number of cards which have already been played, especially the 'negative' cards. Getting stuck with one negative cards isn't a tragedy IF the other two negative cards have not yet been played yet. However, one must be careful to not to get stuck with that last negative card if it will result in an overall negative score for you for that color.

During the card selection process, with four players, it is not too difficult to decipher which cards will likely be selected by whom. That's the one real problem I see with the game. It tends to bog down as a player contemplates, "If I take the yellow 3 from Bill, then Bill will likely take the Blue 1 from Greg, which means Greg will have to take the negative green from Ashton, who'll then get stuck with the yellow negative. But, if I take the negative green from Ashton, then Ashton will take .....". You get the idea. The game is one which is very susceptible to such analyzation and calculation, which with four players greatly bogged the game down. Later playings with 5 and 6 players actually sped up the game as such analyzation and calculation proved to be too cumbersome and difficult, so players didn't try to do it.

One rule we steadfastly enforce following the first round is 'no helping other players'. Let them play their own game, for better or worse. Otherwise, it would be very easy to coach players to take this card or that one.

Nicht die Bohne is quite fun and, to my surprise, quite vicious. In the most recent edition of Counter magazine, Stuart Dagger accurately said, "This is not a game where you have a huge amount of control, but it is one that often offers plenty of scope for group malice." Due to this 'malice', I don't know if this game is really destined to be a 'family' game that I originally envisioned. But that's OK ... a little viciousness within a circle of gamers can be a fun thing!

***

Two hands were played, as I surrendered my seat in the second game to Carla Triplett.

Game 1: Buster 71, Mark 59, Greg 34, Tim 31, Ted 18, Chip -16
Game 2: Buster 66, Tim 66, Ted 45, Carla 42, Mark 25, Chip 21

Ratings: Buster 7, Tim 7, Chip 7, Greg 7, Carla 6, Mark 6, Ted 6

Thread: Session Report

gamemark — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Translated from the German, this means "Lenny doesn't have a snowball's chance of winning." OK, maybe not.

Not a bad little card game that I have a hard time describing (Greg did a real good job not too long ago)... it works better with more players. The real joy this time around was playing with Derk "I can't let something go uncommmented upon" Solko... he had me rolling most of the game.

Ken Girton 147
Sandi West 124
Mark Jackson 110
Ben Baldanza 82
Derk Solko 44
Lenny Leo 26

Rating: 7
I'm not sure I'd ever buy this game (I can see how darn MEAN it could get with the wrong crowd) but I'd be willing to play again in a heartbeat (esp. with Derk!)

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I had wanted to play 'Nicht die Bohne!' as the first laying of this game was a less then rewarding experience. Not because of the game but because of the group I had played it with. I new this was a game I would enjoy with a group that is mean and nasty and of course that is just the way it turned out. “I don’t care if it hurt me I just wanted to stick it to David” was heard more then once during the game. This was actually a fun game to watch newbies play as you really have to think outside the box. Even the two semi-experienced players of the game had to quickly rethink which card we were going to offer to the group in a round. This game is really different then anything I have experienced so far. It is very mean-spirited (yeah!) and
counter intuitive. After playing with such a viscous group, with one exception (Stephen), I can not wait to try Rette Sich Wer Kann with them. We may all end up drowning. There were four of us playing and the scores at
the end were Karen (134), Stephen (123), Marianna (153!!) and myself (100). One of these days I am actually going to win something.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I coerced Keith, Mike, Clyde and John into a game of Nicht die Bohne. I am still enamored by this game as it has a VERY nasty attitude. One has a certain amount of control over your own fate, but can easily be slammed by opponents when selecting the cards which have been offered.

I do have a full review of Nicht die Bohne on the Westbank Gamers site which more fully describes the mechanics.

We played our usual three rounds. The leader after a round is usually beset upon by his opponents and slammed with damaging cards at every opportunity. This game was no exception as we had a different leader after all three rounds.

I managed to hold a slim lead over Mike after round one, but was the victim of an abundance of nasty cards. Mike, too, was hit hard, but did squeak by me to steal the lead following round two. John made remarkable gains in the second round, scoring 74 points and finishing the round in a close third position.

Round three was a disaster for me. 3/4 into the round I had collected seven cards ... ALL negatives! It was clear I was still a target and was not destined to win. Mike was fairing a bit better, but John was getting slammed, too. Keith, who had remained close throughout the game, was accumulating an impressive collection of cards and was virtually ignored by everyone else. Sure enough, this obscurity was to his benefit as he emerged the victor.

Round-by-round scores:

Keith: 42 + 29 + 73 = 144
Mike: 79 + 20 + 28 = 127
John: 13 + 74 + 12 = 99
Greg: 84 + 9 - 18 = 73
Clyde: 30 - 42 + 67 = 55

Ratings: Greg 7.5, Mike 6, Clyde 5, Keith 5, John 3

Thread: Session Report

Jonathan Degann — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

(Me, Dave Arnott, Patricia, Mike, Gary)
This is *like* any of many German trick taking games - except it's not a trick taking game. Similar to games like Hattrick and Sticheln, players will take cards, some of which are for positive points, some of which can turn all of a player's holdings in a suit "negative". However, the card taking method owes more to Andromeda and Money than to a trick taking game. One player tosses a card from his hand face up, and puts a "bean chip" on it. The others play a card face down, and simultaneously reveal. Now the leader takes any other player's card into his score pile, that player takes any remaining card, and so on. However, only the last remaining player in the round can (and must) take the card with the bean token on it. That player leads the next round. Cards are in four suits, numbered 1-10 points, but there are also 3 "negative" cards in each suit that turn the entire suit to negative points for the player who takes it (unless he takes two of 'em), as well as zero cards that nix the scoring in that suit, and doublers in each suit. It's a nifty kinda game of identifying each player's motivations, and working your way down the decision tree. (Patricia really wants the minus blue, since she's already minus. If I play that, she'll take my card, and I'll be able to take a high card still showing- but - the lead player played a high "bean" card, so everyone is going to play low cards in order to be the last one chosen..."

There is a lot of effort in engineering your picks to try to stick the right people with the wrong cards, and Mike observed that the game is really nasty. Sometimes, a player needs to decide whether to fall on his sword, picking an inferior card, in order to help insure that somebody else takes a negative card that will really hurt someone. Big Dave chastized us many times for *not* doing so, but when it came time for him to take the sacrifice, he refused, claiming that he wasn't going to do so if nobody else did. Right. Dave did some major metagaming, directing attention to Patricia's strong showing. So of course we nailed Patricia, which *really ticked her off*. Guess who won? (Dave) Patricia came as close to sticking an icepick in Dave's throat as I've ever seen at the Left Coast Gamers. I think we generally left feeling that NDB was a terrific game, but it also made more than one person feel icky.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

The Settlers game concluded a bit earlier than Die Fursten von Florenz, so Lenny Leo brought out Nicht die Bohne. He was joined by Shanna, Willerd, Jerry and Keith Canova. The group managed to complete one hand before the arrival of Jon Comeaux, which meant the defection of Willerd and Jerry to the continuing War & Peace saga.

Scores after one hand: Lenny 83, Keith 57, Willerd 42, Shanna 28, Jerry 1

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

David, Doug, Tina, Roger

I hope I have the title correct. Another new game of Roger's that is almost a trick taking game in depth. Fifteen cards in 4 suits are shuffled and dealt out. Each suit contains 1-10, 3 "minus" cards, a "2x" card and a "Nicht die Bohne" card. The idea is to collect cards in such combinations that they will total a postive score.

The 1-10 cards score their pip value; a minus card will turn the total negative, but another will turn it back positive again. The "2x" will double your total, while the "Nicht die Bohne" card will turn your score in that colour to zero - that could be handy if you were heavily negative!

Game play is interesting and it took me two hands to get used to it. The player leading to the "trick" plays a card face up, then the other players play face down then reveal simultaneously. The leader will claim one of the other three cards and keep it in their "beanfield", for want of a better term. The person who had their card taken now chooses from the other two, and so on until the last player takes the card initially lead face up. The last player leads to the new trick.

Quirky this, but rather clever. If you *want* the lead card, you toss down something the leader doesn't want, so they won't claim your card and leave you in the running. If you don't want the lead card, throw the leader a big juicy carrot! Once I got used to this weird mechanic, I really began to enjoy the game. There is also some scope for "hit the leader" tactics.

I can't give details on game play, but highlights I remember were Roger at one stage with four negative piles; David had three piles scoring zero in the last hand; I went seemingly minus billions on hand 1 and was never in it, etc.

Progressive scores:
Tina: 45 / 77 / 116 Roger: 63 / 67 / 99 David: 16 / 77 / 81 Doug: -9 / 25 / 57

Doug's rating: another 7. May have to get one of these

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Eleven gamers at the Bayou Bungalow this week, including the return of Trevor Antczak who has been missing for a few months. The lure of Battle Mist was just too great for him! Hopefully, Trevor will again become a regular.

ROLL CALL: Trevor Antczak, Stephen Maus, Stephen Pouey, Darren Arnold, Ashton Arnold, Willerd Fann, Lenny Leo, John Moore, Joey Konyha, Keith Canova, Greg Schloesser

This is swiftly becoming a favorite of many in our group, especially Lenny Leo. In fact, if there is the slightest hesitation on what to play, Lenny scurries to the shelves and grabs Nicht die Bohne! No problem with me as I thoroughly enjoy the game.

Obviously, 'slam Greg' was the overriding rule of the game. Although we don't allow group table talk once cards are revealed, John, Stephen Maus and Lenny formed some sort of eerie brain-meld and mentally conspired to stick me at every opportunity. It worked, as my first round score was an incredibly dismal -57 points!

Round 2 was much better as I was written off by my opponents. I actually managed to win the round with 55 points, but was still below zero with -2 points! We halted the game after two hands (we usually play three hands) as the rest of the crew had arrived and we lost Stephen Maus to the Battle Mist game.

Round-by-round scores:

Stephen: 48 + 52 = 100
Lenny: 46 + 44 = 90
John: 11 + 54 = 65
Greg: -57 + 55 = - 2

Later in the evening, Lenny again snatched Nicht die Bohne from the shelf for another match. This time, Keith, Willerd, Joey, Lenny and I were the contestants.

Although I finished the game in last place, I consider it a moral victory that I actually didn't end the game with negative points! Joey overcame a first round lead by Lenny to jump to an impressive lead following the second round. In spite of our best efforts, we were unable to catch him.

Round-by-round scores:

Joey: 47 + 75 + 43 = 165
Lenny: 55 + 14 + 62 = 131
Willerd: 33 + 31 + 60 = 124
Keith: 34 + 24 + 40 = 98
Greg: 31 + 31 + 35 = 97

Ratings: Keith 8, Greg 8, Lenny 8, Joey 7.5, Willerd 6.5

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

After the game of Tikal, the rest of the gamers arrived. Brian, Geoff, and Justin decided to give this easy little card game a try. This card game is often referred to as "that other bean game". While the theme, like Bohnanza, is based on beans, that is where the similarities end. This game can be quite tense and often calls for all sorts of negotiations.

Essentially, their are fifteen cards in four suits (red, yellow, blue and green colors). The cards range from 1 to 10 points. There are also five special cards: one zero card (the Nicht die Bohne! card), one "2X" card and three "minus" cards. The entire deck is shuffled and distributed to each player. One player places a card face up and places the bean counter on that card. The other players pick a card and simultaneously reveal them. The "bean token" player then chooses which card to take from the opposing players. That player then chooses which of the remaining (and non "bean token") cards to take. This continues until the final player has to take the card with the bean token. That player now reveals a card face up, places the bean token on it, and play continues until the deck runs out.

The beauty is in the scoring. At the end of each round (you play a number of rounds equal to the number of players). The number cards are worth their face value. The "2X" card multiplies everything in that color by two. The "minus" cards can change the sign of the total! One minus makes the hand worth negative points, having two minus makes them positive, and having all three negatives makes them negative again. Finally the "zero" card makes everything worth zero in that color - regardless of what was taken previously.

You probably see how this game can get really nasty. You have the ability to hurt other player by what you play and/or what you take from the cards played. In this game, Justin collected three of the four "zero" cards in the first round. He maintained the majority in "zero" cards in the next round, where Geoff maintained lots of single "minus" cards and "2X" cards - a terrible combination. In this round, Brian also dropped from 30+ points in green to zero when he was forced to take the "zero" green card late in the round. With the "zero" cards maintained by Justin in the previous rounds and the significant beating Geoff took from the "minus" and "2X" situation in round 2, Brian was able to keep the lead. Hence, Brian played conservatively in the last round, focusing mainly on keeping his present score. This resulted in him taking three "zeros" and while he won the game, it was close at the end.

Costing only several dollars, this game comes with some nice components. Aside from the cards, a little wooden bean token and a scoring pad makes this well worth the price. One additional thing done in the game above: Cards taken are kept face up so that everyone else knows what you have. This makes bookkeeping easier and makes for a tenser game. Its a light game that makes a good, although mean, filler.

Round 1: Geoff 88, Brian 58, Justin 23
Round 2: Brian 97, Geoff 70, Justin 15
Round 3: Brian 83, Geoff 79, Justin 73

Ratings: Justin 7, Geoff 6, Brian 5

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

This game is heading down the same path as Bluff: it seems to be hitting our table nearly every week! That's OK by me as this is a nasty gem.

Sadly, I had to attend to a bit of business and was unable to join the crew of Erin, Jim, John, Willerd, Ashton and Lenny.

The group played two hands and the end result was extremely close. In the end, the group was unable to reel in Willerd from an early lead:

Round 1: Willerd 56, Lenny 55, Ashton 43, Jim 35, John 30, Erin 27
Round 2: Willerd 88, Lenny 86, Jim 85, Ashton 78, Erin 76, John 25

Ratings: Lenny 8, Jim 7, Erin 6, Ashton 6, Willerd 6, John 2