Farming

The expansion to be used by 'Cuba'. An additional game board, more and different ship cards, laws, buildings, new character cards to be used with the other characters, and a whole new phenomenon: Cuba - the Arrival of the President!
In their turn, players may take and play a character from the 'El Presidente' board: the worker, dancer, attorney, warden, revolutionary or musician. They all have different effects.
The worker puts your goods into the warehouse; all your goods are safe this turn. The revolutionary gives you one victory point, the musician two money. The player with the dancer card becomes immediately the new start player; the old rule for determining the new start player is no longer in effect.

With the attorney a player may use a building even when his supervisor is not on the row or column of this building, paying one money. The warden may change two adjacent ships in position. There are two mule cards being used when playing with less than five players; these cards cannot be chosen. When all players have chosen a card, the car of the president moves to the position of the remaining card; remember, there are six cards that each turn are shuffled and randomly placed.

Under each card on the board are symbols that come into effect when the car of the president stops there. The first makes all law proposals go into effect; the second makes it possible to move the supervisor anywhere on a player board in the next round. The next symbol also is in effect for the next round: it allows you to pay one money and overbuild a building with another; the difference in resources must be paid as well. One symbol makes the leading player to go back two points on the score track; another allows players to purchase market wares at discount prices. Players must now not only consider which role they would like to take, but also which position they likely want to be visited by the president.

There are 2 additional laws in each of the four categories, so that the game can now last up to 8 rounds instead of just 6.

Game description from the publisher:

Cuba prior to the revolution: Under turbulent circumstances, the villages of the island strive for independent wealth and influence. Who can buy and sell his products and goods on the domestic market profitably or take in the most on the trading ships? Who can send the right delegate to parliament in order to influence the government legislative process, or erect distilleries, hotels and banks at the right moment to the benefit of his village?

Whoever has accumulated the most victory points in Cuba by the end of the game wins. Players earn victory points by shipping merchandise from the harbor, but also by erecting and using buildings, and by abiding by the law.

Bohnanza is the first in the Bohnanza family of games and has been published in several different editions.

As card games go, this one is quite revolutionary. Perhaps its oddest feature is that you cannot rearrange your hand, as you need to play the cards in the order that you draw them. The cards are colorful depictions of beans in various descriptive poses, and the object is to make coins by planting fields (sets) of these beans and then harvesting them. To help players match their cards up, the game features extensive trading and deal making.

The original German edition supports 3-5 players.

The newest English version is from Rio Grande Games and it comes with the first edition of the first German expansion included in a slightly oversized box. One difference in the contents, however, is that bean #22's Weinbrandbohne (Brandy Bean) was replaced by the Wachsbohne, or Wax Bean. This edition includes rules for up to seven players, like the Erweiterungs-Set, but also adapts the two-player rules of Al Cabohne in order to allow two people to play Bohnanza.

Note: As mentioned above, the Rio Grande Games edition supports more players than the Amigo release, and also sports two-player rules. You should keep that in mind when perusing the ratings.

At the Gates of Loyang is a trading game in which you are able to produce goods by planting them and later selling them to customers. You can use the abilities of some helpers to increase your income or production.

Fields, customers, helpers, and miscellaneous objects are represented by cards. Each player receives two of these cards per round distributed by a bidding/drawing mechanism in which you end up with one of the cards you draw and one of the cards of a public offer filled by all players. Additionally, to these cards you always receive one field for free each round.

Placing one good on a field fills the complete field with goods of this type. Each round, one unit per field is harvested. After planting, harvesting, and distributing cards, each player can use as many actions as he wants, only limited by the number of his cards or the number of goods he owns. At the end of his turn, he can invest the earned money on a scoring track, where early money is worth more than late money. The game ends after a certain number of rounds, and the player who is first on the scoring track wins.

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

Following along the same lines as its predecessor (Agricola), Caverna: The Cave Farmers is a worker-placement game at heart, with a focus on farming. In the game, you are the bearded leader of a small dwarf family that lives in a little cave in the mountains. You begin the game with a farmer and his spouse, and each member of the farming family represents an action that the player can take each turn. Together, you cultivate the forest in front of your cave and dig deeper into the mountain. You furnish the caves as dwellings for your offspring as well as working spaces for small enterprises.

It's up to you how much ore you want to mine. You will need it to forge weapons that allow you to go on expeditions to gain bonus items and actions. While digging through the mountain, you may come across water sources and find ore and ruby mines that help you increase your wealth. Right in front of your cave, you can increase your wealth even further with agriculture: You can cut down the forest to sow fields and fence in pastures to hold your animals. You can also expand your family while running your ever-growing farm. In the end, the player with the most efficiently developed home board wins.

You can also play the solo variant of this game to familiarize yourself with the 48 different furnishing tiles for your cave.

Caverna: The Cave Farmers, which has a playing time of roughly 30 minutes per player, is a complete redesign of Agricola that substitutes the card decks from the former game with a set of buildings while adding the ability to purchase weapons and send your farmers on quests to gain further resources. Designer Uwe Rosenberg says that the game includes parts of Agricola, but also has new ideas, especially the cave part of your game board, where you can build mines and search for rubies. The game also includes two new animals: dogs and donkeys.