Peanut Club

Ever fancied dabbling in the art world? Building a collection of the most valuable artistic pieces around and being the envy of your friends? Participating in a gallery auction and succeeding as the highest bidder? Do you want to do all that, but only have your tea break free and peanuts to spend? Well then, peanut club could be what you’re looking for and you don’t even have to spend your own peanuts!

A coffee break (although I’m more of a tea girl myself) game by Lumberjacks, In Peanut club you and your fellow players are famous art collectors invited to an auction at the crossroads of an eclectic universe. You’ll be bidding on rare artworks featuring some familiar faces, recognisable places and even the odd actual artwork reference. A game for 3 to 6 players with about 20/25 minutes play time.

Bid High, Win Big

Peanut Club has three currencies, Millions of dollars, camels and – yes that’s right you guessed it – peanuts. Don’t be fooled though, millions of dollars is not always worth the most out of the three. Determining which currency is worth the most at the start of the game is totally random and subject to change at any time. Every player starts with currency cards that total at least a value of 35, regardless of what type of currency they actually are. This means that players start with a similar number of cards but not the same, as the values on the cards differ. Also the split of camels, millions and peanuts could be wildly different for each player. These currency cards are what you will use to bid with, but keep them to yourself. Once spent, currency cards will be discarded from your hand and may not be used again.

Each player in Peanut Club is randomly given a collector card, a character card if you will. This card shows what category of artwork you are particularly interested in. You’ll also get 5 corresponding power tokens, more on those later. The object cards (artworks) you’ll be bidding on show two symbols out of the eight various categories – things such as Modern, Antique, exotic and curiosity to name a few. At the end of the game you’ll combine these symbols to score points, extra points being awarded for luxury and antique items. You will also get extra points for any symbols that match your collector cards preferred category.

There will be several rounds of auctions varying in lot size. Anywhere between 1 and 3 artworks of art per lot. Of course you’ll also find the obligatory wild cards along the way that can be substituted for categories to help you score points. Once all have been purchased, the collection with the highest score is deemed the most valuable and wins Peanut Club.

Going Once…. Going Twice…

The bids in Peanut Club work just like a normal auction, anyone can bid at any time, so long as it’s higher than the previous bid. It’s up to you how big you make the increments, but just like a real auction, you should never place a bid you can’t honour just to raise the price.

Unlike in a standard auction, this is when you can use your power tokens. Each token has a different ability, three of them can be used during the bidding process and the remaining two are for when you’re paying for your successful bid. Each token has a different ability, they allow you to do things such as alter a currencies value, or remove a currency for the current lot. When these tokens are used during bidding, the bidding restarts again from zero, frustrating for some, pleasing for others. The tokens that can be used when you’re paying allow you do things such as double the value of one of your currency cards.

Use your Peanut Club power tokens wisely, although they can only be used once, somewhere in the middle of the object cards there is one reset card, when revealed this allows all used power tokens to be used again. Use them too quickly the reset card may turn up too late, but don’t use them soon enough, you could miss your chance to maximise and use them twice.

Gavels Down

Peanut Club is about knowing how to make the most of your money, do you risk spending all your camels early on for what looks like a tasty lot, or do you hang on. Needless to say I am incredibly bad at this game and always seem to go all in way too soon then run out of money, bit like real life for me!!

While I like to feel the authority of saying ‘going once, going twice…’ sometimes the bidding process can be a little laborious, especially if a token is played and it resets from zero. But so long as you find the happy medium and players don’t either move in increments of one all the time, or go straight for the highest possible amount, the rhythm can flow quite nicely.

Little bit set collection, little strategic, little bit management with the tokens. Peanut club comes in a cute soft touch box with pleasingly tongue in cheek illustrations and concise instructions. Really easy to pick up and has enough player interaction to make for a raucous afternoon.