No Thanks – a game of stones and strategy

I’m back for another review! No Thanks offers a very different experience than Timeline, but like Timeline, it’s a great game to play with a larger group. This is one of my family’s favorite games to break out, because it’s so fast-moving and fiendish. It falls under the push your luck and take that categories, and plays in about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the number of players.

The cover for No Thanks. Board Game Arena’s version (an excellent way to give this game a go) uses an even more amusing, punny title, which perfectly captures the no-holds-barred nature of the game: “No Merci”!

In No Thanks, each player is given a supply of black stone-like chips, which varies based on the number of players. The first player then flips the top card of the deck and decides whether they want that card. If they do, they claim it and then flip up the next, deciding whether they want that one. If they don’t want it, they place a stone on top and play continues to the next player. The objective is to have the fewest points, where the number printed on the card represents the number of points it is worth.

The tricky thing is that if players form runs of cards, which consist of any amount of cards whose numbers are in sequence (such as 5,6, and 7 or 13 and 14), they use only the value of the lowest card in the run to add to their score. This makes runs very desirable, because they keep your score low. For this reason, if you drew a 14 and a 13 came up, you would certainly take it, because it cuts your score down by 1.

Here are two runs. If this were what I had at the end of the game, I would only have 24 + 8 - 5 = 27 points.

The fact that you only do one thing on each turn, and only have two things to choose from, makes the game very easy to learn. But the strategy is hugely compelling, because you‘ve got to set yourself up to make runs and keep your score low, while hopefully maintaining a reasonable supply of stones and avoid taking cards you don’t want.

Here’s what the middle of the table might look like on your turn. If you took this card,

you’d get all of the stones on it to add to your supply.

Two other features add to the game’s interesting strategic elements. First, stones you have in your collection at the end subtract from your points, helping you keep your score low, which can make taking high-value cards that no one else wanted worth it. And second – and this is the kicker! – nine cards get taken out of the deck at random before the game begins. So although all players know that the deck consists of cards numbered 3-35 (with one card per number), they don’t know which of those numbers will be included in a given game.

The back of the box, which boasts a highly accessible, enjoyable experience. I can testify that both are true!

It’s an ingenious game design, and is a real hoot to play with friends, because once everyone has the hang of it, the game just rockets along, with people putting their stone on a card almost at the same time as the last player finishes doing so. This is a must! Check it out at Board Game Arena here if you’d like to give it a go. Like Karuba, this is one of those games where one round just isn’t enough, and people will be asking to play “just one more!”

In addition to my usual call for comments on games you’d like to see reviewed, I wanted to throw an idea out there for a future post and see what you all thought about it. Let me know in the comments below if you’d like a list of must-have games for one category in a single post “Best party games” or “Word game must-buys”, for example. We’re in the birthday month, after all, when more babies are born than any other, so a post like this might be handy for the birthday board gamer in your life. And, as always, tell me about the games you want to see reviewed in the comments below.

Thanks and happy board gaming!