Review - No Thanks!

First Impressions

A small, sturdy box, with 33 linen-finished cards, numbered 3 to 35, and 55 plastic chips. Linen finish cards always get the thumbs-up from me, as they feel really nice in the hand and they do not stick together. So, not a lot of components, but what there is is high quality.

Aim of the game.

The cards are, in turn, put up for a special kind of auction. Cards essentially score their face value, if you win them, but it's the lowest score that wins.

Playing the game

The top card from the deck is turned over, and the active player (initially determined at random) chooses either take it, placing it in front of him in his scoring area, or to decline it, by placing one of his chips on it (No Thanks!). Each player gets 11 chips to start the game. If it's declined, the next person gets a chance to take it, or decline it with a chip. If it is taken, that player also gets all the chips with it, thus increasing the number of opportunities to decline cards later. This process goes on until someone decides to take it instead of placing a chip to decline it (or they've run out of chips so have to accept it). The bid can in this way go round the table several times. Once a card is taken, the next card is revealed, and the player who took the previous card has the first right to decline. Another important aspect is that the number of chips in your hand is kept secret from other players.

Scoring.

Each single card scores the number of points on the card. However, when you have an unbroken number sequence, you only score the lowest one in the sequence. So, for example, if you have 13, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, you will score 13 for the 13 card, 15 for the 15-16 sequence, and 20 for the 20-21-22 sequence, for a total of 48 points. Also, chips that you have at the end of the game each score -1

The catch.

At the start of the game, 9 cards are randomly and secretly removed from the deck, which means there will necessarily be breaks in some of the runs, but you don't know where. If you have the 32, do you take the 34, in the hope that you'll get the 33 later meaning the 34 won't score? or was the 33 one of the removed cards?

Thoughts.

Different cards have different values to different people. someone with the 30 would like to get the 29 as it reduces their score, but will probably increase other players' scores, though if another player has the 28, the 29 will not affect them, so they might take it to prevent the 30-owner from reducing their score. Plus, of course, whoever gets it gets the chips on it. It's an interesting little game, with trying to second guess your opponents sometimes. Do I place another chip on the card knowing I'm essentially giving that chip and all the others on it to the next person who will add it to their sequence? Has the card got enough chips on it already to make it acceptible to take it? or is someone else going to take it if I don't, meaning I'll run out of chips and get stuck with a really bad card? Or, if I have the 34, how many times can I make the 35 go around the table collecting chips, before someone else decides I'm too greedy and takes the hit to prevent me from getting it? Or, perhaps more pertinently, I misjudged how many chips each player has, and someone else is forced to take it as they ran out of chips.

So, it's a simple little game, is very easy to learn, and doesn't take long at all to play. It has enough decision making to keep it interesting, and there are some subtle strategies to be explored. I like it, I'll happily play it.

8/10

Thanks to Z-Man Games for donating this game to The St Louis Boardgame Meetup Group for review.

Boardgamegeek listing for No Thanks!