 So let's start with the game that I think we internalize more and that I think we played more than once that one Yep, and that I think We will want to own if you don't buy it. I'll buy it because oh matt This was actually this is in first look at packs east and it was actually our friend matt's copy That was in the first look not pax's copy the game is called no return as gift times look if I don't know how to pronounce that german But I do know that the the it translates to there is no turning back Right and the game designer is marco toybner Uh, and basically there is no turning back is exactly what this game is about You know, we've played tons of board games out there that have some sort of dual currency system Right where the way to win the game is to get victory points But there's also this other currency like money right so in st. Petersburg. It's very literal this victory points and there's coins in Puerto Rico, there's doubloons and victory points Yep a doubloon in round two is worth way more than a doubloon in round eight Right in race of the galaxy, which is similar to Puerto Rico. It's a little more abstract than that right and agricula It's a little bit more abstract right But there are some resources in the game of agricula that are worth less points and some that are worth more points But the ones that are worth less points can be used to purchase things that get you points So like if you if you've played dominion, there's it's a got a really good example because early in the game You're trying to get money you're getting some you don't like to have more buying power You're getting powers But none of those things actually win the game for you What wins the game for you are those green cards that don't do anything usually right exactly So no panic time happens when people realize the game's ending and they get as many green cards as they can right so the the implicit Idea in all of those games is that you have to decide at some point in the game Obviously in the early game, you're not getting the victory points. You're in the early game You can't get the victory points You're getting all these other things to build a machine to get the victory points and it's sort of a gradual gray line You can get some victory points early Right, you can also maybe get some big money late and you can sort of transition slowly from focusing on one to the other As the game goes and sort of feel your way through Right and then at the duchy panic time hard shift into victory point only mode Yep, no no return is a game that is pretty much taking that game mechanic Making it explicit and focusing on it to the exclusion of all else Yep, so every you're just going around and every turn you're basically like Do I continue to do the a phase or do I say fuck it and go to the b phase? Right. You literally on your turn your everyone starts in phase a In phase a what you're doing is adding you're taking tiles and building up a pool of points Right that you could score Right, so and then at the beginning of any of your turns you can say, you know what? I am switching to phase b and of course the name of the game. There's no turning back Right, uh and as soon as you're in phase b you can no longer increase your point pool Your maximum score has been set But you're using the rest of the game in order to take that pool of points and actually convert it into points All right, so if you were to switch in a phase b too early You would end up converting all your potential points into points and you would end up the game would continue going with extra turns Because you switched too early And now you're not your your score is not going to be as high as it could have been had you switched a turn later and had a bigger pool If you switch too late What will end up happening is you have a big pool of points that's full of so many points And you can't convert them all and then the game ends with some of your points are unconverted And even worse unconverted points are negative points unconverted points are negative so literally the entire game is Decide exactly the right moment of switching from increase your point pool To choose to start eating up your point pool and converting it into actual points Right, so the same as many many other board games only just that one mechanic You know just super super polished one thing one thing only and if you play it with people who are canny at games And who recognize this game for what it is It feels like a high stakes poker game like everyone's playing real carefully Everyone's looking at each other and then suddenly someone's like phase v and then oh shit Right if you think of a normal board game that has a lot of different things going on Right like a typical euro game is like maybe you know like a chocolate chip cookie, right? This is literally just a chocolate chip Right, it's it's it's all marshmallows one ingredient and they made that ingredient digestible and it's pure uncooked form It's just eating the insides of oreos. It's just eating the marshmallows from lucky charms and not eating the rest of that poison Yep Uh, so yeah, if you you know the game is quick It's made it's just a bunch of tiles in a in a in a in a bag basically Yep, they can't be cards like this could be a card game just fine Uh, I think the tiles make it easy. I guess it could be a card I mean technically any game could be a card game because a card is the most Uh powerful physical game component. I defy you to make maria a card game You could make you could fear you couldn't make it good, but you can theoretically make any Any board game out of cards only No matter right you can replace dice with cards You can replace tiles with cards you can place ponds with cards You can have any any other game component can be replaced with cards The one that's hardest to replace is maps unless you literally are just a bunch of cards and No, the map is just one big card. Yeah sure one big card But the the actual physical mechanics of the game are pretty good too because they're literally just You're laying out the numbers in these suits of colors and you have to go in order So you'll have this give and take of Do I blow my load now or do I wait for more tiles to come into my hand kind of like uh lost cities It's basically exactly lost cities the tile playing is it is 100% lost cities you go from uh high to low right You know you can't you got to put the same color or the same stack You can't go inserting something in the middle of the stacks if you go 11 10 7 Well, all your 8s and 9s are worthless now Right, you gave up on trying to find them and you can see the stacks everyone else is making that part is you can't see their hand Nope, but you can see the stacks. So you do know the odds So if a bunch of other people are really building big stacks of yellow Then that can inform your decisions in a pretty clear way Right and you still need you know When you're when you switch to phase two, let's say I build a big old yellow stack like 11 10 9 9 8 7 7 Right, it's got a lot of points in it. I need to have in my hand in phase two Tiles with very high number values to be able to eat those away You can't eat up a lot of points unless you have big numbered tiles So it can actually be dangerous to build a very strong pool Even if it doesn't take you very long to build it because it would take you so long to eat it away You'll be left with like an 11 left on the board. That's a negative 11. That's bad Yep, or maybe if you like near the end of phase one when you're getting ready for phase two If your hand is just full of giant numbers Then other players might expect that they'll be able to eat more of their point total than they possibly could And you might start phase b early and just go for it and they'll all be left holding the bag You know or let's like, okay. I got my yellows, right? And I skipped over nine and eight and then I get them later and I go, oh, I got I missed I could have put them in my pool It's like, well, no, that's fine. That's 17 points. You can now eat away from the pool. You did make That's not too bad Just hold it, you know, just hold on to them if you can't play them Or if you see another player really needs something and if it's a big number hold on to it But all your small numbers you kind of want to like I feel like when you want to switch to phase two It's like you feel it coming you can just sort of sense it like all right the games that we've reached the peak Yeah, play play out all your small things that you can to get them out of your hand So that way when you start phase b, you'll have bigger things in your hand and you can have more efficient phase b Yep Right when if you start phase b with a bunch of small things Your phase b is going to start with a whimper Everyone's going to see that you moved to phase b You're not going to eat away that many points right away And then who knows what you're going to try to the bag you could be in big trouble Now on a more like abstract level one thing I would say to all of you is that this game Well in the end be a lot like yatsi in that if yatsi mechanics are in a lot of other games If you get good at yatsi Then you will be good at that part of every other game that has it if you get good at no return You will start to recognize all the no returns and all the other games you play Like if you play this game and get good at it, you will be a god at st. Petersburg Yeah, yeah pretty much like I said, there's so many other games that have that mechanic Right of when do I switch from doing you know working on this part of the game to that other part of the game? Right, you know pretty much every euro game a crown of amara rims favorite Even seven wonders right when do I seven wonders you start out by building up your little resource stack And then later you're playing greens and blues Right, right. It's like all right. I don't need more resources anymore green green green science science Yep, Dominion. I'm like dodgy dodgy dodgy dodgy dodgy right so get good at this game and then you will be able to See this same mechanic in every other game and be good at it as well quick to play quick to teach Satisfying like half hour tops to play this game including teaching Yeah, you can learn it. You could anyone can play it accessible to everyone not just nerds super good