One round is not enough!

One late afternoon there was the usual commotion in the town hall square. Only by looking closely could one notice two different layers of people standing next to each other, but their body language did not indicate any kind of communication or interest. Only by looking more closely, one can sense the weak movements of one or the other's lips, which seem to be muttering something similar to a clumsy amateur poem: "Two spices, three Tarantino, one fire..." Should we, the peaceful inhabitants of a small town, be worried about the presence of spies?

The Codenames board game is an award-winning party game that I think will have a place in any enthusiast's board game collection. It doesn't take up a lot of space, it has few components, but during a game of Codenames, participants experience a range of emotions, from the euphoria of wit and apparent genius, to the bewilderment of their partner's ignorance.

To prepare for a game of Codenames, the cards of the possible nicknames of the spies must be placed on the table in a 5x5 square. Players are divided into two teams - red and blue. One of the team members is the spy leader, or more simply, the player who will give clues to the others. Next, the spy leaders start looking at a small card in front of them, of course, with a transcript of which field of the spy's nickname belongs to which team. The object of the game is to be the first to remember all the spies of your team, but this seemingly easy task is complicated by the fact that among the 25 possible spies of both teams there are ordinary passers-by and one square is an assassin. This means that if the team led by the spymaster "steps" onto the assassin's square, the game ends immediately and the opposing team wins.

How would a typical Codenames game play out? The leader of the red team looks around the playing field and notices three words that are relatively easy to connect - gnome, Snow White and knight, so he gives a hint: "Fairy tale - 3". The team members discuss, of course, everyone can hear, but the spy leader must not show any emotions, nor change his facial expression, and, of course, anything else to say. By agreement, the team members favor the dwarf, Snow White and the centaur. Oh my! The spy's nickname "centaur" is the name of the opposing team, and now we have helped them remember one of their spies. The spy leader of the opposing team breathes a sigh of relief, because it was the word "centaur" that seemed the most difficult to him. So the teams exchange hints and guesses until one team has remembered all their spies.

Codenames is a fun game, and after the first game, someone else on your team will definitely want to be the spymaster. The first time I played this game for an hour and a half from the spot and I wanted more, because it seemed that with my partner (we played in fours, two players in each team) we had established a very good connection, and nothing could stop us or beat us. Of course, the opposing team thought the same. This board game can be made ridiculously basic or overly but amusingly complex by the players themselves. By this I mean that both teams can only hint at one nickname per round because it's easier that way. Pet-1 is a dog, hot-1 is a sauna, flower-1 is a rose, and so on. But it's exciting and challenging to give your team a hockey-5 cue that matches the field, stick, puck, Canada, and cup in your head. Will it occur to your teammates?

In my opinion, the most difficult part of playing this game is as a spy leader keeping a neutral expression, not giving additional hints, and clutching your head in anger when your hint has taken the team's thoughts in a completely different direction than intended. Will you have a good time playing Codenames? The game has the potential to do that, but whether or not it comes to fruition is up to the players.

Robert

You can buy the game in the Brain Games store on K.Barona street or in the online store: Codenames (LV) , Codenames (ENG) , Codenames Pictures (ENG) , Codenames: Deep Undercover (ENG).

Game rating on BGG: 7.9