Codenames

HM. Made with old Alias cards :)

Nice game.and can play with a lot of people

PROMO CARDS FROM The Deutscher Spielepreis 2016 Goodie Box: Codenames: Authors & Games - Additional cards for the game, on one side game designers, the other games titles.

Finally got this to the table. Great game but was a lot more thinky and a lot less party than I expected. Must try it with the timer to see if that is more fun.

Some thoughts I had after two different evenings (6-7 games): Neat game, but overpriced for what you get. By the end of the first evening, a couple of us had figured out that the game turns and sort of breaks when you get someone as a codemaster who is really good at concept association (and thus good at being the ghost in Mysterium, the clue giver in Concept, etc). The people who just did straight association of words (e.g. "Musicians, 2" and yields "Kid, Rock") had a much rougher/tense go at it than the people who did conceptual linking to examples (e.g. "Jurisdiction, 6" and ended up with London, New York, Australia, Bermuda, etc which just sort of ends the game). The difference is you can still get screwed by interpretation of the dream cards in Mysterium (or just get a shitty draw) where as it just sort of falls over here. Reminds me of Set in that regard (where skill imbalance is a key factor). Second, the game dragged ass above 9 players. The discussion phase lags because you're waiting in lock step for a clue to be given where as in Mysterium you can be working on someone else's clue while you wait for your own. Our best games we had in that regard were at 5p, maybe 6p. Above that, and I'd probably break up into two groups and play something else. I think one of the most telling things is that with Mysterium, we played that until they made us go home every week for like 6 weeks, where as this, we played for maybe 2 hours and everyone was ready for something new after just the first week (both groups on different days even...) It's a game I'll play if it shows up (and there isn't anything else to play right off hand), but I'd never buy it.

almost a year later, I find it's just ok, but it improves some if you use dixit cards instead of words which is where I think Mysterium achieves a better "group guess the interpretation" setup. Baring that, I think it should be a requirement that there are no single guess clues.

This is actually my buddies game and I need to return it, but its so much fun! A really great game.

Not really a "party" game - too thinky. Let's just call it a group game, but probably one of the best in games that goes up to 8+.

Awesome and enjoyable game for larger groups.

Nice little game. Almost feels like two games in one, with how different the roles are.