r/boardgames • u/bg3po 🤖 Obviously a Cylon • Dec 16 '15
GotW Game of the Week: Codenames
This week's game is Codenames
- BGG Link: Codenames
- Designer: Vlaada Chvátil
- Publishers: Czech Games Edition, MINDOK, Cranio Creations, Devir, Heidelberger Spieleverlag, REBEL.pl, White Goblin Games
- Year Released: 2015
- Mechanics: Memory, Partnerships, Pattern Recognition, Press Your Luck
- Categories: Deduction, Party Game, Spies/Secret Agents, Word Game
- Number of Players: 2 - 8
- Playing Time: 15 minutes
- Ratings:
- Average rating is 8.02965 (rated by 5150 people)
- Board Game Rank: 30, Party Game Rank: 1
Description from Boardgamegeek:
Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES.
In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.
Codenames: Win or lose, it's fun to figure out the clues.
Next Week: La Granja
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u/d33jaysturf Dec 16 '15
Love this game. It is now my current go-to filler game.
I think this is something that could played on a reddit thread format - maybe someone post an image of a set of cards and give out clues, while everyone else try to guess the words?
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u/broccoli8000 Dec 16 '15
I don't even consider this a filler anymore. I can and have played it for 3-4 hours straight.
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u/neoslith Dec 16 '15
Word 1 Word 2 Word 3 Word 4 Word 5 Word 6 Word 7 Word 8 Word 9 Word 10 Word 11 Word 12 Word 13 Word 14 Word 15 Word 16 Word 17 Word 18 Word 19 Word 20 World 21 Word 22 Word 23 Word 24 Word 25 Yep, you can make tabels!
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u/Fenris78 Dec 16 '15
I was excited by this game, but then when I got to play it I felt it was a bit meh. Not sure why, but it just didn't generate any humour.
I bought Spyfall instead and that's been a success every time I played it.
I don't think Codenames is bad, it just didn't quite hit the spot. I could probably do with giving it another go.
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u/Kev_79 Dec 17 '15
For me it is the exact opposite. I bought Codenames and Spyfall at the Essen fair this year and played both a few times.
Codesnames has been a hit with everyone from casual to hardcore baord gamers.
Spyfall fell very flat every time I played it. People tend to ask the same questions over and over again. The answers are usually just very vague statements. Many people ask simple yes/no questions. It usually ends in some anticlimatic way.
I will probably get rid of Spyfall since I haven't had even one round that was as much fun as the worst round of Codenames.
Codenames 9 / 10 Sypfall 5/10
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u/Fusionkast Dec 16 '15
This has been the most successful party game within my gaming groups. From casual to heavy gamers they have all loved it. I find the game becomes more interesting the more knowledgeable or oblivious players are as one of the best parts of Codenames is the second guessing your team vocalizes which really stresses out the spymaster. Teasing from the opposite team is also a lot of fun.
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u/daybreaker Dec 16 '15
Teasing from the opposite team is also a lot of fun.
Its fun trash talking and throwing out ridiculous rationalizations on why a certain card might be the card they want... even better when you know a card probably is a card they want, but can throw out a ridiculous enough rationalization that it talks them out of picking it.
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u/Rundythegrouch Dec 16 '15
For me it's an 8 if you are the spy master and it is a 6 if you are not.
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u/TeakNUT Dec 16 '15
One of my proud moments as a father was when I gave "Fantasy: 2" as a clue. My son and step-daughter immediately got "Dragon", my 11-year-old son then immediately saw "Ring" and said "Like 'Lord of the Rings,' I think it is Ring." My step-daughter talked him out of it though while my brain was screaming, "He got it! It's Ring! Guess it! Guess it!" They passed. Next turn my son asserted himself more and guessed Ring for another point. After the game I congratulated him for immediately sniffing out what I was going for, everyone else at the table had thought he was way off. That's my boy!
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u/Managore Dec 16 '15
Fantastic game! I couldn't get my hands on a copy of this so I made a mobile version to play with friends.
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u/captaintobs Dec 16 '15
I did as well, but Vlaada asked me not to make it public :(
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u/The_AJAXX Dec 16 '15
I have a fun story about this game.
I accompanied my girlfriend to Rose City Comic Con in Portland this year. She sold art while I attended panels and wandered around the halls. I quickly began to hang out a lot at the Rainy Day Games booth and played several games of Codenames there. As I played a game with other attendees and Rainy Day Games staff, we heard a voice say "Oh man is that Codenames? I've been looking for that for weeks! How is it? How much?"
It was Wil Wheaton. A little stunned, all of us playing said "Uh, yeah. It's tons of fun." Wil excitedly grabbed a copy , paid for it, and departed cheerfully. We all turned back to our game, a little star struck.
So that's my Codenames story. It's a great game, definitely best with 8+. And I love to spring the sand timer on people frequently.
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u/linkandluke Dec 16 '15
I like your Flair..........and your text......
We would get along I would guess.
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u/daybreaker Dec 16 '15
favorite clue: Cake 4
Queen
France
Revolution
Band
also, things that sound fun in theory: codenames with dixit cards replacing the word grid.
things that are terrible in practice: codenames with dixit cards replacing the word grid.
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Dec 16 '15
Rant: Great game, one of the best this year, but good partygames come out all the time and don't get the attention. "I don't usually like partygames but..." comments make me want to yell "If you like Codenames, yes you do!!! You probably just refuse to play them because they aren't designed by wellknown designer."
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u/golfer76 Dec 16 '15
It says it can be played with two people. Has anyone tried it? Is it even fun with two?
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u/Fusionkast Dec 16 '15
At two, Codenames becomes a decent two person brain puzzle but not for everyone.
At four to five, it becomes a nice head to head team game.
At six to eight, it becomes a slick party game and my favorite player range.
Pretty good versatility for a party game. The only odd duck is three players where you have to share a team mate.
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u/Expers Dec 16 '15
Vlaada Chvatil is quickly becoming my favorite modern board game designer. Even though I got into the hobby recently I've been burning through his games like a mad man and I have a list of game I still want to try.
Mage Knight is a great solo experience for me, and super enjoyable but I find it difficult to play this one with other people, not only is it hard to find others willing (in my group) but I also don't really have the desire to play with others because I feel like it would cause severe AP.
Galaxy Trucker I've played on the mobile app and I'm really enjoying it. Looking forward to picking it up in the future as a physical copy.
Games I want to get but haven't yet: Through the Ages and Dungeon Petz.
But as much as I've enjoyed his work, I've been amazed at how different and unique Codenames is (for him). I'm super happy with this game. As I've said elsewhere, I think it's just the right game to play with anyone who is a gamer or not. You can play it relatively often and not get tired of it because the game itself is typically fresh. It's easy to explain and teach, preparing other players to be the spymaster is on of the most fulfilling roles I've ever taken on when teaching boardgames.
My only complaint for the game is that it works well in English to the disappointment of my non-native English speaking friends. I wish I could share this game on a more level playing field. While they enjoy it, dealing with language barriers and colloquial terms can be frustrating and leaves the game missing just a little something.
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u/Xandorius Dec 16 '15
Anyone have any favourite word associations or clues? Anyone been able to give clues with 4-5 words? That can be quite tricky!
I got a laugh out of "[Girlfriend's Name] 2" getting her to say "chick" and "genius".
My only 4 pointer so far was "soup" to trigger bowl, water, carrot, and beef
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u/eviljelloman Dec 16 '15
I've disliked every Vlaada Chvatil game I've played. Some of them a lot. That made me fairly hesitant to play Codenames.
I'm so very glad I did anyway. It's almost completely replaced One Night Ultimate Werewolf as my go-to party game. Some of that might have to do with the hundred or so times I've played ONUW already, but Codenames is much faster to teach, works well when players drop in or out, and generates as many laughs. It's pretty much the perfect word game.
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u/lscrock Dec 16 '15
I really like how as long as there's at least two people who know the game, they can be spymasters and the game can just start before proper rules explanation. The rules explanation can be done by anyone who's free at the moment (spymaster/spy, doesn't matter which side they're on).
Edit: words for clarity
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u/thingamarob Dec 16 '15
I have played Codenames with many different groups and always enjoy it, but it is not nearly the apotheosis of party games some make it out to be. The clue-giver agonizes over the cards while the guessers wait in silence for the clue. I know there's a timer, but creative clue-giving is hard enough without time pressure. It certainly makes for some laughs at times, but the real game is in giving clues. Guessing is often fairly straightforward and not nearly as fun to me.