2 weeks into the lockdown here in the UK – 18°c and the sun’s out…
How are we going to entertain the kids (and adults…)?
Board games, we thought, that’s what we’ll do!
So, we looked up at the top shelf and our eyes fell on Codenames… we hadn’t played that for a while…
Codenames
Suitable for 2-8 players.
The aim of the game is to work alongside your teammates and nominated spymaster to find out where your fellow agents are in the field and at the same time avoiding opposing agents, innocent bystanders and the deadly assassin.
Essentially it’s a word association game – players are split into two teams, each team having one nominated spymaster.
The spymasters are given a grid, that only they can see. The grid contains the location of all the agents in the field (from both sides), along with the location of the innocent bystanders and the assassin.
The locations are all associated with a word – the spymasters must communicate the location of their agents using one word clues, to enable their team to guess which word on the board (and, thus, the location of their agent) they are referring to.
The team then needs to try and figure out which word the spymaster is trying to communicate with them – if you guess right, then you have uncovered the location of one of your fellow agents…
But if you guess wrong, then you could have located one of you rival agents for them…
Or your could have mistaken an innocent bystander for an agent…
Or worse still you might unearth the assassin which would instantly lose your team the game!
Whichever team locates all of their agents first wins the game.
Video: Codenames
Conclusion
Codenames is very simple, yet extremely fun to play.
Playing time is typically 15-30 minutes – but you’ll find yourselves playing several rounds, with everyone taking turns to be spymaster.
It’s available from Amazon UK and also from Amazon US
I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you have any questions or comments, then please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Happy board gaming!
Mohammad