We’re looking at a game of the highest caliber, awarded as the best game of the year in the Spiel des Jahres in 2016.
If you’re curious, here are the Awarded Games in the recent editions of this prestigious award, often considered the Oscars of the board game industry.
How to play CODENAMES board game
Set up
Players
Entre 2 y 8 jugadores, a partir de 14 años. It is a perfect game for medium and large groups.
The Secret Code cards
The game includes several types of cards. In the following picture you have them all. Below we explain what they are called and what role they play in Secret Code.
“FIELD AGENTS” CARDS
There are 8 per team.
They are used as a scoreboard. Each time a team discovers the position of one of its field agents, it will mark it with one of these cards.
“DOUBLE AGENT” CARD
There is only one It is blue on one side and red on the other.
It plays the same role as the field agent cards, it will simply belong to the team that has the first turn, which instead of having eight agents will have nine. The truth is that its name – double agent – suggests more than it actually is.
“CIVILIAN” CARDS
They are cards that symbolize street people who are not secret agents.
THE ASSASSIN
He is the most sinister character in Codenames. We then explain what role it plays.
WORD CARDS
They are cards that have a word.
That word may or may not be the code name of a secret agent.
SECRET “KEY CARD”
The game includes a number of “Secret Key” cards. One and only one of them is used in each game.
It tells us who is hiding behind each “word card”.
Blue squares = field agents of the blue team
Red squares = field agents of the red team
Yellow squares = civilians
Black square = the assassin
For example, for that key card we would have in each position:
Creating teams
Codenames is played in teams (except for the variants for 2 and 3 players that we will explain later). Each team has a color associated with it: red or blue.
Deciding who is the spymaster
Each team must select their CHIEF SPY.
Board preparation
Twenty-five word cards are chosen at random and a 5×5 grid is created. This is the CODENAMES game board.
Position of players
In Codenames the position of the players at the table is important. The spy bosses are placed on one side of the table and the other players on the opposite side facing them.
Selection of the KEYS chart
The “chief spies” select a key card and place it on the stand facing them. The other players are on the other side of the table and cannot see it.
The two bosses therefore know which words on the board are associated with their agents – their codenames – but the players on the other side have no idea who is who.
Who’s first?
The key card has a color in its frame. Start the team of that color. The double agent will also belong to that team.
You can see that on that key card there are 9 red squares and 8 blue squares. The starting team must discover one more secret agent (the double agent) to compensate for the advantage of having the first turn.
Goal of the game
What do you need to do to win?
The objective of Codenames is to contact the agents of your own team by discovering their code names, i.e. the “word cards” behind which the agents of your own team hide: the blue team the blue agents and the red team the red agents.
Playing a Codenames game
The boss gives a clue
The spy boss is going to try to get his team mates to say and point at one or more of the words associated – according to the key card – to the field agents of his/her team.
Logically, he cannot directly say the words that are on the table. How do you do it then? He will give them a clue: a word that will be related in some way to one or more of the word cards on the table and behind which are hidden agents of their own.
He will also add a number that tells his partners how many of the cards on the table are related to the word he has just told them.
Examples:
“City, 2”: indicates that there are two cards on the table related to the word “city” behind which are hidden field agents of their team.
“Feliz, 1”: indica que hay una carta sobre la mesa relacionadas con la palabra “feliz” tras las que se esconden un agente propio.
Time to think
The team members analyze the words, discuss among themselves and make a decision.
Field agents point out…
They say aloud the word and point to the card they have decided on. Several things can now happen:
They got it right!
The boss puts a card of his team on that card. If he had told them 2 or 3… they can continue to propose words or stand up.
A civilian is singled out
The boss puts a civilian card and the turn ends. If the boss had said 2 or 3… they can no longer propose words
An agent of the opposing team is singled out
An agent card of the opposing team is placed and the turn ends.
The killer’s card is pointed to
If you contact the assassin you are dead. The team loses the game.
Next turns
The teams will alternate turns, proposing words and respecting the rules indicated below.
Special Coderames Rules
Rule 1 – Valid words
Clues must refer to the meaning of the word, not just anything can be used:
DERIVED WORDS ARE NOT VALID
For the word CHILD it is not valid to say CHILDREN, CHILDHOOD, CHILDISH…
It would be valid, for example: KID or TOY or PEDIATRICIAN
NO TRICKS
Like saying the word backwards, making rhymes with words that have nothing to do with each other, using the number of cards as a clue to the word, winterizing compound words…
OK WORDS
Abbreviations and acronyms – CIA, UN, FBI… – and proper names, as long as they are actually related to the target word.
Rule 2 – Only one word and one number
The spy team leader can only say one word and one number, he/she cannot add any other words, phrases or comments of any kind. Otherwise they will lose their turn.
Rule 3 – Poker face
After giving his clue, and while his team debates, the boss cannot make any gesture to help them, he must remain unperturbed with a poker face. Otherwise, they lose their turn.
Rule 4 – Maximum time
If a team takes too long to decide, the opposing team leader can use the hourglass that comes with the game to force them to make a decision: turn the clock and the countdown begins.
Rule 5 – Mandatory one word
The team whose turn it is is obliged to point to a card, even if they have no idea what their boss meant.
Rule 6 – It is not mandatory to state more than one
If the boss has said that there are 3 related cards, it is not mandatory for the team to point out 3 cards. It is obligatory to signal one, according to Rule 4, but they can then stand up and pass the turn to the other team.
Rule 7 – Saying more words than those proposed by the boss
It is valid to say more words than those proposed by the boss in that turn, perhaps because we have finally understood a clue that was given to us three turns ago. It’s risky, but legal.
Rule 8 – Zero
The spymaster can use the number ZERO to indicate that none of the target words on the table are related to the one he just said. It’s like a reverse clue.
For example, if the cards left on the table are DEER, PARROT, EAGLE and ALUMINIUM, and the target word is ALUMINIUM but we can’t think of what word to say related to ALUMINIUM we can say: BIRD, Zero, indicating to our team that the target word has nothing to do with birds.
Game over – And the winner is…
And the winner is…
The Codenames game ends when one of the teams manages to reveal the position of all its agents, becoming the winning team.
Tips for playing Codenames
Balanced equipment
It is more important that the teams are balanced in terms of knowledge or complicity than that the number of players is exactly the same in each team.
Several games changing the boss
The role of the boss and the rest of the team is different; the game is experienced very differently from one side or the other.. That is why it is interesting to play several games and change the team leader.
The Killer
Chiefs must be very careful not to give as clues words that have to do with the word of the killer card.
Buying guide and tips
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You can find Codenames at specialty board game stores, but the best price and deals are usually on Amazon. Although the best price and best deals are usually on Amazon.
Variants of Codenames
And there is more. The success of the game has led its creators to launch some variants: there is a DUO version (exclusively for two players) and a version in which the clues are pictures instead of words.
But we recommend you, first, to discover the original version of the game.
