Czech Games Edition CGE00053 Codenames Duet XXL, Mixed Colours

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Players attempt to guess which of the word cards in the five-by-five grid correspond to their agents. Each side takes turns to play as the clue-giver, conjuring up one-word clues that refer to one or more word cards in the grid. The clue-givers both have access to one side of a double-sided solution card that shows which word cards their partner or teammates need to guess. The other side must then choose which card or cards they think the clue-giver is referring to. At this point, I have to strongly recommend Codenames Duet. If you are a fan of the original Codenames you need this in your collection, both as a game that stands on its own and as a source of four hundred new words for Codenames. If you haven’t played a Codenames game I think this is the perfect entry point to the series. Requiring only two players means that it should hit the table more often than the original. If you weren’t a fan of the original Codenames game, I still suggest you give Duet a chance (look for a way to try before you buy by doing a demo at your FLGS, a game con or local event). Even if you didn’t like Codenames you may enjoy this cooperative team-based version.

Codenames: Duet is now online! « Czech Games Edition

Codenames' two-player, co-op spin-off Duet is now free to play online". Dicebreaker. 2021-02-11 . Retrieved 2022-07-22. Each turn has exactly one clue and at least one guess. Assuming you don't run into an assassin, there are two ways a turn can end: I still think that playing Codenames with a big group is a superior experience. There's a lot more interaction, a higher level of energy around the tables and it's a much more accessible experience. That said, if you do want to play with two players, then Codenames Duet is a much better experience than playing the two-player variant that came in the original Codenames box.Even before I figure this out, there are definitely some interesting and helpful situations that can arise. When one of the assassins on your side of the card becomes covered with an agent card, an opportunity opens up for you to use a good clue. The incorrect guess ends the turn. You mark RUSSIA with a timer token, bystander side up. The arrow points from you to your partner. It is now your partner's turn to give a clue. After some thought, she says Waterloo: 2. You touch NAPOLEON and she marks the word with a green agent. That word happened to be green on your side, too, but you don't tell her that. The other word for Waterloo is hard to find. Maybe your partner thinks the Battle of Waterloo happened in Russia?

Codenames’ two-player, co-op spin-off Duet is now free to

Codenames and Codenames Duet have great replayability (it’s a word, I swear). Thanks to the sheer number of variables that change every time you play, the games never get boring. Each round, the people giving and receiving clues change, the board setup and words differ, as do the legends. On top of that, who you play with brings a totally different experience. My roommate and I spent hours playing various card and board games since the beginning of the pandemic, including Forbidden Desert, Hanabi, and Settlers of Catan—none of which feel as variable as the Codenames games do. Use the mission map the way that is the most fun for you. Perhaps you will find a few favorite missions and replay them again and again. Perhaps you will push outward, trying to complete them all. The lines under the map can be used to keep notes on your failures and successes. Your team is ready for more challenging missions. Take one of the mission maps from the pad. (There are multiple copies, so you can play missions with various teams). Write your names in the Team box and then mark the circle labeled Prague. You have just completed the Prague 9-9 mission!

A word marked by a timer token might need to be guessed by the other player. For example,if your partner guessed a bystander, you should have marked it so that the arrow on the token points from you to your partner. Here is what can happen if you guess that word: You can't say any form of a visible word on the table. If HIDE is visible, you can't say hid, hidden, or rawhide. But hideous is still okay. A word is "visible" until it is covered by a green agent card or two timer tokens representing an incorrect guess from each side. A word marked as an incorrect guess from only one side is still considered visible.

Codenames: Duet is Now Playable Online | Board Game Quest Codenames: Duet is Now Playable Online | Board Game Quest

A word marked by a timer token for one player may still be guessed by the other player. When it is marked both ways, it is considered covered. If a player is thinking too long, any player can flip the sand timer and ask the slow player to make a decision before time runs out. If the field operative touches a card belonging to his or her team, the spymaster covers the word with an agent card in that color. The team may guess another word. The game provides a massive cooperative challenge for players straight out of the box, but also offers you a way of incrementally increasing your difficulty by moving through different challenges. Some challenges allow more bystanders so you can afford to take bigger risks on high-value clues, but others just stretch the game length but allow you to make no wrong guesses at all, rewarding a slower and more precise style of clue-giving.Then the guesser should guess as though the clue were valid. (So the turn ends in the usual way, which in most cases will use up another timer token). In some circumstances, an invalid clue might give away so much information that you decide it's better to start over with a clean game, but most of the time this penalty should be sufficient. As you complete games in mission mode, you will mark off on the map, whether you succeed or not, and then move on to another city and a different set of constraints. Your clue must be about the meaning of the words. You can't use your clue to talk about the letters in a word or its position on the table. Permalink How many friends can I invite to play? You can have as many as 64friends in one room. Permalink How many games can I play in one room? The campaign map is a nice idea and I wish they had done more with it. In practice, each mission simply varies the number and type of counters you use to form the timer. This does add more challenge and certainly adds some replayability, but I would have liked to see some countries using some extra rules, perhaps restricting the types of words you can use for clues or similar.

Codenames Duet Review - The Thoughtful Gamer Codenames Duet Review - The Thoughtful Gamer

Overall I would go so far as to say that I enjoy Codenames Duet even more than Codenames. My wife, who normally is not a fan of cooperative games, agrees. Duet feels more focused and more intense than the original and I find we get a greater sense of satisfaction when winning a game of Duet over being on the winning team in regular Codenames. Leonardo da Vinci, IRS, New South Wales, Boxing Day, The Lord of the Rings, moth-eaten, and guinea pig might all be good clues, but they break the rule that a clue must be one word. Hall, Charlie (March 14, 2018). "The best board games of 2017, as chosen by the Board Game Geek community". Polygon . Retrieved March 17, 2018. The field operatives must always make at least one guess. Any wrong guess ends the turn immediately, but if the field operatives guess a word of their team's color, they can keep guessing. Codenames Duet plays much like the original Codenames, but instead of two groups competing against each other, you have two players who must work as a team to find all the agents. As in the original game, you are presented with 25 words you have to guess from. Each player has a private grid that dictates which of the words are agents that have to be guessed, which of the words are clueless bystanders, and which are assassins.

Object of the Game

When the spymaster gives a clue, his or her field operatives try to figure out what it means. They can debate it amongst themselves, but the spymaster must keep a straight face.