From the manufacturer
Codenames
by Vlaada Chvátil
The two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES.
The 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 colour 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.
Standard Set Up
Awards & Honours 2016 UK Games Expo Best Party Game Winner 2016 SXSW Tabletop Game 2016 Spiel des Jahres Winner 2016 Spiel des Jahres Nominee 2016 International Gamers Award – General Strategy: Multi-player Nominee 2016 Gouden Ludo Best Family Game Nominee 2016 Årets Spel Best Adult Game Nominee 2015 Meeples’ Choice Winner 2015 Meeples’ Choice Winner 2015 Jocul Anului în România Beginners Finalist 2015 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee 2015 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Winner 2015 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Nominee 2015 Golden Geek Best Innovative Board Game Nominee 2015 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Winner 2015 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
How it’s played
Players split up into two teams of similar size and skill. You need at least four players (two teams of two) for a standard game, although there are 2 and 3 player variants.
Each team chooses one player to be their spymaster. Both spymasters sit on the same side of the table. The other players sit across from their spymasters.They are field operatives.
25 codenames are chosen and placed on the table in a 5-by-5 grid
Each game has one key that reveals the secret identities of the cards on the table. The spymasters choose a key card randomly and don’t let the field operatives see it.
Spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents.Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames.
Spymasters take turns giving one-word clues. A clue may relate to multiple words on the table. The field operatives try to guess which words their spymaster meant. When a field operative touches a word, the spymaster reveals its secret identity. If the field operatives guess correctly, they may continue guessing, until they run out of ideas for the given clue or until they hit a wrong person. Then it is the other team’s turn to give a clue and guess. The first team to contact all their agents wins the game.
“Codenames is a deep game with simple rules, it’s tense and silly at the same time, and it’s fun when you’re winning and even better when you’re losing.” – Shut Up & Sit Down “Codenames is a fascinating game.” – Opinionated Gamers
Codenames Wins the 2016 Spiel des Jahres
Codenames from designer Vlaada Chvátil and publisher Czech Games Edition has won the 2016 Spiel des Jahres, Germany’s game of the year award, which is intended to highlight an outstanding design that would be ideal for German families — and if you happen to belong to a family of some other nationality, there’s a good chance that you’ll enjoy the game as well.
In Codenames, two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their “Codenames”.
Compete in two teams to see who can make contact with all their agents first!
Spymasters can only give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board.
Their teammates try to guess words of the right colour, while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team
Be careful of the assasin card, if you uncover the assasin, that is game over and the other team wins!
