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. For 2-8 players, takes 15 minutes, for ages 8 and up.
Nice game of strategic thinking on the part of the spymaster. You can put pressure on the opposing team by giving a clue that hits two or three words at once, forcing their hand and making them attempt the same number of words to not fall behind. It’s easier to find links between multiple words earlier in the game. Of course the more words you try to hit in one turn, the greater the chance the team mates find the assassin!