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t
t
d
d
clues and, at the same
can be interesting even for larger player groups, if only because of the 400 new words to guess. However, most groups might miss the rivalry of an enemy team. The character of a race is missing, and it’s precisely the comparability that makes Codenames so suspenseful: How far have we got? And how far have the others gotten? What, they are in the lead? In this case, we need to take a risk!
In Codenames Duet, there isn’t any appeal in drawing clever conclusions from the opposing spymaster. Stands to reason, since there is no spymaster. And for lack of enemy control, many a player isn’t so particular any more about keeping a poker face. There are more things commented and disclosed. No sooner did the secret ser- vices get to like each other than discipline and discretion fell by the wayside.
But all in all, what could be realized from the previous Codenames variations
low values; if everybody puts high values in the trick, you might have the chance to put a fat “8” on a pile – and that’s a lot of points. A game goes over five rounds, so there aren’t too many points to score in Druids.
However, it’s not good to always put low cards in the trick. Soon you’ll realize that you need low values in order to get out of leading the trick. Otherwise, you’ll collect one trick after another – and this can become highly dangerous because of a really mean rule that is enacted in almost every game: If somebody collects tricks in all five colors, the round ends immediately and that player gets three minus points. Therefore, the other dear players will try
proves true again: The basic principle of the game – that is, the compression to 25 terms that can be combined in any way, and the requirement of figuring out as many of them as possible with the help of minimalist clues and, at the same time, dissociating them from wrong terms – is so appealing, so elegant, so streamlined, and so universal that it is sustainable in any variation and still is fun again and again. It would be a sur- prise if the next part of this spy thriller didn’t come out soon.
Udo Bartsch/sbw
c
t
time, determining that
t
t
he operatives may h
ouch a neutral word o
n
n
o more than twice. The o
t
t
otal order comprises 25 o
ifferent specifications. i
T
T
hey vary not only in the h
l
l
e
vel of difficulty but also
n the way of playing, n
e
v
i
i
a
d they create a notice- d
a
n
a
b
n
a
le long-term motiva- l
b
t
n until the players have n
t
o
i
i
o
fi
ally been able to finish a
fi
n
n
e
e
ry single one of them. r
v
v
e
e
Codenames Duet keeps both parties
occupied more intensely than Codenames. The operative is no longer just waiting for clues but also tries to find some on his own. Therefore, the duet feels somewhat more dense than the original. Buying the new game in addition to the original
Druids
The usual suspects are back together: Amigo and a trick-tak- ing game with mystical figures – consequently, illustrated again by Franz Vohwinkel. Over more than twenty years, a number of card games have been invented based on Wizards. Now another game has been added to the line: Druids.
To come straight to the point: Here, you don’t have to predict the number of tricks you think you’ll take. This is a seem- ingly ordinary trick-taking game without trumps where you have to follow suit. There are five colors with values from 1 to 12. When you take a trick, you put the cards you have won in front of you, sorting them by colors and forming piles. In the end, the value of the top card in each color counts. This
is slightly reminiscent of
Ugo (sb 7/2013), but
plays differently. Druids
is not about developing
countries, and the sting
in the tail comes up
somewhere else.
If you win a trick, you always have to put the card with the lowest value in each color on top of the respective pile. Which motivates the other play- ers to discard cards with
to knock your lights out whenever they can!
With this in mind, you suddenly play Druids very differently. You’ll collect one or two tricks and then try to pull out a kind of “Null,” especially if you already have a lot of points lying in front of you. If they can’t follow suit, the other players will also sometimes discard a more valu- able card, just in order to make it possible to impede the points collector. This is as unusual as it is original.
This leads to further deliberations, though: If you have only a few points, it doesn’t make sense for you to take down the leading player, especially if the other players have already collected a good
number of points. In this case, it would be better to wrap up a fat trick and leave the endangered player alive for a while. Besides this, not all cards are in circulation, so you are always a bit uncertain about the actual distribu- tion. This seems unbal- anced, especially in the
three-player game.
There are two spe-
cial cards in the game, each of them twice: The colorless “Mistletoe”
Codenames Duet (Czech
Games Edition) by Vlaada
Chvátil and Scot Eaton; for
2 or more players, about 11+ years; duration: about 20 minutes; price: about 20 €.
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