Codenames 26

[shallow_thought]

committing battery can also be described as wailing on someone.

Huh. I'd missed that one, but it's definitely a meaning of Wailing. Definitely ups my liking for BATTERY. However, I can't see a huge downside of waiting for now.

If it is the word El Grillo had in mind, we try it as +1 next round, having seen some Red play and another Blue clue in the meantime. Unless El Grillo's nextplanned  word cluster was always going to overlap ... but I'm going to assume this is unlikely.

If it is Red, it might be that the Red spymaster will still feel forced to clue it as their first round. Unlikely, but a small possible gain.

If it's blue, but not the word that El Grillo had in mind for Wailing, he gets a chance to reclue something else with a clear association with BATTERY, telling us so. He may not be able to, but he gets a chance.

If it's the assassin ... not sure. Trying to do this sort of analysis over breakfast is too hard.

I'd be happy to try it if JR4 agrees, but would lean towards passing.

[Azoth]

I'd be happy to try it if JR4 agrees, but would lean towards passing.

The problem with this approach is that it assumes we will get around to our +1 next round. If we misfire on one of the words for our next clue, then BATTERY will remain unguessed, which could force El Grillo into giving us a suboptimal Unlimited clue on our third round in the hope that we guess everything right and finish that round.

Put another way, we win by guessing all our words, so we should take every opportunity to guess! Even if BATTERY is Red, it is better we find that out now when there is game left to play, then on a later round when we have less margin for error. I can understand playing cautiously if we think all the word associations are weak (as with NAIL/SPIKE/etc) or require an imaginative leap (LITTER). But, especially with its double meaning, BATTERY stands clearly above the rest, so I can't see it being the assassin.

[Mardoc]

The problem with this approach is that it assumes we will get around to our +1 next round. If we misfire on one of the words for our next clue, then BATTERY will remain unguessed, which could force El Grillo into giving us a suboptimal Unlimited clue on our third round in the hope that we guess everything right and finish that round.

Agreed - waiting til next round works only if next round we are perfect. If we mess up next round then waiting leaves us with two to guess on the third round with our +1's...which is both harder to clue and lets El Grillo give us less info.

The one possibility Shallow Thought skipped over is that it's grey. I think this is the most likely non-blue case - as spymaster you tend to check your clues for accidental assassin most, accidental other-team second, but accidental grey is often accepted. Better to give a 3-clue that might hit a grey than to give a 2-clue: at least you have a chance of getting three words that way. Granted, I'd be arguing harder if we were down to two choices, 'hit 3 of the four obvious words' is a more likely goal, but I still think we should guess.

Finally there's the minor point that he probably started off with his strongest clue - it's not going to get easier from here unless red team helps us out by taking away red herrings from us. And they're not going to want to do that if they can help it.

Anyway, waiting isn't a 'huge downside', agreed - it's just that it seems to more often be negative than positive.

[JR4]

Hmm, this is not a straightforward decision but I think we should make a third guess as long as it`s reasonably safe. 

Point to Battery
Pass

[El Grillo]

Battery is blue.


Red team is up!

NAIL	WALL	WAKE	LITTER	BEAR
KNIFE	LOCK	SPOT	DAY	TRIP
APPLE	BATTERY	OLIVE	PASS	PLANE
JET	SWITCH	SPIKE	LIFE	TAIL
TAG	ATLANTIS	BALL	KING	HELICOPTER

[JR4]

Excellent.

[shallow_thought]

Thanks for the feedback guys - that's exactly the sort of thing I want to hear while I try to move from "ooh, let's think about obscure word meanings!" to actually playing this as a game.

As a bonus, you were right about the word too.

[Mardoc]

Thanks for the feedback guys - that's exactly the sort of thing I want to hear while I try to move from "ooh, let's think about obscure word meanings!" to actually playing this as a game.

I can talk theory all day!  Although I should probably refrain while it's red's turn.

Now I get to wonder if we were right or just lucky...

As a bonus, you were right about the word too.

Wow!  I was prepared to be happy to remove a grey from getting in our way next round  Good start!

[T-hawk]

I think I can chime in as a lurker without upsetting anything: If you're not sure about a guess, have some guts and go for it. Guesses are your currency to win the game, don't decline them. It's easy to scare yourself into chickening out for more information, but the spymaster already has such a limited information conduit that you can't waste any of it. The loss when you hit an opposing word or assassin is splashy and memorable... but for every one of those, there are more games that the unsure guess quietly just goes on to win because the team didn't stop short.

[superdeath]

Blade 3