Codenames 14

[pjabrony]

If Azoth planned this out, it was some of the best Codenames play. I saw right away that Bell was going to be the most difficult word, it was the only one that didn't connect to anything else, even after I managed to string Knight and Nut. And I knew I had a 3 in my pocket with Americas. So I wanted to clue it early, possibly with Soup 2 to tie it into Shark, and then Jumbo 2 to get Jet and Mammoth, or with Stewardess 2.

BUT, Red Team kept stumbling near or into words that "helped" Blue Team. They considered Jet for Equipment, so I didn't want to pull out Stewardess 2 on the second play, especially with Button still up there and red. They considered Jet AND Shark AND Eagle AND Mammoth for Weaving! Any one of the blue words would have let me keep Bell for a 1-clue, and if they had gone for Eagle I could have given Vertebrate 2 instead of Animal 2 for the others. I saw no connection between Shark and Mammoth, and I hoped that the team would realize that if Eagle were our word, I would have clued Americas 4 instead of 3.

In the same way, I wanted Red Team to go ahead and clear Button off the board so that Stewardess had a clear path for 2, but even if they didn't, and I racked my brain for another Jet-Bell clue, the psychology I was hoping for was this: that there are hundreds of Buttons on a jet, and that a clue for Jet-Button could have been Ignition 2 or Control 2, both of which cleanly avoid Bell, but there is only one Bell on a Jet. (aside from alarm bells, and Alarm didn't tie in to jet closely enough.)

And we nearly got there. I only wish that Sunrise and Bob would have argued their case stronger.

[Azoth]

So that was a messy round. Part of it was a somewhat tough set of words, but part of it was not having enough time to think about the game, which led to some perhaps, uh, suboptimal clues.

My first thought was that my words were fairly simple to clue as pairs. Something like this:
Farmyard 2 (STRAW, BARK)
Sandal 2 (SOCK, BUTTON)
Ottoman 2 (GREECE, TABLE) [Loved this one for a civ site! ]
Apparatus 2 (MICROSCOPE, SCUBA DIVER)

But the team going second can't count on a 4th round, because it only takes one 3-word clue for the first team to finish first (3+2+2+2=9). Americas was an extremely obvious 3-word clue for Blue, so unless that team made a mistake, I had a losing clue set. When I saw the clever Quixote clue, I knew I had to do some reshuffling, and came up with this:
Equipment 3 (MICROSCOPE, SCUBA DIVER, TABLE)
Tunic 3 (GREECE, BUTTON, SOCK)
Farmyard 2 (BARK, STRAW)

I wasn't completely happy with it, as TABLE was a stretch for Equipment, and Tunic might well lead the team to LAWYER or, worse, PUPIL. But I was running out of time, so I went with it. But then no one even thought of TABLE! I was expecting a misfire on FIELD, but thought TABLE would be just as competitive as BRUSH or even BELL. So I had to change plans again, try for a really big clue, and then catch any missed words on the 3rd round. Thinking about the alternate meaning of BARK, I settled on:
Weaving 5 (STRAW, SOCK, BUTTON, BARK, TABLE)

The idea being basket-weaving with STRAW and BARK, sewing BUTTONs, knitting SOCKs, on a TABLE. Only I completely missed the SPIDER connection! I definitely should have clued Crafts 5 instead. Still, we might have been fine if SPIDER wasn't guessed first. Oh, it was? My only hope then was to clue GREECE with the other words still eluding the team, and I was both pleased and annoyed to propose:
Cypress unlimited (BARK, TABLE, GREECE)

Pleased, because it was the first clue I was really happy with. It was exactly what the situation called for. Annoyed, because I should have thought of it earlier! I knew that homophones were not allowed, and was worried about skirting the rules there, but then I did some research. Turns out that cypress trees not only grow in Greece, but the island Cyprus might have been named for those trees, and the word cypress itself comes from the ancient Greek. So I thought I was on safe enough ground.

In the end, Blue team blundered into BUTTON (I'd like to think it was my hapless spy-mastering that confused them into thinking it was one of their words) and we got a 4th round anyway. Still, if I were to do it again, I'd probably clue:
Knit 3 (SOCK, BUTTON, STRAW)
Cypress 3 (BARK, TABLE, GREECE)
Apparatus 2 (MICROSCOPE, SCUBA DIVER)

STRAW wouldn't be obvious for Knit, but we'd have a couple rounds to get it.

All in all, this round was a blast to play! Good game, everyone!

[El Grillo]

Haha, glad we were able to muddle through this round together. These were both tricky word sets, and I think both of you tackled them admirably. Who would've thought that you could associate almost the entire board with weaving?

[Azoth]

If Azoth planned this out, it was some of the best Codenames play. I saw right away that Bell was going to be the most difficult word, it was the only one that didn't connect to anything else, even after I managed to string Knight and Nut. And I knew I had a 3 in my pocket with Americas. So I wanted to clue it early, possibly with Soup 2 to tie it into Shark, and then Jumbo 2 to get Jet and Mammoth, or with Stewardess 2.

pjabrony gives me too much credit! I also saw that BELL was the toughest Blue word, but I wasn't trying to keep BUTTON open on that account. After Quixote was a success (and, boy, was that a risk to play first - if the team had guessed MEXICO or AZTEC on the strength of the Spain connection, it would have wrecked the Americas 3-clue, and left NUT orphaned), I was expecting you to go Jumbo 3 for all of JET/MAMMOTH/SHARK, leaving BELL for a 1-clue anyway. (Jumbo can simply mean big, and sharks are big animals.)

[T-hawk]

"Megafauna 2" is the clue that could have unmistakably linked Shark and Mammoth while avoiding the other animals. I followed that Eagle wasn't in the Animal set because it would have been just included in the Americas clue instead. But it didn't matter since hitting Eagle as gray did no harm and the team easily caught back up.

Over in the lurker thread, I did follow Straw + Sock + Button + Bark in that order for Weaving, though also had Spider in there and wouldn't have gotten to Table.

[Bobchillingworth]

Megafauna is a good pick, but giant eagles were a thing in New Zealand until the 15th century.


In retrospect, "Bull" would have also worked for Shark + Mammoth.

[pjabrony]

Megafauna is a good pick, but giant eagles were a thing in New Zealand until the 15th century.


In retrospect, "Bull" would have also worked for Shark + Mammoth.

I actually did think of Bull, but concluded it was too risky.

[Lewwyn]

Nice! Gay guys great round. As soon as we hit grey on brush I realized table must have been the 3rd equipment word, but ha, a bit late to correct. Really fun match though. Well done team!