King is red. Red team wins!
Postmortem:
This felt like a tough board for blue to finish in 3 rounds, with red having fairly straightforward 3-3-2 groups. I thought for a long time on how to clue PLANE and not JET, either through a geometry and flat surface approach, or a fantasy approach. The words lined up much better for the latter, but I couldn't be sure there was someone on the team with a MtG or D&D background, and in the end I decided it was probably my best bet.
Wailing 3 was originally meant to pick up WALL, WAKE, and LITTER (litter of newborn kittens was indeed the reference), but if this had been an in-person game I'd have loved to go with the homophonic Wailing/Whaling 6 clue instead to expand it to ATLANTIS, BATTERY, and TRIP.
After red team cleared SWITCH, I felt good about the Teleportation 5 clue. Blue team correctly identified 4 of the words I had in mind, but I didn't anticipate the strong sci-fi LOCK association and the result of only hitting 1 blue word led to the big problem this round. I reviewed the board and couldn't think of a way to make a natural 4-word clue that again hit PLANE but not JET, and no one had been in favor of PLANE at all, so I needed to strongly clue it.
Given the Propeller (unlimited) clue in round 3, I think there was a disconnect between how I intended the clue and how it was received. The team charitably thought that I had managed a way to win that round, and guessed 2 words for Propeller first, whereas I gave the clue as (unlimited) expecting the team to first guess the remaining Teleportation words, then hit PLANE, and then either stop or hit a gray word. I had picked Propeller specifically in the hopes of not presenting a connection to more than one word, but was again surprised by TAIL being seen as a candidate. The hope was that red team would stumble somehow and I could finish in round 4, and although there was some discussion, they ultimately delivered the flawless win.
| 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 |
Postmortem:
This felt like a tough board for blue to finish in 3 rounds, with red having fairly straightforward 3-3-2 groups. I thought for a long time on how to clue PLANE and not JET, either through a geometry and flat surface approach, or a fantasy approach. The words lined up much better for the latter, but I couldn't be sure there was someone on the team with a MtG or D&D background, and in the end I decided it was probably my best bet.
Wailing 3 was originally meant to pick up WALL, WAKE, and LITTER (litter of newborn kittens was indeed the reference), but if this had been an in-person game I'd have loved to go with the homophonic Wailing/Whaling 6 clue instead to expand it to ATLANTIS, BATTERY, and TRIP.
After red team cleared SWITCH, I felt good about the Teleportation 5 clue. Blue team correctly identified 4 of the words I had in mind, but I didn't anticipate the strong sci-fi LOCK association and the result of only hitting 1 blue word led to the big problem this round. I reviewed the board and couldn't think of a way to make a natural 4-word clue that again hit PLANE but not JET, and no one had been in favor of PLANE at all, so I needed to strongly clue it.
Given the Propeller (unlimited) clue in round 3, I think there was a disconnect between how I intended the clue and how it was received. The team charitably thought that I had managed a way to win that round, and guessed 2 words for Propeller first, whereas I gave the clue as (unlimited) expecting the team to first guess the remaining Teleportation words, then hit PLANE, and then either stop or hit a gray word. I had picked Propeller specifically in the hopes of not presenting a connection to more than one word, but was again surprised by TAIL being seen as a candidate. The hope was that red team would stumble somehow and I could finish in round 4, and although there was some discussion, they ultimately delivered the flawless win.
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![[Image: noidea.gif]](https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/images/smilies/noidea.gif)
In this game that's going to help us because he's going to go to the negotiating table with twitchy eyes and slightly too wide a grin and terrify the neighbors into favorable border agreements, one-sided tech deals and staggered NAPs."