After almost 20 games playing Codenames at RB, being an Australian in a forum of Americans & Europeans comes back to bite me.
Pokies is slang for Slot machines in AU/NZ, the intended words being CASINO/PLAY/KIWI. Shouldn't I have just given Slots 3, which not only would have a much better chance of being known internationally but might have been able to get KIWI anyway? Yes, yes I should have.
(originally I wanted to go Blackjack 3 for PART instead of KIWI, but thought Splitting was a step too far from PART). Despite missing the clue entirely the team did stumble into HORN by accident (good) and then wanted to go for the RULER next (not so good). Major props to Commodore for unknowingly making a game-saving last minute switch into PITCH, MVP for sure.
After that self-induced pitfall it was always going to be rough. 7 words in 2 rounds with the team leaning the assassin as the +1?
The first step is to give a really big clue as a distraction so they don't go for RULER as a +1. Resort was by far the best word I had for that job, only trouble is ATLANTIS was blue and a very likely guess. However after looking at blue's remaining words, I took a calculated risk and didn't think that giving them ATLANTIS would speed them up by a turn (which was correct). The team got 3 words before ATLANTIS and PLAY was also looking like a really strong +1, however they didn't quite manage to make it to HAM (fair enough).
BATTERY & PART would be an easy pairing (likely Cathode 2), but having to include HAM in there as well was tough. Best I could do was Slicer, although I didn't think ENGINE would be so popular with the team (I associate ENGINEs more with moving vehicles rather than stationary equipment/machinery, but I do understand the appeal). Still almost managed to dig myself out of that hole, if only I hadn't wasted my first turn.