Today, kids played a game of Codenames, and discovered winning strategies in the game.
In the first game, pretty much all the clues given were "For 1s" - which team does this benefit? Which team needs to demonstrate more aggression and push the game towards more "For 2s"?
Blue team was losing with two chances left, and continued to give "For 1s" - clearly a strategy without a win possibility. The red team also gave "For 1s" but they could win with this strategy, and long as the blue team didn't raise the stakes.
Kids also learned how to find connections between words to create "For 2s" clues - we saw a lot more of those in the second game as a result.
Is it easier to think of clues in the beginning or at the end? There are more chances of confusing your team in the beginning, but also more flexibility to think of different combinations. Normally, its easier to find a couple of "For 2s" or even a "For 3" in the beginning.
Also saw that it is much easier to "see the clues" when its not your turn to give clues :-) Grass is greener on the other side!