Codenames expansion packs
- Board's Eye View
- Jul 3
- 2 min read
Codenames has proven to be a breakout success for its designer Vlaada Chvátil and publishers Czech Games Edition. Since its original publication in 2015, the word association game has spawned a string of variants and specific-themed editions. There's even a version that uses pictures in place of the word clue cards. In our Board's Eye View last year of the '2nd Edition' reprint we bemoaned the fact that CGE had missed the opportunity to publish new word cards to supplement those in the original game. These new expansion packs offer a halfway house between the various themed editions and the core game; thematic packs of word cards designed to be mixed in with the cards from the core game (either edition; the cards for both editions are essentially the same).
The Sci-fi and Fairy Tales expansion packs each contain 25 double-sided word cards - so 50 new words to incorporate into your core game (or your copy of the Codenames Duet two-player vewrsion). The words include proper nouns, movie titles and related phrases and expressions. The intention is that you just shuffle the cards in with the word cards in your core game but you can, if you like, just use the cards in one or both expansions.
The packs include themed versions of the red and blue spy cards and CGE have even thrown in four additional thematic picture cards for use with Codenames Pictures. And tho' it's not shown in our Board's Eye View 360, there's also a Cute Critters expansion pack specifically designed solely for use with Codenames Pictures. Sadly there isn't reciprocity with the Codenames expansion packs - the Cute Critters pack doesn't slip in any extra word cards.
