Codenames (Game 65 in progress)

[Farren]

Wait. BUCK. A male deer. That's another animal. Puts it in the strong and simple category, which is good as I had at least four other guesses lined up for Animal whose connections were far weaker.

We get three guesses max. My current inclination is to do something like:

DINOSAUR > CODE > BUCK.

[Farren]

(that was not a guess.)

[Sirius9121]

we can have giant numbers (large numbers...?) and also giant animals (in size) which i think fits

[Nancy Drew 39]

GRASS	AFRICA	BUCK	CAT	SCALE
BOW	SCREEN	TUBE	VAN	BRIDGE
CODE	MUG	WAR	GIANT	KETCHUP
DINOSAUR	MINT	SOLDIER	MOLE	FLY
TORCH	COLD	SPACE	COURT	STADIUM

Blue Clues	Red Clues
ANIMAL - 3	DARK - 5
NUMBERS - 2	TRUCK - Infinite

Team	Spy Master	Members
RED TEAM	CreativeMod1	Save The Dragons, Charles510, StrangerCoug
BLUE TEAM	Tris	Nancy Drew 39, Farren, Sirius9121

Oh good, I haven’t been replaced.

[Nancy Drew 39]

dinosaur - code - stadium?

[Farren]

Okay. So 2/3 agree Dinosaur first.

Sirius - do you have any issues with guessing Dinosaur first? The way I figure, DINOSAUR is less ambiguous than BUCK for sure (and arguably MOLE as well, now that I think of it) - while it can sometimes refer pejoratively to anything that should be extinct, if I ask someone to define "DINOSAUR" without giving any context, they're probably going to go with the scaly extinct reptile and not the more generic meaning.

After that, we can start hashing out CODE, GIANT, STADIUM, BUCK, and COURT.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Actually change to dinosaur - fly - code

I missed that. Fly is an insect but still qualifies right?

[Nancy Drew 39]

Actually change to dinosaur - fly - code

I missed that. Fly is an insect but still qualifies right?

Disregard this.

Dinosaur - buck - code - scale

[Farren]

Once we've guessed three Animal words, we should stop guessing words based on animal connections.

The "3" of Animals 3 means specifically that tris only intended for us to guess three words off of that clue. Trying to go beyond that number can be dangerous - the odds of hitting incorrect words skyrockets.

CAT was definitely one of the three. I'm 99%+ sure DINOSAUR's another, and hoping that BUCK is the third.

SCALE and FLY are both ones I had pegged as weaker connections (some animals have scales, some animals fly), as well as AFRICA (animals live there) and GRASS (another animal habitat). But I think BUCK beats all them out (as BUCK is an animal).

[Farren]

(guessed three *correct* Animal words, that is.)

[Nancy Drew 39]

(guessed three *correct* Animal words, that is.)

Yes, I’m confident the 3 animal words are cat, dinosaur and buck.

The 2 numbers are most likely code and scale.

[Farren]

Ohh ... scale like the sort that you'd weigh someone with. Gotcha. Didn't think of that. Another Numbers word to consider, then.

[Sirius9121]

But a fly is also an animal, and i think its somewhat more possible than buck.

OK for dino and cat tho

[Farren]

All right, let's get Dinosaur locked in, and go from there.

Dinosaur

[Nancy Drew 39]

But a fly is also an animal, and i think its somewhat more possible than buck.

OK for dino and cat tho

Fly is technically an insect, depends on whether or not the mod was going with deer or cash right?

[Farren]

I really need to brush up on my taxonomy.

The top level of taxonomical classification. The one that divides into things like plant, fungus, bacteria ... I think animal is the top of the line? By that standard, a fly would be an animal. (Insert large amount of uncertainty here.) But then again, by that standard, so are human beings - which puts SOLDIER into play. Arguably GIANT as well.

I wouldn't consider any of them "animals" from a non-scientific point of view.

Problem with BUCK is that we run the risk of the same thing happening as did with MOLE. Moles are definitely animals, but "Mole" also has plenty of other meanings. BUCK falls into the same bucket; it's something that could be missed if reading the grid and thinking "Buck = dollars = money, which has nothing to do with animals."

Thing is, I think there are too many weaker connections to have any meaningful hope of figuring out the right one, if it's a weaker connection that was intended.

If I were going to write off BUCK for the time being, I'd probably be more inclined to skip it in favor of tackling the Numbers clue. I definitely like SCALE better than both GIANT and COURT. Less sure about STADIUM, but I think SCALE is pretty solid regardless? I still like CODE as well.

Assuming Dinosaur's a hit, I'm currently leaning CODE >> BUCK >= SCALE > STADIUM, of which we could only guess two.

[tris]

Dinosaur

is blue

[Nancy Drew 39]

Dinosaur

is blue

\o/

I think next we go with scale - code - buck - fly - stadium?

[Farren]

How would you prioritize those, strength-wise?

For example, I'm very confident in CODE. Computer code is chock-full of numbers; codes of laws (US Code, etc.) use numbers to distinguish their sections; codes (as in encryption) can use numbers as well. That's three different definitions of CODE that play well with Numbers, which I think makes it a strong connection.
Less confident in BUCK, but confident enough to guess. It's a naturally strong connection, but we did get burned by MOLE last round, which moves it down a couple of notches (as BUCK could have the same issue).
SCALE's about the same as BUCK, but I think BUCK accomplishes more for us if it's right. I could be convinced that SCALE is a better guess than BUCK with a good argument.
STADIUM I'd need an argument for as to why it should be considered over the other three, but it's in the realm of possibility.

Everything else, I think is weak enough that I'd sooner PASS than guess them. STADIUM is very close to that point ... and honestly, with only being able to make two guesses, I'd take it off the list entirely at this point. Possibly considering it again next clue if we haven't wrapped Numbers up by then.

[Nancy Drew 39]

Yeah, we get another clue so that should definitely help.

I say we do “code” next unless the next clue reveals something even better then.

[Farren]

We won't get another clue until our next turn - and our opponents will get another clue first, along with more opportunities to guess.

They need six more words to win, as do we. I think it highly unlikely that they get all six next turn, but getting all six in two turns is at least possible.

But yes, I agree with CODE next. Sirius?

[Farren]

No answer from Sirius - and in my experience, he most likely won't be online again before we hit the 48 hour mark.

code giant?

I'm going to take this as his being okay with Code.

Code

.

[tris]

CODE

is #0000FF

[Nancy Drew 39]

CODE

is #0000FF

\o/

[Farren]

Excellent.

Whether right or wrong, our next guess is our last one before the turn passes to our opponents.

IMO, BUCK and SCALE are our two best choices here.

BUCK has a strong connection to Animal; SCALE has a weak connection to Animal (some animals have scales) and a strong connection to Numbers (numbers are an integral part of measurement-type scales). I think that's the best argument for SCALE - it actually fits with both guesses, and it has a stronger connection with the most recent clue.

I think SCALE is a more conservative guess, while BUCK is slightly riskier.

We currently need five more hits to win; opponents need six.