Help and Instructions
Background Story
Cold War! Russia and USA have infiltrated their opponents with spies. Each have one Chief who has knowledge about all spies and have to cipher and transfer a hint so that their Agents can eliminate their spies as quickly as possible. Due to limited transfer rate, only a single word and one number can be transferred with each turn. And they need to be very careful: There is a terrorist around who will drag the whole team which tries to eliminate him to death.
Hosting a Game
Before you can start a game, one of your group has to host a game. To do so, in the Game Browser enter your name in the top and click the button Host Game.
Here you can define some game settings - if you are not sure, just leave the default settings. However, if you wish, you can define the size of the field (how many fields should be available) and how many spies each team has to find. The starting team will have to find one additional spy. You can also use a predefined selection of words, or by selecting Individual enter a list of words (separated by comma), which are potential names of the spies.
Below the settings you can see the players who have already joined the game lobby - read below how to assign teams and roles to the players. As soon everyone has joined and the teams and roles are assigned correctly, you as host can start the game.
Joining a Game
If your friend has already created a game, after entering your name, click the Join button next to your friend's game in the overview.
Team and Role Assignments
Only the host can assign teams and roles to all players. All other participating players can only do so for themselves.
In the game lobby, every player can see the list of all participating players separated by team, including those not assigned to any team yet. Click the Switch team button to move a player between the teams. Only those assigned to team Russia (red) or team USA (blue) will be able to participate in the game.
Behind each player's name you can find the information about the role (the role can changed by clicking on it). The Chief will have to make their team find the spies by giving one word as hint, while the Agents have to guess, which words their chief has meant. If you have bigger groups, feel free to add more than one Chief per team.
To be able to play, every team must have at least one Chief and one Agent.
Playing the Game
As soon as the game has been started, the headline indicates your team. Click that headline to show and hide the team setup and role distribution again.
After that, the status line will let you know, who's turn it is or if the game is over. Here you can easily see if any action is required from you. You will realize that the background color always adjusts to the currently playing team - or the winning team.
As Chief you can see the identity for each name in the matrix. Think of one single word (existing words only, no individual creations and no names that are on the field), that could lead your Agents to as many spies you need to identify (marked in your color). Share that single word and the amount of names you are addressing with this word (for example "Country, 2").
As Agent it is your duty to decipher the word your Chief transferred to you and discuss with your team, which names the Chief (who has to remain silent) tries to address. As soon as you agree on a name, one of the players has to click it. If you successfully elimnated a spy in your rows, you can go on and eliminate another name. You are allowed to eliminate the amount your Chief shared with you and one additional one (see tips below) - in the given example, you could eliminate up to 3 words. However, after you have picked at least one name, you can End Turn any time in the status bar to hand over to your opponent again.
If you hit a civilian, or (even worse) eliminate a spy your opponent is looking for, your team's turn is over. And the worst: If you hit the terrorist (black field), your team will lose immediately!
The team who manages to eliminate all of their spies first has won!
Additional Tips
- Just to be a fair Chief, if you are unsure with a word you want to share, check with the opposing Chief and make sure it is ok
- Since Agents you can always try to eliminate one more name than their Chief mentioned, if you are unsure, you can end your turn early and if you have a better feeling later (because of new circumstances), you can eliminate the additional one.
- The preset words all have at least 2 meanings, so as Chief be very careful and think how your team could decipher your hint. The last thing you want to do is reveal your opponent's spies or lose by eliminating the terrorist.