NG 75

New game 75 is now available.


Round 1: R R A R D O S I S

Bleah, lots of duplication and unpromising letters.  I had ROAD, ROADS, and RADIOS.

Six is the best to be done; the others are ARDORS (ARDOR being a variant spelling of ARDOUR), AROIDS (AROID being any plant of a particular family), and SARODS (nicely found by commenter Mike; a SAROD is "a musical instrument from northern India, of the lute family but played with a bow").

My selection: RADIOS


Round 2: E R D T E U Q H P

I had TREED / DETER and ERUPTED.

Seven is the best to be done -- the other is REPUTED.  The sixes are REPUTE, DEPUTE, and PUREED / PERDUE (variant spelling of PERDU, an obsolete term for "a soldier placed in a dangerous position").

My selection: ERUPTED


Round 3: Target 886 from 75 25 6 6 9 3

A tough target; I saw how to get to one away with 887 = 12*75 - 25 + 12 (one 12 is 6 + 6, the other is 9 + 3) and wrote that down as a fallback.  It took me a while after time to figure out that I could get the required offset from a multiple of 25 by making 36 as 6*6, which opened up tweaking possibilities also.  But even with that good observation I was not able to make the required 850 to add that to.

Later checking showed that it was possible, and even using that mechanism.  I still could not spot the right method, which was a bit frustrating.  850 is 25*34; I was focused on making this as some combination of multiples of 25 and 75, but I should instead have noticed that 34 is 25 + 9.  That observation makes it all fall out nicely: 886 = 25*(25 + 9) + 6*6, where one of those 25's is 75/3 instead.  This turns out to be the only solution.

My selection: 887 = (9 + 3)*75 - 25 + 6 + 6 (1 off)


Round 4: E A A D N F E T F

I had DEAN, FADE, and DEAFEN.  Yet more duplication here makes this difficult.

Six is the best to be done; the others are DEFEAT, ANTEED (one past tense of ANTE, as in poker), and ADNATE ("grown fast to something; congenitally attached").

My selection: DEAFEN


Round 5: C O H S A N U S S

I had CHAOS and NACHOS.  Once again, not many options here.

The only other six is SCHUSS ("a straight fast run in skiing").

My selection: NACHOS


Round 6: Target 451 from 100 25 4 4 10 1

I recognised the target as 41*11, and an 11 is easy enough.  The rest worked out well and my first solution was 451 = (25 + 4*4)*(10 + 1).  Then I went for the standard approach of 450 + 1 and found 451 = (10 - 4)*(100 - 25) + 1.

My selection: 451 = (25 + 4*4)*(10 + 1)


Round 7: M L A E R D I L T

It's been a fairly disappointing game with the letters so far, and although this has plenty of sevens it doesn't seem to have much prospect for interest.  I had MALE, REALM, MEDIAL, READMIT, TRAILED, and could not recall if MALTIER was valid (it is not).

The other sevens are LITERAL / TALLIER, TALLIED, RALLIED / DALLIER, and TRILLED.

But there is a full monty here!  It is TREADMILL, and the word that redeems the game.  I do wish I'd seen that!

My selection: READMIT


Round 8: Target 210 from 100 25 2 9 10 5

A boring numbers round to finish; I went with 210 = 2*100 + 10 and left it at that.

My selection: 210 = 2*100 + 10


Round 9: NEIGH NUDE

The -ING was there and the UN- fragment was tempting.  The combination led me to UNHEEDING a couple of seconds in.

My selection: UNHEEDING (2.7s)