NG 604

New game 604 is now available.

The re-run is episode 334; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: T S D A P O E E F

I had TADS, PAST, ADOPTS, FEASTED / DEFEATS / DEAFEST, and ADOPTEES.

The other seven is ADOPTEE, of course.

My selection: ADOPTEES


Round 2: R A M L D E Q O U

I had MARL, DRAM, DREAM, MARLED, ROAMED, ROULADE, MOULDER / REMOULD, and MODULAR.

The other sevens are EARLDOM and MORULAE (plural of MORULA: "the mass of cells, supposedly resembling a mulberry, resulting from the cleavage of the ovum before the formation of a blastula").

My selection: ROULADE


Round 3: Target 217 from 100 9 6 9 5 4

The target is 7*31, but that seemed difficult to use.  Neither working down from 300 nor up from 200 seemed to work well, and I wrote down a fallback one-away 218 = (6 - 4)*(100 + 9).  With some other experimentation I had a shorter one-away answer of 216 = 4*6*9, and in desperation resorted to getting to 225, only to find that it worked handily: 217 = 9*100/4 - 9 + 6 - 5.  Phew!

My first answer was actually somewhat close to a solution: 217 = (6 - 4)*(100 + 9 - 5) + 9.  Careless of me to miss that.

My selection: 217 = 9*100/4 - 9 + 6 - 5


Round 4: N S E O L N I Z I

I had NOSE, NONES ("(in the ancient Roman calendar) the ninth day before the ides [...]"), LESION, LIONISE / ELISION, and LIONIZES.

The other sevens are LIONIZE and IONIZES.

My selection: LIONIZES


Round 5: G T A E H E M J F

I had GATE, THEME, flirted briefly with the idea of HEFTAGE (not valid), and GAMETE.

GAMETE is the best to be done, and THEME is the only five.

My selection: GAMETE


Round 6: Target 406 from 75 50 25 3 2 6

I started with 6*75, and the rest was easy enough: 406 = 6*75 - 50 + 3*2.

My selection: 406 = 6*75 - 50 + 3*2


Round 7: I B A S E N W C S

I had BIAS, BASIN, BASINS, CASEINS (CASEIN being a protein found in cheese) / INCASES, WINCES, and SCABIES.

Those are all the sevens listed.

My selection: SCABIES


Round 8: Target 318 from 50 100 10 6 10 4

The offset of 8 is 6*3, and once the 3 was formable the rest fell into place: 318 = (50 + 4 - 10/10)*6.  I also noted the minor variation 318 = (4 - 10/10)*(100 + 6).

My selection: 318 = (50 + 4 - 10/10)*6


Round 9: CREPE SHOE

I almost jumped in with HOROSCOPE, which has almost the same pattern except that the number of O's and E's are swapped.  Strange the way the mind works.  Anyway, I caught that error, but was not able to unravel the answer.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: ECOSPHERE