NG 636

New game 636 is now available.


Round 1: E H R D O B E R I

I had HERD, HORDE, was unsure about HERBED (valid, but not in the way I expected; the Macquarie lists HERB as a verb with a meaning of "Colloquial (of a motor vehicle) to travel at speed"), BORDER, was unsure about BERRIED (valid), HORRID, another unsure HERBIER*, and could not remember if BROIDER (an archaic form of embroider) was valid (it is).  In the end, I talked myself out of risking the sevens, and that was an error.

The other seven is REBORED.

My selection: BORDER
Best: BERRIED


Round 2: N U D A T F O S G

I had DAUNT, ASTOUND, and NOUGATS.

The other sevens are OUTSANG, FUGATOS (FUGATO being music in fugue style), and FANTODS (FANTOD being an obsolete term for "a temperamental mannerism or affectation; performance").

My selection: ASTOUND


Round 3: Target 399 from 50 2 4 8 5 3

I started with the simple 399 = 8*50 - (3 - 2), then looked at using the factorisation 7*57.  It's easy enough to make the two 7's, and so I had 399 = (5 + 2)*(50 + 4 + 3).

My selection: 399 = 8*50 - (3 - 2)


Round 4: E O U R E Q Z N V

Bleah, what a final set of consonants.  It's cases like this (or the potential thereof) that made me grumpy when contestants chose too many vowels early.  Anyway, I had ROUÉ ("a debauchee or rake"), QUEER, QUEEN, NEVER / NERVE, and REZONE.

Six is the best on offer here.  The others are OEUVRE ("work, especially a literary or artistic work") and UNROVE (past tense of UNREEVE: "to withdraw (a rope, etc.) from a block, thimble, etc.").

My selection: REZONE


Round 5: R A T P N R A O S

I had PART, speculatively wrote down PARTNER but the E never arrived, PATRON, PATRONS, SPORRAN, TARPONS (TARPON being a type of fish), and PARROTS.  After time I noted RAPTORS as another seven.

Seven is the limit, with the others being SPARTAN / TARPANS (TARPAN being an extinct species of wild horse) and PARTONS (PARTON: "a hypothetical point-like object within protons, neutrons, etc.").

My selection: PATRONS


Round 6: Target 905 from 25 50 100 10 8 6

I had difficulty with this one; I wanted to make the target as 900 + 50/10, but getting to 900 without those numbers seemed too hard.  Switching tacks, I looked at the options of 880 + 25 and 930 - 25, since with a 10 around it is generally worth looking at multiples of 10.  As soon as I considered the former I spotted an answer of 905 = 8*(100 + 10) + 25.

While writing this up I finally saw how to make the other option work, with 905 = 10*(100 - 8 + 6) - 50 - 25.

My selection: 905 = 8*(100 + 10) + 25


Round 7: K I E G M A L I S

I had IMAGE, ALIKE, IMAGES, SIMILE, a slightly uncertain MILAGES (I thought -- correctly -- that MILAGE had come up before as a variant spelling of MILEAGE, but was not completely sure about that), and SILKIE (variant form of SELKIE: "(in Celtic mythology) a supernatural being that lives in the sea, wearing sealskins to travel through the ocean as a seal, and removing the sealskins on land to return to human form").

After time I checked up on MISLIKE, but it is not listed.  That makes MILAGES the only seven, and the best to be done.

My selection: MILAGES


Round 8: Target 296 from 50 25 2 10 3 3

This was strangely tricky; the standard method says to make it as 300 - 4, but making a 4 after getting to 300 is less easy than it should be.  A mental blind spot, as it were.  After starting with 2*3*50 did not seem helpful, I switched to getting to 300 as 10*25 + 50.  That left the 2, 3, and 3 available to make the 4, but I drew a blank on that for a long time (relatively speaking) before finally seeing 3 + 3 - 2 = 4.  Oh, dear.  Anyway, that gave me a solution: 296 = 10*25 + 50 - 3 - 3 + 2.

While writing this up I saw that 4 can also be made as 10 - 6, which allows a solution from the 6*50 starting point via a tweak: 296 = 2*(3*50 + 3) - 10.

My selection: 296 = 10*25 + 50 - 3 - 3 + 2


Round 9: GOON HUMUS

I don't have a time to report properly for this one, as I glanced at it, thought "oh, that's too obvious", and moved on to the next potential conundrum before it occurred to me that I could use it anyway.  Whoops.

My selection: HUMONGOUS (~1s)