NG 645

New game 645 is now available.


Round 1: H A C T I E N O H

I had CHAT, AITCH, ACTION, ACONITE, and was pleased to spot INCHOATE ("lacking organisation; unformed").  I've looked for that a few times in the past, so it was nice for it to finally turn up.

INCHOATE is the only eight, and ACONITE is the only seven.

My selection: INCHOATE


Round 2: A I L P C E A B G

I had PAIL, PLAICE, and CAPABLE.  After the first seven letters I wanted an O for ALOPECIA; the next vowel would have been an O, too -- oh, well.

The other seven to be had here is PELAGIC ("relating to seas or oceans").

My selection: CAPABLE


Round 3: Target 898 from 75 100 3 8 7 10

This was surprisingly tricky, at least for me.  It's easy enough to get to 900, but doing so while retaining an offset of 2 is not possible.  I wrote down a fallback one off of 897 = (10 + 7 - 8)*100 - 3, and in the end that was the best I could do.

I spent a little time afterward, and was not able to find a solution.  However, once I confirmed that it was solvable I soon found one.  Getting to 875 is easy, and the remaining offset is 23; that can be made as 3*10 - 7, and thus gives the solution 898 = 8*100 + 75 + 3*10 - 7.

There are three other solutions; the one that I feel was most findable was to make this as 10*89 + 8.  The 89 is hard to get, but since we have 100 available, getting to either 79 or 99 will also do; that leads to the solution 898 = 10*(75 + 7 - 3) + 100 + 8.  The other solutions are 898 = 7*(100 + 10 + 8) + 75 - 3 and 898 = 8*(100 + 10) + 75/3 - 7.

My selection: 897 = (10 + 7 - 8)*100 - 3  [1 off]
Best: 898 = 8*100 + 75 + 3*10 - 7


Round 4: D S T O I D N A E

I had DOTS, DONATED, INSTEAD, and SEDATION.  We nearly have the nines of ANTINODES or ANTIDOTES, but the wrong consonant is duplicated.  After time I noted the other eight of ADENOIDS.

The remaining eights are ANODISED and DANDIEST.

My selection: SEDATION


Round 5: S A S T O A F C I

I had OASTS (OAST: "a kiln for drying hops or malt"), FATSOS, COASTS, and FASCIST.

The other sevens are FIASCOS and SCOTIAS (SCOTIA: "a concave moulding, as at the base of a column or the angle between the wall and the ceiling").

My selection: FASCIST


Round 6: Target 396 from 100 25 75 7 4 6

The target is 4*99, leading easily enough to 396 = 4*(100 - 7 + 6).

My selection: 396 = 4*(100 - 7 + 6)


Round 7: E I U R T D I G M

I had TRUE, MIDGET, and then a mental slip where I thought that DUGITE (a kind of snake) was spelled DUIGITE.  Bother.  I continued with TEDIUM, TRUDGE, and MIDGUT.

Six is the best to be done; the other sixes are TIDIER, GUIDER, GRIMED, MITRED, TURGID, and TERGUM ("the dorsal surface of a body segment of an arthropod").

My selection: [invalid -- DUIGITE]
Best: TRUDGE


Round 8: Target 455 from 50 25 75 9 10 6

Starting with 9*50 seemed like a good plan, and gave me 455 = 9*50 + (75 - 25)/10.  I switched to making the 450 with 6*75 to get the shorter 455 = 6*75 + 50/10.

My selection: 455 = 6*75 + 50/10


Round 9: RYE METTLE

I'm not sure what got me to this so quickly, but I was very pleased to see TELEMETRY quite fast.

My selection: TELEMETRY (1.4s)