NG 695

New game 695 is now available.

The re-run is episode 398; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: T D I E S A M O R

I had DIET, TIDES, MASTED, ATOMISED, and was just thinking that a final R would be nice when it arrived and gave me AMORTISED.  I also noted ATOMISER / AMORTISE, and after time ASTEROID and the second nine of MEDIATORS.

The other eights are READMITS and MORTISED.

My selection: AMORTISED


Round 2: U G A I C E R O H

I had CAGE, GRACE, COURAGE, and GOUACHE ("a method of painting with opaque watercolours").  After time I noted GAUCHER as another seven.

Seven is the limit; the others are COUGHER, ROUGHIE (the fish), and CHORAGI (plural of CHORAGUS: "the sponsor of an ancient Greek dramatic production").

My selection: COURAGE


Round 3: Target 270 from 100 75 8 9 10 8

I struggled for a while before I hit on the working option of 270 = (9 + 8)*10 + 100.  After time I found an alternative of 270 = (75 - 9*8)*(100 - 10).

My selection: 270 = (9 + 8)*10 + 100


Round 4: O N I T R B E A C

I had INTO, ORBIT, ORIENT, BORNITE (a mineral), REACTION / CREATION, REOBTAIN / OBTAINER / BARITONE, and recalled from past experience that CARBONITE was not valid.

The other eights are BORACITE (another mineral) and BACTERIN ("a vaccine prepared from dead or attenuated bacteria").

My selection: REACTION


Round 5: H O E L Y M N E D

I had HOLE, LEMON, a slightly uncertain MONEYED (valid, as is MONIED), HONEYED, MELODY, and HOMELY.  After time I wrote down another six of MEDLEY.

That's both sevens listed; there's a few other sixes, of which I'll just mention YEOMEN.

My selection: HONEYED


Round 6: Target 740 from 50 1 10 6 9 4

The factor of 10 was tempting, and a little thought produced 740 = (50 + 4*6)*10.  Then I reverted to the standard method with 740 = (9 + 6)*50 - 10.

My selection: 740 = (50 + 4*6)*10


Round 7: S A O E N T I R P

I had SANE, AEONS, NOTARISE, PAINTERS, OPERANTS, PRONATES, and finally spotted the nine that I was sure was there: PATRONISE.

The other nines are ATROPINES (ATROPINE being a certain chemical used in eye drops) and ISOPTERAN ("belonging to the insect order Isoptera, which contains the termits").  Some of the other eights are PERTAINS / PANTRIES and POINTERS / PROTEINS.

My selection: PATRONISE


Round 8: Target 268 from 50 25 3 3 2 10

After getting near with 10*25, the offset of 18 was handily 2*3*3; putting it together gave 268 = 10*5 + 2*3*3.

My selection: 268 = 10*25 + 2*3*3


Round 9: BUG TRIBES

It took me longer than it should have to try the -IEST ending, but once I considered it the adjustment to GRUBBIEST was easy enough.

My selection: GRUBBIEST (8.6s)