NG 757

New game 757 is now available.

The re-run is episode 20; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: N M I G A L H M U

I had GAMIN, MALIGN, an uncertain HAMMING (valid), HAULING, MAULING, and HUMMING.

The remaining seven is LAMMING.

My selection: HAULING


Round 2: S K A F A E E C M

It's not a great mix, and I just could not see more than five.  I had FAKES, FACES, SMACK, and MACES.

The six that I missed is FAECES.  There's two near-misses here: FACE MASK is listed but only as two words, while AMES-ACE is hyphenated (variant of AMBS-ACE: "the double ace, the lowest throw at dice").

My selection: FAKES
Best: FAECES


Round 3: Target 989 from 25 100 75 50 6 8

A difficult mix.  Getting to 1000 seemed a decent starting point, and I was able to turn that into one off with 990 = 8*(75 + 50) - 6 - 100/25.

It turns out that the target is unreachable, so one off is the best possible.

My selection: 990 = 8*(75 + 50) - 6 - 100/25  [1 off]


Round 4: O D A I R S T U D

I had RADIO, RADIOS, OUTSAID, and STUDIO.  After time I noted another seven of SAUTOIR ("a long ribbon, chain, beaded band, or the like, worn about the neck").

The eight that I missed is AUDITORS.  I'm a bit annoyed at that, as I saw AUDITS within time but missed the extension.  The other sevens are AUDITOR and DOTARDS.

My selection: OUTSAID
Best: AUDITORS


Round 5: A S R T G L O E F

I had STAR, GLOATS, GLOATERS / LEGATORS, and FLOATERS.

Eight is the limit, unsurprisingly.  The others are FROGLETS and FLOTAGES (FLOTAGE: "the act of floating").

My selection: GLOATERS


Round 6: Target 672 from 100 50 1 10 2 5

The target is 6*112, leading directly to 672 = (5 + 1)*(100 + 10 + 2).  It is also 12*56, giving 672 = (10 + 2)*(50 + 5 + 1).  And another factorisation is 7*96, giving 672 = (5 + 2)*(100 - 50/10 + 1).

My selection: 672 = (10 + 2)*(50 + 5 + 1)


Round 7: S B R O S H I T E

I had ROBS, BIROS, BROTHS, BOTHERS, was unsure about HORSIEST (it turns out to be valid), BOTHIES (BOTHY: "Scottish a hut or small cottage, especially for lodging farmhands or workers"), SORBETS / STROBES, and BISTROS.  A good while after time I looked back at this mix and saw the safe eight of SORBITES.

Unfortunately, I did not risk HORSIEST.  Eight is the best to be done; the others are SHORTIES / HOISTERS and HERBIEST*.

My selection: BOTHERS
Best: SHORTIES


Round 8: Target 747 from 25 100 50 9 8 2

The offset for the standard method is , which is not so helpful with those small numbers.  However, I remembered that an offset of 3 is also an offset of 72, which can be made as 8*9.  The intermediate target is 675, which is also divisible by 9.  That highlighted the factorisation 9*83, which I should have seen earlier, and leads to the solution 747 = 9*(50 + 25 + 8).

There's a great many solutions, as it turns out.  All but one use 9*8 in some form to get the offset; the exception is the nice 747 = 8*100 - 50 - (25 + 2)/9.

My selection: 747 = 9*(50 + 25 + 8)


Round 9: TELL NIECE

A difficult conundrum, without any of the usual patterns.

My selection: [N/A -- chosen]
Best: CLIENTELE