NG 144

New game 144 is now available.


Round 1: C G A A R L O E S

I had AGAR ("a culture medium with an agar-agar base"; AGAR-AGAR: "a gelatine-like product of certain seaweeds [...]"), CORAL, LAAGER (a South African term: "a camp or encampment, especially within a circle of wagons"; it is also a verb), ORACLES, and briefly contemplated SEACORAL but rightly rejected it.  After time I found the eight: ACEROLAS (ACEROLA being a type of tree similar to a cherry).

That looks like the only eight; the other sevens are ACEROLA, CARGOES / CORSAGE, COALERS / SOLACER, AGAROSE (adjective derived from AGAR), GAOLERS, ROSACEA ("a skin condition of the face characterised by redness caused by enlargement of the blood vessels under the skin, combined with acne-like eruptions"), and SCALARE (another term for the angelfish, or rather angelfish is another term for it as there are some other fish called angelfish).

My selection: ORACLES
Best: ACEROLAS


Round 2: K R F T L E O E R

I had REFT, wondered about LOFTER (it's not valid), FERRET, and wondered about TREEFORK but rightly rejected it.  Commenter Sam pointed out the possibility of TREEFOLK, which is lovely vision even though it's not valid.

Six looks like the limit, with the others being FLORET ("a small flower"), FERREL (variant form of FERRULE: "a metal ring or cap put around the end of a post, stick, handle, etc."), ROLFER (agent noun derived from ROLFING: "a system of soft-tissue mainpulation to re-align body posture and structure in order to ease chronic pain and to improve performance"), and FELTER (using the single-syllable rule for adjectives) / LEFTER (likewise) / REFLET ("an effect of lustre, colour, or iridescence on an object (as a piece of pottery) due to reflection of light") / TELFER (variant spelling of TELPHER: "a travelling unit, car, or carrier in a telpherage"; TELPHERAGE: "a transport system in which cars or carriers are suspended from or run on wire cables or the like, especially one in which the cars are individually operated by electricity").

KELTER is a variant spelling of KILTER, but that only appears as part of the phrase "out of kilter" and so is not valid.

My selection: FERRET


Round 3: Target 338 from 75 100 50 6 5 10

The offsets for the standard method are 13 or 12.  At first I could not think how to usefully make either, but while simply trying to get close I realised that a tweak would see me home and found 338 = 6*(75 - 10/5) - 100.  An inversion of this idea that also works is 338 = (10/5)*(100 + 75 - 6).

My selection: 338 = 6*(75 - 10/5) - 100


Round 4: D Y M B C E I A O

I had IMBED, EMBODY, COMEDY, and COMEDIA (which I've mentioned several times here on the blog as a variant spelling of KOMEDYA ("a once-popular Philippine dramatic form dealing with the conflicts between Christians and Moors in early medieval Europe").  After time I noted MEDIACY as a less obscure seven.

The two other sevens are AMOEBIC and AMEBOID.

My selection: COMEDIA


Round 5: I O E N S N H U S

I had NOISE, HOUSES, and flailed around for something longer.  I was writing down a speculative UNSHINES when I realised that I could simply move the S from the end to the beginning to get SUNSHINE.

That looks like the only eight as NON-ISSUE requires the hyphen.  The sevens are HEINOUS, SONNIES, and UNISONS.

My selection: SUNSHINE


Round 6: Target 279 from 75 100 3 3 7 6

A target with happy memories for Jacob Davey!  A simple tweak down from 300 works in this case: 279 = 3*(100 - 7).  (I started with the untweaked version since there are two 3's, then realised I could safe a number.)  Then I tried using the factorisation 9*31 and was able to get that to work with 279 = 3*3*(100 - 75 + 6).

My selection: 279 = 3*(100 - 7)


Round 7: E E E P L N T A R

I had ÉPÉE, PEEL, PLANET, ETERNAL, PRELATE, and reluctantly had to reject PLANETEER.  After time I noted down PLANTER / REPLANT as two other sevens, and that PLANE TREE was valid but two words.

Seven seems to be the best on offer; the othes are REPLETE, TERPENE ("any of certain natural hydrocarbons [...]"), and TELERAN ("a system of aircraft navigation using radar to map the sky above an airfield, which, together with the map of the airfield itself and other pertinent data, is transmitted by television to the aeroplane approaching the field").

My selection: ETERNAL


Round 8: Target 590 from 100 25 8 10 9 9

My first thought was to try to make this as (50 + 9)*10, but there's no easy 50.  Instead I worked down from 600 with 590 = 8*(100 - 25) - 10.  Then I managed to use the factor of 10 after all but in different fashion: 590 = (9*8 - 9 - 100/25)*10.

My selection: 590 = 8*(100 - 25) - 10


Round 9: CUBE ANNAL

I got sidetracked by the -ABLE fragment for some time before I considered -ANCE instead and found UNBALANCE.

My selection: UNBALANCE (10.9s)