NG 177

New game 177 is now ready for your playing pleasure.


Round 1: H G D N A O I D O

I had HAND, GONAD, GADOID (a type of fish), and HOODING.  The -ING was hard to use with these letters.

Indeed, HOODING seems to be the only seven.  There's a few sixes, but I'm just going to mention the unusual HADING (HADE: "to incline from a vertical position").

My selection: HOODING


Round 2: A S F A E T R I R

I had SAFE, FEAST, FASTER, RAFTERS, FAIREST, and TARRIES.

Decent letters, and there was an eight lurking in them: AIRFARES.  There should have been another; FRATRY is listed as a variant form of FRATER ("the refectory of a religious house"), but the plural form FRATRIES is not explicitly listed so it has to be disallowed.

My selection: RAFTERS
Best: AIRFARES


Round 3: Target 470 from 50 9 3 5 3 8

I spent a while toying around with working up from 9*50, but was not immediately successful.  Switching tacks to 8*50 brought instant reward after a tweak: 470 = 8*(50 + 9) - (5 - 3).  Then I managed to make my original approach work after all, finding the 7 that eluded me: 470 = 9*(50 + 3) - (3*5 - 8).

My selection: 470 = 8*(50 + 9) - (5 - 3)


Round 4: F W I E S I I C N

I had WIFE, WISE, SINCE, SWINE / SINEW, FINES, WINCES, and INCISE.

WINCES and INCISE appear to be the only sixes, and the best on offer.

My selection: WINCES


Round 5: E O E P T M C U E

I had POET, COMPETE, and COMPUTE.

Those are the only sevens, and once again the best that can be done.

My selection: COMPETE


Round 6: Target 202 from 50 100 4 2 9 1

A sadly easy target; I wrote down 202 = 2*(100 + 1) and 202 = 4*50 + 2, and left it at that.

My selection: 202 = 2*(100 + 1)


Round 7: T T H T O O U S R

I had TOOTH, TROTHS, TROUTS, and THRUST.

A difficult mix, but there is a seven: OUTSHOT.

My selection: THRUST
Best: OUTSHOT


Round 8: Target 199 from 50 75 25 100 7 3

The main question here is how to make an offset of 1; I decided to use 7 - 2*3 and a tweak, getting the solution 199 = (50/25)*(100 + 3) - 7.  Then I made the 200 a different way to get an alternative solution of 199 = (7 - 3)*50 - (75 + 25)/100.

My selection: 199 = (50/25)*(100 + 3) - 7


Round 9: TAMEST EWE

The SWEET fragment was not too hard to tease out, and it's a short step from there to SWEETMEAT.

My selection: SWEETMEAT (7.8s)