NG 183

New game 183 is ready to be played.


Round 1: P I H N I A D H I

Oh, dear, a wretched lot to start with.  I had PAIN and APHID.  It's not too surprising that APHID is the only five here, and the best on offer.

My selection: APHID


Round 2: K O T U E L L A I

Another unpromising selection; I had TOKE, LOUT, ATOLL, and TALKIE.

Six is the limit here as neither OUTKILL nor OATLIKE is listed.  The other six is the bird AUKLET.

My selection: TALKIE


Round 3: Target 569 from 75 1 9 4 7 6

The offset from 8*75 = 600 is 31, which is close to 8*4.  Tweaking led me to a solution: 569 = (9 - 1)*(75 - 4) + (7 - 6).  Then I considered working up from 525 instead, which required a final 2 from some of the small numbers.  I almost missed it, but did manage to get that to work also with 569 = 7*(75 + 6) + (9 - 1)/4.

My selection: 569 = (9 - 1)*(75 - 4) + 7 - 6


Round 4: S E O C B A O S T

This mix ended up being rather similar to one from NG 178 a week ago.  I had CASE, CABOOSE, and CABOOSES.  I also noted that an L instead of one of those O's would have allowed OBSTACLES.

Aside from CABOOSE and CABOOSES there is nothing longer than six on offer.

My selection: CABOOSES


Round 5: S E E O T P T I C

I had TOES, POETS, POETICS, and POETISE.  After time I noted POTTIES as another seven.

There is an eight here after all: PICOTEES (PICOTEE: "a variety of carnation whose petals have an outer margin of another colour, usually red").  The other sevens are PICOTEE, TIPTOES, and PECTISE ("to change into a jelly").

My selection: POETISE
Best: PICOTEES


Round 6: Target 686 from 75 100 8 10 1 6

I recognised the target as twice the cube of 7, but started with the standard method and a tweak: 686 = 8*(75 - 1) + 100 - 6.  Then I went back to that factorisation and used the form 7*98 for 686 = (100 - 10 + 8)*(6 + 1).  Finally I simplified matters somewhat with 686 = 8*(75 + 10) + 6.

While writing this up I have seen the possibly simpler solution 686 = (75 - 8 + 1)*10 + 6.

My selection: 686 = 8*(75 + 10) + 6


Round 7: E E T R G F O C E

I had TREE, GREET, FORGET, and (helped along by the recent NG 179) CORTEGE.

There does not seem to be anything else longer than five.

My selection: CORTEGE


Round 8: Target 757 from 100 50 75 3 1 7

This is a much more tempting situation for the standard method; I started with 757 = (3 + 1)*(100 + 75) + 50 + 7.  Then I went with a tweak to save a couple of numbers: 757 = 7*(100 + 1) + 50.

My selection: 757 = 7*(100 + 1) + 50


Round 9: LITHE BABA

It's no surprise when a B is in the mix that the -ABLE fragment is worth investigating.  In this case it guided me to HABITABLE soon enough.

My selection: HABITABLE (2.5s)