NG 206

New game 206 is now available.


Round 1: A C N E I F R E M

I had CANE, FIANCÉ, FANCIER, FIANCÉE, FIREMAN, and FREEMAN.  I also noted that if that M had been an N then REFINANCE would have been available.  A shame!  After time I noted FIREMEN as another seven.

Seven looks to be the limit, with the others being CARMINE, MENACER, and FAÏENCE ("glazed earthenware or pottery, especially a fine variety with highly coloured designs").

My selection: FANCIER


Round 2: S I D T I M M E S

I had an uncertain DITS (I was thinking of Morse code, but the meaning given for DIT is "Chiefly Nautical Colloquial a yarn or story"), MIST, MISTIMED, and MISTIMES.  Later checking confirmed that there was no such word as IMMEDISTS, which was a relief.

After time I wrote down MISEDITS as another candidate eight, but it is not listed in the Macquarie.  So MISTIMED and MISTIMES are the only eights.

The sevens are MISTIME, DIMMEST, MIMESIS ("Rhetoric imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, as in order to represent his or her character"), MITISES (MITIS: "a malleable iron produced by fusing wrought iron with a small amount of aluminium rendering the product fluid enough to cast"), and TSIMMES (variant spelling of TZIMMES: "(in Jewish cookery) a casserole or stew of vegetables, fruit, and sometimes meat, cooked very slowly").

My selection: MISTIMED


Round 3: Target 873 from 100 50 75 25 9 6

My first thoughts were to make this as 875 - 2, but without a handy 5 or 7 this approach used up too many numbers for me to be able to make it work.  Fortunately I spotted the factor of 9; the cofactor is 97, and a solution followed easily: 873 = 9*(100 - 75/25).

My selection: 873 = 9*(100 - 75/25)


Round 4: S O T L O T E N A

I had LOST, TOOLS, TOOTLES, ETALONS (an ETALON being a type of interferometer), and NOTATES.

Seven does seem to be the limit -- some sources would allow STOLONATE (presumably derived from STOLON), but it is not in my dictionaries.  The other sevens are TALENTS / LATTENS (LATTEN: "any metal in thin sheets") and TOLANES (TOLANE being a variant spelling of the chemical TOLAN).

My selection: ETALONS


Round 5: N L O E T Y A S R

I had LONE, ETALON, ETALONS (again, heh), and ORNATELY.  I briefly pondered SENATORLY (and the rather more dubious TREASONLY), but correctly rejected them.

There does not seem to be a nine here; the other eight is ANOLYTES (ANOLYTE: "that part of an electrolyte which surrounds the anode in electrolysis").

The other sevens are ANOLYTE, STERNLY, TREASON / SENATOR / ATONERS, ANTLERS / RENTALS / SLANTER / STERNAL ("of or relating to the sternum") / SALTERN ("a plot of land laid out in pools for the evaporation of sea water to produce salt"), LOANERS, TOLANES (as mentioned above, TOLANE is a variant spelling of the chemical TOLAN), and ELYTRON ("one of the pair of hardened forewings of certain insects, as beetles, forming a protective covering for the posterior wings").

My selection: ORNATELY


Round 6: Target 463 from 50 25 100 75 9 4

The offsets for the standard method are 12 and 13; under other circumstances it might be tempting to multiply by 2 or 4 to get a target near to a multiple of 25, but that did not seem promising with these numbers.  I did notice that 9 + 4 = 13, though, and the corresponding nearby multiple of 25 was also divisible by 9.  That opened up tweaking options and yielded the solution 463 = 9*(50 + (75 + 25)/100) + 4.

I'd forgotten my lessons about the four large numbers, though, as the easier (in some sense) method was to make 450 from them and just add those two small numbers: 463 = (100 + 50)*75/25 + 9 + 4.  I'd contemplated this but misremembered 450 as not being formable from the large numbers alone.

The remaining solution is the Sam-like 463 = 9*50 + (4*100 - 75)/25.

My selection: 463 = 9*(50 + (75 + 25)/100) + 4


Round 7: C F A A G H E K E

I had FACE, CHAFE, and CHEEK.  I also considered HACKAGE and HAGFACE (I was thinking of HAGFISH here, as it turns out), but correctly rejected them.

Five appears to be the best here, with the other being my favourite diacritical mark, the HÁČEK.

My selection: CHAFE


Round 8: Target 306 from 25 100 50 7 4 9

I floundered a little at first, but then I realised the target was 9*34 and it was not too hard to make that work; I went with 306 = (25 + 7 + 100/50)*9.  Then I reviewed this as 3*102 and found the alternative of 306 = (7 - 4)*(100 + 50/25).

My selection: 306 = (25 + 7 + 100/50)*9


Round 9: I TEST DOGS

I was slow off the mark here, but eventually considered the -IEST option and found STODGIEST to complete what turns out to have been a maximal game.  Woohoo!

My selection: STODGIEST (11.2s)