NG 466

New game 466 is now available.  Also, as mentioned in a comment a little while back, I have now disabled anonymous commenting.  Apologies for the inconvenience.


Round 1: I R N I A C B R E

I had RAIN, BRAIN, and CARBINE.

I can't believe I missed BRAINIER here, after writing down BRAIN.  Then again, I missed BRAINIEST once before, too...

BRAINIER is the only eight, but there is a nine: CARBINIER is a variant form of CARABINEER ("a soldier armed with a carbine").  A bit of a dangerous one, though, since it's not listed in the main section like it should be but only under the definition of CARABINEER, so David might not find it.  (One would hope that the production team would, however.)

The other sevens are RAINIER and BRINIER.

My selection: CARBINE
Best: CARBINIER


Round 2: I A T Q E F H N O

I had FEAT, FAITH, FAINT, and THIEF.  I also observed ETHION, which I know is in the word list I use but also know is not in the Macquarie.  It turns out to be the only six-letter word from that mix that is in the word list.

Five does seem the best to be done, but I'm too lazy to list the others.

My selection: FAITH


Round 3: Target 612 from 100 25 75 50 9 10

The target is near 625, which is usually provocative, but the offsets are awkward.  It's also 5508/9, which would be fine if only the 25 or 75 was an 8 instead...  Back in the land of sensible approaches, I decided that I should keep the 25 and 75 aside to make a 3 and thus the 12, and fortunately the rest worked out, giving 612 = 10*50 + 100 + 9 + 75/25.

My selection: 612 = 10*50 + 100 + 9 + 75/25


Round 4: T L U I M O T T D

I had MILT ("the secretion of the male generative organ of fishes"), MOULT, correctly rejected OUTLIT, and DITTO.

There are some sixes here: TOMTIT, ULTIMO ("in or of the month preceding the present"), MODULI, and TOLUID (variant form of TOLUIDE, a type of chemical).

My selection: DITTO
Best: TOMTIT


Round 5: P S A E G O K U S

I had APES, PAGES, SPEAKS, SPOKES, and GASEOUS.  After time I checked up on PEGASUS, but as expected only capitalised forms are listed.

The Macquarie does not have SPOUSAGE, so GASEOUS is the best to be done (and the only seven).

My selection: GASEOUS


Round 6: Target 145 from 50 2 8 1 6 7

I found this surprisingly difficult to get started with, but the standard method bears fruit: 145 = (2 + 1)*40 - 6 + 8 - 7.  Looking at other options, I considered 195 - 50 and realised that 196 was quite formable, leading to 145 = (8 + 6)*2*7 - 50 - 1.  Since 195 is also 13*15, I wrote down another solution of 145 = (7 + 6)*(2*8 - 1) - 50.

My selection: 145 = (8 + 6)*2*7 - 50 - 1


Round 7: R O I N A H T S M

I had IRON, THORN, RATION, RATIONS, wanted a final E for ANTIHEROS, MATRONS, and was tempted by but ultimately (and correctly) rejected MATRONISH.  A bit after time I considered the -IST fragment and found the full monty of HARMONIST.

HARMONIST is the only nine, and there are no eights.  Once again, I'm too lazy to list the other sevens.

My selection: RATIONS
Best: HARMONIST


Round 8: Target 214 from 75 50 7 3 1 8

The offset for the standard method is 11, which is 3 + 8, and tweaking soon yields 214 = 3*(75 - 1) - 8.  (An untweaked version is also findable: 214 = (7 - 1)*50 - 75 - 8 - 3.)  Working up from 200 instead yielded the solution 214 = 8*(75 - 50) + 7*(3 - 1).

My selection: 214 = 3*(75 - 1) - 8


Round 9: RED TARTAN

I did not solve this in time, although I did avoid the trap of NARRATED.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: RETARDANT