NG 485

New game 485 is now available.


Round 1: E L W E F G C S A

I had FLEW, FEELS, FAECES, and SEWAGE.

Six is the best to be done; the others are EAGLES, WEASEL, and FALCES (plural of FALX: "Anatomy a sickle-shaped part or process, as of the dura mater").

My selection: SEWAGE


Round 2: O I N R E D O D N

I had IRON, DINER, IRONED, and INDOOR.

Six is apparently the best on offer.  The others are DINNER, DRONED / NODDER, RIDDEN, DINNED, DONNED, ONDINE (variant form of UNDINE: "one of a class of mythological female water-sprites"), OROIDE ("an alloy containing copper, tin, etc., used to imitate gold"), RONNIE (South Australian term for "a small stone that can be thrown"), and IONONE ("either one or a mixture of two unsaturated ketones [...] used in perfumery").

My selection: IRONED


Round 3: Target 361 from 25 2 7 5 7 1

The target is the square of 19, but that's usually a difficult number to make.  In this case I noted that it could be made as 2*7 + 5, and the remainder also served to make a 19; this led to the solution 361 = (25 - 7 + 1)*(2*7 + 5).  Then I looked at more standard approaches and found 361 = 2*7*25 + 7 + 5 - 1 and 361 = 2*(7*25 + 5) + 1.

My selection: 361 = (25 - 7 + 1)*(2*7 + 5)


Round 4: R C H O R A U E N

I had ROACH, OCHRE, RANCOUR, noted that an I instead of the O would have allowed HURRICANE, CHURNER, and wondered about RAUNCHER but decided against it.  However, RAUNCH does have an adjective sense listed ("sexually provocative in a vulgar way") so the single-syllable rule makes RAUNCHER valid.

The other eight is RANCHERO ("(in Spanish America and the south-western US) a rancher").  The other seven is RANCHER.

My selection: RANCOUR
Best: RANCHERO


Round 5: E M S A I F M B E

I had SAME, MIMES, SAMMIE, and FEMMES.

Those appear to be the only sixes, and the best to be done.

My selection: FEMMES


Round 6: Target 436 from 25 75 10 6 2 1

The nearby 450 is 6*75, and a little tweaking led to 436 = 6*(75 - 1) - (10 - 2).  Working up from 425 instead gave the alternative solution 436 = 6*75 - 25 + 10 + 1.

My selection: 436 = 6*(75 - 1) - (10 - 2)


Round 7: O J N S M A I O P

I had MOANS, JOINS, PIONS, PIANOS, and POISON.

The other six is SIMOON (variant form of SIMOOM: "a hot, suffocating sand-laden wind of the deserts of Arabia, Syria, Africa, etc.").

My selection: POISON


Round 8: Target 178 from 25 2 10 6 8 3

I started by working down from 8*25 = 200, tweaking my way to 178 = 8*(25 - 2) - 6.  Then I considered the factorisation 2*89 to find 178 = 2*(8*10 + 6 + 3), and finally found the short 178 = 3*6*10 - 2.

My selection: 178 = 3*6*10 - 2


Round 9: IDLY BONGO

After pulling out the -ING, the rest formed BLOODY reasonably easily.

My selection: BLOODYING (3.0s)