NG 493

New game 493 is now available.


Round 1: D S A I L N S U T

I had SAND, ISLAND, ISLANDS, SUSTAIN, NUDISTS, and SUNDIALS.  After time I noted another seven of ISSUANT.

The other eights are DUALISTS (DUALIST being someone subscribing to DUALISM) and STUNSAIL.  The other sevens are SUNDIAL, DUALIST, INSULTS, SULTANS, and INDULTS (INDULT: "Roman Catholic Church a general faculty granted for a specific time or a specific number of cases by the Holy See to bishops and others, of doing something not permitted by the common law of the church").

My selection: SUNDIALS


Round 2: C L F S E M E O I

I had CLEFS and a slightly uncertain MESELF, but I chanced it and it was acceptable.  After time I considered the ICE- beginning, and immediately saw the eight of ICEFLOES, aided by recollection of David ably finding it in episode 342 (one of Sam's early games).  I also, of course, observed ICEFLOE as a seven.

ICEFLOES is the only eight; the other seven is CLEOMES (certain plants).  There are a scattering of other sixes, with CLIMES perhaps being the most common.

My selection: MESELF
Best: ICEFLOES


Round 3: Target 747 from 25 100 50 75 3 1

The approach of 750 - 3 seemed clearly tempting, with the question being whether the 750 was formable without the 3.  I managed to find my way to it with the overly complicated 747 = (50/(100/25 + 1))*75 - 3.  Then I tried a tweaking approach and found the simpler 747 = (100 + 75 + 50 + 25 - 1)*3.  Of course, there are other ways to make that intermediate 250, such as 747 = (75*100/25 - 50 - 1)*3.

My selection: 747 = (50/(100/25 + 1))*75 - 3


Round 4: B E W S B R E P E

I had WEBS, EBBS, BREWS, wondered about WEBBERS (not valid), BEEPERS, and WEEPERS.  After time I noted SWEEPER as another seven.

That's all the sevens listed, and the best to be done.

My selection: BEEPERS


Round 5: C D O E G E R E C

I had CODE, GEODE, and COERCED.

The other seven is RECCEED (one past tense form of RECCE, colloquial for "reconnoitre").  The sixes are RECCED (the other past tense form), COERCE, CODGER, DEGREE, and DECREE / RECEDE.

My selection: COERCED


Round 6: Target 351 from 25 2 3 8 9 7

The target is 9*39, and thus 9*3*13.  I went directly from that to 351 = (8 + 7 - 2)*3*9.

My selection: 351 = (8 + 7 - 2)*3*9


Round 7: H M K M U S I A R

I had MUSK, MAIMS, MARKS, wondered about MUMAKS (not valid; in retrospect, I had encountered the word MUMAK in NetHack, which takes it from Tolkien's MÛMAK, and has a different plural form even if it were in the dictionary), was on stronger ground with UMIAKS (UMIAK: "an open Inuit boat consisting of a wooden frame covered with skins and provided with several thwarts, for transport of goods and passengers"), correctly rejected RAMMISH and RUMMISH, and then fell from grace by trying the invalid MISMARK.

The seven here is KASHMIR, variant spelling of CASHMERE.

My selection: [invalid -- MISMARK]
Best: KASHMIR


Round 8: Target 699 from 50 100 25 75 8 9

Those large numbers alone can't make 700, which rules out the obvious approach.  I wrote down the fallback one off 700 = 8*75 + 100, then experimented.  The tempting intermediate value 8*9 = 72 is 3 away from a multiple of 25, so if we can make a 2 with the rest we could get to 1 off as desired.  For that to work out we need to get to 625 while leaving either 100/50 or 50/25 available.  The 75 thus must be used to get us close, and fortunately it works out: 699 = 8*(75 + 9) + 25 + 100/50.

There are only two other solutions: 699 = (50 - 75/25)*(9 + 8) - 100, and the daunting 699 = ((50 + 8)*100 + 25)*9/75.

My selection: 699 = 8*(75 + 9) + 25 + 100/50


Round 9: REDDER TEA

Lots of duplication can be confusing, and it took me a little while to untangle RETREADED from this.

My selection: RETREADED (6.0s)