NG 511

New game 511 is now available.


Round 1: T C M B A E G O E

I had MACE, GOATEE, BECOME, and BECAME.  After I noted GAMETE as another six, and verified my recollection that ECOTAGE (sabotage for ecological reasons) is not listed.

Six turns out to be the best on offer; the others are COMBAT, COMATE ("a mate or companion") / CAMOTE (variant spelling of KAMOTE, which is Philippine English for a sweet potato), and GEMOTE (variant spelling of GEMOT: "a meeting or an assembly in Anglo-Saxon England, as for judicial or legislative purposes").

My selection: GOATEE


Round 2: S N E O D A T B E

I had NOSE, NODES, ANODES, and DONATES.  I wanted a final U for EASTBOUND, but no such luck.  A little after time I found the eight of ABSENTED.

There are several near nines in this mix, in addition to EASTBOUND; the other ones I spotted were all substitutions on the B, with R (RESONATED), M (NEMATODES), or T (DETONATES) all being more helpful.  The other useful B-substitutions were H (HEADSTONE) and C (ANECDOTES).  However, with the mix as given, eight is the best to be done; the other is ENDOSTEA (plural of ENDOSTEUM: "the vascular membrane lining the medullary cavity of a bone").

The other sevens are BOASTED, DEBATES / BESTEAD (archaic: "to help; assist; serve; avail"), and DENOTES.

My selection: DONATES


Round 3: Target 214 from 100 75 9 6 8 10

The offset of 14 is 8 + 6, which would leave getting to 200.  200 is 8*25, and tweaking turned out to be an option, giving 214 = 8*(100 - 75 + 10 - 9) + 6.  Then I looked at the result of subtracting 100 and noted that 114 is 6*19, leading to the pleasingly short solution of 214 = (10 + 9)*6 + 100.

My selection: 214 = (10 + 9)*6 + 100


Round 4: E P S C S O E R S

I had PECS, SPECS, SCOPES, CORPSES, ESPRESSO, and PROCESSES.  I was rather pleased with ESPRESSO, and nearly stopped with it -- fortunately I kept looking!

PROCESSES is the only nine, and ESPRESSO the only eight.  The other sevens are PROCESS, REPOSES, CROSSES, PRESSES, PRECESS, POSSERS (POSSER: "a pestle, as in goldmining"), and CRESSES / CESSERS (CESSER: "Law the coming to an end, as of the period of duration of a mortgage").

My selection: PROCESSES


Round 5: F I C T I A D S O

I had FACT, STAID, COATIS, and FACTOIDS.

FACTOIDS is the only eight; the sevens are FACTOID, DACOITS, and FATIDIC ("prophetic").  There's a few other sixes, of which I'll just mention FIASCO and IDIOTS.

My selection: FACTOIDS


Round 6: Target 506 from 5 4 2 7 8 8

As I've mentioned before, with six small numbers it can be helpful to divide the target by the largest number available.  In this instance, it revealed that 8*63 + 2 = 506.  (I should have seen that in any case, since 7*8*9 = 504 is one of those products I know.  I overlooked it at first until I did the aforementioned division, however.)  Since we have the 2, and 63 is 7*9, the rest falls easily into place: 506 = 7*8*(5 + 4) + 2.

My selection: 506 = 7*8*(5 + 4) + 2


Round 7: T I R G E R I A H

I had GRIT, TIGER, AIRIER, RIGHTER, and IRRIGATE.

IRRIGATE is the only eight.  The other seven is HAIRIER.

My selection: IRRIGATE


Round 8: Target 769 from 25 1 4 3 2 4

I struggled with this.  The nearest multiple of 25 is 25*31 = 775, which I could turn into 3 off with 772 = (4*4*2 - 1)*25 - 3.  Thinking about that intermediate value of 32, I saw that the target was 31 away from 800.  That suggested using 32*24 as a close approach, and although the 1 was used up to do so it still was an improvement to 1 off: 768 = 4*4*2*(25 - 1).

The target is unreachable, so one off is the best to be done.

My selection: 768 = 4*4*2*(25 - 1)  [1 off]


Round 9: BRUTAL PEE

The -ABLE fragment was useful here.

My selection: REPUTABLE (2.9s)