NG 554

New game 554 is now available.


Round 1: E H K TO B O I T U

I had BOTH, HOTTIE, and wondered about OUTHIKE but rightly avoided it.

HOTTIE is the only six.  The fives are TITHE, BUTTE, and BOTTE ("Fencing a thrust or hit").

My selection: HOTTIE


Round 2: R A C W T Q O I A

I had CRAW and ACTOR.  After time I finally saw AORTIC for six.

AORTIC is the only six, and the best to be done.

My selection: ACTOR
Best: AORTIC


Round 3: Target 601 from 75 25 1 3 3 1

For some reason I first focused on the option of 8*75 to get 601 = (3*3 - 1)*75 + 1, and only later considered the simpler 6*100 for 601 = (3 + 3)*(75 + 25) + 1.

My selection: 601 = (3*3 - 1)*75 + 1


Round 4: E S I F S E D L D

I had FESS ("Heraldry a wide horizontal band across the middle of an escutcheon"), DEFIES, FIDDLES, FIELDED, and SELFIES (not valid, a little surprisingly -- it's the sort of pop culture word that the Macquarie likes to list).  After time I noted DEFILES and DEFILED as two other sevens.

The remaining seven is DIESELS (DIESEL as a noun: "a locomotive, truck, ship, car or the like driven by a diesel engine").

My selection: FIDDLES


Round 5: G P N G A E O E B

I had GANG, BEGONE, and PEONAGE.

The other seven is EPAGOGE ("the induction of a general proposition from particular propositions").  The other sixes are ENGAGE, APOGEE, and PONGEE ("silk of a plain weave made from filaments of wild silk woven in natural tan colour").

My selection: PEONAGE


Round 6: Target 257 from 25 2 1 1 4 3

Those small numbers are awfully small, but still it should be feasible to get close with 10*25.  A little tweak turns that into 10*26, and if the 3 could be kept aside a solution follows.  It all turned out to work, fortunately, giving 257 = 2*(4 + 1)*(25 + 1) - 3.

There is only one other solution: 257 = (25*(4 + 1) + 3)*2 + 1.

My selection: 257 = 2*(4 + 1)*(25 + 1) - 3


Round 7: N A R R C T E I D

I had RANT, CANTER, and TRAINED.  After time I noted other sevens of CARRIED, TARRIED, TRANCED, and CERTAIN.

Seven turns out to be the limit in this mix.  The others are DETRAIN, TERRAIN / TRAINER / RETRAIN, ERRATIC / CIRRATE ("having cirri", which in this context means "having tendrils"), TARDIER, CAIRNED, CERATIN (variant spelling of the protein KERATIN), and DRAINER / RANDIER*.

My selection: TRAINED


Round 8: Target 462 from 25 50 75 3 8 10

The target is 42*11, but I started with the standard method.  The offset of 13 is formable, and led soon to 462 = 8*50 + 75 - 10 - 3.  Then I considered another option and found 462 = (50 - 3)*10 - 8.

Seen while writing this up is that 42*11 does work, yielding 462 = (50 - 8)*(10 + 3*25/75).

My selection: 462 = (50 - 3)*10 - 8


Round 9: MUD REBELS

Alas, I failed to extract the word from the remainder after removing -ED.  Admittedly, I did skip past it pretty quickly, but still, this was a poor miss.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: SLUMBERED