The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Mel-o-rama]

Hello, I'm a first time poster, though I've been reading this forum over the past month.

For my first post, I ask these questions. For some two months now, I've been solving Killer puzzles. Would you believe that during that whole time, I never realized the rule that you cannot repeat numbers within a cage? I just learned that rule yesterday when the following events occurred.

I was solving djape's Jan. 31 Insane/IQ puzzle and came up with two "answers". One of these matched DJ's answer. I submitted the other "answer" to DJ, to which he promptly responded that my answer was incorrect. My answer had two 1s in one cage.

That's how I came to understand that rule for the first time. What a revelation! I told my co-workers that you can't repeat numbers within a cage, and they were as surprised as I was.

The funny thing is that DJ clearly states in ALL CAPS that you CANNOT repeat numbers within a cage. How could I totally miss that? It's so easy to skip to the puzzle without reading all the directions, I suppose. But why did I naturally assume that it was possible to repeat numbers within a cage?

This rule seems so easy to overlook. I can easily see a situation where someone decides to create a Killer puzzle where it IS POSSIBLE to repeat numbers within a cage. That leads to more questions.

Does anyone make Killers that allow numbers to be repeated within cages? If I come across a Killer, how can I know which rule is in force? Is this something that has ever been debated?

[afjt]

Most compilers don't allow repetition within a cage, but http://www.killer-samurai.com/rules.php does.

[Mel-o-rama]

I believe I've tried two or three of their Samuari-Killers. I seem to remember those had multiple solutions, but that was when I was allowing for cage repitition.

[CathyW]

There was a lot of discussion about this when The Times first started including Killer puzzles, mainly because The Times kept changing their description. The consensus does now seem to be that repetition within cages is not allowed - would make puzzles harder otherwise I think! - though you do get the occasional rogue puzzle that 'contravenes' this rule. There's one in the Killer Sudoku book from The Times - 90 or 91?