I have developed a way of solving the sudukos, up to and including 5 star. Using MSWORD, Tables, I made a 9x9 table like the suduko puzzles, and darkened the smaller 3x3 squares. I then put in the numbers 1-9(using 10-pica size) at top of each square. Now, each day I can add the big numbers from the daily puzzle. This can be done using WORD or make a print and add them in by pencil/pen. I use a sharpie marker to make the numbers big and bold. Then go across each row, down each column, and in the 3x3 squares, and blacken out all the numbers that cannot be used. Then you have the candidate numbers. But there always is one square that only has one number left. That becomes the number for that square. Blacken out that number for that row, column, and 3x3 square, and lo, another square pops up with only one number that can be used. This is a no brainer method that seems to work every time, and you don't have to do any trial/error, probability analysis, or whatever. I have not been successful using this method for 6 star or The 15 square hex numbers puzzle.
