The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[PaulIQ164]

[emm]

Sorry that was rude. Pardon my French.

Now I’ve got a naked hextle (or is it sextle?). Where is this going to end?

[emm]

So many questions, so few answers. Are you still interested in how I’m going with this puzzle? Yes? Good. Sadly, I’m still in solution-mode. I whipped home at lunchtime to print off another copy of the grid but oddlly they’d closed down the site and I had to use my old scribbled-over one – that was a little bit tricky when I was pretending to be working diligently at the same time, but I managed. However. I got almost to the end then found I had a multiple solution! It’s not one of those is it? I can’t face going back to it, so now I’m going to try the other kind of solution I know of and hope that helps.

See, Paul, I can do a sad face too. Could you please wipe yours off, I get a guilt trip every time I open up!

[CathyW]

Hope your other solution helped Em. I'm fairly sure the puzzle ought to have a unique solution. Let us know if you want another clue - I'll have to post from home later (am at work at present surreptitiously checking the forum again ).

[emm]

I'm probably the only person still visiting this thread – oh well, it can be my personal record.

Dear Diary, Day 3: Slaying the Samunampure.
I feel like I've been to the Slough of Despond and back over this puzzle, but then last night while I was sleeping, the light came on – funny how it does that, as if it’s waiting to catch all that regular clutter off guard. Anyway, it came to me in a blinding flash - I’d been so obsessed by the dotted lines, I’d forgotten all about the normal ‘1-9 in every rbc’ rule of Sudoku!! Such a simple thing in the end. Talk about myopic! Well, I won’t make that mistake again. Now … I need to find that second grid, but I don’t think Paul’s talking to me anymore

[PaulIQ164]

It was on the same webpage as the first one (though it wasn't put up until a bit after), but the link no longer seems to work...

Edit: found it:

[emm]

[CathyW]

Glad you solved it Em!

Now, Paul, please can you offer some tips/hints to get me going on that second puzzle. I haven't had a lot of time to look at it over the weekend but I'm completely stumped. I've got the 7-cage 28 is less than 4-cage 29 is less than 4-cage 30 and some other candidates in the right hand column but that's about it - no actual entries at all. Help

[PaulIQ164]

Well, it was a while ago I did it now (and I had help), but here's a go:

Look at the 7s. There's got to be a 7 in the 28-cage you've found, as well as in the 29-cage (which has to be 9875) and the 30-cage (must be 9876). The 28-cage and the 30-cage together make up one whole box, with one cell in each cage that spills out into a different box. So at least one of their 7s must go in a spillover box. If the 28-cage had the 7 in its spillover box, there'd only be one place the 7 could go in the huge 9-cell cage that's mostly in box 5. Those two 7s would leave nowhere for the 7 in the 29-cage to go. (I guess this is T&E really, but I'm much less fussy about it in these puzzles). So it has to be the 30-cage that has its 7 in the spillover box.

I don't know how much that'll help, but it's a start.

[emm]

Thanks Cathy, I was hoping you would ask!

[lunababy_moonchild]

Far be it for me to derail this thread into off-topic but I'd really like to know, are these puzzles different to the Kakuro that's currently being offered as a Sudoku alternative? Kakuro Or are they just a different way of presenting the same thing?

Luna

[PaulIQ164]

They're different, yes. They're more like a demon offspring of Kakuro ond regular sudoku.

[CathyW]

"Demon" is definitely a good description - especially for the second puzzle. Thanks for the tip Paul - will look at it again later and see if I get any further.

[CathyW]

OK - it helped a bit. I've progressed this far:

Code: Select all

. . . . . . . . [123]
. . . . . . [569] . [123]
. . . . . . [569] 8 7
. . . . . . [123457] [12345] [123]
. . . . . . [123457] [12345] 6
. . . . . 6 [123457] 9 8
2 [13] [13] 6 [59] [59] 8 7 4
6 5 8 [24] [24] 7 [13] [13] 9
9 [47] [47] [138] [138] [138] [26] [26] 5


Also, obviously, have 6s as possible candidates in r1,c5; r2c5; r3c5; r4c1; r4c2 and r4c3.

The 3-cage in the top right box can sum to a maximum of 11 (2+3+6), which would make the 4-cage sum to 29 leaving 1 and 4 as a pair for the other cells, but it could also be 10 (2+3+5) and it would still be greater than the straight 3-cage to its left which could sum to 7 or 8 or 9 (or 10 if the top right 3-cage sums to 11) (can't be 6 as then I'd have no candidates left in r1c9!).

Could you confirm that what I've got so far is correct and I'll muse it on it a bit more.

[PaulIQ164]

Unfortunately I haven't still got my solution, so without working it all out again I can't say anything for sure. What you've got looks about familiar, though. Sorry I can't be more helpful.