Puzzle Description:

hold the milk

#1: Kristen Vognild (kristen) on Oct 23, 2012 [SPOILER]

Cute. Took some guessing to get it right, but I managed to finish it. :)

Hear that sound? All the boys are coming to the yard.

I found this very hard to start, but I did it without guessing. Some deep edge logic (especially on the 5s and 6s), and possibly a 3-step look-ahead. I also used plain old edge logic and at least one two-way.

kristen, you going to teach some techniques that freak these puzzlers?

joe, agree with lots of EL where you have to look a few rows deep, but there shouldn't be any look-ahead that goes 3-steps. i used several instances of two-way logic as well. it is a challenging one for sure. will do a walk-through if needed, but i'd rather if someone else shared their path.

very nice, david! and a challenge, yes. but no guessing and no deep look-ahead.

I can't remember exactly how I did it off-hand, but you can edge logic some of the 4's on both sides. left side 4 gets knocked down further, placing a dot in c1r5 by the 5 in 3rd c must be beyond r5(if that makes sense to ya). then ll gives you dots in the lower left portion and blacks in r's 3 and 15. there was more ll for a while...I remember getting stuck for a sec til I saw the 1 in r3 had to be one of c4 or c5, so def the 5 in r4 had to extend at least to the left as far as c5. after that, ll finished it off. I'm prob forgetting a step somewhere in there, but I hope that helps....

Not this time. I had to save a lot, and try new choices.

I can't comment on the solve David,lol, but i like the puzzle.:)

Whoever rated this a 1 clearly doesn't see the two hands shaking each other. Nice overall puzzle.

The funny thing is that just based on the title, I can see a hand shaking a small pint-sized bottle of "milk," too.

ditto #7 entirely!

thanks all.

good job on hands

thanks tom

Toughie! I'm not up for detailing the solve, but it was satisfying to get through it. Nice image, too.

thank you liz!

Nice one, David. I can't believe I got through that without peeking. Really a toughie, but very enjoyable.

thanks teresa, always nice to hear what you have to say ;)

Didn't peek! Tough one!

just a touch of advanced logic jota? ;)

I solved it. My notes:

EL dots r1, c1,2,20
r2, c1,2,19,20
r20, c1,18-20
r3, c1,20
r4, c1
EL on 4 c20 eliminates r11-20
Blk r7, c20 r3, c10
dot r2, c10
el 5 r19 Dot c1
4 r1, dot 12-20
Blk r1, c8
LL
el 5 c3 dot r2,3
5 c3 dot 16-20
LL
el c4, r9 dot
r19 dot c4-7
LL
el 6 r2 not left of c11
LL
r3 7 cannot go c6
r3 1 has to go c4
LL
r1 3 cannot go c10-12
LL to finish

Quite a challenge, David!

Absolutely David!

Kind of like your Venezuela puzzle, Jota.

That's another kind of milkshake Tom :D

...and now i'm craving horchata.

i like your shorthand tom :)

David, maybe long-winded hand. I do my best...

Found to be solvable with moderate lookahead by gator.

I did EL on the 4 clue in C1 to make R1-4C1 and R12-20C1 dots. You can now place 1 black and 1 more dot.

EL on the 4 clue in C20 makes R1-3C20 and R16-20C20 dots. Another black and dot can be placed.

EL on the 3 clue in R20 makes R20C2-5 and R20C18-19 dots.

EL on C2 makes R1-2C2 and R15-16C2 dots. Two more blacks can be placed.

Looking at how the 4 clue can be finished in C1, the 3 clue in C2 will either be at R4-6C2 or R9-11C2. All the other places in C2 can be dotted. Another black and dot can now be placed.

Now back to R20, EL makes R20C6-10 dots.

EL on R19 makes R19C3-7 and R19C19 dots. Another black can be placed now.

EL on R18 makes R18C3-5 and R18C19 dots. Another dot can be placed now.

EL on C3 makes R16-17C3 dots.

EL on C18 makes R19C18 a dot. Two more blacks can be placed.

I missed the EL on C20 that lets us dot R11-15C20. A lot more can be filled in now. Most of the bottom part of the puzzle will be finished now.

If you try to place the 6 clue in R2 at R2C4-9, you will find it impossible to complete rows 1 and 3 and still satisfy the clues in columns 4-8. So the 6 clue must go on the right side. Lots more LL.

Look at the 2 clue in C4 and how it affects C5. No matter where it is placed, R3C5 and R8C5 will always be dots. More LL.

If R1C10-11 are black, then R4 becomes invalid. This makes R1C10-12 dots. LL to finish.

Great solve!

thanks gator! also, i just noticed that i never clarified for kristen...i wasn't talking about puzzle-solving techniques. i was referring to techniques that bring all the boys to the yard ;) :P

I missed it. I expect more out of you. ;)

first mistake :P

:D

Great puzzle, especially for practising lots of 'traditional' and multiple-row edge logic. Nice!

What is it?

Very tough one! Way harder than most "moderate lookahead" puzzles. Maybe moderate+.

Goto next topic

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