This is a Castle Wall puzzle on a hexagonal grid. In addition to the usual rules, the loop may not make any sharp turns that form 60 degree angles.
Puzzle 307
(Click for larger size)
Unfortunately I missed pulling an April Fool’s day joke-on-a-joke last Friday. I could have told you these were coming up and none of you would have believed me. But at the time I didn’t realize I would finish the programming this soon. Oh well…
April 4, 2011 at 2:31 pm |
New geometries! The no sharp turn rule constrained the loop way more than I thought it would. This was fun and I’m looking forward to more hexagonal puzzles.
April 5, 2011 at 3:31 pm |
I agree. That does seem to be a very constrictive rule. Which means that you could probably make do with fewer givens. It could make for quite a hard puzzle.
April 4, 2011 at 9:41 pm |
I must be doing something wrong, because I’m getting 3 distinct solutions. I’ll send you a picture if you want, but they diverge in the bottom center of the puzzle.
April 5, 2011 at 1:02 am |
I can’t find them. There’s a 1 pointing into that area that constrains everything for me.
April 6, 2011 at 2:00 am |
If they’re the same three solutions I got on my first attempt (with the problematic cells being… hmm, how do I notate this? The two cells directly south of the centre black cell, the cell touching both of these on the left and the one above it, and the one touching both of the central cells on the right and the one below it), you’re ignoring the black zero pointing upwards.
April 7, 2011 at 1:20 am |
Thanks, you and Melon pointed it out at the same time XD
April 17, 2011 at 12:39 am |
Nice job with the hexagonal graphics. And a fine Monday puzzle. But it seems like the hexagonal format does not agree very well with Casle Wall. (One of my favorite puzzle types, by the way.) The “no sharp turns” rule ate up the empty space very quickly. And I assume that without it, you had trouble getting enough constraint out of the individual clues for a good puzzle. Very interesting.