Magical Queendom Anti-Knight Sudoku (Mystery)
(Published on 10. July 2020, 19:28 by SudokuExplorer)
This is my second exploration of the queendom idea. This is mainly an anti-knight sudoku but with a twist. If you have tried my last
queendom sudoku, the rules here will be slightly different. For example, the queens will not necessary satisfy the anti-queen constraint (I hope you will see why). Also I have replaced the term "well-guarded" with "uniformly-guarded" (pun intended!). There is also a little mystery to solve, which can be resolved by first solving the sudoku.
Rules about sudoku:
In the magical queendom, the sixth 3x3 square (coloured grey) is a magic square. There are queens represented by the number 5. Four of them have been located and labelled ABCD clockwise. Every other queen cannot be a knight's move away from the labelled queens.
There are vikings who want to attack the queen represented by 1s and 9s (two are given below and are coloured green). A queen is "under-attack" if at least one edge-adjacent cell is a viking.
There are knights from regiments 2,3,4,6,7 and 8. No two knights from the same regiment can be a knight's move apart.
To clarify, each of the numbers 2,3,4,6,7 and 8 have the anti-knight constraint.
Each of the four labelled queens are "uniformly-guarded". That is, for each labelled queen its four edge-adjacent cells (coloured blue) are all knights from different regiments.
Description of mystery:
Harmony has been lost in the magical queendom with at least one queen under-attack by vikings. This is all due to one of the labelled queens. As detective to this case, your task is to find the conniving queen. Solving the sudoku will provide evidence to incriminate that queen. If you need help in tracing this queen, write a hidden comment to your fellow detective.
You can solve this case on
Penpa-Edit. Have fun detective!
Hint about mystery:
Think about why the anti-queen constraint fails. Which queen turns out to be attacking another queen (a queen's move away from each other)?
Hint about knights:
Think about the structure of the 8 knights surrounding a pair of queens (which are a knight's move apart, eg queens A and B). Think about the four knights in the middle, and the four knights on the outside. Remember that there are exactly 6 regiments in total (2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8).
Hint about magic square:
What can you say about the central cell of a magic square? Which character is it?
What can you say about the corner cells of a magic square? Which characters are they?
If you are unfamiliar with the properties of a magic square, write a comment and I will explain them to you.
Solution code: Enter the conniving queen, 2nd row (left to right) followed by the last column (top to bottom) without any spaces/commas. Eg A123456789123456789
Last changed on on 31. July 2021, 20:26
Solved by Rotstein, ragnorinki, zorant, NikolaZ, TimE, Dina, Vebby, jgreenfield, starelev5
Comments
Last changed on 31. July 2021, 20:26on 31. July 2021, 20:26 by SudokuExplorer
Fixed labels/tags
Last changed on 16. December 2020, 04:16on 16. December 2020, 04:15 by SudokuExplorer
Congratulations Detective Dina!
Thanks for solving the mystery and incriminating the conniving queen.
I'm glad you enjoyed it :-)
on 15. December 2020, 03:08 by Dina
Wow! Great mystery-solving puzzle!
It was a very satisfying solve to determine the conniving queen :-D
Last changed on 8. December 2020, 18:37on 8. December 2020, 18:37 by SudokuExplorer
Congratulations Detective TimE!
Thanks for providing evidence to incriminate the conniving queen, and I'm pleased you enjoyed solving this mystery. :-)
on 8. December 2020, 04:13 by TimE
Finally, I did it!! What a fun investigation! The euphoria of discovering that conniving queen was like a eureka moment. Thanks for this mystery puzzle :-D
Last changed on 16. September 2020, 21:18on 15. September 2020, 15:49 by SudokuExplorer
Brought image of puzzle nearer to the top and increased difficulty, since disambiguating the magic square and sudoku requires some patience
Last changed on 16. September 2020, 01:54on 6. September 2020, 18:01 by SudokuExplorer
Added hint about the knights in this sudoku.
Added hint about magic square.
Separated sudoku rules from the mystery part.
on 5. September 2020, 13:06 by SudokuExplorer
Added hint about mystery. This might make the solving experience better, as you will piece-by-piece determine the conniving queen.