Mexican Train
(Published on 9. May 2023, 14:00 by ViKingPrime)
PUZZLE:
RULES:
Normal Sudoku rules apply.
•
Killer: The
value of digits within a cage must sum to the number in the top-left corner (
if given).
•
Kropki: White dots separate two cells containing consecutive values; Black dots separate two cells where one is double the value of the other [ratio of 1:2] (
not all dots are given).
MODIFIER:
•
Hot/Cold: There are 9 Hot cells contained within the grid comprising a set of the digits from 1-to-9. Each row, column and box contains exactly one Hot cell. There are nine 9 Cold cells contained within the grid following the same rules as the Hot cells. A cell may have only one of these roles.
for Killer/Kropki value(s)
Hot cells increase the value of the contained digit by 1.
Cold cells decrease the value of the contained digit by 1.
INTRODUCTION:
In case you're not familiar, Mexican Train is a lovely little domino game and has been a staple of some of my familial gatherings through the years.
Fun fact: I was banned from any of our future games of Mexican Train for being too "cutthroat". You may ask yourself, how can you be cutthroat in a domino game so heavily based on chance? Well, in the game you open up 'spokes' which allow more opportunities to lay dominos and young me quickly determined that was your one lever of actual control; so, often times if I was ahead, I would lay dominos with the same number exposed, meaning I was effectively shutting down avenues of play.
In hindsight, I completely agree with them; you don't need to be cutthroat at dominos. I do miss it.
Here are the other entries in the "
Hot/Cold" series, for those interested:
Reversing Valve (Killer/Thermo)
Here are some puzzles from other setters using the same constraint:
Hot and Cold by brennan77
Hot and Cold Cages by brennan77
An example puzzle will follow to better illustrate the rules.
Have fun!
Solve in f-puzzles!
Solve in SudokuPad!
Note: It is recommended you turn off the conflict checker during your solve (having a solution inputted provided unintentional spoilers during testing).
Solve in SudokuPad (with solution) ...beware of spoilers!
Solution code: The digits along Row 3, left-to-right, then along Column 7, top-to-bottom.
Last changed on on 13. October 2024, 17:54
Solved by OhHeyGuysItsMax, Paquet Voleur, Gryllulus, CrippledLamp, StefanSch, Tilberg, Dentones, laky, brennan77, lianarox, codewizard, Christounet, AvonD, Jaych, darrenfwl, kiwi0710, bansalsaab, pandiani42, PippoForte, SpecSheets, Slink, Scojo, Felis_Timon, ChinStrap, KyubiBoy, Flinty, lmdemasi, karlmortenlunna, roflsalot, Sewerin, QuiltyAsCharged
Comments
on 18. April 2024, 18:05 by ChinStrap
Wonderful! Love your use of this constraint in all 3 I've done so far.
on 24. May 2023, 12:22 by Christounet
Great puzzle ! Managed to derail that train a few times along the way, but in the end, I got to the station with just a bit of delay... Thanks !!
on 12. May 2023, 13:47 by brennan77
Great puzzle! Love seeing what you're doing with this rule set
on 10. May 2023, 11:13 by Tilberg
Very nice! Thanks!
on 9. May 2023, 18:02 by Paquet Voleur
Thank you for this thoroughly enjoyable puzzle exploiting new logic with hot & cold cells. Brilliant!