This is how you live the Time War
(Published on 27. February 2025, 05:55 by pdyxs)
I've always loved time travel stories, and "This is how you lose the Time War" is one of my favourites. This puzzle is my attempt at an adaptation.
If you haven't already, I recommend that you first play This is how you learn the Time War, to familiarise yourself with the rules.
As always, let me know what you think!
Rules
Sudoku: Fill the grid with the digits 1-9, so that each digit occurs exactly once in every row, every column and every 3x3 box.
Anti-Kropki: Digits connected by a white dot with a cross are not consecutive.
Space-Time: Each row of the grid represents a slice of time, with the top row as the earliest and the bottom row as the latest. Each column of the grid represents a different location in space.
Timelines: Two Time Agents, Blue (3) and Red (7), are jumping forwards and backwards through space-time to help their side win the time war. The marked columns each represent an agent's timeline - each digit in the column shows the agent's age when they appear in that row. The rows below the grid can be used to keep track of each agent's age in each column, and are not a part of the solution.
Time Jumps: When jumping from one cell to the next (ie. when their age increases by 1), a Time Agent may travel as much as they like in time, but only up to 2 columns in space. For example, if Blue at age 2 is in column 2, their digit must appear in columns 1, 3 or 4 in the row where they are age 3.
Controlling cells: When the first Time Agent appears in a column, they take control of the cell they land in and all cells below them. Another Time Agent appearing later (ie. further down) in the column will take control, starting at the time that they arrive, if and only if they are older than the original Time Agent. For example: in a column that reads 142395876, where Blue (3) has age 3 and Red (7) has age 4, 3-9-5-8 would be Blue and 7-6 would be Red.
Winning locations: For each column, take the sum of the cells controlled by each Time Agent - the Time Agent with the highest sum wins the location. Clues below the grid denote the winning sum (or the tied sum, in a tie).
Losing the Time War: The Time Agent who wins the most locations wins the war. No-one can win the war.
4x4 Example Puzzle
The Puzzle
Solution code: The red cells in row 5, row 6 and row 7 (in that order)
Comments
on 28. February 2025, 06:29 by jsalomon
Absolutely incredible! Doing the 6x6 definitely helped lock the ruleset into my head, which made this one flow much more smoothly!
on 28. February 2025, 00:32 by gfoot
I don't know the novel but it was great fun to solve, a great follow-up to the smaller warm-up puzzles!
on 27. February 2025, 18:30 by spectria.limina
This is a gorgeous puzzle, a beautiful adaptation of a beautiful story. Very enjoyable solve from start to finish, and I really love I'm constantly being reminded of the story as I try to decipher the Time War because of the creative adaption into a unique ruleset. Bravo!
on 27. February 2025, 06:31 by etoler
This was exceptionally challenging and equally satisfying – an absolutely gorgeous tribute to an absolutely gorgeous story. Getting all the rules etched into your brain takes a little bit even with the smaller puzzles, but the time invested into the solve is 100% worth it for the payoff.
