Four Armies at Odds
(Published on 1. June 2024, 15:00 by Bearded Fool)
Diagonals: Digits may not repeat on either of blue-marked main diagonals.
Knight’s Move: Cells separated by a chess knight’s move cannot contain the same digit.
Armies: The generals of four armies are meeting around an odd central digit marked with a large gray circle. Gray dots are either Xs, Vs, black dots, or white dots. Only one type of gray dot is found in each army’s territory (i.e. the large triangle that is formed by the two blue lines on the main diagonals). The solver must determine which army is which. Each type of gray dot is in the puzzle. Digits separated by an X sum to ten. Digits separated by a V sum to 5. Digits separated by a black dot are in a 1:2 ratio. Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. All dots are given. If a gray dot contains an inequality symbol, the symbol points to the smaller of the two surrounding digits
Arrows: Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow’s red circle. The circles extend slightly into orthogonal cells. No arrow can start or stop on a blue diagonal line but must always cross a blue diagonal exactly once. Each army’s territory contains either the circle or the tip of exactly two different arrows.
Explosions: The circles of arrows are explosive cells. For gray dot logic only (not arrow logic), their value is increased by one. Cells orthogonally connected to an explosive cell are casualty cells. For gray dot logic (not arrow logic), their values are decreased by one. To facilitate their meeting, the generals have instructed their armies to cause no explosions inside of the central 25 cells of the grid. The effects of explosions outside of that 25 cell area may still cause casualty cells inside of it.
Most of the battlefield is covered in fog. Placing correct digits in the grid clears all fog surrounding that digit. Guessing digits is not required and discouraged.
To Play:
SudokuPad
Solution code: Row 9 left to right, no spaces.
Comments
on 26. December 2024, 21:13 by abadx
I really liked the puzzle. Perhaps vampire cells instead of explosions would have made understanding of rules easier, but a great idea overall
on 26. July 2024, 09:28 by maiaz
Can't fathom the low ratings. This was ridiculously fun puzzle.
on 5. June 2024, 14:25 by Eraelan
I fully admit that glossing over the sentence "odd central digit" resulting in this taking way longer than it should have, but what an excellent puzzle! Thanks for setting!
I really liked the explosions: there were several times I was convinced I made a mistake, but casualties saved the day.
...don't read too much into that :P
on 3. June 2024, 23:59 by KyleBaran
North is a white kropki dot. The gray dot at r3c7 seems to a 4/6 pair, summing to 10, which belongs to a different group.
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That is a valid white dot according to the rules of the puzzle. -BF
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I disagree. The rules clearly state " Only one type of gray dot is found in each army’s territory". The north triangle involves white kropki dots. r3c7 is a 6. It has a gray dot, which is in the north section, and must be white. It must be adjacent to a 5 or a 7. I cannot fathom how the rules as written work for this puzzle.
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r3c8 is an explosive cell, making r3c7 a casualty cell, therefor r3c7 has a value of -1 its written value, as far as gray dots are concerned. That makes it worth 5 which is a white dot away from the 4 in r3c6
on 3. June 2024, 11:18 by VitP
nice puzzle.
only ... the rules are significantly overdetermined. eg. "all dots given" is not needed, and serves no other purpose. with such a large (and unique) ruleset, extraneous verbiage should be removed
on 2. June 2024, 14:40 by rameshsrivats
Really fun puzzle. The rules are scary for sure. but once you start it just flows. With the fog saving me from mistakes a couple of times.
on 2. June 2024, 12:14 by Bearded Fool
Rearden saves me from my foolishness twice on this puzzle. Fog issue fixed.
on 2. June 2024, 08:17 by Rearden
Very fun puzzle!
Wrong digits also clear the fog though, you might want to look into that :)
on 2. June 2024, 07:21 by Deino42
Absolutely ridiculous ruleset but a very brilliant and fun puzzle!
on 1. June 2024, 23:32 by Bearded Fool
added link
on 1. June 2024, 22:57 by Rearden
The link is missing :(
