It isn’t as easy as 1-2-3-4. Or, it’s as easy as isn’t 1-2-3-4. It’s hard to express things in negative terms! The point is: If all of those anti-quad clues were normal quadruples clues, well, this puzzle would be broken. But also, it would be incredibly easy. However, they’re not quads, they’re anti-quads, so they provide slightly less information, keeping this puzzle fun.
Tea Time might make you think it’s another Battenberg puzzle, but no, this one is about sandwiches. Or Sandwich Sums. I’ve decided that they’re tea sandwiches. Or tea Sandwich Sums? Let’s stick with tea sandwiches. Perhaps cucumber, or egg and cress, or egg salad. I haven’t done sandwich puzzles before, and it turns out they’re fun!
Global Entropy rules affect every 2x2 groups of cells. Quadruples affect some 2x2 groups of cells. What happens in those 2x2 groups of cells in which Quadruples are pushing one way while entropy pushes in another? That’s the question posed by this puzzle.
It’s a Tic-Tac-Toe of quads, but I ran out of digits when placing the quads, so it’s a bit top-heavy and somewhat right-heavy, too. That’s okay, though. There are more than enough digits to solve the puzzle, and it’s not too ugly, right? Right?
I’ll save the punchline for those who solve the puzzle. It’s the end of another month, and so time for another Gattai! This will also bring this run of Renban puzzles to close. For now. I do like Renban as a constraint, but I’ll try to mix things up for a while.
Happy Birthday to the best mom I’ve ever had! Don’t worry, I gave no hints about the year you were born, nor how old young that makes you this year. No hints at all. And no, I’m not sure why I decided that’s the shape a cake should be. I hope you enjoy the puzzle nonetheless!
The last time I published puzzles with Batterberg clues, it was in the lead-up to a family member’s birthday. Battenberg is cake, cake is for birthdays, it made sense at the time. I’m not even sure the family member in question had ever seen Battenberg cake in real life, at least at that point.
I keep coming back to Quadruples, powerful little circles providing information about four cages at once. Sometimes the information might only be about two digits, but it’s still information about the four digits touching the circle. Powerful clue, quads, and easy to understand, though they can be tricky to master.
An Irregular Sudoku grid with a non-contiguous region is possible, but usually there can be only one, else how to determine to which region the errant cells belong? I’ve kept these connected, albeit tenuously, and the resulting shapes seem like botanical pixel art.
The last time a puzzle included these miniature half-quads, they stood on their own. This time they’re paired with full-size quadruples, so the smaller circles describe one of two cells, and the larger circles describe two, three, or all four of four cells.