Xtra 11

Wow Gareth you have surpassed yourself this time. This issue was really worth waiting for!!!

Love the look of the boomerangs AND two more with my two fav variants as well. AND another 13X and its consecutive (joy)! AND Labrynth in the Community section again! And The Griddle Knights Samurai looks amazing. And and and........ I could go on but can't wait to get stuck in.

Thank you thank you thank you - I could be gone awhile!

Wow! I have to agree with Sue, Issue 11 looks amazing! The Consecutive 13x will probably take me all month, so I might start on those lovely looking boomerangs. The Community puzzles are awesome. Actually I might start the Knighted Samurai first, or No 4 In A Row, or the variant Battleships, or Mutant Seek and Spell and hey, that Krypto Kakuro looks like fun! So many choices!

Thanks for all the positive comments! It really helps actually, because it's good to know I'm doing something right! I'm trying to keep mixing up the content a bit each issue, so every issue has at least a few new or different things in it. I was quite pleased with how the Heyawake came out this issue (I pushed toroidal sudoku out of the way for them), and it's been a few issues since I put any regular 9x9 Sudoku in there so it seems no one minds removing those for example too.

In the Community Puzzles section I'm in intimidated awe of David Millar's Knighted Samurai Sudoku +/-, and how Grant Fikes manages to come up with an amazingly varied range of puzzles all the time I just don't know! The Shinro Battleships in particular is a thing of great logical beauty.

I know Laurence is really keen to get feedback on the Haijo puzzles, so if anyone has any thoughts on those I'm sure he'd like to hear them. And I can tell you for sure that both of Thomas Collyer's variant Yajilin puzzles are fantastic examples of the form - with just the essential clues given there's no wasting time filtering out the unimportant clues first, so it's just pure logic all the way.

Jim Bumgardner's Altair Slitherlink in particular is a very elegant puzzle, and apart from the first one I found all of Deb Mohanty's No 4 in a Row puzzles to be extremely challenging - I'd be fascinated to hear what people think of these. Clarity Media continue to add new puzzle types to their canon, and I had a lot of fun fitting the twisted Hexagodoku both into the page space and into the solutions!

Finally I think you'll find Nathan's Labyrinth puzzles a step up in difficulty from last month's, and the giant ones coming in issue 12 crank it up several notches more!

Hi Gareth

I hadn't even noticed the regular 9x9s had gone, or the toroidals! It's perfectly understandable that something has to be put aside for new content. Heck, if my most favourite puzzles disappeared for a while (Hanjie and Samurai Star) I wouldn't object. It's always wonderful when you come up with something new/different.

I tried the Haijo puzzles in issue 10 and quite enjoyed them. I'm not a fan of vanilla Kakuros but will always try a variant. I really liked that identical numbers could not be next to each other. That helped a lot in the solving. Will definitely try more of these.

I'm loving No 4 In A Row. Shares a similar logic to Clarity Media's Binary puzzles. The first puzzle was easy, the others not so much! The diagonals add an extra dimension to the fun of solving these.

Labyrinths - I may be a Hanjie addict, but I have never, ever been able to solve a Labyrinth. Need to get my act together on this puzzle in preparation for issue 12!

I always try to sort the puzzles so the easiest is at the top-left of each page and then it gets harder left-to-right, top-to-bottom (although sometimes if I run out of time I occasionally don't do this on all of the Sudoku variant pages, and one issue I didn't sort the Slitherlinks and I realised later they ended up with the hardest one on the top line) - but I make a real effort for the Community Puzzles section to get this right, so if you aren't sure of how to solve the Labyrinth puzzles then start with the top-left one. As I mentioned, the issue 10 ones are easier - and check out the excellent tutorial on Nathan's site too!

Just had time to download Issue 11 before having to go off on a residential trip with 26 10 and 11 years olds for a few days (am I tired now!!!!) so am just taking my first real look at the magazine and I have to say I agree with everything Sue and Marilyn have said! I love the variety in the magazine and don't mind at all if one or two puzzles have to miss an issue or two to make way for something new. It is such a change to find a magazine in which you don't always know in advance what is going to appear on every page, but which also keeps some of the tried and tested favourites each month. I think you have got the balance right.

The only problem is where to start! Do I do my favourites first or keep them sitting there a while and still have them to look forward to! Think my first port of call will have to be the consecutive13X. The boomerangs look fabulous and I think you have definitely got the measure of what our favourite varieties are. I also notice you have sneaked in a +/- Killer Sudoku Pro this issue too!

The community section is going from strength to strength - I have got about a 50/50 success/failure rate with the featured puzzles so far but am really enjoying trying out new varieties. Strange how some puzzle types come much easier than others. Speaking of which I am just going to start a new thread on Heyawake ...

I'm glad to hear everyone is enjoying issue 11 - especially the community puzzles! I haven't had a chance to go through the main part of the issue a whole bunch yet, but I'm loving Gareth's Heyawake. (Funny side note - I had to look up the name because I'm so used to Grant Fikes calling that puzzle "Room and Reason"! Shame on me... )

Hey guys, I just thought I'd drop by and say that I've posted a new Labyrinth Tutorial on my blog:

http://www.naughtynathan.co.uk/?p=453

This shows the step-by-step completion of a 6x6 labyrinth in 30 individual steps, with a full explanation of what I'm doing and the reasoning behind it for each step. Hopefully it should help anyone still puzzling over how to complete one (pardon the pun!)

:nathaN

Thanks, Nathan! This looks good. Have printed it off for a good study!

Finally completed the consecutive 13X! Did it over a few sessions! I thought it worked really well with the diagonals providing extra clues.

Hi Nathan, I have just got to grips with the labyrinth puzzles from issues 10 and 11 and really enjoyed them - a real change from the types of puzzle I normally do. I am becoming a great fan of loop puzzles (well I know this is not quite a loop puzzle, but almost!) Looking forward to the challenge of the 18 x 18 grid puzzle promised for issue 12 (although that might change when I see it)