Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

The big question when it comes to making a sudoku which has rectangular boxes is this: should they be horizontal (wider than tall) or vertical (taller than wide)? Well, I couldn't decide which way I wanted to do it, so I decided to do both at once...



It's a killer using the numbers 1 to 12 (so the group total is 78 not 45). The green lines border the horizontal boxes, and the red lines border the vertical boxes.

This puzzle is rated INSANE, and has a unique solution.

It's insane, all right, in more ways than five.

How about something just a little less insane, like a 12x12 with both 4x3 and 3x4 boxes, but not a sum-doku -- just some standard-looking givens? And not a killer, please. With new ideas, the interesting part is the new thought processes required, not how difficult you can make it.

Bill Smythe

In theory, yes. I originally had this idea over a year ago, before I even knew killers existed.

In practice, no. I have absolutely no idea how to make a non-killer...

I greatly enjoyed this variation and like how the "both barrels" boxes set up a bunch of different Law of Leftovers subsets. While this could work for a more standard (ie non-killer form), I found the way the subsets worked for the killer to actually be more interesting. As I'm also unfamiliar with all the sums using digits 1-12, I found, unlike on a regular size killer, that I was testing a lot more combinations than usual which made the puzzle more interesting.

I will agree that the level is hard, but I found I could make steady progress through to the finish.

It might be worth writing one that is a little easier - maybe with some more innies and outies that are trivially found by scouting around the 24 boxes - but overall this is a cool idea.

I didn't realize that "killer" and "sum-doku" meant the same thing. I thought a killer was simply an extremely difficult puzzle.

I've seen some incredibly easy sum-dokus in popular magazines. I would never even consider labeling them as "killers".

Bill Smythe

You can blame The Times for that name...

At the 1st sudoku world championship there were rokudoku (=6x6 sudoku) with boxes in both directions.

Pyrrhon