Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

I'd love advice from some of you experts. I have gotten to the point where I can easily use basic elimination techniques, but have yet to get good at applying more advanced methods like Xwing, Turbot, Coloring, etc. While I can follow the written explanations for them, I find myself floundering during an actual puzzle. As I am a more "orderly" thinker than an intuitive one, is there a logical order in which I should scan the puzzle for, say, XY Wing, coloring, etc? Are some just so much more common than the others that it pays to try them first?

I'd greatly appreciate hearing how you all start to attack a puzzle once you've done the first, easy eliminations (i.e. you've done all your hidden subsets, naked pairs, etc.)

bathmatters

GOTO www.angusj.com.

You could try my solver program (http://www.axcis.com.au/bb/viewtopic.php?t=25) as a learning tool. This will give you a hint when you get stuck, highlighting the logic on the Sudoku grid. It uses fairly basic solving techniques but can solve most puzzles without resorting to XY wings - often there are simpler methods that can be used.