woelpad wrote:Not really a trick. A rule variant...
Are there are set of rules you set up for the Sherlock Holmes puzzles? I've glanced at them before but promptly moved on, because they all look opaque. If this one is a representative sample of the rest, that seems like a solid move on my part, though now I've started on it I want to work it out.
Also, your initial synopsis said "find out where the first army from Paris and the army from London are on this map", when the task is evidently to figure out where they will be after several years of handing France the board.
So, some thoughts for future puzzles, not that everybody necessarily shares my tastes:
1) I don't personally care for puzzles where figuring out the rules for the puzzle is part of the puzzle.
2) If figuring out the rules for the puzzle is part of the puzzle, then the hints should be much more, uh, hint-y and less "here's part of the answer".
3) Information provided in the puzzle should be accurate unless the solvers are specifically warned otherwise.
Anyway.
I think we must have to assume build-anywhere rules, but now there's another ambiguity.
Option 1) England is eliminated, and that's a downer.
Option 2) England survives: for this to occur, England must be in one of the Turkish centers after the third year of movement (because France needs 17 to take 17, so England can't be limiting France to 16), and able to move back to a French-owned center to survive, but of course then France doesn't actually take the whole board.
The problem with Option 2 is that A Lon could be just about anywhere, assuming cooperation. If France convoyed it to the continent, it could sit in Bel and slip back to Paris, for example. It could even be back in London - move up to Edi, camp out, move back in the final year, French unit takes Edi from Lvp. And I don't see enough information given to figure out what kind of "non-cooperation" we might be able to assume. So my thought is there has to be a verbal hint in the text of the puzzle, but I'm not sure where to start following that line.
On the French side of things I'm now leaning towards A Paris ending up in St. Petersburg rather than Moscow, because it looks harder to get a new-build unit there in time given the order of conquest specified. But it might be Den -> Ber -> War, too, because build-anywhere gives more flexibility. Would actually have to count things out to be sure.
"When you absolutely don't know what to do any more, then it's time to panic." - Johann van der Wiel
"I'm not panicking, I'm watching you panic. It's more entertaining." - Elli Quinn
"[Diplomacy:] No dice or chance. Just calculated insincerity." - Counter Trap