It’s that time again, folx! We’re approaching the halfway point of the solar year, and that means cracking open your brains, doing some puzzling, and maybe winning a prize!

This time around the prize will be one of my favorite TARDIS games (bigger on the inside) and a seminal work by Alexander Pfister, 2015’s Oh My Goods! But that’s not all! You also get the first expansion Longsdale in Revolt which adds a branching (and solo-playable) campaign. SO much gameplay in these two little boxes! I hope that will motivate you to try the contest, because I think I’ve cooked up quite a tricky one.

(This puzzle and all instructions can be downloaded as a PDF here.)

The first step is to decode each of the four word division problems below:

#1:	#2:
#3:	#4:

(Please believe me when I say I tried to figure out a way to do this electronically and in the end it was just easier to write them out by hand.)

In each puzzle, each letter stands for a different digit from 0 to 9. The substitutions are consistent within each puzzle but not between puzzles–for instance, all the A’s in Puzzle #1 represent the same digit, but not necessarily the same digit represented by all the A’s in Puzzle #2. When solved, each puzzle’s digits from 0 to 9 will spell out a well-known boardgame.

All the puzzles are solvable by logic and math alone and I’ve put them roughly in order of difficulty, with #1 being the easiest and #4 being the hardest.

Some digits in each puzzle are replaced by stars instead of letters; the two stars in Puzzle #1 represent the same number. You don’t need them to solve the puzzle but you will need to figure out what they are for the next part.

In Step 2 you’ll fill in the chart below using your answers to Step 1:

You’ll be able to figure out what digits the star(s) in each puzzle must be in order for the division to work out. Enter that digit in the second column, and then the letter corresponding to that digit for that specific puzzle. So for instance, if the star in Puzzle #2 must be a 4, then in the row for Puzzle 2 you’ll put a “4” in the second box and maybe “F” in the third box–if in fact “F” represents “4” in that puzzle.

You’ll now have four number/letter pairs. The four letters can be rearranged to form a very common word; their corresponding digits (in the same anagrammed order) will form a four-digit number. So if the pairings were U/0, E/5, L/8, and T/5, you could make the word “LUTE” whose corresponding code would be 8055.

All you need to do now is look up the game in the BGG database with that ID number and THAT is the final answer to the contest. In our example, putting https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8055/ into your browser brings up The Living Dead Dolls Board Game, a true classic.

To enter you must submit the four ten-letter solutions to the word division problems along with the final answer. Email your entries to dailyworkerplacement@gmail.com. One winner will be chosen randomly from all correct entries received by midnight on Friday, July 8. Unfortunately, due to even more exorbitant shipping costs than ever, only North Americans are eligible to receive the games–but you still get bragging rights if you get it right.

Solutions will be posted and a winner announced the week of July 11. Happy solving!