Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Sorry for the delay in posting this, folx. Life has just been…life, lately. But I’m hoping to make up for it by announcing that we have two winners: Dave T (who submitted before the original deadline) and Joe N (who submitted after the extension). Luckily, I have two copies of Zurmat to give away!
I’m quite proud of the meta for this puzzle. It took a hella effort to work backwards to (a) come up with six games that could be split and anagrammed into pairs of words–each of which could then take one of the letters of the final answer to make twelve new words, and then (b) clue those six pairs into the grid so they crossed each other. Not to mention making as many of the clues as possible at least tangentially boardgame-related…
All of which is to say: huzzah to Dave and Joe for figuring it all out.
The finished grid was:
Across:
1. c + h + (in a) (anag)
5. boredom – or (anag) + y
10. EU Triv (hidden rev)
11. MU + Ron (anag)
12. SC + rabble
14. be + au
15. (th)e + (errat)a + (i)s + y
16. plan(et)
19. desTINies
20. hip to me (anag)
22. s(t)ing
23. pa + Enid (anag)
25. scam + P.I.
27. sabotaged – got (anag)
29. w + (fire – f) anag
30. man + hat + tan
35. i + p + o
36. reve(a)l
38. w(r + e)n
39. ap + Arlo (anag)
40. lock + ET
42. shoot – t
43. ne(u)ters
44. blood rage – oo (anag)
45. “peaks” of d(oubtful) o(rigin) d(on’t) g(et) y(et)
Down
2. (cors)airs
3. c(ray)on
4. ru(bl)e
5. Lee (rev)
6. bugbear – gear
7. on(E)time
8. drain(pip)e
9. G(uno)Y (rev)
11. men + sch(ool)
13. camera – Ra
17. peas (anag)
18. p(R)awn
21. teem – m
23. pa(M)pa’s
24. i(A)n
26. noir (anag) + Y
28. s(he)lob
31. phalanx – n – x (anag)
32. ava(i)l
33. turn (homophone)
34. al(o)ud
35. ir(K)ed
36. moor (rev)
37. s(quad) + led
41. enERGy
The six games formed by the anagrams were:
And finally, the twelve “superfluous” letters at the crossing points: I,C, T, R, E, A, A, S, T, Y, R, M can be rearranged into TERRA MYSTICA, the final answer to the puzzle.
Kudos to all who entered, and I look forward to cooking up something new and fiendish this summer.
Meanwhile, next week will be my turn to belatedly look back on 2022. See you then, and until then, don’t
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