The 12 Regions Of Christmas: A Candidate For Puzzle Of The Year

*** TODAY’S PUZZLE *** It’s Boxing Day and we hope you have all had a wonderful festive period with family and friends. Simon takes on a masterpiece today from IcyFruit called The 12 Regions Of Christmas. From start to finish, this has so much incredible logic packed into it; this is the ultimate Christmas Stocking filler for a sudoku fan and a puzzle that will live long in the memory. Play the puzzle at the following link: Rules: Normal sudoku rules apply. Draw 12 orthogonally connected regions of different sizes which do not overlap. The regions do not need to cover the entire grid. Within a region, a digit may only repeat if it appears on a gold ring, in which case it can only appear on gold rings. A digit on a gold ring indicates the number of gold rings within its region. A digit on a pear tree is equal to the number of cells in its region. The 3 digits on red baubles sum to 25. *** OUR DECEMBER COMPETITION & SIMON’S BONUS SOLVES *** 100 4x4 Snackdoku pack from the Skunkworks was released on 1 December as our monthly reward. Simon has recorded his solves of all 100 puzzles! Available now on Patreon... Also there is Simon’s solve of Broken Secrets by TotallyNormalCat - a very different beast (ie seriously hard). You can try that puzzle here: There’s also Mark’s latest battle with The Times’ Club Monthly Special cryptic crossword. Join us on Patreon (for as little as $2): *** KICKSTARTER - DELIVERED 24 December 2023 *** Our Kickstarter has finished and we’ve created the finished novella/puzzle collection for you. It was delivered on Christmas Eve so check your inboxes! *** ORDER OUR NEW BOOK AT THIS LINK *** If you would like to get hold of a physical copy of our new book, Cracking The Cryptic’s Greatest Hits - Volume 2, there is still a chance. Visit the link below: *** NEW GAS PACK: VOLUME 2 IS OUT *** The new GAS (Genuinely Approachable Sudoku) pack is out on all platforms here: 60 original puzzles by Clover, Bill Murphy and Philip Newman!! Earn party hats and dinosaurs with these brand new puzzles! ▶ SUDOKU PAD - Use Our Software For Your Puzzles ◀ You can input classic sudoku puzzles into our software and help support Sven, the programmer responsible for the wonderful user interface we all use to play these puzzles everyday. The app also comes with 12 handmade puzzles from us: iOS: Steam: Android: ALSO on Amazon: Search for “SudokuPad” ▶ Contents Of This Video ◀ 0:00 Theme music & Puzzle Intro 1:27 The 100 Sudoku Challenge: Simon’s video solves 2:06 Kickstarter: Delivery expected NOW! 2:40 Happy Birthdays 4:47 Rules 7:15 Start of Solve: Let’s Get Cracking ▶ Contact Us ◀ Twitter: @Cracking The Cryptic email: crackingthecryptic@ Our PO Box address: Simon Anthony & Mark Goodliffe Box 102 56 Gloucester Road London SW7 4UB (Please note to use our real names rather than ’Cracking The Cryptic’.) ************************************************************** ▶ CTC FAN DISCORD SERVER◀ ▶ OUR BACK CATALOGUE – ALL CATEGORISED WITH LINKS!◀ ▶ *NEW* CRACKING THE CRYPTIC MERCHANDISE◀ ▶SEND US PUZZLES TO SOLVE/CONTACT US◀ crackingthecryptic@ ▶FOLLOW US◀ Twitter: @crypticcracking Instagram (for how to solve daily clues from The Times): We also post the Wordle In A Minute videos on TikTok.