Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

Standard Sudoku Rules apply to the final numerical layout.

The Battlefield Basics: On this ancient battlefield, 36 armies fought: 9 from each horizontal direction, and 9 from each vertical direction. Each army advanced X cells, with X being the first number at their end of their row or column, and counting the first cell as part of their advance.

Where two opposing armies overlapped, there was a bloody battle and resulting casualties. Where two opposing armies ceased advancing and declared a truce before a battle could ensue, lives were thankfully spared.

The Numbers outside each row and column indicate the sum of either the casualties or the lives spared, but do not indicate whether it was a battle or a truce.

On the puzzle grid, Red Cells indicate all the fields where both a row and a column engaged in battle. Green Cells indicate all the fields where none of the four armies from that row or column ever entered.

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Setter's Diary :: May 29, 2020 :: I was introduced to the concept of an "X" cell on the edge of a row or column when I saw CTC's Simon solve a puzzle that relied on this idea. Using that basic notion, that the first cell of a row or column would indicate how far to sum, or move, or whatever, I tried out a concept that was bubbling around in my brain. And the Battlefield was born.

To my knowledge this is a new variant. In my three months as a novice of creative Sudokus, I have not found it on any CTC video, or anywhere on Logic Masters. I will be happy to credit someone else who came up with it and published before May 29th, but I did create it independent of anyone's previous creation.

I was originally going to number only the rows and columns where a battle took place. I was going to mark all rows or columns where the armies did not meet with a "PT" for "Peace Talks". But that left so many rows and columns wide open that I could not solve the puzzle, and I suspect it was unsolvable by any logical means. So I came up with the idea of summing both types of encounter, and letting the solver decipher whether it was a battle or a truce.

Even then I discovered something frustrating: It is possible, even likely, that there will be very vague areas on the grid prone to pairs of pairs that cannot be disambiguated. Several attempts at a puzzle that could be solved logically to reach a unique solution went in the trash before the one you see before you now came into being. And so here is the very first official Battlefield Sudoku. Enjoy.