Countdown

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:46 pm

Two more 9 letter efforts on the letters game (not the Conundrum), at the Goose, Oxford:

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SWP · Post by **SWP** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:05 am

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Very nice.

How are you doing for cash out of Countdown? I take it despite the sterling word efforts the dirty stopper questions still limit how much you walk away with?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:31 am

step7 wrote: How are you doing for cash out of Countdown? I take it despite the sterling word efforts the dirty stopper questions still limit how much you walk away with?

Let's just say I normally take the £1 or £2 it offers me, which I get to about every other game. Showbiz and Music are my favourite categories on the game. Food seems eminenty learnable (if you can be arsed to memorise the facts in the relevant section of Trevor Montague's quizzing encyclopaedia).

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:37 pm

Let's just say I normally take the £1 or £2 it offers me

Ok as I expected. £1/£2 is about as far as I get too, but with feeble wordplay by comparison. Max. out at 4 quid/2000-ish points.

Do you try and line up a target word during the vowel/cons selection? Any tips on selections, particularly avoiding Polish type words? (ZYAGEIWXC

)

Showbiz and Music are my favourite categories on the game.

Mmm, bit weak on these but..

Food seems eminenty learnable

Food/Drink sticks to my mind as well as they do to my waist (which is too well)

How's your math? I reckon I'd give Carol a run for her money, more than 5 out and I'm p!ssed. Always go 2big, 4small.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:49 pm

[quote="step7"]Do you try and line up a target word during the vowel/cons selection? Any tips on selections, particularly avoiding Polish type words? (ZYAGEIWXC ]

For the vowel/cons I always start with a vowel - otherwise, I think the first consonant can get your mind stuck in a rut, thinking of a word starting with it. Normally just aimlessly choose four of each and have a little think before choosing which variety to have last.

My math seems much better if I keep conscious thought out of it. If I let my subconscious do it, I can normally get pretty close.

Other than that, learning x25/x75 tables is a good idea.

Matt Vinyl · Post by **Matt Vinyl** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:38 am

I'd give Carol a run for her money,

...and who wouldn't...

...erm...<obtains hat and coat>

ops:

Anyway - is the letter selection fixed on this, or are there two truly shuffled decks? It's just that I've frequently seen combinations picked such as:

GGAGGAHEG

or some such, which look suspiciously non-random, or perhaps exceedingly unlucky...?

Hexpert · Post by **Hexpert** » Tue May 01, 2007 11:09 am

I took vowels for my first 4 picks the other day and got O, O, O, O!!

Think I ended up with OOOOGRTFI which I turned into FORGOT

Maybe it's "Random" with just a hint of "Spiteful" thrown in!!

Awai · Post by **Awai** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:14 pm

its definately got a bit of spiteful bonus thrown in...i always go for one big number and the rest as small ones...usually makes it very easy.

Hexpert · Post by **Hexpert** » Tue May 01, 2007 2:29 pm

I agree, 1 big and 5 small always seem to give me the best possible range for reaching the set target (as vaginalbob said earlier on here, learning the x75's helps too)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 02, 2007 4:32 pm

Just watched Cdown on telly - fk hell so depressing: usual story of someone who has memorised the word list boning a (talented) non-swot for that reason only.

Mebbe UP has a point with WU - only in that spods like me now get a 200 point bonus solely through knowledge, rather than ability. In a way, the only way to get a level playing field now is to have everyone bone up on thousands of dubious words.

That said, disregarding the effect-on-competition aspect, I still find the new version more enjoyable than the old.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 02, 2007 4:33 pm

Just watched Cdown on telly - fk hell so depressing: usual story of someone who has memorised the word list boning a (talented) non-swot for that reason only. (Tho I in turn swatted the champ easily myself - by knowing even more words than him. :roll

Mebbe UP has a point with WU - only in that spods like me now get a 200 point bonus solely through knowledge, rather than ability. In a way, the only way to get a level playing field now is to have everyone bone up on thousands of dubious words.

That said, disregarding the effect-on-competition aspect, I still find the new version more enjoyable than the old.[/quote]

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Wed May 02, 2007 9:27 pm

OK so I'm ready to do my swotting for Countdown (SWP not TV).

1. Any ideas as to which dictionary I need to study? Is it a custom one or something like SOWPODS?

2. Please feel free to PM me with words you've had or seen and words you've had rejected.

3. Is it worth starting a thread with the best words? I'll gladly produce a regular hi score/ranking table from any posts. I think a bit of competition would be a good spur.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:58 pm

The dictionary that the Countdown SWP uses is FAR bigger than the word list used in the TV show. In fact, it also seems a lot bigger than the Scrabble word list. It frequently comes up with words that I've never seen and seems to allow proper nouns to boot.

Probably best to study the new Scrabble word list (Collins Scrabble Words 2007 - which is the current Word Up list + about 4000 new words), as at least you would then have transferrable skills.

The study program Lexpert would allow you to print out useful lists of words (best to learn the most probably 7s and 8s), but only from last year's Scrabble dictionary. Zyzzyva lets you test yourself on the new Collins words, but (I think) doesn't let you do much printing-wise.

Good idea re high score table. For the letters game, I've only seen three 9s: the ones that I've mentioned before in the thread (all by me). There have been some nice 8s, including a Fotherz effort: BABYHOOD.

SWP · Post by **SWP** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:04 am

Good idea re high score table. For the letters game, I've only seen three 9s: the ones that I've mentioned before in the thread (all by me). There have been some nice 8s, including a Fotherz effort: BABYHOOD.

Is it worth having a seperate thread for the words then? Just post 8 & 9 letter words? (or include 7's too in the short term?). This thread can be left for more general countdown discussion then.

I was just talking about the letters games incidentally, I think most get the conundrum - once they know the trick

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:15 pm

problematic this. the titbox wordlist is very big but on the gamesnet it seems pretty restrictive. i had ANTIPODE rejected on gamesnet, which is admittedly a bit iffy but i'd imagine sowpods would allow it.