Sunday, 5 December 2021

Freddie Hand

"Veni, vidi, tridividit" ("I came, I saw, I divided into regions of size 3). Such were the historic words of Julius Threesar on his victory over Pharnaces III of Pontus. But don't worry, this Tri-place will not bring you the same measly demise that Threesar faced; in fact I hope that it will have the opposite effect.

Rules: Divide the grid into regions of three orthogonally connected cells. A clue on the bottom of a blocked cell represents the number of rectangular regions in the vertical line below it. A clue on the right side of a blocked cell represents the number of rectangular regions in the horizontal line to its right. (This is analogous to how the clue directions work in Kakuro). Clues cannot see regions through other blocked cells. (In particular, note column 2 of the example puzzle: the 0 clue does not see through the block containing a 1 clue, hence the example solution is valid).

Example (puzzlink): https://tinyurl.com/46s8s8ek (this puzzle is the same as the one provided on the puzz.link rules page).

Slice and dice your way to a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 3:33 or less! (Complimentary Carol Vorderman is not provided)
Stake your claim on a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 7:30 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Tromino Tūī 🐦

Puzz.link: https://tinyurl.com/yckzds5x

NB: the colours provided in the example solution are not required for answer check, but they are very useful for notation! Feel free to reverse the recommended colour scheme in the example, though I don't wish to start a war akin to the raging odd/even debate which has plagued the CTC community for so long.