"Two Can Play At That Game" by benchen71

[markhr]

Needed the second nudge. I'm not sure I ever would have hit on the solution otherwise.

[Cinny]

Crossed the MOAT. I'm glad I persevered and didn't realize there were nudges. Very clever puzzle and a nice AHA moment.

[TeamDoubleTow]

Needed the second nudge to solve but didn't appreciate the true beauty until after reading the comments on Crosshare. Very clever! Thanks for the puzzle @benchen71 !

[edestlin]

I needed some nudges but enjoyed it once things started clicking. Very nice! Followed a few misleading paths that kept me from seeing the actual metanism, but this is a clever, fun one. Thanks, Ben.

[lbray53]

Needed nudge two. Totally missed nudge four which was right there in plain sight if I had paid attention. I feel like I fell into the MOAT and needed to be fished out.

[Dplass]

Needed the second nudge. I'm not sure I ever would have hit on the solution otherwise.

I needed the 3rd as well. I would have never seen it otherwise.

[whimsy]

#2 to get me going; #s 3 and 4 to clarify and confirm.

So made it over into the castle, and am looking in the market stalls for a good price on parsnips...

Thank you Ben! Excellent puzzle!

[Ergcat]

Crossed the moat!
Needed the 2 and 3rd nudges! Clever and Fun puzzle! Thanks!

[Cap'n Rick]

Nice one, Ben! I needed the nudges, but I got 'er done!

[ky-mike]

With the clues, everything fell into place.

Moat crossed.

[benchen71]

What a difference a day (and nudges!) make. Lots of successful solvers have made it across the moat!

Gutman
KayW
jbird
rjy
MatthewL
SeamusOL
ajk
Pair O Ducks
markhr
Dow Jones
Cindy Heisler
CPJohnson
Larry Edelstein
dplass
LindaPRmaven
Spid4567
Teamdoubletow
edestlin
lbray53
whimsy
Ergcat
MrTheHan
Cate C
Johnny Luau
Bbaack
Sharkicicles
frostyjhammer
Capn Rick
Jim23809
Kazr
dannyvee
sw3aterCS
ky-mike

That brings us to 48!

[Tom Shea]

Needed the third nudge.

[ReB]

Third nudge did the trick, especially since I was off on a wild goose chase.

[Dave C]

I have been out of contact for a few days while glamping in a yurt near Joshua Tree National Park, so I didn't get to this until now, but was able to solve it without the nudges.

[Joe Ross]

"Yurt."

Fun to say.

[MikeyG]

“OK turn all the words into numbers, square them, take a cube root, compare that to atomic numbers, write out the chemical formula derived, find out what the dd/mm/yyyy that was discovered and use those numbers to find letter squares.”

Hey, thanks for the idea!

Edit: Second nudge did the trick! Also might be the first-ever puzzle to name drop both "Mrs. Frisby" and Audrey Assad. I approve!

[Qmark]

Nice one, Ben! I needed the 2nd nudge to help me see the light.

[benchen71]

So it's Monday morning here in Australia. Today I have to continue building a retaining wall, with the temperature expected to get to 39 degrees Celsius. That's over 100 for you Fahrenheit people! Before I release the answer, here is the last batch of solvers:

Jaclyn
Alex R
Abide
DebbieC
Rufus T Firefly
ReB
Dave C
ChrisCross
Mr Tex
Mikey G
Alex Sisti
Qmark
CapriciousDewy

We got to 61 in the end.

While on the subject of statistics, "Two Can Play At That Game" was one of my most popular puzzles on Crosshare. It's currently sitting in 5th position in "Most Solved Puzzles" at 225 (and will move into 4th with only a couple more solvers). But it topped "Best completion % w/o check/reveal (min 5 solves)" with 68%, which makes this my best puzzle as far as the fill is concerned. As far as the meta was concerned, there were 60 correct solvers out of 72 submissions.

And what was the answer, I hear you ask? ...

[benchen71]

Here's the answer to "Two Can Play At That Game":

This one proved to be harder than a "week 2". I guess I thought the absence of double letters in a puzzle with "two" in the title would be a bit of a giveaway. I'm thinking this week's MOAT might be easier than I initially thought, so perhaps it will even out in the long run!

[dsbened]

Holy Shite, Batman, I love 25D!