Subject: does word wizard have a sense of humor?
Posted by: garrybl
Date: Jun 14 19
I've been struggling for a week with terrible letters.
But having got to a point where I could see light at the end of the tunnel Ive had 11 letters three times in the past few days.
My 12th letter when I was looking for an 11 letter word has been first Z, then X, then J.
Each time I clear out the *** killer letter in a four letter word and go back to try again...but it really feels like the system is mocking me. And yes I expect the Q any moment now.
Posted by: garrybl
Date: Jun 14 19
I've been struggling for a week with terrible letters.
But having got to a point where I could see light at the end of the tunnel Ive had 11 letters three times in the past few days.
My 12th letter when I was looking for an 11 letter word has been first Z, then X, then J.
Each time I clear out the *** killer letter in a four letter word and go back to try again...but it really feels like the system is mocking me. And yes I expect the Q any moment now.
241 replies. On page 4 of 13 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
garrybl 
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Re Brian's message above. It seems we have a difference in strategy. With eg nine consonants I would NOT trade in till I was at 11/12 letters. I'd wait till I was at 12. In simple terms why (if you had all vowels) trade in the U's before you got the Q? The only time I traded in two Us I did get a Q. With 9 consonants lets say RTMLJKGFD I don't want to lose GFD if I can shake the J and or K. if I draw an O I'd play Jolt, an I I'd play MILK. Dont get me wrong I will probably trade when i get to 11/12 but if all I'm after is 11 letter words I don't see the upside in a premature trade. Reply #61. Jul 16 19, 8:27 AM |
brm50diboll
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The problem with waiting is exactly what happened. Nine consonants often becomes ten. I don't like to keep digging when I'm already in a hole. A 9:3 consonant/vowel ratio is terrible enough, and if you already have 9 consonants before you get to 12 letters, 9:3 is the *best* you are going to have without a trade; that's pathetic. Trade immediately and start getting a more reasonable consonant/vowel ratio. Reply #62. Jul 16 19, 9:34 AM |
| brm50diboll
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Playing a four letter word when you already have nine consonants prematurely does *not* help your consonant/vowel ratio (unless you can form a four letter word with a Y). Let's look: if you have 9 consonants and 2 vowels and play a four letter word with three consonants and a vowel (and I absolutely *hate* playing four letter words, not only because you only get one point when you do so, but also it takes longer to get back to 12 letters than if your priority is trading rather than playing four letter words) results in going from a 9:2 consonant/vowel ratio to a 6:1 consonant/vowel ratio. Mathematically, that's actually worse. And doing nothing just risks going to 10 consonants. So I trade if I hit 9, even if I am at less than 12 total letters. Reply #63. Jul 16 19, 9:49 AM |
| garrybl
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I hear what you say. But while it feels better to have a 6-2 split than a 10-0 split you haven't lost anything by waiting if you were never going to play anything but an 11 letter word, or do a swop -- which you can do later just as well as earlier. However the 4-letter word you play to ditch your foul letter may change after your next two pick ups. With AOUAREIAOO I don't mind changing two Os since I still have one. With AEUAREIAOO I'll try to make the longest word I can from my 11+12th letter to get rid of AEOUAR and leave myself AEOI? going forward. wait for a Reply #64. Jul 16 19, 10:33 AM |
UmberWunFayun
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It worked out fine my haphazard way; I didn't have to play many games to get back to a good set of letters, I had a choice of six 11 letter words, got 30 points, AND won points for coming first in my division in three of the games I played. Sometimes when you pit maths and statistics against luck, luck wins :-) Reply #65. Jul 16 19, 11:22 AM |
| garrybl
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We are all happy today, since I had 10 letters with only one I could draw for an 11 letter word, and got my U for OPERCULATED. I think that was 48-72 hours for an 11-letter word starting from scratch. About as fast as I've done it. I didn't do any letter trades after getting rid of my Q. Just dumped PEPS and took the next few letters and found they fit together perfectly. Reply #66. Jul 16 19, 1:11 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Referring back to my post #63, the only four letter word (accepted by FT) that I can think of off the top of my head that uses Y as a vowel is "spry". There may be others I just cannot think of, but I don't really see that I would ever play "spry" even to try to correct a severe consonant/vowel imbalance as s,p, and r are all pretty useful letters. I have previously expressed my extremely reticence to submit four letter words at all. I much prefer trades. About the only time I submit four letter words is when I am in desperate need of getting rid of "lead weight letters" like Q or Z that have been recently acquired and are not tradable anytime soon. The word "quiz" comes to mind. It will not help a consonant/vowel imbalance, but it does dump both a Q and a Z at once, so if you happened to have the opportunity to play it and neither the Q nor the Z were immediately tradable, I would be willing to violate my usual "don't play four letter words" rule and play "quiz". I am even more averse to playing five letter words than I am to playing four letter words, actually. It is quite likely when you play a five letter word that you will be dumping useful letters, and it takes even longer to get back to 12 letters when playing a five letter word than when playing a four letter word. Basically, I hate playing short words. I would rather trade letters. Reply #67. Jul 16 19, 11:30 PM |
| brm50diboll
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My extreme reticence, not my extremely reticence. When my posts get long, I have trouble seeing them on my cell phone. Reply #68. Jul 16 19, 11:32 PM |
| brm50diboll
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I should have said "the only four letter word that uses Y as a vowel that does not use a regular vowel". Obviously, I was looking for four letter words where all four letters are considered consonants (pretty rare, "spry" qualifying as the Y is considered a consonant by Word Wizard even though it acts as a vowel in "spry".) I was not talking about words like "they" or "tray", because, even though they have four letters and include a Y as a vowel, they also contain a normal vowel. Again, I *meant* four letter words using Y as a vowel that do *not* contain ordinary vowels. If anyone can think of other examples besides "spry", it could be helpful. I tried "wyrm", but "wyrm" is not accepted by the Word Wizard dictionary, so that needs to be checked, also. Reply #69. Jul 16 19, 11:59 PM |
| garrybl
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Brian I guess the difference between your strategy and mine is that I'm at the computer so much that the four hour wait for four more letters doesn't bother me. In a way it is a self-fulfilling prophecy because my strategy tends to lead to eight good letters, then I'm at the mercy of what comes next and a trade is no longer an option since the letters to trade are 'good' and wont improve my board. Reply #70. Jul 17 19, 8:56 AM |
| garrybl
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A curiosity today. The word wizard dealt me two Ks, and a bunch of vowels. With two Es and two As I tried EKKA and was rejected, then tried a word that is normally considered a racial slur and found it accepted by WW though not by my dictionary when the objectionable list was turned off. Given what it DOESN'T accept I was very surprised by this. Reply #71. Jul 17 19, 8:59 AM |
| garrybl
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After dumping the racial slur (mentioned above) I got to 12 letters and no 11-letter word. Let the L/S slip off the end and got SATURATIONS. So I think that was from 1 letter to 11 in 17 letters. Definitely a record for me and when I get the QJXZ in short order I'll take it with my customary good grace as no more than I'm due. :). Reply #72. Jul 18 19, 8:09 AM |
| garrybl
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Wow.... I'm temporarily lost for words. Well almost. After posting about going from 1-11 on 17 letters I picked up the first 10 letters to make governments bar the G. I didnt get the G in my next two letters; got a TE. I looked to see what would happen if I played VENT and that left me 8 nice letters, but following Brian's advice I traded in an MT and got an I...to make overintense! So that was 12 moves in total from 1-11. Not an unbeatable record but it wont be easy to do better than that. Reply #73. Jul 20 19, 9:24 AM |
OldManJack
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I usually just build up to 11 or 12 letters, and wait for a Daily Challenge to ask me to make a 7 or 8 letter word. One of these days when I have nothing better to do, I'll use up all those credits trying to get an epic challenge or two. Reply #74. Jul 20 19, 10:17 AM |
namrewsna
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OldManJack I haven't done a completely thorough study, but or a while I was watching and while I would not go no court with it...all evidence zeems to suggest that on a purchase by purchase basis, you have no better odds of drawing an Epic challenge with subsequent purchases...all you do is spend mord credits. There are situations where it is to you advantage to try ajd purchase many in a day. Obviously when going for the ten in one day badge you would have to purchase a lot....or for instance if you are going for the green or yellow flag specifically, have had trouble qualifying for it in the past but have already played the required games and scored high enough...it may be wise to make multiple purchases that day. but generally if you go on a long term quest hunting for epics...It is much more economical to only purchase one per day. Even if you have buolt up a fair stockpile of credits...you will burn through them pretty aui kly even purchasing 4 or 5 a day Reply #75. Jul 20 19, 11:42 AM |
| namrewsna
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Ugh..."burn through them quickly"....that was intended to say at the end Reply #76. Jul 20 19, 11:43 AM |
| garrybl
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good news bad news.... J and X on successive letters, but I had IN to go with them , and that gave me jinx, which along with quiz must be the ultimate Word Wizard aggravators. Will (s)he deal me a Q or Z next? Not sure but since my previous word was QUIP, I guess the Z is favorite. Reply #77. Jul 22 19, 1:17 PM |
| harbilked
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some weird Doctor Who character Reply #78. Jul 27 19, 1:20 AM |
| garrybl
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I've turned in the X J two Q's and a Z in the last three/four days, with a variety of strategies including the desperate 'ditch all consonants to get rid of the Q with no U' and finally reached a combination where I needed the X for exploratory...and got the Z again. Still with only 11 letters in my current thread I'm hoping for corporately/exploratory. Or else it is 'oozy/ooze/or some other ZY word and back to the drawing board. Reply #79. Aug 04 19, 9:17 AM |
| garrybl
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Finally, three days after my last post I got rid of 11 letters. I'd had two 'valid' 11 letter words rejected by the system, but no QXJZ or the like for a day or two so I count my blessings. Whatever the collective noun for a vat-load of V's is, I've been experiencing that. Up to 74 11-letter words, so maybe the target of 100 by year end is almost feasible. When I started the year my target was 50 so I'm upping my sights considerably. Reply #80. Aug 07 19, 8:05 AM |
241 replies. On page 4 of 13 pages. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
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