n00bz - n00b 14 needed

[evilkeen]

Evilkeen seems to be off to a very good start.

Hmm, I was quite surprised at that! Every other new n00b seems to have started off near the bottom, and I've managed to jump straight in at 4th place!

[evilkeen]

I've just been looking back over the last few rounds of the game, and I don't wish to be pedantic, but there appears to be slight miscalculation in a couple of the total scores after round 9, or have I misread something?

Edited by Gill:

I have sent the remainder of this message to Cenwulf by PM and I have PM'd you to tell you why I have done so.

[Cenwulf]

Yes, there was an error. Because the entries were made at different times, I was keeping a running tally of Goats and Sheep, but forgot to update a couple of tallies when I got the last few entries. As a result LAT and Looby were credited with having the wrong numbers of Goats and Sheep. I have rectified it now.
I'm doing all the workings in Excel, and having the wrong numbers in the relevant places makes a lot of difference.

[Cenwulf]

gill216 is n00b 11. Welcome, as we play the next round.
Family Feast
The twelve ben Yaqov brothers get together occasionally. They did so last week as it was Asher's birthday, and they all went out for a meal together. In case you haven't met any of them before (or even if you have and have forgotten who they are), here are their names:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.
They sat at a circular table and as they were eating they became aware of the following details of how they were arranged:
Brothers consecutive in birth order were not adjacent
Brothers consecutive in alphabetical order were not adjacent
Brothers with names of the same length were not adjacent
e.g. Naphtali was not next to Dan or Gad, or next to Levi or Reuben, or next to Issachar or Benjamin.

Work out how you think they were sat round the table and send me your list, starting with Issachar and going clockwise.

Scoring:
3 points for every brother (apart from Issachar) in the correct position when compared with Issachar's report of how they were seated.
1 point for each brother in the position adjacent to where he was actually sitting.
0 points for each brother 2 seats away from where he was acttually sitting.
-1 point for every brother more than 2 seats away from his actual position. (Does not apply to n00b 11 gill216.)

N.B. Issachar does not count as a 'correct place' as he is the reference point on the table for the other eleven.

[gill216]

Why oh why did I choose this round to join in I attempted one of these in Belfast and failed dismally. No worries on who will be bottom of this list folks. You are all safe.

Can I clarify something please?. Are the names listed in birth order, eldest first? I promise I've read and re read the instructions.

Gill

[Bunnylump]

Oh Crikey.

[gill216]

My sentiments exactly!

I did ask a stupid question Cenwulf- the examples are clear enough. If I cant read and digest the info properly what chance have I got. At least I dont qualify for minus 2 this round.

[kathlyn]

It was going quite well til now

[Scurra]

Is the alphabet circular as well? Can Zebulon sit next to Asher (alphabet)? (I am assuming that a circular birth order wouldn't make sense, so Benjamin can sit next to Reuben since that's just youngest next to oldest.)

[evilkeen]

I hope not, else I might have to start again! I don't think A and Z can be considered consecutive (I hope!)

[MBH]

Great I've put a spreadsheet together to tell me if the answer is right or not (when I get it) - but that doesn't GET me the answer... I'll try and sort this out over the weekend.

[fernando]

What I might do is post a random order and hope for the best.

[Laura]

Flippin' 'eck!

Good job I'm on holiday this week. Sadly, I'm spending my week off organising the word sheets for my summer play - Joseph!

[kathlyn]

Bet Looby will be glad she missed this one

[kingsley]

I think I might go away for a bit too! It looks far too confusing and I've never been good at this type of thing anyway. I might just have a guess and hope that everyone else does badly too!

[kathlyn]

I'll give it a good guess too.

[Bunnylump]

Go for it. It will be no surprise to anyone to know that that's more or less what I did.

[LAT]

If anyone gets the order exactly right but in the wrong direction will they end up with -22 points?

I shall set my mind to this tomorrow.

[giraffe]

(Sorry that was supposed to be a pm).

[kingsley]

I've had a go at it, but I'm not quite sure how the scoring will work. I've come up with two different answers and I'm sure that there are many more as it did not take me long to work them out.

Also, if the order started off 'Issacher, Judah, Asher, Gad,' and I had 'Issacher, Zebulun, Judah, Asher, Gad' would I lose points for having the correct order but in the wrong place?

Giraffe made a point to me as well: what if you have the correct order but going anti-clockwise instead if clockwise?