Strategy Bulls and Cows | Word Games

Strategy

A simple strategy is to make each guess consistent with the answers you've been given so far. Thus your guess will either be the correct word, or one of the possible candidates for the correct word, and each guess will bring you closer to the correct word.
This is usually a pretty good strategy, but it can be very inefficient if you get a large number of hits early in the game. For example, suppose the guesses and answers have been:

• Guess: "WORK" - Answer: 0 Bulls, 0 Cows
• Guess: "WELL" - Answer: 3 Bulls, 0 Cows

From this we can deduce that the word must end in "ell", and so can be one of these eight candidates:
BELL, CELL, DELL, FELL, HELL, SELL, TELL, or YELL.
Using the simple strategy we might guess "BELL", but it could take up to six more guesses to get the word. We have seven chances in eight that we'll be left with seven candidates, making:
7/8 * 7 = 49/8 = 6.125 candidates remaining (on average).
A better strategy is to try and eliminate as many candidates as possible with a guess such as "CYST". Although this can't be the correct answer, it divides the candidates with the following possible answers:

• 0 Bulls, 0 Cows - Candidates left: BELL, DELL, FELL, HELL
• 0 Bulls, 1 Cow - Candidates left: SELL, YELL, TELL
• 1 Bull, 0 Cows - Candidates left: CELL

So there are four chances in eight that you'll be left with four candidates, three chances in eight you'll be left with three candidates, and one chance in eight you'll be left with one candidate, making:
(4/8 * 4) + (3/8 * 3) + (1/8 * 1) = 26/8 = 3.25 candidates remaining (on average).
This shows that "CYST" is nearly twice as good as "BELL" for the next guess.
When playing Word Bulls & Cows you can eliminate letters as efficiently as possible by guessing a series of words with no letters in common. My favourite set of words for four-letter Bulls & Cows is:
MYTH, DUCK, VERB, GASP, JINX, and WOLF.
which use 24 of the 26 letters. The best I've come up with for five-letter Bulls & Cows is:
BLACK, FIGHT, JUMPY, DROWN, and VEXES
which use 24 of the 26 letters with one letter repeated. If anyone can find five five-letter words with no letters in common I'd be interested to know.

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Word Bulls & Cows | Word Games

Players take turns in trying to guess each other's word.

Description

One player, the Chooser, thinks of a four-letter word and the other player, the Guesser, tries to guess it.
At each turn the Guesser tries a four-letter word, and the Chooser says how close it is to the answer by giving:

• The number of Bulls - letters correct in the right position.
• The number of Cows - letters correct but in the wrong position.

The Guesser tries to guess the answer in the fewest number of turns.
If either word has repeated letters the rule is that each letter can only count towards the score once, and Bulls are counted before Cows.

Example

For example, if the Chooser has thought of the word LOVE the replies for some guesses are as follows:

• Guess: FISH - Reply: 0 Bulls, 0 Cows.
• Guess: VAIN - Reply: 0 Bulls, 1 Cow.
• Guess: LANE - Reply: 2 Bulls, 0 Cows.
• Guess: VILE - Reply: 1 Bull, 2 Cows.
• Guess: LOVE - Reply: 4 Bulls, 0 Cows!

Click here for STRATEGY for "Bulls & Cows"

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Word Ladder Race | Word Games

Each player chooses a word with the same number of letters. Both players then try to make a word ladder between the two words. The player with the shortest ladder wins.

Description

A word ladder is a sequence of words in which only one letter changes at each step.
One player chooses a starting word, and the other player then chooses an ending word of the same length. Both players then try to find a word ladder between the two chosen words. The player with shortest ladder wins. If neither player can find a ladder the game is a draw.

Example

For example, if one player chose WINE and the other player chose BEER a possible word ladder could be as follows:

Variations

To make the game more exciting impose a time limit of five minutes.
For a more complicated variation of the game try Scrambled Word Ladder Race.

History

Word Ladders were first popularised as Doublets by the mathematician Lewis Carroll, who wrote the popular children's books "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". They feature in many books of word puzzles.

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Scrambled World Ladder Race | Word Games

Each player chooses a word with the same number of letters. Both players then try to make a scrambled word ladder between the two words. The player with the shortest ladder wins.

Description

A scrambled word ladder is a sequence of words linked by either of the following steps:

• Change one letter to make another word.
• Scramble the order of the letters to make another word.

One player chooses a starting word, and the other player then chooses an ending word of the same length. Both players then try to find a scrambled word ladder between the two chosen words. The player with shortest ladder wins. If neither player can find a ladder the game is a draw.

Example

For example, if one player chose WINE and the other player chose BEER a possible scrambled word ladder could be as follows:

Variations

To make the game more exciting impose a time limit of five minutes.
For a simpler variation of the game try Word Ladder Race.

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Countdown | Word Games

Players compete to find the longest word from a set of 9 letters.

History

Countdown is a popular game show on the Channel 4 TV network in the United Kingdom. Two contestants choose a series of consonants or vowels, and then have 30 seconds to find the best word.

Description

The players take turns in choosing letters until 9 letters have been named. They then try to construct a word using just those letters. The player who has found the longest word wins.

Example

For example, if the players chose the letters:
QWERTYUIO
the players might find QUERY and EQUITY, EQUITY being the winner.

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Word Square | Word Games

Players create word squares with the same letters, and the one who creates the square containing the most words wins.

Description

Each player draws a 4 x 4 grid which they keep concealed from the other player.
They then take turns in naming a letter. As each letter is named each player must write it immediately into one of the cells in their grid: Players can choose any letter they like, and letters can be repeated.
When the grid is full the players count up the number of words they have made reading across, down, or diagonally, and the one with the highest score (out of a possible 10) wins.
One interesting aspect of the game is that you can either choose letters that help you complete words, or you can try to thwart your opponent's words.

Example

The following square scores the player 6 points for the words:
CARD, TOSS, COAT, RIPS, DOTS, and CUPS:

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Consequences | Word Games

The players take turns in contributing sentences to a story. The final story is then read out, hopefully with hilarious results.

Description

Each player starts with a piece of paper. The players each write a phrase as the first step in a story, and then fold the paper to hide the phrase before passing it to the next player.
When the players have completed all eight steps, the pieces of paper are unfolded in turn, and the players read out the completed, hopefully funny, stories.
The steps are as follows, where the things in brackets should be replaced by the chosen words or phrase:

• (boy's name)
• met (girl's name)
• in/at/on (place)
• He said (what he said)
• She said (what she said)
• He did (what he did)
• She did (what she did)
• The consequence was (what happened)

Example

Here's an example of a possible story:
Prince William met Rihanna at the zoo. He said "Save the polar bears!". She said "Don't be so sexist". He slipped on a banana. She took flying lessons. The consequence was that they got arrested.

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