Add a blog post about my Star Duel puzzle

[cworth.org] / src / puzzles / star_duel.mdwn

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+[[!meta title="Star Duel"]]
+
+[[!tag puzzles]]
+
+I just had [my second
+puzzle](http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2014/12/star-duel-carl-worth//)
+published at [GM Puzzles](http://www.gmpuzzles.com). Take a look.
+
+This puzzle is a Star Battle, which is an elegant and easy-to-learn
+puzzle type. All you have to do is place some stars into the grid such
+that exactly one star, (or more stars for larger puzzles), appears in
+each row, column, and bold region. Also, no two stars can be placed in
+adjacent cells, not even diagonally.
+
+For the puzzle I published today, I took a couple of steps beyond the
+basic Star Battle formula. First, I made the grid quite large, (15x15
+with 3 stars per row/column/region). Then I also provided two
+grids. Each grid has the same solution of stars, so you work back and
+forth between the grids to solve them both simultaneously. Finally,
+instead of dividing the regions into random-looking arbitrary shapes,
+I tried to make some recognizable pictures with the grids. If you
+click through above, hopefully you'll be able to recognize the shapes
+I was going for. This puzzle marks my first in a series of puzzles
+where I chose the name of the puzzle type as the theme for the
+puzzle. So, I drew a star battle for a Star Battle puzzle. And with
+dual grids, I named this battle a Star Duel.
+
+Finally, I should point out that where my <a
+href="http://cworth.org/puzzles/clueless_nanro/">previous puzzle</a>
+was published on a Monday, <a
+href="http://www.gmpuzzles.com/blog/2014/12/star-duel-carl-worth/">
+today's puzzle</a> is published on a Saturday. The GM Puzzles website
+publishes puzzles that get increasingly difficult throughout the
+week. So if you've never attempted a star-battle puzzle before, I
+don't actually recommend you start with my puzzle from today.
+
+Instead, you might start with this <a
+href="http://cworth.org/2014/hint6-star-battle/">simpler star
+battle</a> puzzle that I wrote as part of a <a
+href="http://cworth.org/2014/">Christmas puzzle hunt</a> for my
+boys. It's a very gentle introduction to the puzzle type. If you try
+it, you can ignore the second grid with the C, H, A, and S
+regions. That was part of a metapuzzle included in the puzzle hunt.
+
+Happy puzzling!