Friday, January 25, 2008

Agnostic to the Rescue

Maven 1900 thought he had me tonight, but you’ll be pleased to hear that I outsmarted him.
It was very near the end of the game and I was about 40 points behind but I knew I had letters I could make a 7 letter word with if I could only find a spot to put them. I had SACNIO and a blank. ACTIONS was possible, SANCTION was a chance, CAUTIONS could have worked, but nothing fitted. I was trying to use all my letters for the 50 point bonus, or at the very least get on a triple word score. I sat at the computer for over half an hour playing with possibilities and then I saw it, the opening I needed. AGNOSTIC was the word!! At first I thought it could go across the bottom but it ran into SPATE. Then, another possibility presented, there was an open G but the S would have to go on the end of BIALY which of course is an onion roll! A word ending in Y usually converts to IE for an S, but, to my delight, the game dictionary informed me that the plural form is in fact BIALYS. Yeehaa! AGNOSTIC fitted and was worth 75 points, surely that would be enough to gain victory. I then had a look at the hints the computer suggests if you’re stuck. I never use the hints but occasionally have a look to see if the word I’ve come up with is the same one Maven suggests. But, the best Maven could come up with was the word ANTIC in the bottom right corner. Sure it played on a triple word score, but, it was worth a measly 24 points!!!! Maven was trying to cheat! The dirty rat!
I played AGNOSTIC to take the lead only for him to immediately respond with FOCAL on the triple word for 42 points and put him back in front by 5!Justice was done however because with my remaining two letter, O & R I made TOR on the triple word he’d tried to con me into using the turn before! The 9 points, plus 3 for his remaining letters gave me a very satisfying 10 point victory!
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