As Maximize my flags was not solved to optimality by the community (perhaps because the coding required was too harsh), I present to you Maximize my four flags.
The rules are exactly the same as in Maximize my flags except that you must choose four 2022 country flags. Both "2022" and "country" terms are important, as you can not choose states flags nor flags for countries that did not exist at the time.
Reminder and adaptation of Maximize my flags rules:
- For each pair of flags that are side by side, you score 1 point per color they share as a frontier. For instance France and Finland score 1 point thanks to the blue.
- We don't require the exact same blues, or same colors here. Common sense will be requested for you to tell this is approximately the same color. I won't accept white of France is same color as yellow of Vatican :)
Your aim is to find an optimal 2x2 arrangement of 2022 country flags to maximize the score.
The current score of the next image is 46+28=74 as shown below but it is not valid because it is 6x8 instead of 2x2.
- You must provide a representation of the arrangement in the puzzle so we can see your solutions. Only solutions with a visual image should be ticked :)
- Some other examples are Croatia and Denmark score 2 points, while Spain and Norway score 1.
- Greece and Austria don't score points because they are not neighbors.
- You can use other images of the flags if you prefer. For instance, this Wikipedia page seems perfect.
- When you are doubting whether two colors are the same, this means they are close enough and you can use them as the same. If you have no doubt, example red and blue totally different, then they are different!
- thanks to a comment previously deleted: The flag of North Macedonia is wrong in the 6x8 picture so it should be a score of two and this is the flag you should use.
- thanks to @oAlt, another good example is Greece and Hungary score 2 points because there are two different segments where white is shared.
Example of a poor solution of value 4
Shall this 2x2 version be ticked and a 3x3 version will be online!