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The final answer is 11 letters.

April 2023

Helpful notes:

  • Technically solvable in grayscale/colorblind, but easier in color.
  • If you have the required , the solution path will eventually pop into your head; if you don't, it probably won't. So this is a good one to think about casually in the shower or on the road, rather than poring over dictionaries.
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2 Answers 2

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April 1, 2023

Rest in peace Klaus Teuber, creator of the board game Settlers of Catan

The hexagons

represent the hexagonal tiles in the board game.

The different colors

represent the different types of tiles and the resources they provide. Arrows point from the tile type to the resource it provides. enter image description here The desert does not provide any resources.

Reading down the dotted hexagons

yields the creator's name Klaus Teuber

Disclaimer

This answer was inspired by @user118161's comment on another answer.

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I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about this and I have one note (maybe a very tiny partial fraction of a solution) and one question.

First, some assumptions I am making:

1. There should be one letter in each hexagon
2. The 11-letter solution will be the letters in the column with the black dots in
3. The colours of the rows don't have any specific meaning other than making it easier to see which rows the arrows connect
4. Each row will be a valid word
5. The arrows mean that the "source" row can be inserted into the "destination" row at the place indicated and make another valid word, for example the 7-letter light green row can be inserted at the start of the 4-letter light green row to make a valid 11-letter word

The note that might be a tiny part of a solution:

The only word I can think of for the bottom row, that is a valid 6-letter word that is also a valid 7-letter word when an X is added to the end of it, is SIMPLE / SIMPLEX.
This would mean that the 11-letter solution ends in L. There is such a word which relates to hexagons, namely APICULTURAL, but I have no other evidence for this being the answer.

And the question:

I'm bothered about the fact that the arrows on the hexagons come from / go to different aspects of the shape (the two left hand arrows and the one at the bottom pointing to X go from and to vertical edges of the hexagons, but this is not true for the other three on the right). Is this significant?

Based on the comments,

I notice that the first few rows at least could be months:
(red) March
(lime) June
(yellow) April
(brown) September
(red) ?
(green) ?
(brown) May
(lime) August / October
(green) ?
(yellow) August / October
(tan) August / October
Doesn't work so well for the later ones, could those be days / dates / something else?

If I'm right about the first three rows that would be an 11 letter word starting

HER

Such as...

hereinafter
hermeneutic
herringbone
herpesvirus
herbivorous
hereinabove
herpetology
herrenvolks
heroicizing
hereinbelow
heresiarchs
herbivories
herbologies
hermeticism
herniations
heretically

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  • $\begingroup$ I've been looking at this one a lot too. My own theory is that no 'insertion' is involved, but rather rot13(gur whfg-inthryl-cynprq neebjf vaqvpngr gung gjb ragevrf sbez n 'cnve' va fbzr jnl. Guvf jbhyq tvir hf fvk cnvef va gbgny (vapyhqvat gur zvffvat jbeq), juvpu vf na vqrny ahzore sbe n chmmyr nyy nobhg fvk-fvqrq urkntbaf. Cbffvoyl rira gur oynpx qbgf qba'g arprffnevyl vaqvpngr gur zvffvat jbeq ohg gur gurzr funerq ol gur fvk cnvef...). The month appearing in the title is puzzling me too - I'm assuming there must be a connection to current affairs, which I haven't yet spotted. $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 1 at 8:56
  • $\begingroup$ Na beqrerq cnve, vf zl thrff. $\endgroup$
    – msh210
    May 1 at 9:29
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv, Vicky - you are both partly correct and have spotted most of the clues. There is one more clue no one has called out. But I see the grayscale note was misleading and will update the puzzle. $\endgroup$
    – Amoz
    May 1 at 14:19
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    $\begingroup$ All good guesses, but the information in the puzzle, especially the colors, is far more critical than the title. Also I apologize in advance that this puzzle leverages knowledge that is somewhat mainstream but not universal. It will either speak to you or it won't. $\endgroup$
    – Amoz
    May 3 at 12:55
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    $\begingroup$ Does this have anything to do with civ 5/ catan 's hexagon tiles? the colors might be land types $\endgroup$
    – user118161
    May 3 at 23:07

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