{"id":34137,"date":"2025-09-21T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T07:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/?p=34137"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:01:03","slug":"fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/gas\/\">Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS)<\/a> series.)<br \/>\n<em>In this Fortress Sudoku, some &#8220;big birds&#8221; are marking their territory where they rule the roost. Can you place all the values in this puzzle by Bill Murphy?<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img src=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250921-FortressSudoku-MoreBigBirds.png alt=\"Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250921-FortressSudoku-MoreBigBirds.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>or <a href=\"https:\/\/gmpuzzles.com\/s\/250921BigB\">solve online<\/a> (using SudokuPad)<\/p>\n<p><b>Theme:<\/b> More Big Birds<\/p>\n<p><b>Author\/Opus:<\/b> This is the 36th puzzle from Bill Murphy, part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (<a href=\"https:\/\/sudokutheory.com\/gas\/\">GAS<\/a>) team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Rules:<\/b> Standard Sudoku rules (insert a number from 1 to 9 into each cell so that no number repeats in any row, column, or bold region). A number in a gray cell must be larger than any number in an adjacent white cell that shares an edge. (To assist solvers, this is shown like a greater than\/less than shape in how the gray cells are drawn.)<\/p>\n<p><b>GAS Time Standards (highlight to view):<\/b> Two party hats (\ud83c\udfa9\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">6:00<\/span>; One party hat (\ud83e\udd73): <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">11:00<\/span>. All other solvers earn a \ud83e\udd95: <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">Perfect Pachystruthiodmanisensis<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Thomas Hits the GAS (highlight to view):<\/b> <span style=\"color: white; background-color: white;\">2:09<\/span>, with <a href=https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/sudokupad-Bill_Murph-More_Big_Birds-a639-d131.replay>SudokuPad replay file<\/a> shared as a download for now (requires loading via settings menu with improvements expected before people should use this regularly).<\/p>\n<p><b>Solution:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/images\/puzzles2025\/250921-FortressSudoku-MoreBigBirds-soln.pdf\">PDF<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/HgsLNB2-gVM\">solving video<\/a> with explanation from GAS team.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note:<\/b> Follow this link for other less common variations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/tag\/sudoku-3+variation-2\/\">Sudoku<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Note 2:<\/b>\u00a0Comments on the blog are great! For a more interactive discussion, please also consider using our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/1059513302847336469\/1380897111599616020\">Daily GAS discussion<\/a>\u00a0post\u00a0on the GMPuzzles Discord. Not a member of the Discord? Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/RNNfEBEbQS\">this link<\/a>\u00a0for basic access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(This post is part of the Genuinely Approachable Sudoku (GAS) series.) In this Fortress Sudoku, some &#8220;big birds&#8221; are marking their territory where they rule the roost. Can you place all the values in this puzzle by Bill Murphy? PDF or solve online (using SudokuPad) Theme: More Big Birds Author\/Opus: This is the 36th puzzle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":443,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,126],"tags":[8,15,56,237],"class_list":["post-34137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puzzle","category-othersudoku","tag-sudoku-3","tag-wednesdaythursday","tag-variation-2","tag-gas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this Fortress Sudoku, some &quot;big birds&quot; are marking their territory where they rule the roost. Can you place all the values in this puzzle?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gmpuzzles.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/fortress-sudoku-by-bill-murphy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fortress Sudoku by Bill Murphy - The Art of Puzzles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this Fortress Sudoku, some &quot;big birds&quot; are marking their territory where they rule the roost. 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