c4countdown

I have often wondered how the letters are sorted for Countdown.Is it a similar mix to Scrabble? I have noticed over the last couple of years or so that we seem to be getting a lot of double consonants and sometimes three of a kind like last Monday when three Ns came out.Carol even remarked about the proliferation of doubles on Friday.Considering there are twenty one different consonants to get three the same seems excessive out of a maximum of six.I have suspected that the mix has been changed in the last couple of years.Can anyone enlighten me?

Hi Jeff

There was a discussion about this some time ago. The mix has changed a bit in the past few years, but not that much.

http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/viewtopic. ... a&hilit=u6

If I may be so bold, you may also find the Letters Page at my site useful.

http://www.thecountdownpage.com/letters.htm

As for the number of double consonants, it's all down to the way they are 'shuffled' (actually placed in random piles, because they're a bit big to shuffle!) by the Art Director. I think slightly less consideration is given to spreading out particular letters these days, which inevitably leads to more doubles and less 'nice' rounds - and seemingly less TANGELOS and LEOTARDS into the bargain!

Hope that helps a bit!

Do some of you think that makes the game harder?

Thanks for the info Mike.I didn,t know that the subject had been discussed before on the forum.
Some interesting stuff on the links you posted.Thanks again.

Jason Larsen wrote:Do some of you think that makes the game harder?

Double letters tend to mean fewer available long words overall.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jason Larsen wrote:Do some of you think that makes the game harder?

Double letters tend to mean fewer available long words overall.

Also these words can be trickier to spot IMO.

A word thats come up a few times on Apterous (that I've always missed) is LAAGERED.

I figured that.

Joseph Bolas wrote:A word thats come up a few times on Apterous (that I've always missed) is LAAGERED.

Maybe that's because you've always been laagered.

(I've no idea what that means.)