Line Consistency Sparse (5+ Blanks)
The same line-ordering check on a line that is still mostly blank — little to anchor it, so nearly every arrangement the clue allows has to be weighed. Same idea as Line Consistency, a good deal more work.
How it works
- 1The 4 on the left says four of these five buildings show from that side — so exactly one of them is hidden behind a taller one.
- 2Nothing is placed along the row, so all five cells are still in play. That blank count is what makes this the dear end of the same check: ten orderings match the clue, and every one of them has to be weighed.
- 3The cheaper clue rung has already taken the 5 out of the first three cells, and it has nothing more to say. Reading the clue on its own stops here.
- 4Now weigh the orderings. A 3 in the first cell hides both the 1 and the 2 — two hidden, one too many — and a 4 there hides three. The opener can only be a 1 or a 2, and by the same count the second cell tops out at 3.
- 5Strike the 3 and the 4 from the first cell and the 4 from the second: no ordering the clue allows ever uses them there.
- Height ruled out