Hoo boy, where do I start with this one?
This is what happens when you solve without a physical set of pieces. Pieces that don't belong in the set (in this case, the two blue nonominoes) creep in undetected, and only when you're down to the last little corner do you realise that the remaining area is the wrong size. I do a quick manual check to see if the number of free squares are divisible by 8 at about this point, and in this case it wasn't so I engaged panic mode (i.e. looked for the offending pieces, found that they were nowhere near the edge of the solution, and gave up.)
About a month later, I had a second crack at the same shape and got pretty much the same result.
Another 4 hours I'll never get back.
This time, the area of the final space was divisible by 8, but it wasn't the multiple of 8 I was expecting. I had 15 octominoes left to place, and an area of 14 x 8 = 112 unit squares. So I reckon I've used a piece twice somehow. I've looked over the solution but can't see it, so if anyone actually reads this and has a better eye than me, see if you can spot what I did wrong here.
Eventually once I'd got myself a set of physical pieces I had a third attempt at this shape and solved it first time.
[ Home > Polyominoes > Octominoes - The Hall of Shame ]
Lewis Patterson. Last updated 08/05/21.