I broke from my strategy and guessed for the win with my second word instead of going with two research words. Partly because I was convinced it started CAR__, which would have meant either CARVE or CARAT. No way to check both with a single word, nor any point.
If I had more patience, and specifically stuck to my strategy, I could have come up with CATER as a research word; checking T and E when you only get two letters is solid. I would have had 3 choices, with CATER positively IDing which of the 3 it was, for a win in 2.
Just wondering… With the first word you knew the third letter wasn’t in the right spot. The next three picks had the same letter in the third spot. Was there a reason for that?
TEASE → A good start, but so many possibilities with those 3 letters…
PLEAT → So probably a two-syllable word, and T in the middle… try something with an R
HATER → Uh oh: C, D, W, M?, B? are possibilities… CATER → Whew, lucky guess.
Good thing I had already knocked out LATER, EATER and PATER. Could have also been D at the end; my third guess probably should have been DATER or RATED to cover that possibility.
Brutal. Well-played, valiant effort. I think these kind of traps make vowel-heavy starts dangerous.
For the past couple weeks my starter word has only had a single vowel (not U or Y), always in the third position. Then my second word adds two more, or usually one more if the first vowel hit. Three vowels is plenty. Or, rather, it may be more helpful to eliminate two more common consonants than positively ID every vowel.
My scores have been noticeably better over these past couple weeks using the above three-vowel technique. Here’s my last 10 starters: Crept Cramp Crest Clamp Clasp Crimp Crops Cloth Clomp Craps. My scores in those 10 games were three 4s, six 3s and a not-just-lucky 2. I can’t resist pointing out that two of those 4s contain foolish blunders on my part that cost me an extra guess, so in fairness I’ll point out at least twice I have been lucky in guessing right to get 3s when I could have guessed wrong and gotten 4s.
Either way, this is a marked improvement to my previously-over-4 average. I’m convinced that minimal vowels is the way to go. (Also starting with CL or CR, ideally paired with M and P. And vowel goes in the third spot.)
I do like to come up with different starting words though; it’s part of the fun for me. I did think I had it in 3 though. 