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Can we cross check the end game? I found 10 targets, of which I eliminated 3 and damaged 4. The other three remain as clashes

I only damaged three, gp, in rows 1, 3 (right side) and 8, always dropping a Greek letter, leaving four undamaged. Could be wrong

Thanks quisling, you’re probably right. I made that same change in row 7, which creates two words in the down cells. However, not really a phrase so maybe I should have left it alone.

I couldn’t justify the two words, gp. Mind, I was slightly thrown by the double letter in the middle of the second word generated by extra letters, as I can only find one reference to it, which I think may be erroneous. So I didn’t spend long on it after that

I'm confused by the discussion of "damaging" which is not mentioned in the preamble. I assumed it was either eliminate or leave alone, which is I think consistent with the preamble.

Since only 3 erasures left real words in both crossers, my final tally was 3 out of 10 eliminated, 7 left standing. But, I don't submit the puzzle so my free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

From reading about the campaign it sounds like out of tens of thousands of targets, the campaigners were lucky to hit a few dozen.

Yours was my original solution, buddy. It only occurred to me that mutilation might be an option after graham9perkins mentioned it. Whether it’s warranted or not, I don’t know. I agree that it’s odd the preamble is not more explicit if it is required. I fear I had lost interest by then.

i did the same as you Buddy and Quisling (at first). Mutilation of the other three is an interesting concept as that is definitely IAW the theme, a requirement that did puzzle me. However, of those that were mutilated, many survived and therefore not eliminated - so I believe 3+7 cannot be considered incorrect but 3+3+4 could be considered so.

I am grateful to Serpent for introducing me to this very unusual campaign and the seemingly improbable name of its leader. You wouldn’t dare make any of it up! Perhaps the difficulty of the clues reflects the difficulty of the campaign….

On reflection and on balance, I’m with 3+7. Cells which can’t be eliminated should be left untouched, as there’s no halfway house specified in the preamble (and to be picky, I’m not sure that 1/3 remaining counts as survival!)

Hi Quisling, I am convinced 3+7 is right - the aim of the theme was to kill them, not harm/damage them.