The third genre we'll cover is San-Anko! This type is pretty obscure. It was originally developed by Nikoli reader Subaru Saito for issue 175 of the magazine, but was rejected for unknown reasons. (See #12 here.) Regardless, this type is neat! It's a bit tricky to make break-ins that aren't <insert break-in to Puzzle 223 here>, but there are some interesting interactions that can occur between different number groups. (That said, I wonder how much mileage one could get by allowing some of the parameters to be adjustable.)
Rules: Place a number between 1 and 3 in some empty cells. Numbers must appear in groups of 3 orthogonally connected cells with the same number; different groups cannot touch at an edge. Clues on shaded cells indicate the sum of numbers in the (up to four) orthogonally adjacent cells.
The first grid is fairly vanilla, with a common starting point and a fairly smooth ride around the grid. The second is significantly more difficult, illustrating some more subtle interactions between clues. The puzz.link interface for San-Anko allows you to drag numbers and mark Xs and Os for cells that can't and can (respectively) contain numbers. Feel free to use these.
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