1) Each cell is identified by its row followed by its column, so for example the top left cell is ab
2) With one exception, whenever it's possible a cell will contain a country that begins with its cell name (eg you'd have abkhazia in cell ab if it were a country)
3) Country length is measured by number of letters (so excluding spaces etc)
4) Names used are the standard jetpunk ones
5) Egypt isn't in this quiz
I think the Iraq clue messes with your head, because both of the first-equal-longest country names (St Vincent and DR Congo, 28 letters each) appear here. But if we have a first equal length, then its automatic that no country has more letters than all other countries...
how do you proceed without guessing south africa in the beginning? do you assume you have the highest chances since it's all but one multiple-letter countries in column a, hence more likely than botswana or zimbabwe?
you need to know quite well your 2 border counties - if you manage to go through the world map in your head you'll see that there isn't a single combination where all 3 countries (the one bordering 2 and the 2 that border it) are all multiple words, there's actually only one combination where 2 of them are multi-word; similarly there's only one where they're all 5 letters long
I think Jerry928 has it right: the Iraq clue can be misleading. Perhaps clarify that that the length refers to all countries in the world and not to all countries contained only in the quiz: e.g., "In this quiz, no country has more letters than all other world countries." Otherwise, marvelous fun; well done.
The Zimbabwe one says: "Each column has 2 countries that have a border with the one in row e," or something like that. There is not a single country in row e that has at least 12 borders, so I don't get it.
I may be misunderstanding, I may have left a word out, but just something to look into.
I may be misunderstanding, I may have left a word out, but just something to look into.