[Guest]

Can you solve this following puzzle?

Back = 211

Fade = 188

Gage = ???

e = i

...and you should be ashamed for looking!

[Guest]

Very clever, and congrats to plainglazed.

But two comments:

It is not an alphametic and the process is 4 steps.

(1) Convert each letter to its positional term (LETTERS TO NUMBERS)

(2) Convert each number <positional term> to its cardinal equivalent (NUMBERS TO WORDS)

(3) Convert each new letter to its positional term (LETTERS TO NUMBERS)

(4) Sum the numbers

An alphametic is an equation whose digits are represented by letters. Here, the letters do not represent digits, but numbers. So it is indeed a cypher, but not an alphametic.

In order for one to see e = i, we need to add an extra step. To sum the numbers of each converted letter. So, in a way, it is a 5-step process.

I had to look up "alphametic" and I thought that this did meet the critieria...but I defer to your explanation

Also I said three steps because it only takes three steps to "break the code" After the three steps are complete you have everything you need to solve the alphametic err cypher...but I am glad you thought it was clever.