>It reminds me of Towers of Hanoi, which has a numerical solution.
I understand that the Towers of Hanoi is a perfect example of a complicated problem, which gets extremely simple as soon as recursion is used.
>The challenge at this point for me is to figure out a method to solve it quickly.
It helps to start with one dot, and then bring other dots that are connected to it close to the first dot. Put dots that are not connected to the first dot (and the connected group) apart for a start.
Sometimes a whole group of dots has to be flipped (as in a mirror image), to change a connecting line to the outside of the group.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)