Aerial Assist Strategy
 

Hey Chief Delphi,
Our team is wondering what other teams' strategies are for Aerial Assist. The game this year requires a lot of cooperation, and knowing strategies that can be compatible with others can help teams be more successful in their competitions.

Re: Strategy
 

Three Robots Per Alliance

1) Inbounds from human player and passes to robot 2. Also can play defense if needed.

2) Retrieves from #1 and tosses over truss. Can also high score if needed.

3 Catches ball from #2 and scores into high goal with a large "sweet spot"

In Autonomus

#3 scores 2 balls in auto, their ball and #1 ball
#1 scores 1 ball

Must have great drivetrain!

Re: Strategy
 

One my team was looking at was just to outscore the other alliance in autonomous then just send two robots two defend the other team while one robot just takes the ball and shoot into high goal making cycles solo. I think this strategy could easily win a lot of qualification matches, maybe not elims. We probably won't even attempt this strategy though cause it kinda takes the "assist" out of aerial assist.

Re: Strategy
 

Flexibility and control.

We planned our robot's roles with different partners and prioritized based on that. Key was being able to make quick assists and play around our alliance partners' robots-- being able to receive easily from human player, being able to transfer the ball quickly and in a controlled manner.

Overall strategy: Win.

Re: Strategy
 

It may win a lot of matches, but may not seed you as high as you like, since the second ranking criterion is cumulative assist points.

Re: Strategy
 

There is that, but we considered that less of an issue since you'll win almost all of your matches. Definitely enough to get you in the top ten. Then again your team may go to 'harder' regionals than we do so it may not be that viable an option for every regional. Even so, with experience from the regionals we go to, being 8-2 is enough to get you in the top 6.

Re: Strategy
 

We are going to try to focus on defense and feeding quickly, this way we do rely on our partners quite heavily, but all that matters is that you are viable in eliminations to be picked as a partner. We figured since there are 49 teams at our regional, and 36 go to eliminations, we could do better if we just focused on our one thing or two things and did them well.

Re: Strategy
 

How do you come up with that number?

Re: Strategy
 

People are thinking that alliances are always 4 teams.

Re: Strategy
 

8 x 4 = 36??

Re: Strategy
 

Alliances are only 4 teams at Championship.

Re: Strategy
 

Regional competitions are still setup with the 3-team alliances in eliminations. It's only at championships that elimination alliances will have 4 teams.

Re: Strategy
 

I think that what he is trying to say here is that 8x4 is not 36, but 32.

Re: Strategy
 

Correct!

So, Alan's question still stands... How do you come up with 36 teams going to elims???

Re: Strategy
 

I'm thinking of making a playbook like for basketball or football with set plays for the different types of alliance set ups. I'm a visual learner so having drawing of what each robot should do during the match I feel would make it easier for each team to know and see before the match. The ideal strategy to me is what Justin said at first but with a slight change:

I also would have robot 1 toss it over the truss and have robot 2 or 3 catch it. I feel having robots in your scoring zone helps minimize defense on your primary scorer as one can block/screen/pick the defense to give space for the scorer to score.

Of course if the scorer can score with little to no problem with the defense on them, then yes, having a 2nd robot playing defense is definitely a better option.