[JesseK]

I don't think a fetcher would work well in a fetcher+2xhangers alliance setup. There's just not enough flexibility to respond to situations on the field, and the fetcher's utility is diminished towards the end of the match if it has done its job very well.

For a strictly 'fetcher' bot (good name btw), I would say a reliable fetch and a reliable minibot are a must. The allliance would be composed of a good hanger, a good fetcher, and a defensive robot (who should also have a minibot). The Hanger and the Fetcher gather tubes for the first minute minute or so (2-3 trips each) at which point the Hanger begins hanging and the Fetcher keeps fetching. At that point we're looking at 6-9 tubes available for hanging (more under no defense), with minibot options for endgame. The idea here is to prevent clutter in the scoring zone by only keeping 1 robot in the scoring zone during Hanging, thus freeing up the other 2 robots to do other tasks (fetch, defense, minibot) and still having a viable option to respond to the opposing alliance.

Thus, to incorporate it all into requirements for a fetcher bot:
-- Fast, as in, able to minimize the time traversing from one safe zone to the other (12+ fps for heavy bot, 14-16 fps if it's like 148's 2008 bot)
-- Able to avoid defense: either a small footprint + agile drive train (tumbleweed) OR a heavy robot + drive train shifting to push through defense
-- Effective pickup mechanism from the far side (Quick, "smart alignments" etc)
-- Can signal to the HP which game piece it wants
-- Can snipe opponent tubes from the floor
-- Effective drop-off mechanism on the close side ("drive-by" delivery desired)
-- An effective MINIBOT that always gets at least 10 points
-- Competent drive team that can place tubes in the position desired by the Hanger bot (e.g. all triangles in 1 area while all circles in another; yet directly deliver the squares to the Hanger bot so they're placed immediately)