Quote:
Originally Posted by JesseK
(Apologies, just noticed this comment)
It seemed to me that the better defense for 2014 was a 'pillaring' technique. Pillaring is a tank warfare term, where the tank drives back & forth perpendicular to the cannon's aim. It requires planning & setup, but it makes the tank much harder to hit while making it relatively easy for it to maintain sighting on a target. This is prevalent in the Battlefield series of games.
This same concept works for defense on the FRC field. Sprint into position, then pillar back/forth and force the other team to either push you sideways or drive fast enough around you to get to their goal. The likelyhood of them pushing you is high - yet it's time consuming and usually not as effective as one would thing since it still doesn't solve the problem of them getting to their desired spot for an open shot.
Faster low gear speeds on an open field also give more opportunities to clip/turn a corner of a shooting bot - much more effective than raw pushing.
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While this is a great defensive technique for many years, 2014 included, it was a better technique for years such as 2013, when one had to navigate the length of the field, around obstacles, and pushing a robot into a specific area was a liability.
In 2014, pushing was much less risky as there were no safe zones. T-bone pinning a robot had a bit more risk than "pillaring" but a lot more benefit - the robot is essentially immobile for the duration of the pin. I don't think "pillaring" was definitively better in 2014 just because of the T-bone pin and the relatively wide space to drive around. It is an important part of a defensive strategy but not the end-all.