[MrJohnston]

"How hard is FIRST Stronghold?"

In terms of building a robot that can successfully do *something* to score points, it's the easiest game since I've been around.... There will be very few robots at district events that don't put up at least five points for their alliance, whereas, last year, there were many that struggled to get a single tote onto a scoring platform - and a handful that tended to knock more stacks down than they could create.

In terms of really taking over a match, it's harder. In order to really take over matches consistently, a robot cannot do just one thing (think 2013's FCS, last year's feeder station bots, etc.). To truly take over a match, a robot will have to cross 3-4 defenses consistently and score a few goals - or successfully run 7-8 cycles, scoring into the high goal. These are tall orders...

I really think the GDC hit the nail on the head with this one: Every team should be able to design a robot that can contribute every match. However, there is enough variation and difficulty that teams that always like to push the limits of their abilities, have room within the game to do so.

Autonomous possibilities alone are fascinating. On the "easy" side, a robot could start in the spy box and score in either goal or roll forward through a single defense. Adding an additional action greatly complicates the routine as attempting to score after rolling over the defense will require the robot to have the correct electronics to locate itself on the field and find a the target.... Adding a second shot increases the difficulty exponentially.

The climbing is a nice touch, but not so many points that the points available in the endgame overwhelm those scored throughout a match... Frankly, I could have seen more of a scoring emphasis here: Bonus points for alliances that have all three robots scale would have been been interesting.