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Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
The Martians' zippy little chihuahua of a robot was extremely -- and annoyingly -- fast. Its defensive ability helped take its alliance all the way to the top. Speed coupled with agility was definitely useful in the 2004 game.
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Well, I didn't want to bring these up, because they're not representative of the typical strategies and designs employed by most teams, but I
definitely see the advantages of this sort of thing. In addition to the Martian robot, 188's 2004 robot was also extremely fast and powerful. The Martians' gearbox was number one on my list of things that I wish I'd had a look at, because it was the only one out there that appeared to have comparable speed and power. (Was it a 3-motor, 2-speed design?)
My design (on Woburn's Blizzard 5) incorporated the six biggest motors in the kit, and a two-speed transmission good for 16 fps in high (really!) and 4 fps in low. The 16 was a little too fast (at the edge of controllability), but in the 2003 game, it would have been amazing as-is. We're always ready for the last war, after all.