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Originally Posted by AJunx
From what I have seen in attending the NASA/VCU regional in Richmond and watching a whole bunch of regionals on the web, here are my thoughts on strategy:
(Here is a simple diagram of the field that I will use to refer to goals)
RED 1---*-*---4---*-*---7 BLUE
RED 2----------5---------8 BLUE
RED 3---*-*---6---*-*---9 BLUE
If you have a very effective capping robot (and you are RED): - Spend the first 1:40 of the round capping goals 1-6
- With 10-20 seconds left, acquire a tetra and make a run for goal 7 or 9. Cap that goal and then defend that goal till the end of the match.
This strategy is particularly effective if you have two partners who are somewhat capable cappers, because you will have a lot of points tetras scored, probably at least one row, and your opponents will not have their home row.
If you have a somewhat effective capping robot (and you are RED): - Spend the first 1:20-1:30 of the round capping goals 1-6
- With 30-40 seconds left, acquire a tetra and make a run for goal 7 or 9. Cap that goal and then defend that goal till the end of the match.
This strategy is effective for similar reasons as to why the first strategy is good. The key to this strategy though, is that your alliance partners will have to make sure that goals 1-3 are safely owned.
If something went terribly wrong and you can't cap or score at all  : - Talk to your alliance partners. Find out if either is capable of capping. Assuming that you will be teamed up with at least one 'capable capper', you might try the following strategy:
- Strive to own goals 1, 5, and 9 or goals 3, 5, and 7. As I'm sure you already know, if you own either set of those three goals, your opponent can have NO rows.
- You might do this by having the capable capper(s) spending some time capping the home row, then attempting to cap goals 7 and 5 (or 9 and 5) with less than 40 seconds remaining. All the while, you can run interference on the other alliance robots trying to cap 5 and 7 (or 9).
- In the last 20 seconds, each of your alliance's three robots can focus on defending just one of the three goals (1,5,9 or 3,5,7). In most matches, having this row along with some other tetras will likely get you the victory.
I have thought about millions of strategies while watching the webcasts, but hopefully these three prove useful.
-Andrew |
That strategy works well in my opinion. Although, I'd out one robot on defense to protect the center goal, and/or the side one that is on the same side of the opposing alliance you plan on capping in the end. Example...you have your home row, or atleast 1 & 3. If you protect 4 & 5, then you can cap 7 and get two rows. If you protect only 4 or 5, you can get one more row if you cap 7. Also, if you have a row already, don't bother putting tetras on the other goals, take the goal closest to the loader that works best, and just cap the stuffing out of it until time runs out, or it appears to be tipping over, in which case you would move to the next closest goal. This works well because you don't have to navigate amongst the other side of the field (saving time).
As for preperations...Get your Drive Team, Coach, HP, and Alliance captain (if applicable) together and go introduce your self to the your alliance partners Drive Team, Coach, and HP. Next, after everyone has met up, go find a place and talk strategy. Typically..atleast one alliance member will have a good scouting report, from which you can discuss the other robots abilities. From there, you can decide on strategy for the next match. This strategy should include: Who is capping which goals, what to do if someone becomes unable to cap (who will take control of capping said goals), who will the defensive bot block on the other team (if applicable), etc.