Herding and possessing

[martin417]

<G34> ROBOTS or HOSTBOTS may only POSSESS or HERD one GAME PIECE at a time. Violation: PENALTY

It is important to design your ROBOT so that it is impossible to inadvertently or intentionally control more than one GAME PIECE at a time. Inadvertent contact will be not be considered HERDING and will not be penalized.

This rule worries me this year. The way I see it, if you are possessing a game piece (in your manipulator) and are driving towards your goal, and you encounter a game piece on the floor, you must drive around it, or somehow avoid it. If you push it along the floor (unavoidable if you hit it due to the bumper rules), you will receive a penalty. I can see a strategy where teams use the game pieces as defense. One could throw or drop tubes in front of offensive bots, or in the extreme, an alliance could line up piece across the floor, creating a "minefield" where no offensive bot can cross without dropping it's tube. If said bot has no floor pick-up capability, they can not score.

Am I seeing this wrong?