G40 and G41

[Caleb Sykes]

I forgot to mention that the G40 blue box is also silly because, in the "Examples NOT meeting this rule" section, both of the examples A and B would also be violations of G39. So as written, a robot doing one of these examples would receive a pair of TECH FOULS.

[Jon Stratis]

From everything I've seen about this game, it feels like the intent is to avoid making boulders a limited resource. They make sure there are always enough boulders on the field for each robot to have one. They make sure each robot can only have one boulder at a time. They make sure, with rules like this, that alliances can't move boulders around to starve the other alliance.

Now, compare this with other years, like Breakaway. Part of the strategy design with breakaway was to push the soccer balls to one side of the field, giving you more scoring opportunities and starving the other alliance of scoring opportunities. That part of the strategy discussion is almost non-existent this year.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Now, compare this with other years, like Breakaway. Part of the strategy design with breakaway was to push the soccer balls to one side of the field, giving you more scoring opportunities and starving the other alliance of scoring opportunities. That part of the strategy discussion is almost non-existent this year.

The comparison to Breakaway is important as that was an important strategy in 2010. One aspect of this game that would make this an even bigger issue this year is that your human players receive game pieces your opponents score, whereas in 2010 you receive your own scored game pieces. So in 2010, if the opposing alliance had 2/3rds of the balls in their general control, you could still cycle your 1/3rd of the balls repeatedly with good strategy and coordination. In 2016, if the opposing alliance controls 2/3rds of the balls, your alliance scoring 1/3rd of them will just result in your opponents having control of every ball!

Ball control and starvation absolutely will be an important part of the game this year, but it is sufficiently difficult that it will not be overwhelmingly dominant and "checkmate" strategies aren't really possible.