A video guide to playing shutdown defense in Stronghold

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Tune your robots to fire over 4 1/2 ft blockers from the Outerworks folks. And drop your appendage if you have to, to create more space between the defender and your robot.
If you have a low robot linear shooter, that will definitely present some problems as we saw this past week at some events. Everyone should have seen that coming though.

Some people are stubborn, and just think they can somehow just outdrive their way to victory.

Even if you can shoot over the 4.5 foot tall opaque blocker (still legal) many teams will still have to deal with the tall robot blocking their low camera/vision tracking systems if they are mounted low.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones

If my robot couldn't shoot from the outerworks then I would be very worried about even an average defensive robot. Dropping off boulder's in the courtyard is not going to make it easier to score them, and the defensive robot easily pushes those out of the way and into the secret passage without even missing a beat.

Having a bunch of these little pocket modifications and mix ups to a strategy you run is what can provide you the security or comfort of going up against not just an average robot but the unknown. If you only ever did boulder breaching scouts would pick up on it in an instant and then someone would go "just do this" and you would be out of luck again.
In a community full of smart people like this one no matter what strategy you bring to the table, unless its a choke hold someone, somewhere, will figure you out. All that is needed is time.
I posted one of my mixups at 1:00pm in less then twenty minutes someone had formed a solid counter point, and by the 40 minute mark the counter strategy started to form. By 2:30pm someone had called a different strategy to address the same problem.

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Cash4587

I cannot stress enough how important it is to practice with defense. Defense this year is real, and it is tough. The match video above was the first time our drivers had ever seen defense. As you can tell it really, really works. At that point in time we had not tuned our outer works shot and had not practiced low goals. Both of those are extremely important to make sure you can do if you want to be successful in eliminations. 4587 for sure will be focusing on overcoming defense and scoring in autonomous in the coming weeks. Thanks 1806 for opening our eyes about defense and thanks for being incredible alliance partners, we had a blast. See you guys at champs!

You all were great partners, and we can't express how much we appreciated all the effort that you and 5098 gave to get us to another world championship. You both performed above our expectations, and we will be cheering for you guys at the Lonestar regional. That's going to be a tough one! Good Luck and we will see you in St Louis

[wobblymint]

Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones

The Finger Lakes Regional Thread also mentioned 1405's excellent defense, but I can't seem to find any video's. Did anyone who was there film matches for scouting that they could share?

the tape robot saved us so much.

[wobblymint]

Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones

The Finger Lakes Regional Thread also mentioned 1405's excellent defense, but I can't seem to find any video's. Did anyone who was there film matches for scouting that they could share?

i will try to get you the video.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by wobblymint

i will try to get you the video.

Here's what our video team has offered. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDH...TNU4b_rGHTVFjg

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

Here's what our video team has offered. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDH...TNU4b_rGHTVFjg

Nice, I'd hope that with enough successful defensive robots that maybe teams will start to see this as a viable strategy.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones

Nice, I'd hope that with enough successful defensive robots that maybe teams will start to see this as a viable strategy.

Yeah. In our finals two match we actually sheared all 6 bolts that were holding on the sprockets to our first chain driven wheel. I think by the looks of driving, we did some damage in the semis as well.

[The FRC King]

One of the most exciting games to play and i have to admit what an amazing defense by 5098, we always thought about the strategy but were never able to execute it. Since we weren't able to shoot from outerworks or batter we only had the option to score low goals which also very difficult against such a good defensive robot. Congratulations 1806, 4857, and 5098! what an alliance to play against.

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by The FRC King

One of the most exciting games to play and i have to admit what an amazing defense by 5098, we always thought about the strategy but were never able to execute it. Since we weren't able to shoot from outerworks or batter we only had the option to score low goals which also very difficult against such a good defensive robot. Congratulations 1806, 4857, and 5098! what an alliance to play against.

Our biggest concern was trying to defend against both you and 4522 since you shot from different positions. Unfortunately we didn't get that opportunity since 4522 had issues in both matches. Not sure how things would have turned out then, but I'm sure both matches would have been very close.

[SharonO]

Originally Posted by Louisiana Jones

Our biggest concern was trying to defend against both you and 4522 since you shot from different positions. Unfortunately we didn't get that opportunity since 4522 had issues in both matches. Not sure how things would have turned out then, but I'm sure both matches would have been very close.

I have to admit, watching from home, I was really looking forward to the finals matches between teams we have formed friendships with over the years. It was hard to choose who to root for. I was so disappointed to see 4522 sitting still after autonomous. I believe the finals would have been very exciting if all six robots were in action.

[hardcopi]

My team has been debating, with the exception of the pinning rule is it illegal to just push the defender into the moat? For a defender to be mobile they are usually kit-bot style chassis (not always I know) and I am pretty sure we can push them (provided we aren't on the batter) anywhere we want to in 1st gear.

Not talking about breaking their robot just pushing them out of the way.

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by hardcopi

My team has been debating, with the exception of the pinning rule is it illegal to just push the defender into the moat? For a defender to be mobile they are usually kit-bot style chassis (not always I know) and I am pretty sure we can push them (provided we aren't on the batter) anywhere we want to in 1st gear.

Not talking about breaking their robot just pushing them out of the way.

There would be some penalties for pushing them into the moat, I'm not sure how it would be called, but it is illegal for them to make contact with you while in the outerworks, but you may get called for pushing them into the moat to intentionally draw a penalty.

[BenBernard]

It is illegal for them to make conact with you while YOU are in the outerworks. If you push THEM into the outerworks without entering the outerworks yourself, I don't see any rule violations (nor did the refs at the couple of matches where I saw this happen).

[Louisiana Jones]

Originally Posted by BenBernard

It is illegal for them to make conact with you while YOU are in the outerworks. If you push THEM into the outerworks without entering the outerworks yourself, I don't see any rule violations (nor did the refs at the couple of matches where I saw this happen).

I guess depending on the size of your robot and the robot you push you might not have to enter the outerworks yourself to push someone into them, but even if just your bumpers cross the plane of the outerworks a penalty of some kind should be called.

I think if you are able to move a robot around the field without them being able to control their movements at all a pin should be called.