Quote:
Originally Posted by whackedwatchdog
Just to throw a quick word out there about playing defense on a tower hanging in the far zone; it is dangerous. Your robot is about 45 feet away, with (two) towers in the way, and all the chaos that exists on a Breakaway field. Unless you are very confident of your position on the field, it's best to simply back away when you hear the 20 second "bell." About midway through the Peachtree regional, we "intentionally" hit another team that was against the tower, deploying a ramp. I was driving, and I've continually replayed what happened; I still don't remember even touching them, but it just goes to show, it's best to be careful!
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Indeed. It might do you good to break down the maneuver into simple steps.
- Get to the tower before they do, presumably just before finale period begins, but perhaps later if the hanging robot persists in chasing and scoring balls in their near zone. Unless they've got an ungodly amount of balls to score in their home zone (what, you didn't clear their zone of balls prior to the finale?
), you probably want to stay between them and the tower and keep it that way through the end of the match. To defend any last-second ball scoring, use corner pushing and bumping and scattering of ammo to try and botch up their shots at this point - this keeps you in better defensive position when they attempt the hang. - Setup your defense at least a foot away from the tower.
- Park perpendicular to their approach path. Make it obvious to the referees that the only way you can contact the tower is by an opponent pushing you into it. Learning how to drive in a defensive arc would be a good thing to know how to do.
- Keep your movement to a minimum once in position. This is your territory. You own it. You're the Spartans at Thermopylae (at the beginning, not the end
). Stand your ground. - Only attempt a tower block if it is strategically important to do so; e.g. it's a close elimination round match and their hanging will likely dictate the outcome, and your robot has no realistic way to counterract those 2 points by contributing to offense with 20 seconds left on the clock.
This will work better against the majority of hangers which take a longer time to hang - know your opponent's capabilities - if you know it takes them a full 20 seconds to hang, delay them for at least 5 seconds - you may then elect to leave the area to minimize penalty risk, and go do something else. Your primary goal is to make it physically impossible for their robot to hang in the time left you've given them. Your secondary goal is to maximize the pressure you put on their drive team to execute the hanging maneuver.
If you're up against a vertical pole gripping bot who can hang in 3-5 seconds, probably the worst case robot to defend, you're going to have to have more skill and persistence to keep them away. If you've blocked them on one side of the tower, they will likely try to cross the bump to try and hang from the other side. Be ready. If they break free and attempt this, use your drivetrain to cut them off, forcing them toward the edges of the field in order to cross the bump. Waste their time as much as possible. You might even enlist the help of a middle zone robot to seal them off from all angles of their tower. If you use two robots to block the tower (seriously, there aren't any balls around you two to score at all?
), one in each zone, neither of you would have to move much, if at all.
Again, I stress that you shouldn't pursue this strategy if the field sets up for you to do something else that cancels out their hang - scoring 2 for the good guys is the same as denying 2 for the opposition, and the risk of major penalty is removed. Just be sure your alliance is capable of executing such coordinated offensive maneuvers in a compressed amount of time. If you doubt your capability, then the tower block strategy becomes more worth the risk.
Good luck to all who try it.
All we know is the "Oh my God, No data/Radio...reset...reset" dance before our matches! - tenfour [more] 
16-03-2010, 08:00
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