Ideal Alliance Configuration

[ThirteenOfTwo]

In every FIRST game, alliances come up with different ways of approaching the challenge at hand. Some attempt to stop the other alliance from scoring at all costs. Others go on an all-out offensive and hope if carries them through the match, and others still wait for the endgame. However, one common element is that most alliances have "offensive" bots and "defensive" bots who are dedicated to a specific task on the field.

Historically speaking, 2 bots on offense and 1 on defense has been a successful strategy, but there's no guarantee that the trend will continue this year.

What do you think the most successful configuration in Logomotion will be?

Personally, I predict the trend of 2O, 1D to continue this year to maximize rate of tube movement while leaving one bot on defense, but I can foresee alliances trying completely different strategies, like shutting down the other alliance's scoring and then winning the minibot race.

[Bob Steele]

I don't think this game lends itself to exclusively defensive robots. Shuttling the tubes back and forth is much more valuable than simply playing defense...
My ideal configuration would be two small very quick shuttling robots that can bring tubes down to the scoring area with one GREAT tube placer taking their tubes and putting them on the rack...and occasionally playing defense against the other team as it comes down to pick up their tubes.

I think that putting the tubes on the rack.... can easily be done by one good robot with that function..

If you try to keep too many robots in the scoring area which are shuttling back and forth... a defensive robot can effectively play defense on all of them.... by spreading the field you make the defense much more difficult... a small robot that can bring tubes up and drop them into the scoring area somehow... will be quite valuable...defensive robots will have to be really careful to NOT cross that line...

Two robots shuttling back and forth will be tough to defend... with one robot...

It is just like any other sport... you want to unbalance the other team... make them use more of their resources to defend a smaller amount of your resources thus allowing you to gain an edge..

This is a game about moving the tubes.... that is where the game will be decided...

Along with the minibot finale...

[Dkt01]

I agree with 2 offense, 1 defense. That one defense could be easily converted to a shuttling robot. I also think that a successful alliance will have one robot that can easily cover the top two rows, and one that can cover the bottom two (therefore the middle row would be overlap).

[darsk]

To me I think that one bot on shuttle to one bot on scoring. Then one that is able to play defense if necessary and if not that bot can help with offense. I think this years game strongly lends itself to who you are playing. If you are playing a big scorer you will need a defense but if not you can go all out O.

[Chris is me]

The idea that the ideal alliance is anything but 3 robots that could do absolutely everything in the game is silly - nothing would have the strategic flexibility of that. Speaking of ideals in the alliance selection metagame is uninteresting and not nearly as fun as talking about the roles alliance partners can and will take.

I think that a tube relay is going to be nearly essential to an alliance at least at the regional level. Almost every robot will be able to hold tubes, but probably only one or two robots on an alliance will be able to reliably score them. That third bot would be best served in being a "tube passer", running a relay from the feeder lane to the caution line and dropping tubes for a robot to score on the floor. They may score a few of their own, especially in the end game, but an alliance with one or two good scorers will want to keep those good scorers scoring rather than wasting their time with retrieval.

[EricH]

I'm going to say it:

There probably isn't one ideal alliance configuration.

I expect that alliances that win consistently will work together well, have good strategy, have at least good if not excellent execution of that strategy, and have the flexibility to change strategy on the fly.

And that's not just confined to this year. It's every year that doesn't have a gamebreaker, and most of those years as well.

[ThirteenOfTwo]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

The idea that the ideal alliance is anything but 3 robots that could do absolutely everything in the game is silly - nothing would have the strategic flexibility of that. Speaking of ideals in the alliance selection metagame is uninteresting and not nearly as fun as talking about the roles alliance partners can and will take.

I agree. For the purposes of this discussion, we should assume that all robots can do everything in the game, because to do otherwise gives robots rather unfair advantages. Anyways, each robot doing everything in the game but excelling in/focusing on one aspect is what I bet we'll see in Einstein (and other high-level play).

[dodar]

IMO, you have 1 pure offense, 1 pure feeder, and 1 robot running free scooping up the other team's tubes and scoring them/hassling the other team for their tubes. So really, my alliance wouldnt have a true defender but a hybrid of both into 1 robot.