<G26> Starting positions - At the beginning of a match, the three alliance ROBOTS must be placed
entirely inside their HOME ZONE. It is the responsibility of the head referee to verify that this
rule is satisfied prior to the start of the match. The match will not be started until all robots
are in the starting position.
Can you move the ringers that are up against the wall of you home zone?
I don’t know. It’s not in the manual.:eek: I’d ask Q&A about that.
I have not seen a rule that says you can’t touch the 9 ringers that are already on the field (your own or your opponents) during automode. However, you cannot score them during automode.
Just remember you can only have one game piece in your possession at a time, and you cannot steal your opponents game piece out of their possession.
It wouldn’t make sense to use the 9 ringers behind you because your already in possession of the strongest game piece on the field. A keeper cannot be canceled out by any of the spoilers, and it cannot be moved once it is placed.
Unless you herded all the opponents ringers into a corner and then played strong D to keep the opponets away from them. That would limit your opponents, I believe, to just nine ringers if you were successful.
Just a thought… I still remember being amazed in our rookie year (04) to discover that the most significant use for the mobile goals was to block the chutes that were used to pass balls to the human players. When you get 1300 teams dreaming up strategies surprising things can come to pass.
Jason
Can you transfer keepers during auto mode? And then knock over the 9 ringers behind you so it would be harder for the opposing team to pick up?
I like that idea a lot. I think that a team that plays keep-away defense puts itself in higher risk of getting a yellow flag, but also can severly limit the opposition. We will try and score during autonomous, but writing an alternative autnomous to push the opponent’s rings sounds like a good idea.
I would think that moving the 9 ringers on your side of the field would be herding, and as far as I know herding is not allowed as you cannot intentionally move more than one inner tube at a time.
This game is so restricted sigh
it wouldnt necessarily be hard to pick up off the floor, especially if the robot has a manipulator for doing excalty that. 
but knocking it down will require more time to pick it up.
yes, but if you have a fast manipulator and a fast bot, this might balance out that fact.
as for herding:
, or herding of a GAME PIECE on the floor while in POSSESSION of another GAME PIECE is not permitted (as this would be considered POSSESSION of more than one GAME PIECE).
so if in auto you dropped the keeper, and then moved all the opponents ringers, would this still be herding? since you are not in possession?
or what about transfering the keeper to another robot?
My take on this:
You could only transfer the keeper after the other robot unloads his, as otherwise he has two game pieces in it’s position and that’s illegal. And quite honestly, I don’t see even the best robot scoring two keeper in fifteen seconds.
[quote] Re: Auto Mode
Do you think it is allowed to know down the ringers though? It will make it harder for the other teams. Also, can you transfer keepers? That way your robot can know down ringers while the other robots score. [/quote]
I think knocking down is legal. What I’m not sure about, is whether or not this counts as ‘herding’. I think it shouldn’t. But I’m not in the GDC 
I’m pretty sure it’s legal, and won’t count as herding provided that only one is touched at a time. Once you get 2 or more, you have multiple tubes in possession. However, I’ll wait for a final word until someone asks.