Let’s say we are playing defense in our own courtyard and we pick up a loose boulder from an offensive pass or missed offensive high goal shot. What can we do?
Rules say we can only launch when we are in the opponents courtyard (G39). What is a defensive robot to do? Traverse the outerworks to the offensive side to “launch?” It seems natural that we should be able to go to our own Secret Passage and launch the boulder towards the Neutral Zone. What is a humble defender to do with an intercepted boulder?
Park with it.
Run it all the way to the opponent’s courtyard to score it.
Drive it over the drawbridge/sally port/low bar.
Dump it in your Secret passage.
Park with it in your secret passage.
Punch through your secret passage into the neutral zone.
Hold on to it till a partner comes for a ball from the Secret Passage.
Feed it backwards through the EMBRASURE? (Just Q&A’d this one.) EDIT: Nope.
Spin around in circles with it.
Pass it back to the offensive robot for an ASSIST, then remember this isn’t 2014.
EDIT:
Drive into a corner with it mumbling: “Precious. My precious.”
Partial Quote: "…Drive into a corner with it mumbling: “Precious. My precious.”
I think I just woke up everyone in the house by laughing uncontrollably at 2:30 AM. We can store that loose boulder right next to the student who wanted to take the full length wardrobe mirror in the SPY Area to show his drive teams the other end of the field in the reflection (never mind how hard the reversed image driving would be on those drive teams…mirrors are made of glass), now. (My wife heard me laughing uncontrollably a couple of nights ago when I read the Spy Area thread and hit that post…What were you laughing about in the middle of the night she asked?..It was much more humorous reading about it than telling her about it, but, she laughed also once it hit her just right). She understood me waking her up.
You can certainly “Sit on it until it hatches!” So, you steal it, you care for it until it grows up, you feed it, you nurture it, you clothe it…Then you get to send it to College also, OK?..Too bad you can only control one of those things (Boulders), eh?
And just remember, if you store it on your robot or have it in your possession, you won’t be able to bulldoze, steal, or intentionally touch any other boulder (at the same time), without incurring a penalty (Foul…and repeated Fouls concerning Multiple Boulder Possessions equals exactly what?)
It equals possibly watching that Tower of OURS (that your alliance is attacking), on the other end of the field from a distance, as its lights go higher and higher…The absolute wrong direction BTW!)…I personally think I’d be willing to give you one intentionally just to keep you really busy and confused, and then I’d make sure we surrounded your robot with a few more just for fun, as we can always shoot those in the last 20 seconds when you can’t touch us without incurring more fouls!
There is a possible downside to that defensive courtyard strategy or three.
You can certainly “Sit on it until it hatches!” So, you steal it, you care for it until it grows up, you feed it, you nurture it, you clothe it…Then you get to send it to College also, OK?..Too bad you can only control one of those things (Boulders), eh?
Thanks for the help! So it comes down to the interpretation of force when throwing in a forceful way. Perhaps a toss towards the Secret Passage would be allowed.
/If we hold onto our precious until the end of the match, can we take it back to our pit?
If you pick it up, you are denying your opponent a game piece that they can score with. If there is no other boulder, you have shut down their offense, at least temporarily. Kevin has suggested many ways to prolong your opponents displeasure and perhaps enhance your alliances scoring potential
Do watch out for the “double possession” issues as cglrcng points out.
Technically, it is “herding”, which is intended contact with a boulder. “bulldozing” is unintended contact with a boulder that is in your path.
Bulldozing is ok. Herding (while in control of another boulder) is not.
If you are driving along, and there is another boulder in your path, that is bulldozing, and is ok. If you are purposefully going to the boulder to knock it away from an opponent (or push it to one of your alliance members), that is herding, and you better not be in control of another boulder.
Note: If you are going towards 2 or more boulders that are near each other, and you contact all of them, it can be argued you are herding the intended boulder, and bulldozing the unintended boulders.
I just Q&A’d that last night same time as my post! The GDC is really on top of the Q&A this week. Questions that aren’t answered yet must be requiring some actual discussion.
Rule G20 is not specific enough, can your robot use the opponent’s secret passage to get the court yard to go around defenses or do you strictly have to go through opponents defenses?
What part about “ROBOTS may **only **enter or exit their opponent’s SECRET PASSAGE from/to the opponent’s COURTYARD” allows you to go around your opponent’s defense using that route? (Emphasis mine, BTW.)
Trust me, it’s specific enough for the nearest ref to dish out fouls for robots that try that.
No. The rule says that you must enter from the COURTYARD, and can only leave the SECRET PASSAGE going back to the COURTYARD. In other words, you are not allowed to enter your opponent’s SECRET PASSAGE from the NEUTRAL ZONE, nor are you allowed to enter the NEUTRAL ZONE from your opponent’s SECRET PASSAGE, meaning you can’t pass through it.
