w00t!
BlackRose
Speed: 7
Armour: 8 (+1 to front set-ups, -1 to everywhere else)
Weapon: 0
Traction: 7
Falling Down
Speed: 7
Armour: 9 (6)
Weapon: 0 (3)
Traction: 6
As much of a bitch as this final is going to be, it's against Joey, so I'll force myself to enjoy it, lol. Wedge set-up, please.
(if you don't want to read a really ghey RP, skip to the bottom to read the summary :dawg: )
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All right, let's take a look at the stats. Equal speed, I'm slightly winning in traction...equal in ZERO weapon power unless he opts for a weapon. Armour...bleh. He's got more if he goes weaponless, yet has less if he does opt for a weapon. He has 2WD compared to my 4WD, so he may be a bit more manoeuvrable. I however can put all my traction to the ground, so I'll definitely win a pushing battle.
Let's consider his set-ups. For a moment, let's say he goes the unlikely route and uses a weapon. This makes his armour worse while giving him a weapon that would probably not aid him much, if at all. My body armour is 7. Repeated hits upon the same area may show a dent after a while, but he is not going to win a damage category simply using that. If he does this, it would be a bad idea for him.
Now let's look at the much more likely route, his weaponless set-up, which consists of taking his entire weapon assembly out and slabbing extra armour on inside the robot. This is the more difficult set-up I would fight because his main armour becomes akin to that of my front set-ups, while leaving me with a -2 main body armour disadvantage. Plus, all those hinged spikes around pose slight problems too.
The blades on the wedge don't worry me. They're meant to cut into wheels if an opponent drives down off the wedge, not up it. I intend to drive up his wedge or sideways off it, if he gets totally under me, and then attack him once I'm off of him.
Also, this is an interesting point I'd like to bring up. Falling Down's hinged pieces, spike or skirt or wedge are both spring-loaded and magnetized. This is entirely possible, to be quite fair, but...since they are on all four sides, and they put much pressure on the arena floor to get under robots, at the very least Falling Down should have his mobility slightly hindered by this, as he won't be able to put all his traction down with other forces around the robot being dragged down. And if they don't hinder Falling Down's mobility at all, well then they're not really effective at getting under too many things, are they? There can't really be a compromise here. Either Falling Down won't move around seamlessly, or his sprung pieces won't work as well as he'd like. This is why I have only one spring-loaded wedge at the front, underneath my hinged one, and have only hinged everywhere else, to avoid a lot of mobility problems. However, this is just something to think about. I am not exactly counting on this so I'll write a strategy prepared to take him on with full mobility.
So...let's get some actual fighting strategy into this thing, huh? Charge at him, but carefully. He may well want to dodge around a charge and attack my sides. If he swerves, actually try to drift into his front or sides when turning, so I don't lose momentum. If this doesn't look to work, stop and turn. I want to go at him head-on and see how well his sprung wedge works against my hinged spiky "Underall" wedges, especially my sprung one underneath. If I get under with the hinged one, then I might be okay. Take a look at his wheels. They're way at the back and if I can get under enough of his main body, his wheels will definitely get raised off the floor, and I can take him to the hazard, despite not having anything to hold him on the wedge. If I get him with the sprung wedge, or we deadlock, push him back since he will have his wheels on the ground, and to get him to the hammer. If he tries to spin while I'm pushing him, or reverse j-hook, he'll probably turn us both a bit first before separating. In any case, stop if I see him turning. Keep the front on as much as possible.
Now, if he gets under my front, I want to be going at a fast pace so that I fly right over him. I don't want to back up and go at him again, as that might not be such a good idea if he can keep getting under me. I want to fly right over him and IMMEDIATELY back into him with the rear wedge, which may be more effective than my front wedge. In any case, I'm not too scared of the spikes if I crash into them. More than likely they'll turn me aside and cause me to push him in a circle instead of getting under me. I do think I can get under them though, so charge without fear. If he's able to get the front in quick enough again, keep using him as a ramp. Hey, it gets me aggression points!
If having some goes at the front is not working at all in my favour, then I'll have to attack the sides. This I will not do unless there is no other way, or unless I really do see him having trouble moving around. I have better control to overcome his manoeuvrability, so try some nifty driving to get him to expose the side, then slam into him. Try as hard as I can to get under his spikes and skirts.
Ultimately, when I have him under my control, I want to send him into the drum or the wedged walls and dump the fucker onto his back. The wedge is the only real thing I'm worried about and I don't believe the spikes can get under much. Once I've got him flipped, get under him whenever and wherever I can, and send him to the hammers, since that hazard can deal the most damage. Rack up as much damage as I can against him, since he has more armour.
Speaking of hazards, if I'm in a tight spot, park my butt (literally) in front of a kill saw and wait for him to come near. If he flies at me head-on, he could get completely under me but his momentum may carry him onto the killsaw and separate us. If he doesn't, though, just get him into the drum/wedged walls.
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Summary: We've equal speed, I can out-push, he might have better manoeuvrability, but sprung and magnetized hinged bit may hinder that. He probably will use the armour set-up. Get in his face, get under and in control, and take him to the drum/wedged walls to flip him. Then get him to the hammer. If he gets under my front, use my momentum to fly over him. Do this as many times as possible for good aggression points and possibly strategy. If I'm near a killsaw and he gets completely under, he might drive himself onto the saws and we'll separate. All in all, do not give him a single moment of breathing room, and simply mop the floor with him as much as I can within 3 minutes.
La bonne chance Joey et voici
BlackRose vs. Falling Down
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That Kode Guy
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BlackRose vs. Falling Down
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joeychevron
- Posts: 490
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm
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BlackRose vs. Falling Down
<blockquote class='quote_blockquote'><dl><dt>Chapterhouse - Falling Down</dt><dd> 1991</dd></dl><div>Soft and blushing pale in secrets
Breathe on me those words we love
Silent joy I'm thinking of
Take me to a world above
Falling down, I'm on my own now
Sinking in a reeling girl[/quote]
...Firstly, I feel the need to say 'wow' in some form since I had honestly doubted at the start of the series whether I'd even manage to finish above Sparkey and the other detritus that usually floats around the bottom of the table, so for Falling Down to outperform my and everyone else's hopes and get to the final against BlackRose, a most awesome machine, is something I never really expected. Up until now, I guess ;P Clearly I am here though, so I shall fight for this with all I've got and believe strongly that a victory is very, very achievable for my little wedgy box, but whichever way it goes it should be a good matchup. ^^
Keeping with broadly the same strategy as used for the previous fight is quite a tempting thought, since it won me that, and BlackRose is quite similar to Zombie Killer (except with more armour and traction). One thing last week taught me is that peoples' strategies will differ, though, so I shall devote a great deal more time to BlackRose's weak points and come up with a way to beat it specifically (although obviously as with the last few fights I shall use the setup of extra armour and spikes on the flat end, wedge end, and on the diagonals of the wheel pods).
Firstly, BlackRose has hinged skirts or wedges on all four sides, some of which are also sprung, which will impede its maneuvrability greatly compared to Zombie Killer, and therefore at the very least cancelling out any slowing the writer might think comes with the magnetism (for the record, I have always maintained that any slowing is barely noticable since we aren't talking super-strong magnets, they're only as strong as they need to be to hold the edge in question to the floor under moderate provocation, and combined with the faster 2WD turning I believe that for FD to not turn on the spot faster than BlackRose is a literal impossibility). From the perspective of the images, too, BlackRose seems to be, relatively, longer and narrower than ZK was, and this has major implications for the turning speed of BlackRose as its wheels will be moving more sideways than forwards, as they'll be further from the centre of turning, and the resulting friction will slow it down quite a bit while the 2WD Falling Down has no such issues as the wheels don't move sideways at all (and with the wheels being towards the spike end, this of course makes it a lot easier for me to point the robot where I want to whilst with 4WD robots your pivot point is less clear). Also, BlackRose's little 'teeth' on its wedges look to me to be very fragile - they're about a third of the width of FD's spike tips - and I would be very surprised if all of them remained perfectly straight or even attached during the course of the fight - and of course if one gets bent down it lifts the entire wedge up and can render it useless...
Reading the stats, BlackRose's speed equals mine, but with the 2WD I should be more manoevrable and able to get at its sides..and while the traction is higher, there is another factor that is worth bringing to general attention. Clearance. Concentrating on the diagram (as I am sadly wont to do at 2am at night) BR doesn't seem to have a great deal of clearance in its preferred orientation, compared to when inverted, and even when inverted it's not all that much, meaning it should be very easy to remove its traction (hopefully!), even with four wheels, and shove it around where I like as the side of the robot will ground out the wheels closest to the floor. Upwards of 8 armour on the front is not to be sniffed at, but downwards of 8 - as on the rest of the robot - does fall into the category where my spikes and blades should hopefully be able to do damage.
Now...assuming you've read all that (and if you haven't, go back and read it! ;P) I shall move on to something resembling actual tactics; these shall be to take the fight immediately to the east side of the arena (you may know this as 'the dark side') as that is the side which is bereft of a drum - I believe strongly that my maneuvrability advantage will allow me to avoid the spring loaded wedge end of BlackRose and go for the sides, rear, and corners, so I should be able to get away without needing to flip it to get control (and I think he may want to use that as a tactic against myself, given how much it's cropped up in past strategies). The hammers shall be my hazard of choice, either corner will do, but basically I shall get underneath the sides, or rear, or the rear or front corners (in roughly that order of preference unless a really good opportunity comes up) and use my sprung hinged spikes with weakly magnetic tips at the front (wedge) end of the robot - again, unless an opportunity comes up to get underneath BlackRose's skirts from the rear that I cannot turn down - to get in underneath and get control over BlackRose. So I don't lose control, I shall then push or carry with swiftness and aggression - but not ram or cause BlackRose to fall off, although it can't get any puchase as the spikes and barbs thereon will hopefully high centre the robot on the wedge, along with the tyre cutting blades - the robot over to the hammers for some pounding, and then once that is done go for a period of very fast and aggressive ramming and pushing while never letting it get any sort of control back, being careful to avoid both the sections of BR I deem undesirable to attack (the front and rear, although mainly the front), and the wedge walls/spikes/killsaws/hammers myself and to keep within my desired section of arena, and then when the opportunity next arises go in under the sides/front - if I have become detached, which is something I hope to avoid - and repeat the same tactic...except towards the end of the fight, when I intend to leave myself enough time to get underneath BlackRose and instead of the hammers, high centre it on my body and then carry it to the drum for a last, crowd pleasing and hopefully points scoring flip. In theory at least. ;P Don't let BlackRose ever recuperate from the onslaught or ever regain control, always try and keep control over it be it by ramming and pushing or by getting underneath and using the hazards while it's high centred. Ideally, never let it get out from on top of me and just let it be a single continuous event of the robot being trapped on top of Falling Down.
In the event of a failure of strategy, the positioning of Falling Down's wheels and its relatively high ground clearance - and the fact that travel on all the hinged parts is limited to prevent self stranding (look at the picture) - should enable me to get off the wedge quite quickly and then come in for another charge. At the sides I have spikes and sprung skirts and at the wedge end I have spikes and the sprung magnetic wedge anyway, so it has to go through two layers in those parts, and I should hopefully be able to get in between the little serrations - even more so if they've broken like I believe they well could, heh - with the spikes and totally negate the wedge at the back end.
Avoid the killsaws as ever, as I do not believe they are a hazard I can use effectively. Be aggressive but don't do anything stupid, this is the final after all and I want to win this more than ever after two failures - Falling Down's come so far after all, and done so well, for it to end in defeat here. (besides which Kody already has a championship, sorry dude ;P)
With the requisite arrogant bit over with in that last paragraph, all I can think of else to say is the best of luck to Kody, my friend, and may the best robot win. ^___^
Breathe on me those words we love
Silent joy I'm thinking of
Take me to a world above
Falling down, I'm on my own now
Sinking in a reeling girl[/quote]
...Firstly, I feel the need to say 'wow' in some form since I had honestly doubted at the start of the series whether I'd even manage to finish above Sparkey and the other detritus that usually floats around the bottom of the table, so for Falling Down to outperform my and everyone else's hopes and get to the final against BlackRose, a most awesome machine, is something I never really expected. Up until now, I guess ;P Clearly I am here though, so I shall fight for this with all I've got and believe strongly that a victory is very, very achievable for my little wedgy box, but whichever way it goes it should be a good matchup. ^^
Keeping with broadly the same strategy as used for the previous fight is quite a tempting thought, since it won me that, and BlackRose is quite similar to Zombie Killer (except with more armour and traction). One thing last week taught me is that peoples' strategies will differ, though, so I shall devote a great deal more time to BlackRose's weak points and come up with a way to beat it specifically (although obviously as with the last few fights I shall use the setup of extra armour and spikes on the flat end, wedge end, and on the diagonals of the wheel pods).
Firstly, BlackRose has hinged skirts or wedges on all four sides, some of which are also sprung, which will impede its maneuvrability greatly compared to Zombie Killer, and therefore at the very least cancelling out any slowing the writer might think comes with the magnetism (for the record, I have always maintained that any slowing is barely noticable since we aren't talking super-strong magnets, they're only as strong as they need to be to hold the edge in question to the floor under moderate provocation, and combined with the faster 2WD turning I believe that for FD to not turn on the spot faster than BlackRose is a literal impossibility). From the perspective of the images, too, BlackRose seems to be, relatively, longer and narrower than ZK was, and this has major implications for the turning speed of BlackRose as its wheels will be moving more sideways than forwards, as they'll be further from the centre of turning, and the resulting friction will slow it down quite a bit while the 2WD Falling Down has no such issues as the wheels don't move sideways at all (and with the wheels being towards the spike end, this of course makes it a lot easier for me to point the robot where I want to whilst with 4WD robots your pivot point is less clear). Also, BlackRose's little 'teeth' on its wedges look to me to be very fragile - they're about a third of the width of FD's spike tips - and I would be very surprised if all of them remained perfectly straight or even attached during the course of the fight - and of course if one gets bent down it lifts the entire wedge up and can render it useless...
Reading the stats, BlackRose's speed equals mine, but with the 2WD I should be more manoevrable and able to get at its sides..and while the traction is higher, there is another factor that is worth bringing to general attention. Clearance. Concentrating on the diagram (as I am sadly wont to do at 2am at night) BR doesn't seem to have a great deal of clearance in its preferred orientation, compared to when inverted, and even when inverted it's not all that much, meaning it should be very easy to remove its traction (hopefully!), even with four wheels, and shove it around where I like as the side of the robot will ground out the wheels closest to the floor. Upwards of 8 armour on the front is not to be sniffed at, but downwards of 8 - as on the rest of the robot - does fall into the category where my spikes and blades should hopefully be able to do damage.
Now...assuming you've read all that (and if you haven't, go back and read it! ;P) I shall move on to something resembling actual tactics; these shall be to take the fight immediately to the east side of the arena (you may know this as 'the dark side') as that is the side which is bereft of a drum - I believe strongly that my maneuvrability advantage will allow me to avoid the spring loaded wedge end of BlackRose and go for the sides, rear, and corners, so I should be able to get away without needing to flip it to get control (and I think he may want to use that as a tactic against myself, given how much it's cropped up in past strategies). The hammers shall be my hazard of choice, either corner will do, but basically I shall get underneath the sides, or rear, or the rear or front corners (in roughly that order of preference unless a really good opportunity comes up) and use my sprung hinged spikes with weakly magnetic tips at the front (wedge) end of the robot - again, unless an opportunity comes up to get underneath BlackRose's skirts from the rear that I cannot turn down - to get in underneath and get control over BlackRose. So I don't lose control, I shall then push or carry with swiftness and aggression - but not ram or cause BlackRose to fall off, although it can't get any puchase as the spikes and barbs thereon will hopefully high centre the robot on the wedge, along with the tyre cutting blades - the robot over to the hammers for some pounding, and then once that is done go for a period of very fast and aggressive ramming and pushing while never letting it get any sort of control back, being careful to avoid both the sections of BR I deem undesirable to attack (the front and rear, although mainly the front), and the wedge walls/spikes/killsaws/hammers myself and to keep within my desired section of arena, and then when the opportunity next arises go in under the sides/front - if I have become detached, which is something I hope to avoid - and repeat the same tactic...except towards the end of the fight, when I intend to leave myself enough time to get underneath BlackRose and instead of the hammers, high centre it on my body and then carry it to the drum for a last, crowd pleasing and hopefully points scoring flip. In theory at least. ;P Don't let BlackRose ever recuperate from the onslaught or ever regain control, always try and keep control over it be it by ramming and pushing or by getting underneath and using the hazards while it's high centred. Ideally, never let it get out from on top of me and just let it be a single continuous event of the robot being trapped on top of Falling Down.
In the event of a failure of strategy, the positioning of Falling Down's wheels and its relatively high ground clearance - and the fact that travel on all the hinged parts is limited to prevent self stranding (look at the picture) - should enable me to get off the wedge quite quickly and then come in for another charge. At the sides I have spikes and sprung skirts and at the wedge end I have spikes and the sprung magnetic wedge anyway, so it has to go through two layers in those parts, and I should hopefully be able to get in between the little serrations - even more so if they've broken like I believe they well could, heh - with the spikes and totally negate the wedge at the back end.
Avoid the killsaws as ever, as I do not believe they are a hazard I can use effectively. Be aggressive but don't do anything stupid, this is the final after all and I want to win this more than ever after two failures - Falling Down's come so far after all, and done so well, for it to end in defeat here. (besides which Kody already has a championship, sorry dude ;P)
With the requisite arrogant bit over with in that last paragraph, all I can think of else to say is the best of luck to Kody, my friend, and may the best robot win. ^___^