ICEcrown Week 1: Death's Head Sarsaparilla vs Taranis

[The Monsterworks]

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The Principals


(2) Death's Head Sarsaparilla (The Monsterworks): 2 speed / 1 traction / 1 torque / 17 weapon / 8 armour (+1 teeth) - shell spinner

vs.

(8) Taranis (Team British Robotics): 5 speed / 4 traction / 1 torque / 14 weapon / 6 armour - vertical spinner

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Technicals


1. My weapon does 17 damage and has 11 armour on the teeth and 10 on the shell. His does 14 damage and has 10 armour and will likely be giving up corner damage for a one point bonus to my horizontal spinner. Basically, on the REDDIT damage scale, I'll be doing eight points of damage. He'll be doing four. My weapon survives a few hits. His shouldn't last more than one in working order.

2. He's a good deal faster, but he's still no speed demon - definitely not fast enough to pull off a box rush or effectively crowd and smother DHS.

3. DHS has a dry sump + flop tube + fuel injection system that allows its engine to run upside-down. It also has its smokestack and signpost to act as a srimech in the mold of Megabyte or Ziggo in the event that it gets flipped.

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Tactics


a) Start spinning up immediately and move away from the wall at an angle to avoid closing the distance between us too much. The idea is just to avoid the somewhat remote possibility of being surprise OOTAd on the opening hit. Once I'm into my power band, go from avoidance to offense, moving aggressively towards him.

b) Get into my power band and hit him like a goddamned freight train. I have an enormous weapon-to weapon advantage and his weapon (or any other part of his bot that touches mine while it's spinning) is toast. This should prove decisive.

c) Avoid walls, corners, and hazards to maximize the chances of my shell remaining at high speed. Particularly stay away from any corner hazards that he tries to farm up to yellow or above by driving over them himself.

d) Basically, if I knock out his weapon, don't let him have any luck controlling me as a wedge. Stay mobile to avoid being stuffed, and - heck - even getting up to 12 power will do 6 damage to him.

e) Drive smart, evaluate and adjust to unexpected strategies, avoid hazards, self-right if I need to, and be aggressive whenever I can and cagey whenever I'm not up tae speed.


Good luck, mate.

[British-Robotics]

Since I'm facing a full body spinner I might as well try and go for broke. I'll need to attack him head on right at the start and rely on my weapon's power to try and cease the spinning momentum. I want to quickly close down DHS and not give him time or space to allow his weapon to spin up at full strength.

I want to stay mobile and carry on pressuring DHS in hope to lead him to the arena walls or the hazards and slow down his weapon if successful. I must also be wary not to drive myself into those hazards.

Also try to last 3:00 :P

Good luck mate, this should be a right cracker.