Acrid vs Magnolia Grande

[V900]

robots

Middleweight:
Acrid



Speed: 7
Torque: 3
Traction: 5
Armor: 9
Weapon: 6 (saw)

Armor: 10 (+1 plow)
Weapon: 5 (lifter)

Everyone's favorite crocodile-dog is here to flop around and give your robot AIDS.

Wedge on the saw configuration is hinged 90 degrees in both directions. Saw arm can rotate up to 90 degrees in both directions.
Plow on the secondary configuration can rotate 360 degrees.

It's 4 (four) eyes have bright green LEDs in them that can glow in darker environments. Saw applies a green paint smear on the opponent. Might or might not make a mockup of these. We'll see if I can do so before the deadline.

armor bonus looks like this:

MW: Magnolia Grande II


Magnolia Grande II by Floating Castle Robotics on Sketchfab

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The first serious evolution of The Monsterworks' 'other' horizontal spinner, this big, bad, meaty undercutter is themed after an early WWII era bomber, with a dieselpunk aesthetic and a functional ICE with the fuel pump, dry sump, etc. setup required to run inverted if necessary. Its exhaust pipes are fully functional, howl like a demonic legion under full throttle, and will occasionally spit flames when accelerating to especially high revs.

The ICE setup isn't just for looks, theme, and sound, however. Sloped plows designed to deflect blows from horizontal spinners as opposed to absorbing them are everywhere, and they work. HS basically never get corner damage anymore. So I'm taking advantage of the unique power curve of internal combustion-powered blades. It's a far more pronounced 'S' curve than that of electric motors. They tend to stay longer in low revs, accelerate faster and more suddenly, and stay longer in high revs, close to full power. Basically, big, meaty hits will knock an ICE-powered blade into low revs, but it should recover very quickly from the type of glancing blows that are the norm with most plows, allowing it to keep its speed better and continue to dish out hits. While other spinners struggle, Grande will continues to chip away at those plows, creating openings and gradually scoring corner damage that they won't be able to stand up to for long.

In terms of further innovations, this iteration of Magnolia Grande is more properly invertible than the last, with its dual-pronged 'figurehead' adjustable in height (and removable) and larger and smaller tires available to allow its mighty weapon the option of sneaking over low-slung plows while in overcutter mode or still being able to hit low-profile opponents if flipped. Further complicating matters for the other guys are the (again, removable) upward-facing teeth on its blade (yes, they clear its bodywork with room to spare), which allow it a superior grip on their clamps, overhead weapons, and the edges of their plows.

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Stats: 4 Speed // 2 Traction // 1 Torque // 16 Weapon // 7 Armour

Stats: 4 Speed // 2 Traction // 1 Torque // 15 Weapon // 8 Armour (+1 blade)

Gonna take an educated guess here and assume MW's strategy will be basically along the lines of "umm well akshually mister writer even though acrid beat skoll and my bot has the exact same statline as skoll, im using an ICE engine which operates quite differently from the type of motor skoll uses. you see, [wall of text goes here]". But from what I understand, it slows down a lot from big hits and less so from small "shoves".

So:

• You wanna play big rams? I'll play big rams. Box rush, slam him hard, back off, repeat. Limit pushing to a minimum and only do so if his blade's pretty much stopped. Aim to punt him into the drums most preferrably, then the purple wall if drums aren't happening, then finally the regular ol side walls if neither are happening.
• I have the speed to reposition myself if he tries camping it out. Good luck chasing me in a wide open square. His only hope of catching me is if I retreat into a corner or something, but I can easily notice and avoid that.
• He can't play the traction card because he has the exact same spd:tra disparity I do. That, and my rams are mostly gonna be back-and-forth motions. Not much more than a few degrees whenever needed, so control is largely a non-factor for me.
• Obviously watch out if he does the Tombstone thing. Bait him into turning around by driving back and forth, and then go in for the big ram once he falls for it.
• My plow can lift and press and stuff, so use it if he does any height-related antics.

Of course, if you don't buy any of MW's ICE malarky then feel free to basically have me use the same strategy in my match against Skoll, lol.

[The Monsterworks]

Magnolia Grande: 4/2/1/16/7
vs
Acrid: 7/5/3/5/10(+1 plow)

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1) Look at the size of his bot compared to his plow. Look at its depth and his design. He'll tip forward like crazy when he tries to lift me. I'm an awkward shape too.

2) His bonus doesn't cover the whole plow, so its non-angled edges take four damage or five if I can hook a corner with my massive reach.

bonus area

3) He's faster, 9 to 6, but equally vulnerable to oversteer, which has much more serious consequences for him, since I'm the one with the sixteen damage weapon and he has one small area that can protect him from it. I oversteer? I keep going right around and into him. He doesn't push fast enough either to keep me on his very shallow plow.

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I'll start upside-down to take advantage of the placement of his armour bonus. He'll have to be more careful and precise with where he hits me to avoid taking more damage.

Box rushing should be difficult in such a long arena. Regardless, I'm not playing passively. I wanna actively buy myself spinup time using my drivetrain. Whenever I'm not up to speed, reverse away from him and throw in a sudden turn here and there. If I oversteer, turn lemons into lemonade and spin that blade all the way around, using weapon torque to make it faster. Occasionally turn it into a Tombstone bait. Overall, Tombstone bait occasionally. It has three outcomes: He's wise to it and buys me time to spin up, he tries to focus my blade with -2 control, or he crashes into my rear, can't appreciably lift, and I whip my blade around into his side when its spun up with the aid of weapon torque. If he doesn't buy it the first time or two, turn into him anyways, a bit slower than full speed, to give a false impression of my turning speed. The power curve of my ICE helps too. It recovers better from the glancing blows that come from skipping off his concave plow. The big, meaty hits where I catch corners will fling him far away and really hurt. I want lots of turny stuff. His plow'll get warped very quickly. If/when I'm flipped, it may already not be flush with the floor. When up to speed, close fast for maximum engagement and a better chance of sinking right under it.

GL