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  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
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I have high hopes for Magnetar. If it works it should be monstrous. That said, I'd prefer Thor to won tonight, but I feel like Magnetar is a good dark horse for the whole title.
 
Fingers crossed it'll be third time lucky for Team Ranglebots. I knew they hailed from Shropshire but never realised they were based within half a mile of where I live until now.

Edit: Thought they had it all too easy en route to the final round, but they gave Thor quite a pasting...
 
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Very good improvements in Magnetar tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed its parts-friendliness.

Shame for Thor at the end, but it was such a close match at the start. It was just a matter of lucky breaks for the two of them in that fight.
 
So once again my predictions got somewhat flipped over. :P

No surprise that Magnetar would win if it held together, but that Drum spinner could very well have Carbide keeping a watchful eye on it. ;)

Thor did well considering how the semi final could’ve gone, but he has once again (technically) reached the grand final via the 10 bot rumble. 👍

Expulsion came through as the wildcard for this heat, but it’s gonna have to address the issue of been flipped over as it’s now in the 10 bot rumble alongside the Series 8 champion and Series 9 runner up Apollo and Eruption respectively.

Coyote went with a steampunk look with the plumbers pipe wheel guards and the chainsaw,( it wasn’t all that effective when Matilda used it.) but it held its own for the most part and finished 4th in its heat, just like Androne 4000 did. :D

Push To Exit like already mentioned, was a huge let down, but that run in with Magnetar might’ve done more damage than expected.

Votesaxon 07 won’t be too happy about it when he does his review on this episode. :sly:

Hobgoblin again was a let down, but at least they left their mark on Shunt by taking his axe tip from him. :lol:

So we have our grand finalists, Robot wars veterans Behemoth, The reigning champions Carbide, the rich mans flipper Rapid, the joke bot with a killer punchline Nuts 2 and the death drum of Magnetar and 10 robots have a chance to join them AFTER surviving a no time limit, last bot standing 10 way rumble.

From heat 1, The drum spinner of Sabretooth and Series 8 champions Apollo.

From heat 2, Series 9 runners up Eruption and the crushing arms/drum spinner of Big Nipper.

Heat 3 brought us newcomers Track-tion and another Robot Wars veteran in the form of Terrorhurtz.

From Heat 4 came Live circuit veterans Iron Awe 6 and former grand finalist Concussion.

And from heat 5 we round out the list with another veteran in the form of Thor and the newly redesigned Expulsion.

So 3 drum spinners, 3 very capable flippers, 2 axe bots, a tool spinner and a tracked crusher, whoever survives it then has to possibly take on the reigning champions to boot. :scared:

As for my predictions for the grand final?

Absolutely no idea. :lol:
 
Pretty good show, Thor and Magnetar were the only stand outs really. Magnetar was really impressive.

Seriously cant wait for that 10-way next week, I'm looking forward to it more than the actual final!
 
Worst heat I'd say, still good mind.

Hobgoblin: Maybe invest in a working srimech? And a better drive system? As the weapon and the armour are more than strong enough.

Push To Exit: Another half-working robot, though votesaxon07 was very entertaining!

Coyote: I nominate this for best-looking robot of series, A+ for aesthetics, but the weapon was pretty lousy, you need a really low wedge if you're gonna use a crusher.

Expulsion: Very interesting design, similar sort of ballpark as Pussycat's design. They got very lucky to make it through FOUR fights and get face-planted in all of them. This'll be very entertaining in the melee, just a ball being thrown around!

Thor: Pretty obvious, don't drive over the arena flipper, and maybe protect the pneumatics a bit better.

Magnetar: It's strange seeing what it essentially Pulsar which such brevity, I'm used to seeing it crawl through fight after fight. The gremlins have gone, we'll see how it does in the final!

And now final predictions, first the 10-way!

With no time limit that creates endurance issues for different robots. Flippers and axes can run out of gas, and spinners can drain the batteries and overheat the motors. I would love to say that this gives Track-Tion an advantage, but they won't last five seconds, especially if they don't even bother to put the weapon on. Terrorhurtz and Thor are gonna be extremely vulnerable with gaping ground clearances, and the spinners are just gonna go wildly out of control. I'm gonna give it to Eruption.

For the final itself, I think Nuts 2 is the dark horse. They could be very good against Carbide, but possibly not against Behemoth. I think Magnetar is the weakest, and Rapid needs to use the weapon more. But overall, I think Carbide again.
 
PeterJB
For the final itself, I think Nuts 2 is the dark horse. They could be very good against Carbide, but possibly not against Behemoth. I think Magnetar is the weakest, and Rapid needs to use the weapon more. But overall, I think Carbide again.
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I'd say Behemoth along with Nuts (as much as I'm rooting for them) are the weakest, Magnetar looked extremely strong and weren't tested in the slightest.

Nuts are brilliant and deserved finalists but I don't think they have the weaponry to challenge any one in the final, most don't have exposed parts, most are very low to the floor with very good armour.
And then Behemoths biggest weakness is spinners, it's a very boxy bot with high sides perfect for being ripped apart.

Carbide though is still too strong, with the design of the spinning bar compared to the spinning drums it has a far greater reach. No other bots weapons will get close to carbide before their bar rips them to shreds apart from Nuts but how much damage will that really do?
 
I dunno. We saw last series what happened when Supernova hit Pulsar. A collision between Carbide and Magnetar will surely have similar results. Plus, there is no way Behemoth haven't learned from their fight with Carbide in Series 8. If Terrorhurtz gets through the 10-robot-rumble, it will be a massive threat to Carbide. Strong wedges are the best weapon against horizontal spinners, as Terrorhurtz is the only robot to beat Carbide when it's weapon worked, and Apex was stopped by both Terrorhurtz and Track-tion. Carbide is the favourite by far, but I don't see it being unbeatable. Rapid definitely has the power to flip it out, Nuts could shock us by damaging the wheels again. Who knows. All I know is I haven't been this excited for a final for a very long time.
 
Someone took a big chunk out of one of them in their heat earlier in the series, can't remember who....
 
And that’s why robot wars is brilliant, there is no truly unbeatable design. ;)

Spinners are heavy loads on motors and batteries, flippers and other C02 based weaponry are limited in usage.

Invertable robots have exposed wheels and covered wheels can be as mentioned locked up if the cover piece hits and jams against it.

You can build a tough and destructive robot, but it’s always got one form of potential weakness and with the 10 bot rumble having no time limit, those weaknesses could very well be on display in that battle.

Carbide is obviously the benchmark in a tough and destructive Spinner, but as Gabriel 2 proved, even that bot has a weak point. :)
 
All the old greats had glaring weaknesses:

Razer: Very slow srimech, very unreliable, apparently incapable of beating Pussycat.

Chaos 2: Easily pushed around, very weak rear armour.

Hypno-Disc: Did as much damage to itself as its opponents, weak aluminium armour.

Tornado: Easily flipped, useless against Razer (when not wearing that of which we do not speak).

Panic Attack: Slow srimech, vulnerable to axes and Firestorm.

Firestorm: Easily flipped, got nothing on Razer.

Dominator 2: Axe only fires in one direction.

Bigger Brother: Weak armour and a huge ground clearance.

Pussycat: Out of control, exposed wheels.

Typhoon 2: Only effective when spinning, difficult to control.

Wheely Big Cheese: Unreliable, very spindly, exposed wheels.

To name a few...
 
PeterJB
All the old greats had glaring weaknesses:

Razer: Very slow srimech, very unreliable, apparently incapable of beating Pussycat.

Chaos 2: Easily pushed around, very weak rear armour.

Hypno-Disc: Did as much damage to itself as its opponents, weak aluminium armour.

Tornado: Easily flipped, useless against Razer (when not wearing that of which we do not speak).

Panic Attack: Slow srimech, vulnerable to axes and Firestorm.

Firestorm: Easily flipped, got nothing on Razer.

Dominator 2: Axe only fires in one direction.

Bigger Brother: Weak armour and a huge ground clearance.

Pussycat: Out of control, exposed wheels.

Typhoon 2: Only effective when spinning, difficult to control.

Wheely Big Cheese: Unreliable, very spindly, exposed wheels.

To name a few...
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Firestorm was not easily flipped, it fought in 44 battles and only ever got flipped 4 times. Firestorm was only beaten when someone breached its very low ground clearance.
 
The greatest teams were often very quick with mitigating or eliminating the worst of their weaknesses, though. I am sure, though, that a lot of today's teams are able to close a lot of their gaps.

Look at Sabretooth. Their series 8 entry didn't work, so the next two series saw entries that had proper weaponry and worked.

Carbide - bit of a weak clutch for the weapon's needs, so they put an incredible amount of work into developing a custom drive system that is currently 100% reliable.

Pulsar - Robot Wars' resident smoke machine that jittered everywhere and couldn't right itself, so Ellis slapped a srimech on it and then replaced it with Magnetar.

Thor - big powerful hammer on the thing and it moved like the blazes, but the armour was a bit underwhelming, so Jason shrunk the thing and made it tougher with no compromises.

Surely something subtle like eight sloped blocks of hardened steel (along the lines of the green things below) welded to the chassis could bring the wheels' chances of survival up a few percent.
Carbide Wheel Things.png


They just shouldn't be big or soft enough to get knocked into the wheels. It could even be the case that spinners could have a bit of trouble with getting a solid hit on them until they've been roughed up a bit.

Looking at it, it could mean that the wheels would be moved inwards by about an inch, though.
 
AbsoluteBarstool
Surely something subtle like eight sloped blocks of hardened steel (along the lines of the green things below) welded to the chassis could bring the wheels' chances of survival up a few percent.
View attachment 696115

They just shouldn't be big or soft enough to get knocked into the wheels. It could even be the case that spinners could have a bit of trouble with getting a solid hit on them until they've been roughed up a bit.

Looking at it, it could mean that the wheels would be moved inwards by about an inch, though.
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No. We saw with Sabretooth and Concussion that you need some tolerances with the wheels or it'll all go wrong. The wheel wasn't broken by Gabriel in that fight, it just broke in general due to fatigue. Carbide has the driving skills to keep that weapon pointed at you. Nobody else can do anything because no matter what you do, you have to hit the blade and survive.
 
Jimlaad43
No. We saw with Sabretooth and Concussion that you need some tolerances with the wheels or it'll all go wrong. The wheel wasn't broken by Gabriel in that fight, it just broke in general due to fatigue. Carbide has the driving skills to keep that weapon pointed at you. Nobody else can do anything because no matter what you do, you have to hit the blade and survive.
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But I'm thinking of how Cobalt's wheel actually was broken with a weapon. The torn surface and eventual split could have been avoided if Carbide used smaller wheels or hockey pucks to move around on. It'd be interesting to see if they do address that with the next version.
 
Which robot are you supporting, and which one do you think will win?

I want to see Behemoth or Terrorhurtz come through and win, but I feel like Magnetar will be the champion.
 
If I could watch it, I'd more than likely be supporting Terrorhurtz to make it out of the melee, and Behemoth if T-hurtz doesn't make it.
 
I'm #TeamBehemoth, I've loved it since its first appearance and the fantastic performance in the heat it won has me optimistic. :D
 

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