Rammer

Real Life Examples: Punjar, HammerHead, War Machine

Game Examples: Roly Poly, Eye Poker, M.A.D.

Rammers (or rams) do bear the name of the tactic used: ramming. The bot rams repeatedly his opponent, damaging him in the process. Fast and brutish.

Have a high ADC.

Building a Rammer

Rams must be fast. That means at least Z-Tek drive for lightweights, generally HP Z-Tek drive for middles, and 4WD HP Z-Tek drive or more for heavyweights. You also need an invertible bot. With the minimum height needed for fitting a Z-Tek inside your chassis, you can use Shiny Hub wheels and get an invertible bot.

The weapon is simply a rack of weapons using extenders, or several weapons attached on several anchors, installed at the front of the bot.

You could use any good weapon but the best are maces, iron spikes and razor tips.

A frontal static weapon, an invertible bot and a strong drive train is good, but you should consider putting on some more defense (extended rack of spikes for the sides, plows, ramplates), or eventually a wedge (but this is uncommon). It is very important to protect your wheels.

Ram hybrids are numerous. A hammer adds a way to bypass the enemy's defenses and weapons. A poker adds pushing power and damage, especially for a pusher. A flipper can be useful (as it helps you with a wedge) for incapaciting your opponent prior to ramming him. A wedge reduces your damage and turns your bot into a pusher, but gives you more defense agains some robot types (Notably popups). Several builders think the HS/Rammer hybrid is the king of hybrids, and it is possible.

Pushers

Game Examples: SnowJob, Da Dog, Big Dog.

Pushers are similar to rammers in design (although most often slower than rammers), but their tactic is different: you charge against an enemy and push it around, hopefully pinning it on a wall. No back-up for another charge like rams. Weaponed pushers make less damage, but continuous damage. Pushers can be more efficient against spinners because you can block their weapons continuously. Some pushers have no weapons, and rely on traps, pits or OOTA's to win. You can also use Saws (IN DSL ONLY... Saws are not very efficient in stock) such as Chewblades to cause damage through their Frequency damage.

Flail Rammers

Flail Rammers are a new subtype of robot which feature high-frequency weapons attached to vertical axles. This allows them to do damage while still moving slowly, proving as a counter to wedges and spinners alike.

The first flail rammer was MikeNCR's BBEANS6 entry ReActive.

PROS

• By far the fastest bot class
• Extended pushing and opponent control ability
• Large number of weapons
• Good frontal defense
• Good damage values
• Simple design - weight can be used very efficiently

CONS

• Tend to have vulnerable top, bottom, and sides
• Very vulnerable to wedges, especially popups
• High speed quite often turns into a liability
• Extremely dependent on drive