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Stage 1 — Strategy

Window: Kickoff day + first 3–5 days. Gate: Strategy Approval Review. Nobody touches CAD, cuts cardboard, or writes robot code until this gate passes.

Strategy is the discipline that keeps the team from building a mechanism just because it looks cool. What the robot must do is decided by numbers, not enthusiasm.

Based on Karthik Kanagasabapathy's Effective FIRST Strategies (Team 1114). See references.md.

Objectives

  1. Understand the game deeply enough to argue about ranking-point math.
  2. Produce a Priority List ranking every scoring action.
  3. Choose a Robot Archetype that matches team capacity.
  4. Set numeric performance targets that later gates measure against.

Step-by-Step

Day 1 — Kickoff

  • Watch the game reveal video at least twice as a full team.
  • Read the game manual sections: field, scoring, penalties, ranking points. Full team, together.
  • No mechanism brainstorming allowed today. Ideas go on a parking-lot whiteboard for later.
  • Homework: every student and mentor reads the full manual before Day 2.

Day 2 — Game Analysis

Break into small mixed groups. Each group answers:

  • What are all the ways to score points? List every action.
  • What are the point values, cycle times, and difficulty of each?
  • What penalties exist? Which are common, which are catastrophic?
  • What ranking points exist? What actions unlock them?
  • Where is the field crowded? Where is defense easy vs hard?
  • What auto-period scoring is possible?
  • What endgame scoring is possible?

Regroup. Reconcile into a single team-wide game action inventory.

Day 3 — Priority List

For every scoring action, fill a row:

Action Points Est. cycle time Difficulty (1–5) Defense vulnerability Points / sec Priority
e.g. "score high goal" 5 6 s 4 Medium 0.83 1
…
  • Points/sec = points ÷ cycle time. This is the honest measure.
  • Priority 1 = the action our robot must be excellent at.
  • Priority 2 = the action our robot must be competent at.
  • Priority 3+ = ignore. Do not build for these.

Small teams should have no more than two priority-1 actions. Ambition kills small teams.

Day 4 — Archetype

Pick one:

  • Cycler — high-throughput scorer of one action.
  • Specialist — does one hard thing exceptionally (e.g., climb, long-range shot).
  • Support / defender — plays alliance-supporting role, disrupts opponent.
  • Hybrid — cycler + specialist in one bot. Highest risk, most fabrication.

Write the archetype in one sentence: "Our robot is a cycler that scores priority-1 in <=6 seconds and delivers a priority-2 endgame."

Day 5 — Scoring Simulation

Spreadsheet or Python. For a hypothetical match:

  • Our expected priority-1 score = cycle time × match duration × accuracy.
  • Add priority-2 and endgame contributions.
  • Estimate alliance total. Compare against expected competition-average alliance total.

If our modeled average is below competitive average, revise the archetype now, before fabrication.

Reference: Ri3D (Robot-in-3-Days) reveals — watch a few. If a Ri3D team achieved our priority-1 in 3 days with COTS, our target is 5–10x better in reliability or speed.

Deliverables (required to pass Strategy Approval Gate)

  • Filled Priority List, signed by lead student + mentor.
  • One-sentence archetype statement.
  • Scoring-sim spreadsheet with source assumptions.
  • List of scoring actions explicitly rejected and why.
  • Numeric performance targets (e.g., "priority-1 cycle time <= 6 s at 90% accuracy").

Targets carry forward. Every later gate compares actual performance to these numbers.

Common Failure Modes

  • Skipping to CAD on Day 1. Every hour spent designing before priorities are set is an hour re-designed later.
  • Everyone wants everything. Priority-1 list of six items = you build nothing well. Cut to two.
  • No numbers. "It'll be fast" is not a target. "Cycle in <=6 seconds" is.
  • Ignoring defense. A priority-1 action defenders can trivially block is a priority-3 action in a real match.
  • Copying last year's archetype. New game, new priorities.

Roles During Strategy

  • Strategy Lead (student): owns the Priority List and archetype statement.
  • Mentor Facilitator: runs discussion, blocks anyone who tries to skip to CAD.
  • Scouting Lead (student): starts building scouting plan against this year's actions. See 06_integration_testing.md and future scouting doc.
  • All students: read manual, participate in prioritization.

Handoff to Stage 2 (Prototyping)

The Priority List names which mechanisms must be prototyped. Any prototype not tied to a priority-1 or priority-2 action is refused funding and shop time.

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