James:

Ill explain my logic, with the proviso that the disadvantages I can see may still be outweighed by the advantages.

The problem with having an inverted wedge at the back and combining that with the design aim of having the rear wheels on the ground when the front ones are raised is that it requires the wheels to be quite near the angle of the bottom of the inverted wedge.

A wedge needs to be able to deflect spinners and the like safely above the robot (sort of). Having the wheels near enough to the angle of the inverted wedge to allow for the raised front business to work would mean that they would be dangerously exposed at the top of the (right side up) wedge. Weapons would slide up the wedge right into the wheels. Also the wheels would serve to push the opposition back off the wedge again.

The less youre worried about having grip when the front of the robot is raised, the less exposed the wheels need to be and so the less this is a problem, but since the tail shape is a deliberate feature of Tornado its clearly something theyd like to preserve.

Ed: Oh, I didnt doubt its solidity, I was just curious (and mistaken) about the shape. Given how thick the armour is, does the frame actually do anything? :-)

Ive always felt that, although horsepower is very handy for ramming things and sticky wheels are nice, by far the most significant factor in who can push whom around is which robot gets underneath the other (see the final of the second World Championships). Wedges wedges everywhere. One reason I think the way to introduce the biggest shakeup in robot combat would be to introduce a non-planar arena.

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Fluppet