The Returners tournament is a spiritual continuation of the NSBFL. I say spiritual partly because a lot of the robots that would be seeded after NSBFL 7 won€™t be coming back for more, and partly because with the lack of televised Robot Wars the whole point of the NSBFL is kinda€¦ Pointless. Also, I did say I wasn€™t going to do another NSBFL. Martijn then took away the surprise of a tournament called the SBPTFL. I shall deal with him later€¦

Entering

I need 12 people to enter 8 heavyweight robots. These can be vapours or real robots. If entering real robots, please either direct me to a website or post a Youtube video that showcases what it can do. There is no limit to how many vapours or real robots you are allowed.

For people who don€™t have 8 robots they can enter, they can band together with other people in the same situation.

Also, there will be middle, light and featherweight battles between rounds. I need one of each from everyone entering.

Please either post stats in the topic, or give a link to where stats can be found. Don€™t just enter a list and expect me to go chasing round the forum trying to find them.

Reserving

I will not be accepting reserved places. Sorry.

Robot and weapon rules

Minimum stats required

Name: Obvious
Shape: Also obvious. If it€™s an odd shape, please provide a picture.
Mobility: State what moves the robot, and how many of them there are. You don€™t need to tell me what powers them, but obviously the more info you give me the better feel I€™ll have for your robot.
Weapon: Even if you have a passive wedge, it counts as a weapon. Give me at least a rough idea of the power.
Armour: If you miss this out I will assume your machine has no armour. Please state armour type and thickness€¦ And I mean EXACT thickness. Saying €œThick Titanium€ will get you a €œThick Ear€.
Turning circle: Obviously I need to know how manoeuvrable your machine is.
Ground clearance: Again, I need to know if your machine can be gotten under. If you have skirts, state it or I will assume there aren€™t any. Also state how many there are, or I will assume you have two side skirts and no others.

weight bonuses

True walkers: 100%
Shufflers: 50%
Tracks: 10%

I used to have a rule regarding misc drive types. Since there aren€™t any, this is revoked

Passive weapons

These are allowed.

Interchangeable weapons

No more than 5 set ups. If you enter a robot with more, let me know which ones you will be using.

Cluster €˜bots

1) 100% of a cluster €˜bot has to be eliminated, but any dead parts count heavily in a judge€™s decision.

2) There is a limit to 3 parts in a cluster €˜bot.

Misc rules

Realism

I will not be as stringent about allowing unrealistic vapours in as I once was. The only time I will raise a complaint is if a vapour is very obviously overweight. However, if I think a vapour is likely to break down, this will happen to it.

Another thing I should add is that I will be attempting to write fights in a realistic fashion, with realistic endings. Please don€™t complain if one of these happens to you.

Tactics

These are not compulsory, but feel free to use them.

Complaints

If I fudge up, please point this out in a reasonable fashion. A re-write will be offered.

The arenas

Like the NSBFL, The Returners features four arenas, to be drawn randomly for upcoming fights. The arenas are:

Classic

This features four house robots occupying corner patrol zones, a floor flipper a pit, a pit release button and a wooden floor. OOTAs are possible. Basically, any type of robot can fight well here.

The Moat

The rammer€™s favourite, this arena features a wooden floor, but no walls. Victory can occur by beating a robot normally, or pushing it out of the arena. Fights can be very short here.

The Metalworks

This features a metal floor, and hazards where the house robots used to be. These are a bank of killsaws, two flippers that aim towards the centre of the arena, and a pit in the last corner. Like the Classic arena, any robot can use this arena to their advantage. OOTAs are possible.

Last €˜bot standing

There is a metal floor, metal walls and a roof. Roboteers can see their creations through a polycarb window. Basically the only way to win here is to slice, bash or flip your opponent into submission. No OOTAs or hazards to help you out here.

The house robots

Bane

Shape: Shaped like a hand and wrist.
Weapon: The fingers are crushers running at 3000 PSI.
Armour: 5 mm hardox mostly, but the back of the wrist is a 3 CM hardox counterweight to stop it overbalancing thanks to all the hydraulics in the front.
Strengths: Unflippable thanks to huge weight, very punishing weapon.
Weaknesses: Very very slow.

The Militant

Shape: Like T-Bone from series 5
Weapons: Two side flame throwers and a 15 KG horizontal disc where the spike used to be.
Armour: 6 mm steel.
Strengths: Painful flywheel.
Weaknesses: Maximum Velocity. In jokes FTW

Uncle Tomahawk

Shape: Like FrenZy.
Weapon: Terrorhurtz style axe, but has two blades like + allowing it to also cause damage by spinning on the spot.
Armour: 5 mm grade 5 Ti.
Strengths: Good axe, quite nippy.
Weaknesses: Axe can run out of gas, may sometimes be too powerful for its own good.

Flipup

Shape: Think Gravity, with Behemoth€™s scoop on the back. However, the scoop part is the front.
Weapons: Front electric scoop, rear pneumatic flipper with Gravity style power. Was thought up before I€™d even heard of Gravity, so be quiet :P
Armour: 4 mm hardox.
Strengths: Very good weapons, also fairly quick.
Weaknesses: Can flip itself over if it misses.

NEWThe predicting gameNEW

Since a lot of people like to predict outcomes, I€™m turning this into a side game. If you wish to participate, simply state who you expect to win, and how. For example:

€œKillotine to beat Achilles via pitting€

You get one point for guessing the victor, one point for guessing the method, and three for getting both right. If Achilles beats Killotine via pitting, you would still get a point in that example.

Also, if you predict every result in a heat correctly, you get a bonus 3 points.