** What's all this about 3" wide pieces of wood? **

** What's all this about the Cargo Plane and short border walls? **

- The Field Setup document (and the standalone Table Construction page) say
to use two-by-three lumber to build the table walls.

- In the Assembly section, Step 2 says that the walls must be 3 +/- 1/2 "
tall.  What's that supposed to mean?


- People who've worked with dimensional lumber for a while learn that the
dimensions of a two-by-three or a two-by-four don't represent real inches.
 A two-by-three is about 2.5 inches wide.  A two-by-four is about 3.5
inches wide.  Both of those sizes are okay for your table?

- Which is better for a team to use?  I don't know.  Either is okay, and
both have been tested extensively by the Game Designer, so there isn't
expected to be a difference.  Two-by-threes are lighter and may be cheaper.

- What will your team see at a tournament?  It may be either one.  Most
tables in VA/DC were built with 2x4s, but newer ones will be built with
2x3s.  There are two missions that this might affect this year, and it is
intentionally an engineer challenge for your team to be ready for either.



** My mat is too small for my table!!! **

** Should we staple our mats on the table? **

** Which corner does the mat go in? **

- The mat is supposed to be smaller than the table.  That's partly because
table sizes are allowed to vary as much as a quarter inch.

- The mat doesn't go in a corner, but it lines up next to a wall.  In the
Field Setup document, there's a section called "Field Maintenance".  It's
on page 12 of the Challenge PDF file.  It says:  "Field Mat - Make sure the
mat touches the south border wall, and is centered east to west."  So the
long bottom edge should touch the wall, and there will be gaps between the
mat and the wall on the other three sides.  (This is mostly to make things
easier on your team, although you might not think so....)

- Don't use glue, staples, thumb tacks, dual lock, or poster putty to stick
your mat to the table.  The rule is "For control of extreme curl at the
east or west edges of the mat, tape is allowed, with a maximum of 1⁄4" (6
mm) overlap. Foam tape is not allowed. Do NOT put Dual Lock under the mat,
or use it in any other than securing models as described."


The Field Setup document also has an extensive discussion of "MISSION MODEL
ARRANGEMENT AND SETUP" that tells you where to put all the LEGO models from
your field set.  It is valuable for your team to review this a few times
over the next two months.  Plus Game Update 6 discusses the bread and some
of the people...


Steve Scherr

VA/DC FLL Referee Advisor

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