The blue unit is the key here, although the terminology isn't totally correct.
"Independent" has a special meaning from Rule 33, which means "not touching any [team] equipment]. There's no team equipment in the third picture, so that's not an issue.
For people who think that there are 7 levels from the white/tan/blue units, note that the blue unit does not form a stack 1 level high. To be considered a Stack, a collection of building units must have Level 1 touching Flat Down on the Mat, and the blue unit isn't touching the Mat.
A Stack also has any higher levels touching Flat Down on the level below. In the third picture, the blue unit is touching Flat Down on both the Level 3 Tan and White units. The blue unit is Level 4 whether you travel up the white side, or travel up the tan side. Because it touches Flat Down on both, the whole collection of white/tan/blue is a single Stack of height 4.
It does take a lot of staring and thinking to understand the Mission 12 scoring, so these are good questions.
Steve Scherr
Virginia-DC FLL
Referee Advisor
Hello, our team members have different interpretations for the scoring with respect to the Figure 3, Mission 12 Design and build, Game guide.
Color match = red
Red stack = 2 levels
Other stack = 4 levels
40 points shown
For the other stack scoring, some feel that it should be 7 levels ( 3 white, 1 blue and 3 tan), whereas some feel that it should be 4 since the blue is shared across the white & tan stacks, which makes the stacks "not independent". I agree with the later interpretation, but wanted to be sure. Any clarifications would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,