Vercingetorix

"Veni, Vidi, Vici"

- Slogan on the robot, meaning- "I came, I saw, I conquered"

Vercingetorix was a robot from the Isle of Wight that competed in three consecutive series of Robot Wars, reaching the heat semi-finals on two occasions. It was succeeded by the similar Comengetorix.

Its name originated from the Gaul chieftain of the same name.

Vercingetorix (Series 2)
The first version of Vercingetorix was a blue box shape with a steep wedge on the front. It was track driven, powered by two volt DC motors. It was equipped with a set of lifting forks on the front, a 15mm rear spike and side rams that were strengthened by horseshoe studs. It had an adjustable outer shell for ground clearance.

Vercingetorix (Series 3)
"Vercingetorix looks the business to me. It's sleek, low, mean looking...great design."

- Jonathan Pearce

Vercingetorix in the Third Wars underwent a slight weight increase and was built around a "monocoque construction". The 12V batteries were replaced with 24V wheelchair motors, and the lifter was reinforced. It retained the rear spike and side rams, but featured new graphics, a more domed shell. Vercingetorix kept the unique suspension to adjust its ground clearance. Alistair Curtis-Horsefall jokingly claimed that the robot was armoured in "bifurcated caesium-324".

Vercingetorix (Series 4)
"That's terrilium carbonic alloy, if anyone at home knows what that means."

- Julia Reed

In Series 4, Vercingetorix 3 (as styled by the team) was rebuilt in the shape of Mortis. The box wedge was made form kevlar and lexan armour and ran on tracks. It also shared the same weaponary as Mortis, with a lifting beam for self-righting and flipping, and a bladed axe. The lifting arm was quite slow, but capable of lifting and toppling 80kg robots without trouble, and the axe was thin but capable of chopping deep into the armour of Fat Boy Tin. The lifting beam had a triangular spike on top which gave the arm more range and made it possible to self-right - a problem that had hampered slow-lifting self-righters like The Big Cheese.

These features, except for the tracks, were retained for this robot's successor Comengetorix. Comengetorix competed in the first series of Extreme and Series 6 and failed to qualify for Series 5.

Series 2
Vercingetorix progressed steadily through its heat in its first Robot Wars appearance, narrowly surviving the first round by covering a distance of 7.3m in the Gauntlet stage, placing it 4th out of 6 overall on the leaderboard. Along the way, its shell received damage from Dead Metal's saw. Vercingetorix then followed that up in the Sumo Trial by surviving on the podium for the full 30 seconds in another encounter with House Robot Dead Metal, placing it 1st out of 5 overall on the leaderboard.

In the Arena Semi-Final, Vercingetorix fought Haardvark. The two robots came together, Haardvark pushing against Vercingetorix, who appeared to have slowed. After this initial shove, there was no life from Vercingetorix, and it was repeatedly slammed by Haardvark. Haardvark then pushed Vercingetorix into the PPZ, where it was axed by Shunt. With the help of Sir Killalot, Shunt pushed Vercingetorix onto the flame pit, before Sir Killalot plucked up the lifeless Vercingetorix and pitted it. "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori- How sweet it is to die for your fatherland. And that's what's going to happen, it looks to me, for Vercingetorix."

- Jonathan Pearce does Latin

Series 3
In the first round of its heat, Vercingetorix was placed up against newcomers Terrorpin. It started a cautious sparring match against the newcomers, as they both tried to push each other into the CPZs. Vercingetorix tried to use its reciprocating weaponry to damage Terrorpin, but failed to cause any damage, also failing to get its lifter underneath its opponent. Eventually, Terrorpin slammed Vercingetorix in its side and managed to shove it towards and into the pit, and although it fell in itself, Terrorpin was still awarded the victory, eliminating Vercingetorix from the competition.

Series 4
In the first round of the Fourth Wars, Vercingetorix was up against newcomers Fat Boy Tin and the 26th seeds Plunderbird 4. Vercingetorix dominated this first round melee, immediately going for Fat Boy Tin, Vercingetorix started pushing it before tipping it into Sir Killalot just inside the house robot's CPZ, forcing Fat Boy Tin to topple over, and doing the same to Plunderbird 4 after the huge robot had been declared immobilised. When the house robots placed Fat Bot Tin on the arena floor flipper, Vercingetorix axed the defeated robot's underbelly, and was flipped over with it. However, it self-righted before cease was called, and went through to the next round along with Plunderbird 4.

Vercingetorix went up against the 10th seeds Spawn of Scutter in the second round of the heat. Vercingetorix ran into the seed, and axed it. However, Spawn of Scutter pushed Vercingetorix, shrugging off the axe blows. Spawn of Scutter pushed Vercingetorix into Sir Killalot, but Vercingetorix got its axe stuck in Spawn of Scutter. The 10th seed then pushed Vercingetorix across the arena floor, and rammed Vercingetorix into the arena side wall, finally rendering it immobilised. It was then finished off by the House Robots, and Vercingetorix was subsequently eliminated from the competition for the third time.

Vercingetorix also competed in The Southern Annihilator during Series 4, where it fought Behemoth, Razer, Attila the Drum, Onslaught and Spawn of Scutter. However, it got off to a slow start as Razer went straight in for the kill and grabbed and crumpled Vercingetorix's front. It never fully recovered from this despite fighting Razer back with its axe, as Razer fought back again, before Vercingetorix's aerial caught fire and the robot stopped all together. It was then attacked by Behemoth and Spawn of Scutter. Despite technically survivng to a judges' decision, Vercingetorix was unsurprisingly eliminated.

Results

 * }

Wins/Losses

 * Wins: 1
 * Losses: 4

Outside Robot Wars
Vercingetorix entered Techno Games 2003 as V-Bot. It entered the Sumo and beat 51 in round 1 but was just out of the quickest four. It entered the Football tournament as well, teamed up with A Bot as "The AV Raiders", and lost in Round 1 to Team Make Robotics.

Trivia

 * Vercingetorix was the only robot from Heat L of the Second Wars to win any battle in Robot Wars beyond that episode.
 * The Series 3 incarnation of Vercingetorix had a Latin slogan painted onto its front wedge- Romani ite Domum, which translates to "Romans go home". This is a reference to a well-known scene from the 1979 Monty Python film The Life of Brian.
 * The Series 3 incarnation also had another Latin slogan on its side, stating Julius, futue te ipsum, which roughly translates to "Julius, go f*** yourself". Strangely, this slogan was left uncensored during the broadcast of Heat I despite its offensive nature.
 * Vercingetorix was named after the Gaul Chieftain who rose up to defy Caesar. Ironically, team member Alistair Curtis-Horsefall jokingly claimed it was armoured in caesium in Series 3.