Decisions, Decisions,,,

So following on from my hopes and dreams for Hyperspace, I was going to follow up with some thoughts on my experiences on actually playing the format. But then FFG dropped a bunch of changes and everyone seemed to get cross again, so I've left it a few more days before venturing some opinions about the future. I mean, other than calm down folks, but I think we all know that. Lets have at it, after the cat. 

We went to Element Games with two lists. I took the Heroic Resistance Fives, which I'd put some time into, and The Teenager took 5 TIE Strikers with Proximity Mines. As previously mentioned I'm not going to get into blow-by-blow recaps, because there are much better and smarter places for that, but it was a great day for us, a lot of fun, and I finished 4-2, The Teenager 3-3. I think we're both pretty happy with that, especially as we were both up and fighting to the end of the tournament. 

This last point bears comment, because 6 games is a lot to keep concentration over, especially if you're managing to keep some form up. At the end of game 4 (when most tournaments finish!)  we were both 3-1, and fatigue was starting to set in. It seems an odd thing to have to say about a Toy Spaceship game but you need to look after your body and your brain over long events. Lots of fluids and food, and it's one of the great things about Element that they put on lunches for their big events and schedule proper breaks. It helps make sure everyone can play their best game. 

My New Love, in Blue and Grey

Going in I had two hanging questions - the first, will I like Hyperspace as a format, and the second, how will this list actually do. The first is easily answered, and yes, I did. There was some definite trends in lists on show -  but I'm not sure that this wasn't also the case in the old Regionals - and maybe not enough diversity within some of the factions. But on the other hand I fought 6 notably different games and they all felt tight and balanced and fun. The Teenagers experience was largely the same, with very little sense that a game was "won" or "lost" before dials started to go down. 

As for the Heroic Fives, well I think I'm a little bit in love still. They're such a blast to fly - agile, hard-hitting and with a lot in their toolkit that makes them adaptable to different opponents. There's some things they don't like, but they don't dislike anything really strongly, and even my heaviest loss of day was a match I felt i could of won if I hadn't come up with a bad approach plan and then flown that plan badly. Well, maybe not won, but at least have got more out of it. 

These two answers make the wider decisions about my next moves a lot easier. I was going to jump on the Republic Bandwagon this week, but instead we've booked into another Hyperspace event in a couple of weeks and I want to stick with these guys. The week after that is the UK System Open, and with no time for any sort of practice I guess I'll fly them there too, although I will probably fly something new for the Hyperspace Day 2, given we'll likely not stay for all the rounds. 

Sometimes, these decisions just make themselves.