Looking to the Future

"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear" - Antonio Gramsci

It's an odd time, right? As I write this we're waiting on new points and new ships, and the tournement season seems to have would down, and who hell knows what is going on with Store-level Organised Play, and yet here we are, a toy spaceship addiction to feed. What to do, what to do. 

So it's been a few weeks since I posted anything, largely because this is built around the conceit of driving to events and we've not really done any! Exams, holidays and life general have just got in the way. The good news is that I've got loads of new pictures of my cat to use for when we get going again. But the main topic of conversation we've had is "what do we do next". 

Let me get this off my chest first - I'm pretty sick of the current meta, especially the dominance of "Rebel Beef". I accept it is the "correct" choice to take to an event, it's a good archetype that is effective against a broad spectrum of opponents and has few clearly defined weaknesses. It's not particularly "broken" in any way, albeit benefiting from a few undercosting. But it's bloody everywhere and I'm sick of flying against it. Which is, y'know, on me, not my opponents, but my heart sinks when I see it on the table and I'll be glad when (if) it's gone in it's current form. 

(I flew against two Beef lists today and my opponents were lovely, so lets me clear I'm not judging people for choosing to fly anything!)

Ultimately I have a fairly short attention span, and The Teenagers is shorter still, so we're both looking towards the ability to fly different things, against different things. I've spent the last few weeks mucking about with Separatists, which are surprisingly fun. For a faction with only three ships there seems to be a good variety of choices available, some good tricks, and all three of those ships are fun to fly. Especially the poor, explodey Vulture Droids, bless them. It's making me really look forward to Hyenas, and some of the new ordinance they'll bring to the table. 

The teenager, on the other hand, has been trying all sorts of nonesense, and in a sign of...something....is starting to make peace with the fact that some of these nonesense plans will be evaporated by his opponents without mercy. Some of this stuff also may have a future after the points adjustment, so it's time well spent, except when it isn't. But "out of season" is the time to get this experimentation done if you get one night a week to play. 

Speaking to time well spent we've tried to keep our hand in through smaller events, and we even managed to win (!) a doubles event as a father-son pair. Which is ludicrous, when you think about it. I mean, us, co-operating successfully?! Inconceivable. 

Where does that leave us then? I limbo, really; as anything I fly today could be illegal by next week. Or cheaper. The new ships could be amazing, or terrible, depending on points. In some ways it means you are just playing for the fun of it - and you should always be playing for the fun of it - but part of the fun of this game is the theorycrafting, and planning. So of course, with that missing, it feels like it lacks something. But the winds of change are blowing, however distantly, and we're looking forward for new things to fall in love with, and (of course) complain about.