Well, this article is over a week overdue. I would like to say I was just lazy, but life legitimately got in the way of writing this. This will also likely be my last article for at least a month, as between life and work, I will be taking a hiatus from the game for a while.

Last Saturday, on the 2nd of March, Seattle (specifically, Redmond) held the 2019 Hyperspace Trial for the region. 77 players bought tickets (though only 73 showed on the day) but Uncle’s Games stuck to their announcement and held 6 rounds, with a cut to top 16. I managed to arrange the day off to attend, though Sunday was a work day, so even if I made the cut, I likely wouldn’t have been able to continue on. The main event was being hosted at a nearby hotel, with the cut to take place at the actual host store on Sunday.

Silver Squadron had a pretty good showing, between myself, Jim Kelly, Chris Brown, Kyle Meidel, and Travis Wooldridge all supporting the cause. Evergreen squadron, of course, was very prevalent, and since Silver is somewhat an offshoot or sister squadron to Evergreen, we all had plenty of people to cheer on and support.

As for my list, it’s relatively unchanged since it’s last appearance. As I alluded to last time, I swapped out Tallisan Lintra for someone who I figured would be more effective for me: Greer Sonnel. I found myself using Tallie to block and always wanting to rotate her arc, 2 things Greer is simply better at. I also made a meta call and swapped C-3PO on Vennie out for a Perceptive Copilot, figuring that Ion Y-Wings would be all over the place, and the PerCo still works through Ion. As such, I am now flying at a full 200 with no bid.

From what I saw, there was a large amount of Rebel ships, but most lists were sporting Leia Organa, with only a couple of Y-Ion focused lists (and only 3 flying the full 5-Y combo.) Resistance was primarily Aces, but there were 4 Vennie lists in the field (my own included,) only 1 of which flew her with bombs. Imperial was relegated to a few TIE swarms, and Scum to just Large Ship + 2 Arc Dodgers, and only 3 of them at that. First Order either flew a shuttle and 2 other ships, or a FO/SF combo swarm. To say that the meta is extremely varied is to understate it, but it’s somewhat sad to see each faction stuck in only a couple viable lists. I guess that’s the nature (and probably intent) of Hyperspace.

Game 1: Ryan Moore

Ryan was the only one I saw all day flying 2 Upsilons, as I figure most people had dropped them due to the nerf that hit the week prior to the event. I was pretty nervous going into this, and especially more so in the first few rounds, as the 2 shuttles cornered themselves and QuickDraw drew my list into them. I took the bait, hoping to get Poe behind the shuttles and rely on Greer to block QD into a bad position.

This is the second turn of fire, and Poe has used Black One to do his job. Unfortunately, I believe we mis-played the ability, as he did the SLAM as a second action, and later on that day I was informed that it didn’t work like that. Poe would still have gotten behind the shuttles without the misplay, but wouldn’t have had a shot. As it went, the shuttles deleted Greer, and Poe and Vennie nearly returned the favor on the front shuttle.

The following turn, that shuttle did die, and Vennie turned away from them to start circling around some rocks. Poe did some fancy maneuvers and managed to stay out of the Shuttles arc, but took damage from Quick Draw. There were several turns throughout that I simply did not fire at QD, as it would have been a long-range ping from Vennie that would result in a far worse return shot for the TIE.

Eventually, the second shuttle peeled far enough out to remove itself from the fight, and QuickDraw and Poe had a faceoff. QuickDraw died, but before he went, he dunked all of Poe’s shields and dug into his hull, throwing my X-Wing into half points. From here, Poe danced back around the scrap while Vennie delayed the Shuttle, then a merry chase covering over half the board ensued, with Poe barely managing to keep up and finally ending it 7 turns after this. 200-74 was the final score. Ryan didn’t let this loss dissuade him, as he ended up 4-2 overall on Day 1 and took the whole thing home on Day 2, as the overall winner.

Game 2: Matt Steski

Alas, my squad’s bane: Y-Ions. I knew I would end up facing something like this eventually, but was hoping it would be while I was already comfortably 5-0 and moving into the cut regardless. Matt set up in pairs, with the Grays covering an edge and the Aces coming up the middle. Poe did what he could to get a great flanking position as I basically sacrificed Vennie to the cause, but the problems started early with a missed block by Greer.

As before, Greer found herself Range 1 to the most dangerous enemies on the team, but she survived, hull intact… but ionized. My team made mistake #2 and split their fire, Greer going in on Norra (on the left) but the others attacking Horton. The following turn, Greer died to the 2 Proton Bombs that Poe narrowly dodges, while Horton and Norra accept a bump from Vennie to get the other Y’s in range. Vennie takes her first 4 ion tokens. All game, Matt’s dice were on fire from the Grays, and Vennie takes 4 tokens and 4 damage every turn from them until death.

Norra and Horton dropped their second set of bombs, which catch Vennie as they 4-K back into front arc shots. Poe managed a SLAM’d T-Roll to avoid that set of bombs, not realizing that he’d end up ionized behind 2 more Y-Wings that still had their bombs… To their credit, Vennie and Poe manage to drop Horton this turn. Vennie doesn’t last much longer, and Ion Cannons wreck X-Wings, especially at Range 1. The final round is finished off by a proton bomb against an ionized 2-hull Poe that deals a Console Fire, which then rolls as a hit to end the game. I had managed to bring one of the Grays to half, for a 75-200 loss.

Game 3: Alex Gauweiler

One of the very few Scum lists on the day, this Fett was decked out to out-maneuver my list. The opening set-up was pretty standard, and we engaged at a pretty good oblique that slightly favored my squad, as Greer (for the first time all day) was not in a terrible position.

In round 1 of fire, I deleted the Fang right in front of Greer, then started working on Fett, taking shots of opportunity against the other Fang as they came up. Alex focused everything he had on Vennie, probably recognizing her has the hardest thing to kill late-game. Boba blew apart the rock he had locked on the first turn for a point of damage on Vennie, then proceeded to continue clearing that corner of the board by taking down the top scrap the following round.

This round was also the last we’d see of the second Skull Sqaddie, as he went down to combined fire after putting some hurt on Greer. After another 5 rounds of chasing down the Firespray, I ended the game 200-64, as Vennie was bleeding and Greer had been halved by the 2nd Fang’s parting shot. At this point, I was 2-1, and looking hopeful toward making the top 16 cut.

Game 4: Patryk Dzwonek

Patryk set up his Leia carrier inside the board from the small-based ships, which set up on the right edge to joust Vennie. Poe and Greer each set up in-board from Vennie, aiming to come at the Rebels from 3 directions. My hope was to de-incentivize Leia K-turns, and I think it worked out pretty well. What didn’t work out so well was my targeting priority. Poe and Greer each approached from the side and rear, respectively, and started unloading on the partisan, seeing it as the easiest kill and the most important thing to drop. Given the chance, however, I would shoot Biggs instead.

That plan would go to crap on the 2nd round of fire, as I just unloaded on Biggs instead of my desired target. This blew Biggs off the board, but left the Partisan with a couple of hull remaining. That, in turn, allowed Horton’s blocked K-Turn to not be as punishing as I’d hoped, and allowed the U-Wing to spin in place to block Greer for no cost.

I turned my attention to Wedge, since only Poe had a shot at the Partisan, and did a bunch of damage to him, but in exchange, a couple of stellar shots downed my X-Wing. I was now very much on the back-foot, as his ships were still un-stressed and could flip on mine, who were now out of position. Greer finally downed the U-Wing the following round, but Leia’s damage had been done. I continued putting damage on, but now Vennie was bleeding hull.

This round is major, as both Greer and Wedge go down, and I’m left with a half-dead Vennie against a half-dead Horton. All I have to do is do 3 damage to the Y-wing before it does 6 damage to me. However, I’m already 2 ion tokens in, and can’t get my front arc to come to bear. It takes only 2 rounds for Horton to do the required amount of damage, and the game ends 175-200 in Patryk’s favor. Vennie never did take another ion token, but it didn’t really change the outcome.

Game 5: Steven Jesionowalski

Cloud 5 is a list I’ve flown myself, though not in this exact configuration. It was, in fact, my first Resistance list. Steven set both X-Wings together and the A-Wings on their flanks, looking to set up a tri-angular engagement similar to what I tried last game. Unfortunately, his engagement took L’ulo through a scrap and staring at a rock, and Tallie was out of range (but so was Poe.)

All my effort went into downing Nien Numb, as I knew he’d be a problem if left alone. Similarily, Steven focused on Vennie, probably for the same reason. The following turn is… bonkers. I wasn’t going to post 2 rounds back-to-back, but I feel like I have to.

Learning from a previous game, Vennie turned out rather than stay in. Greer overshoots the X-wings and turns her arc to face them, L’ulo runs over the rock, and Poe roars ahead on a 4-straight. He boosts to the left, then declares the SLAM 4k, and this is the point where I learn that it’s not legal. That leaves Poe with no shot, but also luckily not getting shot. Somehow nothing dies this turn, or the following turn, but damage is thrown about everywhere, and everyone (except Poe) has lost at least 1 shield. Nien is nearly brought down, and L’ulo flies off on 1 hull as well.

This round is possibly the best turn of X-Wing I’ve every had. Everyone is lined up to bring Vennie down. Poe shoots on L’ulo and kills her before she can fire. Greer shoots at Tallie and brings her down to 1 hull. Ello is facing the wrong way due to a blocked T-Roll. Nien does what he can to Vennie, but her defenses see her through. Vennie shoots her front arc primary at Tallie, doing enough damage to end her. She then returns fire on Nien out the side, killing him as well. I managed to erase 3/4 of my opponent’s squad in a single round of fire, swinging the game horrendously in my favor. The full health Ello takes another 3 rounds to chase down and costs Greer her shields, but the game eventually ends 200-64 in my favor.

Game 6: Bradley Ho

Both of us are 3-2, and we both know that only the winner has a shot at the cut. I make the mistake of discounting Han Solo, figuring that Vennie’s survivability and damage output is great enough to outlast the Falcon in a brawl.

Despite the shots I have on him, I shoot at Wedge rather than Han with Vennie. Wedge… 1-shots Greer. I forgot my Heroic trigger with her defense roll, as it was probably the 2nd time all day it had triggered, and Brad actually calls a judge over to see if he should grant it to me (I was ready to pull the ship off.) The judge agreed with me and Greer went down hard, leaving Norra open to attack Poe. Luckily, the Ion shot only does damage, and Poe dodges enough to avoid the token.

I forgot to take probably the most important picture of this game, where Vennie does a hard 2 into the rocks there, resulting in a block with no shot on Wedge, and Poe swings in with his own shot and drops Wedge below shields, and Vennie unloads on Norra, also dropping her to half.

Han has to do some fancy flying to get back into the fight, as Vennie soars up the board to reposition and Poe 4-Ks. Wedge gets a solid hit in on Poe, who has no shot, and Vennie brings Wedge down to 1 hull remaining. Unfortunately, Vennie and Han are now both stuck going toward the same corner while Poe has to dance with both Wedge and Norra.

I missed another critical picture in the heat of the game, but this turn is the one before. Poe’s SLAM puts him ionized facing a scrap token, and he does a scratch into Norra’s hull. The following turn, Poe gets a range 1 shot in on Norra and drops her to 1 hull as he explodes, leaving Vennie to clean up the mess and also tackle the full-health Solo. Norra dies on the following turn, and Wedge 2 turns later, neither without getting another shot, but by then Han has started wearing down the StarFortress. No matter how tanky Vennie may be, she can’t catch up to a YT-1300, and I never got another front-arc shot. Neither large ship was able to half-point the other before time was called, leaving Bradley with the 103-110 win.

So, a 3-3 record for the day. Of my opponents that placed above me, I already told Ryan Moore’s story. Bradley ended up 21st with around 1320 MOV, Patryk was right behind him in 22nd with similar MOV. Matt took his Y-Wings to 12th place and 1490 or so MOV. I took the 28th place slot out of 73 players, with 1441 MOV as the highest 3-3 player. I actually beat out 13th place and below by MOV, but the win/loss record wasn’t there to see me into the cut. All told for 2.0 tournaments so far, I’m 27-12, for an average of 69.2% I’m pleased with my results, as a different choice or better dice anywhere in my games against Patryk or Bradley would probably have seen me into the cut.

I’m looking forward to my life’s schedule clearing up in the future and allowing me to return to the table (and, as such, the blog!) I recently discovered that come this Summer, I’ll be re-loacting again, this time to Groton, Connicticut. I’ll be looking for stores in the area, and with the travel my new position should afford, hopefully I’ll be able to drop back in on Kitsap in the future, and even return to my original stomping grounds in Saint Marys, Georgia!

Next time: It’ll be a while… So long, for now!