[aidos]

:) that was pretty much my approach.

The way I attacked it (and suspect people naturally would) was a layer at a time. When you're doing that you try to preserve what you've already solved.

Once you have 2 layers sorted and you're trying to do that last one there's not much room to manoeuvre. I spent countless hours coming up with a combination that preserved my top 2 layers and following where each individual piece moved in the final layer. If nothing else, it's great for memory and spatial awareness.