Football Manager Series Catch-All

Clusks wrote:

Not sure if this belongs anywhere else, but is anyone interested in backing this Kickstarter for a board game called Counter Attack? I'm tempted to give it a go.

Interesting idea and execution. I could see it being fun to make your own custom cards too. I didn’t get a great sense for how the game plays, though. Do you think it looks fun?

Looks like a nice app to me.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Clusks wrote:

Not sure if this belongs anywhere else, but is anyone interested in backing this Kickstarter for a board game called Counter Attack? I'm tempted to give it a go.

Interesting idea and execution. I could see it being fun to make your own custom cards too. I didn’t get a great sense for how the game plays, though. Do you think it looks fun?

I'm very curious about it, but my only hesitation is that every board game I play is with my girlfriend (I don't really have that sort of group here to play), and I wonder if she'd be put off by the football aspect of it (she's barely interested in football). The 90 minutes part as well could make it an even harder sell.

Clusks wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Clusks wrote:

Not sure if this belongs anywhere else, but is anyone interested in backing this Kickstarter for a board game called Counter Attack? I'm tempted to give it a go.

Interesting idea and execution. I could see it being fun to make your own custom cards too. I didn’t get a great sense for how the game plays, though. Do you think it looks fun?

I'm very curious about it, but my only hesitation is that every board game I play is with my girlfriend (I don't really have that sort of group here to play), and I wonder if she'd be put off by the football aspect of it (she's barely interested in football). The 90 minutes part as well could make it an even harder sell.

Yeah, I wasn't convinced enough on the gameplay to buy it at that price point. I think my kids (both soccer players) would play it though. But I'm curious to see where it goes.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Clusks wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Clusks wrote:

Not sure if this belongs anywhere else, but is anyone interested in backing this Kickstarter for a board game called Counter Attack? I'm tempted to give it a go.

Interesting idea and execution. I could see it being fun to make your own custom cards too. I didn’t get a great sense for how the game plays, though. Do you think it looks fun?

I'm very curious about it, but my only hesitation is that every board game I play is with my girlfriend (I don't really have that sort of group here to play), and I wonder if she'd be put off by the football aspect of it (she's barely interested in football). The 90 minutes part as well could make it an even harder sell.

Yeah, I wasn't convinced enough on the gameplay to buy it at that price point. I think my kids (both soccer players) would play it though. But I'm curious to see where it goes.

I think he must try to incorporate the passing system in the board, with some chance of passes getting intercepted or flunked. The ruler looks a bit cumbersome to me.

Has anyone ever managed to persuade a player not to leave once a big team has come in with an offer? I've never managed it once. Combine this with the utter stupidity of the Premier League's early transfer window closure and it's a frustrating experience.

Ok, I get that it's a reasonable idea to have finished the transfer wheeling and dealing before the first game is played, but make it so the European clubs can't then swoop in and pick my team clean whilst I'm powerless to do anything about it!

It's rare. It's the reason playing in leagues outside of the Big 5 is so difficult. You just can't compete in terms of money and prestige. My friend was playing a GREAT game with FC Dinamo București, got to the CL QFs, and then all the European elite showed up, poached his best players, and he had to rebuild.

In that regard, I love Erik Ten Hag's response to Pochettino's moaning that Ajax had an unfair advantage - as the Dutch league skipped a week to give Ajax a bit of rest.

"When Ajax gets 10 million in tv money per year, and Tottenham 200 million... than what is unfair?"

tl;dr response:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/it0P9.gif)

But yeah, FM simulates everything, including how royally f*cked soccer economy really is.

Heh, arguably, it doesn't do enough underline exactly how astronomically f*cked it actually is! I've managed at a LOT of clubs, and never been saddled with a truly garbage executive yet who is driving the club into administration.

It's hard enough programming skill, it must be INCREDIBLY difficult programming incompetence.

So, my Red Star FC game is weird.

We didn't get promoted, losing in the playoff to Lens, 3-1 over two legs (I made the fatal error of rewarding Yura Movsisyan for the Coupe de la Ligue goal by giving him a start, and he duly turned in a 6.1).

However, we ARE, as noted, in the Europa League, which made the summer transfer window weird as we're now a favorite for promotion and can somehow genuinely offer players European competition. So we brought in some new blood for cheap, almost entirely on end-of-contract deals (I had to threaten to leave to get the board to give me some extra wages to play with), overhauling almost half the squad (again).

We got plunked into the Third Qualifying Round of the Europa League, where we draw SK Sturm Graz. We lost the first leg on the road 1-0, despite largely dominating the game, came home for the second leg, tweaked my formation and blew them away 4-1, winning 4-2 on aggregate.

We then drew SK Sigma Olomouc in the playoff round, started on the road again, lost 2-0 on the road , then came home managed a niggly 2-0 win After Extra Time (the goal to make it equal on aggregate came in the 78th minute thanks to their CB deciding to shin a corner into the net) and going through 4-1 on penalties.

So, lo and behold, Red Star Paris FC is playing on Thursday nights at least six times this season, which I find endlessly hilarious. I wish I could remember exactly who we drew in our group, but I can't remember right now, outside of the fact that our first game is against Ajax, which I expect to be an unmitigated disaster.

I bit the Bullet and bought FM2019 after skipping the 2018 version.

Downloading right now... any extra's I need to download?

Red Star update!

So our Europa League group was Ajax, Torino and Qarabag.

And we made it through! Ajax walked the group easily, beating us twice, but we managed a draw and a win against Torino (the latter the result of two penalty decisions that would've left me incandescent with rage), and Qarabag sucks, because we beat them twice by a total score of 8-2.

The 10 points were enough for us to finish 2nd, ahead of Torino on 8, and now we're in the Knockout stages of the Europa League where we've drawn Genk, and I am actually quite positive about our changes of advancing!

Meanwhile, in the league, I'm encountering a simple problem. PSG, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon and Monaco are all WAY, WAY better than us, but we're capable of getting some kind of result against everyone else. What this has meant, ultimately, is that we are 9th after 18 games, and within spitting distance of the European places. I'm not putting any money on it unless we can get some results against the aforementioned top teams (our best so far was dragging a 0-0 draw out of Bordeaux), but who knows!

Good luck, but ...

Prederick wrote:

The 10 points were enough for us to finish 2nd, ahead of Torino on 8, and now we're in the Knockout stages of the Europa League where we've drawn Genk, and I am actually quite positive about our changes of advancing!

Pretty sure you just doomed yourself.

Add one to the list of things I've never seen before.

Man City binned Pep in March (they were 6th in the league, but had already won the Carabao Cup). I saw it in my social news feed, with some guy I'd never heard of appointed as replacement.

Turns out he's the u-23 manager, only been there about a month, and has no managerial experience. Further scrolling through my social feed brings up the fact that Jurgen Klopp has agreed to take over at City from some date in June.

He's currently still manager at Liverpool. Who are 9 pts clear at the top of the Prem with a game in hand.

Not sure I've ever seen that before, where a manager is appointed but stays at his current club til a future date.

I'm viewing all this from the very remote distance of 3.Bundesliga, where my 1860 Munchen team is trundling along in 5th, but with no real chance of making the playoffs, which is only 3rd vs the 3rd bottom of 2.Bundesliga, I think.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Good luck, but ...

Prederick wrote:

The 10 points were enough for us to finish 2nd, ahead of Torino on 8, and now we're in the Knockout stages of the Europa League where we've drawn Genk, and I am actually quite positive about our changes of advancing!

Pretty sure you just doomed yourself.

I CONTINUE TO FLOUT THE FM GODS, WE BEAT GENK ON PENALTIES.

I totally almost f**ked it up too, because I genuinely was acting like we'd be able to easily win, so I started the backups in the first leg on the road and lost 2-0. Played the starters to start the second leg, looked useless for 45 minutes, screamed at the team, radically changed our formation, scored in the 55th minute and then bombarded their goal, only to see them block every damn shot until, in the 84th minute, we scored what is quite possibly the scruffiest goal I've ever seen in FM, where a corner kick turned into brief scrum and my CB slid tackled the ball into the net.

Up next is Villareal, and yeah, now we're probably doomed.

I have a full 25-man squad, but I'm afraid of our final run-in now, because the run of games we've been on has been BRUTAL. I think we had something like seven or eight fixtures in February alone, and a full third of the team is currently injured. We're still in the Coupe de France, and have to finish the league campaign (11 games to go!), but we are just about to be safe from relegation, which I'd be thrilled with, since the board's goal for this season was Easily Avoid Relegation or whatever they call it.

Meanwhile, I don't know if it's Poch and Diego Simeone, but man, Atleti and Tottenham are always punching above their weight in this game, especially Atleti, where their 4-4-2 always seems to do incredibly well.

Oh, and in a nice bit of real-life symmetry, PSG started the CL knockout stages by beating Dortmund 2-1 on the road, and then came home and puked on themselves, losing 6-0.

Prederick wrote:

I CONTINUE TO FLOUT THE FM GODS

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

You know that 'scruffiest goal you've ever seen in FM' ?

The one that's worse is currently warming up. Waiting for the last minute of your next key game.

In other news, a 9 match winning run took 1860 up to 2.Bundesliga by 1 point, much to my (and the Board's) surprise. Unfortunately, that board has now been replaced by a new one after club elections, who state that they are going to consider my performance based only on results from this point on. And we're tipped to go straight back down.

Still, never mind eh. Someone must love me, Napoli have just offered me an interview out of the blue.

davet010 wrote:
Prederick wrote:

I CONTINUE TO FLOUT THE FM GODS

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

You know that 'scruffiest goal you've ever seen in FM' ?

The one that's worse is currently warming up. Waiting for the last minute of your next key game.

Pfft, nah. We're better than that.

And by "better than that" I mean "We lost the first leg 4-1 at home and are screwed".

So my Red Star Paris game has come to a hilarious, ignominious end (we lost to Villareal 7-3 on aggregate, FYI).

Britain Brexited in my game, total, hard Brexit, leaving the EU entirely, but I didn't realize that that meant UK players would then be considered Non-EU until after I'd made all my summer signings.

Ligue 1 only allows 4 Non-EU players in your 25-man squad. I had 9, and I didn't realize until 3 weeks before the season started.

Moreover, several of the players I'd leave out, no matter what I did, would have been promised first-team action.

Oh well, I'm gonna start again with Notts County.

Prederick wrote:

Ligue 1 only allows 4 Non-EU players in your 25-man squad. I had 9, and I didn't realize until 3 weeks before the season started.

Moreover, several of the players I'd leave out, no matter what I did, would have been promised first-team action.

Yeah, that'd be a mess, for sure.

I'm not anticipating FM 2020 or something, but one thing I'm really curious about: how are they going to handle the Vincent Kompany thing at Anderlecht? What will his coaching stats look like? What wage will they have put on his contract? Questions questions...

Prederick wrote:

So my Red Star Paris game has come to a hilarious, ignominious end (we lost to Villareal 7-3 on aggregate, FYI).

Britain Brexited in my game, total, hard Brexit, leaving the EU entirely, but I didn't realize that that meant UK players would then be considered Non-EU until after I'd made all my summer signings.

Ligue 1 only allows 4 Non-EU players in your 25-man squad. I had 9, and I didn't realize until 3 weeks before the season started.

Moreover, several of the players I'd leave out, no matter what I did, would have been promised first-team action.

Oh well, I'm gonna start again with Notts County.

That sucks. I'm all for the game being as realistic as possible, but living through this IRL is bad enough, I don't want it it my favourite game as well

Now at Liverpool, I'm finding it's trickier to sign players from the EU as they require a permit, so unless they're an established international they tend to fail to get one, which is a pain when I think I've found a great youngster.

whoops

Blackice wrote:
Prederick wrote:

So my Red Star Paris game has come to a hilarious, ignominious end (we lost to Villareal 7-3 on aggregate, FYI).

Britain Brexited in my game, total, hard Brexit, leaving the EU entirely, but I didn't realize that that meant UK players would then be considered Non-EU until after I'd made all my summer signings.

Ligue 1 only allows 4 Non-EU players in your 25-man squad. I had 9, and I didn't realize until 3 weeks before the season started.

Moreover, several of the players I'd leave out, no matter what I did, would have been promised first-team action.

Oh well, I'm gonna start again with Notts County.

That sucks. I'm all for the game being as realistic as possible, but living through this IRL is bad enough, I don't want it it my favourite game as well

Now at Liverpool, I'm finding it's trickier to sign players from the EU as they require a permit, so unless they're an established international they tend to fail to get one, which is a pain when I think I've found a great youngster.

Interesting. Does the game randomly go to some sort of Brexit outcome and then you just deal with it? It'd be nice to have a setting to make that optional, for sure.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Interesting. Does the game randomly go to some sort of Brexit outcome and then you just deal with it? It'd be nice to have a setting to make that optional, for sure.

Yeah, in FM 18, I think the options were "No Brexit/Soft Brexit/Hard Brexit" with various outcomes and meanings for each (I remember seeing No Brexit a LOT in FM 18, for whatever that might say about SIGames).

FM 19, it's just Soft/Hard Brexit. It's not optional, but there are easy-to-find and use mods if you don't want to deal with it.

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Interesting. Does the game randomly go to some sort of Brexit outcome and then you just deal with it? It'd be nice to have a setting to make that optional, for sure.

Yeah, in FM 18, I think the options were "No Brexit/Soft Brexit/Hard Brexit" with various outcomes and meanings for each (I remember seeing No Brexit a LOT in FM 18, for whatever that might say about SIGames).

FM 19, it's just Soft/Hard Brexit. It's not optional, but there are easy-to-find and use mods if you don't want to deal with it.

Didn't realise it could do different types of brexit! Not sure what type I got, but it's a pain in the butt either way. Does it randomise the date it happens? Mine's just happened in June 2021, which seems about right considering how it's going IRL...

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Interesting. Does the game randomly go to some sort of Brexit outcome and then you just deal with it? It'd be nice to have a setting to make that optional, for sure.

Yeah, in FM 18, I think the options were "No Brexit/Soft Brexit/Hard Brexit" with various outcomes and meanings for each (I remember seeing No Brexit a LOT in FM 18, for whatever that might say about SIGames).

FM 19, it's just Soft/Hard Brexit. It's not optional, but there are easy-to-find and use mods if you don't want to deal with it.

Interesting, thanks!

That mod seems like it removes both Brexit and all other types of work permit related issues by making all countries in the world EU countries. I didn't mind the permit problems associated with other non-EU players. I wonder if there is a mod that just removes Brexit.

Oh, if only....

(searches for 'Real World' Steam workshop)

Blackice wrote:

Didn't realise it could do different types of brexit! Not sure what type I got, but it's a pain in the butt either way. Does it randomise the date it happens? Mine's just happened in June 2021, which seems about right considering how it's going IRL...

I think it's randomized, but weighted. Which would explain why so many of my FM 18 games had No Brexit (and the 2022 World Cup constantly getting taken away from Qatar), whereas in FM 19 i'm just seeing a lot of Hard Brexit.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

That mod seems like it removes both Brexit and all other types of work permit related issues by making all countries in the world EU countries. I didn't mind the permit problems associated with other non-EU players. I wonder if there is a mod that just removes Brexit.

Voila!

And if they're here, both of these mods are likely findable using the Steam Workshop, which is a much simpler proposition.

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

That mod seems like it removes both Brexit and all other types of work permit related issues by making all countries in the world EU countries. I didn't mind the permit problems associated with other non-EU players. I wonder if there is a mod that just removes Brexit.

Voila!

And if they're here, both of these mods are likely findable using the Steam Workshop, which is a much simpler proposition.

Nice find!

After years of almost buying this to try to learn the ins and outs of RL soccer, Godzilla and the steam sale finally pushed me over the edge.

When following this thread and other soccer discussions, I've always felt a bit overwhelmed by the relegation/promotion systems, the differences in leagues, and the contract discussions. Since I have no particular attraction to any team, live close to where New England plays, and figured that the MLS rules would be easier for me to understand, I've started out taking over the Revolution. It's quickly looking like the rules are just complicated in a different way that most of the rest of the world.

I'm only a few days in and have a first trade offer. My impression is that its a really good deal for me. Seattle wants me to send them Juan Agudelo for a return of $425k GA money, their 1st and 2nd round 2019 superdraft picks, and an international slot (for 2018 only). If I followed things correclty, Agudelo is currently my second-best center striker, and likely to improve to my best, so I'd be giving up a known quantity for potential. The pre-season report predicted an 8th place finish (though I'm now not sure if that was over-all or for the conference), so we're not really a contender this season anyway, and Agudelo's contract will be up at the end of the season. In RL, he re-signed, but I get the impression that the FM version of the Revolution might regret spending the money doing that. We have excellent training facilities and a good youth development program (though I think I need better staff there), but we currently don't have much youth talent.

So is my first reaction that the two draft slots are worth it correct? Does the GA money roll-over in any sense? I'm not sure I care too much about the international slot, but I assume I could try to make it part of another trade. Or are my non-soccer sport simulations tendencies to highly rate draft slots incorrect in this game and I should hold on to him?