Gearing up to get started with the save has led me to thinking back over the past few FM’s and in particular non league management outside the ‘vanilla’ game. It has been my bread and butter so to speak on FM for many years and I have become pretty well versed in hitting the ground running, tie that in with the knowledge of players I have amassed while being involved with Atherstone it helps to make pretty quick work of most of the early leagues leading to the National League. I have looked around the Level 8 database currently available and the players I know do seem on par attributes wise so should do well if signed.

Anyway I wanted to try and share some of the (very simple) things I endeavour to implement when setting out on a journey like this one, so here we go.

The Running Men

Pace, I could really just say that and be done with it, however it wouldn’t make for much of a read would it! At this level I find a good combination of pace, stamina and natural fitness makes up for a lot of what lacks in other areas attributes wise. When you have a scan around say Level 8, there are a lot of players with very low pace etc, so it stands to reason that if you can get together a group of fit, quick players you already have an advantage. Of course if you can get them with relatively decent mental and technical attributes then even better, but for me personally in the early seasons they can come as a secondary concern. I have had strikers with 6 finishing low composure and decisions bag 20-30 goals because of the pace and natural fitness of their support players such as wingers etc, coupled with their own.

But Paul, what about determination!?

Well obviously this is always a good one to have in double figures, however if it comes to signing someone with say 16 determination and 8 natural fitness against someone with 8 determination and 16 natural fitness, then Mr. Determination sadly won’t be joining my journey. Why? Well simply determination can be trained and improved through a career, especially with mentoring of those solid pro’s on the books, whereas natural fitness barely ever improves, I think the most I have seen it move is up by one – and that is rare to say the least.

Although this approach has served me well over the years it does have some slight issues, one obviously being other attributes take a back seat as mentioned, but normally those cracks are papered over for a few seasons until you get to more challenging levels in game. It can also be difficult to find players with all three attributes, even with two of them at times, so trying to find a good balance can be key. I try to get all three at least in double figures as this is still better than the majority of teams you will face, and should set me up for a good season.

The Revolving Door

This can be both a blessing and a huge curse. When playing these databases, you are normally in charge of clubs who operate on non contract terms, which means you can lose any player at any time – and believe me teams will hound you for that striker with 8 finishing!

It can be difficult to keep hold of your best players due to this, however I find most of the time if they are happy you can get them to agree to sign another non contract (unless the team trying to take them is more reputable or offering actual money to them). 

It is probably one of, if not the most annoying things at this level in game, but it does reflect the way the leagues are, as all the clubs need to do is put in the 7 days notice to teams and players can move if they wish. But it also adds to the challenge, you have to act fast, and I look at it as “if they can take my best player, I will take someone else’s!”.

Recruitment needs to be constant, to battle the inevitable loss of players, I will look myself mostly, however I do set my director of football to find players as well, but I have the final say on them. They tend to pick out players you miss that are more than capable of playing the revolving door game, but obviously they pick some right duds as well, or obsess over one position – who needs 8 goalkeepers…. Apart from Chelsea.

On the flip side it can come in handy, disruptive player? Released, moany mcmoanpants? Released, player constantly making mistakes or just standing on the ball waiting for the opposition to take it? See ya later pal! No financial loss for booting them out the door! It’s harsh but it is necessary in the fight to reach the Football League.

The Desk Smasher

So you’re flying at the top of the table, your striker with 3 finishing has 15 goals in his last 7 games, you have just welcomed your 12th new midfielder of the season and you have made the FA Cup 1st Round – it’s away to recently relegated Sheffield Wednesday, big money coming your way for gate receipts etc. Game day rolls round, 17k gate, on the tele, you know you probably won’t draw let alone win but who cares? The team has been playing great lately so we can show this simulated crowd and TV audience that we are going places… Right…. Right?

Well sometimes yes, you play great, lose narrowly, even get a replay in some cases – but then there are the times FM panics and doesn’t know how to properly represent the gulf in ability, and these games make me want to headbutt my desk until one of us breaks! Now it is worth saying due to the new match engine this may not be the case anymore, but in previous games it really was.

It can’t be that bad Paul, Come on!?

Oh really? It starts with the kick off, its passed back to my centre half, he puts his foot on the ball and, well just stands there with the keeper behind him his defensive pals either side, midfield in front – but he is just stood there, until the striker just casually takes the ball off him and scores after 1 minute. 5 minutes on the clock they play a long ball and my other defender 6’7 just lets the ball bounce over his head, their player runs on to it and boom 2-0. Players can’t put 2 passes together, they keep just stopping on the ball until it’s taken off them, wingers run to the byline then just stop when there is a four on two situation in the box, then they just fall over and the ball is taken away. In short, the game just makes the players total idiots, that’s how it deals with such a gulf in class! I just hope it will be different this year.

The Spectrum Effect

This for me is one of the best things about these saves, I called it The Spectrum Effect, because it sounded clever! Basically with the Level 10+ databases the game looks at it a little differently, I have found. So using Danny Welbeck as an example in the vanilla game, he is released by Brighton, he could drop down a few leagues, so the game would probably look at it and say “League One or Two is the middle between the top flight and the National League North/South” so he would maybe drop down to a club in those leagues. Obviously adding the extra leagues theoretically widens that spectrum, which I have seen in past games, such as Craig Gardner being released by West Brom and then signing for a team at the level below National League North/South – I saw the same with a few players, even ones I released much later in the save.

Now I don’t know if this is actually how that works but it seems to be the way it goes for my save universes and it makes for some really cool side stories to keep an eye on, I find downloading the realism mods helps as well, players think far more realistically in terms of their ability, age etc.

The Narrative

I spoke a lot about my reasoning for this save in the intro post, and that leads into the very simple narrative, which is a local man who was taken into the community and the club when at his lowest, getting the chance to repay them by taking the club and town on a journey that will hopefully see us in the Premier League before I retire and hand over the reigns in game.

As with all my saves there will be many graphics, such as websites, tweets, magazines etc to build the world I will be escaping into, I will also incorporate some form of AI to assist in world building things with newgens such as the old faithful “seen coming out of a nightclub at 2am” and “awol from training” issues that arise – hoping to create little side stories that intertwine with the overall save story we will create. Some things will be shared on Twitter via a thread which will cover the save in deep detail, then other stuff will be utilised here where we can take more time to delve into the save.

You may read this and do things a totally different way at this level, which is perfectly expected, I firmly believe there is no right or wrong way to play FM – but this is what I have found works for me. This post may not be very helpful, but I wanted to give a small and simple overview of the rough plan going forward. I am hoping the database will be ready to roll in the next 2 days so the real fun can start! Thanks for reading, and I will see you next time.