Kevin in Louisiana
07 Jan 2007, 01:25 AM
[Skip to the third paragraph if you'd rather not be bored with a history of my team.]
When I started my first real training regimen, probably eight or nine seasons ago, I did playmaking for a while, kept a few to IM's to start for my team, then sold the rest. Then, I switched to defending, training a few players up anywhere from brilliant to supernatural, until I had a decent core to my defense. A season or two ago I switched back to playmaking, since I was needing better and better players in my league (V.246), but mostly because by offensive was anemic, playing either 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 all the time (toward the end, I was probably mixing in some 4-5-1 for league matches, but mostly to no avail). I also trained a little bit of passing (the defenders and midfielders one, whatever they call it), either during the off-season and once for about half a season.
So rather then sell my old guys (now 26-28 years old), I just bought a few new trainees. In what might have been an ill-advised move, I even bought one of my old trainees, past training age (24 now, probably 21 or 22 when I bought him). I figured, his price is cheap, so I'll bid on him, and if I drive up the price for someone else, great, and if not, I've got my new #1 midfielder for a cheap price. I think he was world-class or supernatural when I bought him; now he's up to extra-terrestrial, and as you can imagine, the wages for him and the others are going through the roof. My wage bill isn't unreasonable--$172k--but with the slashing of interest rates, I tread water or lose a bit when I used to be able to break even every fortnight. Now obviously, the main source of income in the game is training, but that's nowhere near as lucrative as it used to be, due to the wages.
So the long and the short of it is, I'm treading water and I've been a little bit bored with Hattrick for quite a while--I'm basically on autopilot, checking in a few times a week just to keep everything running smoothly--and I'd like to shake things up and get myself re-involved with the game. I don't want to train playmaking anymore, so I'd like to switch by the start of next season. But what do I train?
Defending: done it before. I enjoyed it, I suppose, but I'd rather not do it again, because if I do, I probably have no shot of winning my league.
Winger: an intriguing choice. I can play basically any formation I want and still get maximum training, so that's nice. The downside is that I'm not quite sure what's currently in vogue: lots of winger + lots of passing, lots of winger + lots of PM, a little bit of everything, etc. And winger training requires buying players who already have the PM or passing, or training some combination of winger, PM, and passing. So it's a bit more labor intensive.
Forward: fairly simple, and with my defenders I can feel pretty good about playing three in the back. You can do some interesting tactical things with 3-4-3 and 4-3-3, wingers, no wingers, forwards toward wing, etc. But I worry a little bit about sacrificing midfield. When I trained passing, I was trying to get defenders with good passing for CA's sake, but even with pretty good CA ratings it's too darn hard to win matches without a good midfield.
Keeper: as simple as can be. But maybe a little too dull? Buy two trainees, try to skilltrade, repeat. Etc.
Playmaking: I guess I owe it to myself to consider the pros and cons of just sticking with playmaking. I've got enough money in the bank that I could have plenty of red ink all over the books and still survive for quite some time. The wages aren't anywhere near bankrupting me, yet. And I've seen first hand that playmaking training improves a team much more than anything else I've tried. But eventually, the wages will catch up with me, or, if I sell the players with ridiculously high wages, I'll just be buying players five or six skill levels lower for the same price. So even if I don't change now, I'll have to, sooner or later.
The other types: the hybrids (defensive positions and wing attacks) seem a little pointless. But passing (either version) intrigues me a bit. Is there enough of a market for passing to make it worth my while? Will it improve my team as much as the regular types of training?
Also, a little bit of info on my team: averaging 218 hatstats so far this season, been finishing anywhere from 3rd to 6th in the past few seasons, about $6.3-$6.5 million in the bank. I used to enjoy sitting on the money, but the new interest rate makes me want to get rid of quite a bit of it, and my stadium is decent-sized, so that doesn't need any money, and my team is fairly good all the way around, so I can spend that money setting up my new training, if need be.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I know I haven't posted a whole lot lately, but I know y'all always have good Hattrick advice.
Kevin
Metairie United AFC (225567)
When I started my first real training regimen, probably eight or nine seasons ago, I did playmaking for a while, kept a few to IM's to start for my team, then sold the rest. Then, I switched to defending, training a few players up anywhere from brilliant to supernatural, until I had a decent core to my defense. A season or two ago I switched back to playmaking, since I was needing better and better players in my league (V.246), but mostly because by offensive was anemic, playing either 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 all the time (toward the end, I was probably mixing in some 4-5-1 for league matches, but mostly to no avail). I also trained a little bit of passing (the defenders and midfielders one, whatever they call it), either during the off-season and once for about half a season.
So rather then sell my old guys (now 26-28 years old), I just bought a few new trainees. In what might have been an ill-advised move, I even bought one of my old trainees, past training age (24 now, probably 21 or 22 when I bought him). I figured, his price is cheap, so I'll bid on him, and if I drive up the price for someone else, great, and if not, I've got my new #1 midfielder for a cheap price. I think he was world-class or supernatural when I bought him; now he's up to extra-terrestrial, and as you can imagine, the wages for him and the others are going through the roof. My wage bill isn't unreasonable--$172k--but with the slashing of interest rates, I tread water or lose a bit when I used to be able to break even every fortnight. Now obviously, the main source of income in the game is training, but that's nowhere near as lucrative as it used to be, due to the wages.
So the long and the short of it is, I'm treading water and I've been a little bit bored with Hattrick for quite a while--I'm basically on autopilot, checking in a few times a week just to keep everything running smoothly--and I'd like to shake things up and get myself re-involved with the game. I don't want to train playmaking anymore, so I'd like to switch by the start of next season. But what do I train?
Defending: done it before. I enjoyed it, I suppose, but I'd rather not do it again, because if I do, I probably have no shot of winning my league.
Winger: an intriguing choice. I can play basically any formation I want and still get maximum training, so that's nice. The downside is that I'm not quite sure what's currently in vogue: lots of winger + lots of passing, lots of winger + lots of PM, a little bit of everything, etc. And winger training requires buying players who already have the PM or passing, or training some combination of winger, PM, and passing. So it's a bit more labor intensive.
Forward: fairly simple, and with my defenders I can feel pretty good about playing three in the back. You can do some interesting tactical things with 3-4-3 and 4-3-3, wingers, no wingers, forwards toward wing, etc. But I worry a little bit about sacrificing midfield. When I trained passing, I was trying to get defenders with good passing for CA's sake, but even with pretty good CA ratings it's too darn hard to win matches without a good midfield.
Keeper: as simple as can be. But maybe a little too dull? Buy two trainees, try to skilltrade, repeat. Etc.
Playmaking: I guess I owe it to myself to consider the pros and cons of just sticking with playmaking. I've got enough money in the bank that I could have plenty of red ink all over the books and still survive for quite some time. The wages aren't anywhere near bankrupting me, yet. And I've seen first hand that playmaking training improves a team much more than anything else I've tried. But eventually, the wages will catch up with me, or, if I sell the players with ridiculously high wages, I'll just be buying players five or six skill levels lower for the same price. So even if I don't change now, I'll have to, sooner or later.
The other types: the hybrids (defensive positions and wing attacks) seem a little pointless. But passing (either version) intrigues me a bit. Is there enough of a market for passing to make it worth my while? Will it improve my team as much as the regular types of training?
Also, a little bit of info on my team: averaging 218 hatstats so far this season, been finishing anywhere from 3rd to 6th in the past few seasons, about $6.3-$6.5 million in the bank. I used to enjoy sitting on the money, but the new interest rate makes me want to get rid of quite a bit of it, and my stadium is decent-sized, so that doesn't need any money, and my team is fairly good all the way around, so I can spend that money setting up my new training, if need be.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I know I haven't posted a whole lot lately, but I know y'all always have good Hattrick advice.
Kevin
Metairie United AFC (225567)