figured id give this game a try although i know nothing of the sort about cricket, just read through the rules and dont want to make the huge mistake i did in my first 5 months or so of hattrick and not knowing what i was doing whatsoever, so what should the first thing i do now with my squad?
don't expand your stadium just yet. find any young players, 17 or 18 and start training them! in battrick you get 10 net's sessions. I would train a few players in primary skills (batting, bowling, wicketkeeping). Say you have a 17 or 18 year old player who is competent or so in batting. Give him a few batting nets, a stamina net and a fielding net. By training fielding his secondaries will go up quicker. Secondaries are consisency and concentration. I'll post more when i get home.
With all the changes they are implementing for season 3, I wouldn't do anything just yet. Absolutely anything. There are some fairly complex changes afoot and even veterans after two full seasons (like me) are trying to get their head around them. Certainly do not expand your stadium, look at any players 17-19 and consider their best skill and also see who needs stamina training. So, in other words, start planning your training regimen. Don't buy anybody, the transfer market is likely to be hugely affected by the new youth academy system.
You need to start by trying to figure out what you have with your squad. Some observations about player skills and the like: * Stamina seems to be pretty important in how well bowlers hold up. If you use the default bowling order, you'll have one bowler doing ten overs straight through in the middle -- this bowler should have good stamina. * In my experience, batting skill tends to have a big influence on how quickly batsmen produce runs. Skill, concentration, and stamina all play into how long they go before giving up their wicket. This will play into what you want to do with your youths (keeping in mind that nobody really has a feel for the new YS system right now) and what you want to do with your training. At the least, you'll want to identify some younger players (say, under 23), if you have players under 20 who are decent prospects (say, mediocre or better in batting or bowling) these guys are worth more nets. Any players over 20 are close to finished skill-wise, as they are in Hattrick, but it may be worthwhile to give out spare fitness nets to bring their stamina up.
First thing??? Make sure you understand the game and as such, what your goals should be. Make a list of all your players under 22w any primary (Batting, Bowling, Keeping) skill above feeble and list it here and we can help you with which ones you should give nets to.
I'll take you up on your offer b/c I have no idea wtf I'm doing. Hattrick is hard enough and I understand the game of soccer! Let me know who I should fire, sell, and train please. Seems like Briscoe and Burnett are decentand young. Is stamina needed for batting like stamina is needed for playmaking in HT? What is the best thing to train for newbies? Squad Details (18 Players)Rob Adams - 20 yo, BT Rating=1,280 RH Batsman, RF Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A steady player with respectable leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: woeful Bowling: woeful Consistency: mediocre Fielding: abysmal Larry Briscoe - 19 yo, BT Rating=3,969 LH Batsman, LF Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with mediocre leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: mediocre Wicket Keeping: woeful Batting: competent Concentration: feeble Bowling: woeful Consistency: abysmal Fielding: mediocre Barry Burnett - 18 yo, BT Rating=2,899 LH Batsman, LFM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with proficient leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: abysmal Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: mediocre Concentration: woeful Bowling: abysmal Consistency: woeful Fielding: competent Adam Cooksey - 20 yo, BT Rating=1,555 RH Batsman, RH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A destructive player with woeful leadership skills and abysmal experience. Stamina: mediocre Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: abysmal Bowling: abysmal Consistency: feeble Fielding: abysmal Wolde Cooper - 28 yo, BT Rating=2,054 RH Batsman, RFM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A defensive player with feeble leadership skills and mediocre experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: feeble Bowling: mediocre Consistency: woeful Fielding: feeble Terrence De bruyn - 22 yo, BT Rating=4,410 LH Batsman, LH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A steady player with feeble leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: feeble Batting: competent Concentration: feeble Bowling: abysmal Consistency: woeful Fielding: competent Moses Harewood - 29 yo, BT Rating=3,290 RH Batsman, RF Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A destructive player with feeble leadership skills and mediocre experience. Stamina: abysmal Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: competent Concentration: feeble Bowling: abysmal Consistency: feeble Fielding: feeble Simon Jacobus - 19 yo, BT Rating=3,046 RH Batsman, RH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with proficient leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: abysmal Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: competent Concentration: woeful Bowling: abysmal Consistency: feeble Fielding: mediocre Jacob Jennings - 21 yo, BT Rating=3,467 LH Batsman, LFM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A steady player with proficient leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: feeble Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: mediocre Bowling: competent Consistency: mediocre Fielding: abysmal Wolde Makanna - 22 yo, BT Rating=3,176 RH Batsman, RM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A destructive player with proficient leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: mediocre Bowling: competent Consistency: woeful Fielding: feeble Lewis Mead - 22 yo, BT Rating=2,111 LH Batsman, LH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with mediocre leadership skills and abysmal experience. Stamina: mediocre Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: woeful Bowling: abysmal Consistency: feeble Fielding: feeble Master Nomvete - 25 yo, BT Rating=2,491 RH Batsman, RH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A steady player with useless leadership skills and woeful experience. Stamina: mediocre Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: abysmal Concentration: mediocre Bowling: mediocre Consistency: abysmal Fielding: abysmal Philo Palmer - 26 yo, BT Rating=2,531 RH Batsman, RM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A cautious player with mediocre leadership skills and feeble experience. Stamina: feeble Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: competent Concentration: abysmal Bowling: woeful Consistency: woeful Fielding: woeful Cleveland Ricketts - 25 yo, BT Rating=1,030 LH Batsman, LM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with strong leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: mediocre Batting: abysmal Concentration: abysmal Bowling: abysmal Consistency: abysmal Fielding: abysmal Paul Simmonds - 26 yo, BT Rating=3,161 LH Batsman, LH Spin Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with worthless leadership skills and woeful experience. Stamina: feeble Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: mediocre Concentration: feeble Bowling: abysmal Consistency: abysmal Fielding: competent Danny Softley - 21 yo, BT Rating=2,848 LH Batsman, LF Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A steady player with worthless leadership skills and abysmal experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: feeble Concentration: feeble Bowling: mediocre Consistency: woeful Fielding: feeble Tel Tucker - 19 yo, BT Rating=3,487 LH Batsman, LFM Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively An attacking player with strong leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: abysmal Batting: abysmal Concentration: competent Bowling: abysmal Consistency: mediocre Fielding: woeful Colin Wilkinson - 25 yo, BT Rating=1,755 LH Batsman, LF Bowler, respectable batting form, respectable bowling form, lively A cautious player with woeful leadership skills and worthless experience. Stamina: woeful Wicket Keeping: worthless Batting: woeful Concentration: feeble Bowling: abysmal Consistency: mediocre Fielding: abysmal
This should help you: http://virtualdesigns.co.uk/battrick/index.htm Spreadsheet that gives you some of the same information as HAM and such. While the ratings are not 100% accurate you can at least see which of your players are crap and which are half decent and trainable.
Stamina helps both batsmen and bowlers perform better, longer. The players on your squad who need stamina the most are all-arounders, who may be both bowling and batting in the match. The players who need stamina the least are your middle-order specialist batsmen, since they will be batting less frequently and not bowling at all. Training really doesn't work like HT. You're not forced to specialize. Fire him. Decent middle-order batsman by most standards, the fielding is a plus. Moves up the order if you don't have more-skilled players, obviously. I'd recommend a batting net and either a fielding or a fitness net -- the batting net to work on his batting, the other one to help his concentration pop more quickly. Middle-order or substitute specialist batsman. Needs stamina training. Fire him. Specialist bowler. Low stamina, so be careful how you use him (e.g. don't give him the #4 slot where he'd have to do 10 overs straight through). The exp. will probably help. Similar to the other competent batsman, but older so not worth trying to improve his batting or concentration. Another specialist batsman, not as useful as the other two with the bad stamina. You seem to have a lot of these guys... Specialist bowlers -- decent players that could use more stamina (and, in Makanna's case, more consistency as well) Fire him. A specialist bowler who will likely be hamstrung by his poor consistency. Could be in the lineup as your late-over spinner, or could be a reserve. Competent batsman, too old to train, same as several previous players Specialist wicket keeper -- can't bat for anything, and the lack of concentration I believe is bad too. If there's nothing better later on here, you might want to see if you can buy something better. Another specialist batsman. A sort of a poor man's all-arounder -- he might have some value as, say, your #1 or #2 slot bowler because he's not completely helpless with the bat. All the same, he'll be middle order at best, he's not a true all-around player. Fire him. Fire him.
A quick observation -- you're really strapped for players who aren't specialists. Your batting lineup is going to be really top-heavy as a result, or else you're going to be using one or two bowlers who will give up runs in bunches. I've not really got much experience with that sort of lineup because I have a keeper who can bat and a real all-arounder who is decent both batting and bowling.
Wow, thanks for the in-depth analysis. I'll try to take it all in and have another read through the rules. Thanks again.
FYI - if you try this spreadsheet it won't work properly right now due to BT changing the presentation on the players page.