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Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
Moving on: I've selected Level 3 Skill Trainable for PotatoManJack.



Notice anything different? That's right, we have a full 1-star roster now! Goes back down to a half-star if we put the young guys in though, so we're right on the edge. But progress!!

2.17.30 Backpfeifengesichter (5-3-1, 1st) @ Emden (3-4-2, 6th)

Subs: Fat Samurai, AJ_Impy



We're virtually forced to adjust here; Emden is still a bad matchup for us. No CDs for us to draw penalties from, and they have an LF playing on the side away from PMJ. That being the case, I put BLT in goal since he can't benefit from playing out there, and NiftyBottle takes the station on the right flank.

Teams still think it's a good idea to test megane. He's going to get a lot of tackles - and get out of position a lot - as long as that happens. Nice job by Tevery Best intercepting a lofted pass later, and then resisting their try at tackling. The PMJ Flank Maneuver failed as they tackled it right back from him, but a Torrannor slide tackle combined with an Odd Wilson long pass got us set up for a close-in shot from ShadowedFlame. Subpar attempt, good save easily made by GK Pichler. If it wasn't for bad luck against these guys, we'd have no luck at all. But then it switched ... they got a little greedy, PMJ intercepted a pass at midfield, and we were set up for a second try. This time the rolls were basically reversed, and Odd Wilson went nuts enough about it after we scored that he was on the verge of having an out-of-body experience. Fat Samurai comes on for him at the half.

A quick corner from the Break-In + Power Shot maneuver gave us a chance to add an insurance goal. Just better than 50-50 for Average Lettuce on the cross, but he hit it perfectly by his standards, and Insurrectionist put it home. It's over now - AJ_Impy comes on for Dragongem, and adding to his goal, our sweeper stops a feint attempt as they try something different. Even a midfield turnover can't dampen our spirits, esp. as they eventually get a clear shot at the end ... and our keeper-in-training easily stops it for his first save!

Insurrectionist is MoM, BLT is now one full match in goal away from getting to GK, and AJ_Impy got involved in some nice action including stopping a nutmeg attempt on the wing to get his development moving a bit. But most importantly of course, a win that keeps us on top and effectively knocks Emden out of the race. With four to play:

Backpfeifengesichter - 21 pts
Erfurt - 21 pts
Burghausen - 18 pts
--------------------------------------------
Zwickau - 16 pts
Potsdam - 15 pts

A five-point cushion is comfortable, but not a sure thing yet.

2.24.30 Burghausen (5-3-2, 3rd) @ Backpfeifengesichter (6-3-1, 1st)

A 4-1 win earlier in the year on the road really launched us on a successful year. With lowly Oberhausen coming up in the match after this one, this is our chance to lock it up. Win these next two, and promotion will be assured.

Subs: NiftyBottle, AJ_Impy

They still have no keeper, so I'm confident we can score consistently. That's why BraveLittlToaster is out there again. A wild first half results, with a 2-2 count resulting. Both our goals come on penalties from break-ins, while they use good passing skills in defense and midfield to get good opportunities including one cross and another pass through our defense. A nice block by Torrannor prevents a third score.

I put Nifty in at the half; BLT will become a full GK after this match already. Let's try to get the win. Dragongem is tired, but I still leave him in to try and get another penalty. Average Lettuce's second terrible job holding possession in midfield might have been fatal, but this time Torrannor prevents the pass through our line.



It's a mess, but he's motivated. Third time's the charm?



Walk it off, you'll be fine. And AJ_Impy is available to come in. ShadowedFlame hits a nice strike from the ensuing free kick to give us the lead, and a good interception by Fat Samurai ensures they get nothing from their kickoff. Odd Wilson picks off their final passing attempt - apparently having gifted midfielders helps quite a bit - and we run out the clock.



I daresay this was one of the most entertaining matches we've had. Much of the best that Amateur League football, such as it is, has to offer was on display. Burghausen's passing ability was a constant threat, and it took a number of quality plays to hold them off - but their lack of a true keeper proved fatal.



We've seen this before, but as it's a goal that has brought on much discussion, I thought it was worth enshrining. BraveLittleToaster has arrived as a full GK.



By comparison, NiftyBottle has 31 defense, so BLT is still somewhat short of that. And of course he has no skills just yet, but he's not a disaster in goal anymore and will eventually surpass Nifty considerably. Meanwhile we are also slowly but steadily stacking up a little more money, and some glory and fans from these successes.



Erfurt sells off a valuable player to bring in some cash - Lotte FC is a mid-table Third League club - and a minor transfer in the basement need not concern us.

Three matches to go:



The matter is nearly accomplished. It is perhaps fitting that we have the opportunity to all but clinch against Oberhausen, depending on what happens elsewhere; Burghausen hosts Erfurt, so that could well knock them out.

3.3.20 Backpfeifengesichter (7-3-1, 1st) @ Oberhausen (0-0-11, 8th)

Subs: NiftyBottle, Dragongem

Oberhausen is still a non-factor on attack, but they do have a respectable defense. Dragongem is fairly tired, so he gets a half off and we'll try to work for a counter. If that doesn't work, he'll come on later and try to get us a penalty chance.



After some delay nonsense and a weak shot on their part, we set this up - as good as you can imagine in getting the ball through their line for a prime scoring chance on the doorstep. Odd Wilson tried to fail, rolling a 1 ... but their defender also got a 1. Whatever. A rainbow feint for the goal also was a display of ineptitude on both sides ... but it counts.

Tevery Best and their F Stettin for some reason decided to battle constantly for the ball. Both subs are on at half, TB and OW as both need rest. One goal lead should be more than enough here. It is; a number of things go wrong in the second half including an off-target cross from a corner. Some go right, but more importantly our opponent isn't a threat. 1-0 we take the win. Odd Wilson takes top honors, followed by Tevery Best and ShadowedFlame. All deserving.

We're now up eight points with two matches to play; it's over! Backpfeifengesichter are going up to the Third League for the first time!! All that remains now is to confirm our final position.

3.10.30 Zwickau (5-4-3, 4th) @ Backpfeifengesichter (8-3-1, 1st)

Subs: Fat Samurai, Average Lettuce

The second half of the year has been a nightmare for Zwickau. A win will clinch first place; a draw would all but do so. We don't go full youth movement because this is another matchup where we need an extra defender to close off a wing forward on the right.



We set up a quick corner. LD Hoest has L2 Head Play, but of course so does our sweeper. He's pretty darn pleased with himself after scoring anyway. Then comes the usual bit where they try to charge the gap on the wing, and megane decides not to let them. After a bunch of possession battles on that side though ...



L2 Rainbow Feint gets the best of us, and it's 1-1. We get another corner, but this time the pass is off. megane needs rest so I swap our CDs, and Average Lettuce in for Odd Wilson at half, Fat Samurai for Dragongem. If we can, I'd like to preserve a draw but let's at least not get anyone hurt. The possession battles don't go our way, but Insurrectionist puts up a stop sign against the rainbow feint when they try again, and that's enough to prevent any more damage.

3.17.30 Erfurt (7-4-2, 2nd) @ Backpfeifengesichter (8-4-1, 1st)

Subs: NiftyBottle, Odd Wilson

Odd Wilson doesn't have enough left in the tank to give us a full match. For the first time we are playing for a tile; Erfurt is three points behind and one back on goal differential. The third tiebreaker is goals scored and we are even on that, which makes it simple; if we lose, they are the Amateur League champions. A draw or a win, and we take the title. It's rare for the season to end in such a dramatic and IMO appropriate fashion, but here we are.

It starts just like our 3-1 win earlier in the year transpired: Dragongem draws a penalty, ShadowedFlame scores it, megane defends the wing gap - on the left this time - successfully. Can you hold for once, Average Lettuce?



Oh. You actually can. Not what I expected. Well done! This time CD Eler the great and powerful does not commit a penalty though.



They pass it up the wing, Insurrectionist is too slow to get over, Torrannor's try at getting in the way is just not quite there, and not the best effort from BraveLittlToaster either. That was after AJ_Impy was beaten on the pass up the pitch. A lot went wrong there. It's close, but Eler makes another sound tackle and we enter the half tied.

45 minutes left to determine a champion. Of course we are 'winning the tie' right now. Odd Wilson in for Fat Samurai. Dragongem is tired but still has one more push left in him. Another clean tackle by megane, PMJ pushes up the wing but they get it back, eventually winning the possession battles and scoring on a cross. *sigh*. Their wing forward goes out tired, but the damage is done. We need more magic from Dragongem, but once again he can't hold off their defense and they run out the clock.



Tough to lose the title at home like this, but we can hardly complain. And certainly it takes only a smidge of the luster off of what was a very successful season. We'll be seeing Erfurt again next year ... but as fellow cellar-dwellers in the next tier! Another MoM award for megane. He's picking up quite a few of those these days.



Taking first would have meant another 6k in Money, and 5 more Glory. But this ain't bad.



We doubled, exactly, the club records for points and league victories. Also worth noting is how strong Koblenz finished; it is not a coincidence that they now have a full GK. But we don't need to worry about that anymore.



Here they are folks: the first group of Punchable Faces (tm) that did not completely suck. 13 is a pretty minimal squad, but it was enough. One completely superficial thing about keeping Average and Nifty is they do get to go down in history as being on the first Backpfeifengesichter team to promote. That's not nothing.



Haven't looked at this in a while. There hasn't been a reason to.



Click on the trophy itself, and you are told when you won it. If you've won a trophy more than once, the pedestal will display the best one but you'll still see in this pop-up all the different times you earned one, and which one it was each year.

It may not be much in the grander scheme of things, but doggone it, it's ours. We worked hard for it, and we're going to savor it and celebrate. It took 8 years to get this.

** OOC Note: That's three years faster than I managed in my sim test run, partly due to more precise handling of the money but mostly due to the fact that playing out matches allows for tactical advantages you can't get while simming. Still though, for any coaches who have at times been frustrated at the apparent lack of progress; consider us to be ahead of the curve.

Before we can proceed to the off-season, we'll need to hear from Dragongem. There will be much to deal with afterwards.

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Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...




Lots of possibilities. If we want to keep the skill training going, Level 2 Skill Trainable will allow a seamless transition once L1 Cannon Shot comes in.

Dragongem, you are on the clock; what do you want next?

Tevery Best
Oct 11, 2013

Hewlo Furriend
Woop woop, go team!

And my first ever (and possibly last ever) accolade for anything! Truly calls for a celebration. Pity about the title, though.

Left 4 Bread
Oct 4, 2021

i sleep
:toot: :woop: :toot:

Punchable Faces, the best faces

Pokeytax
Jun 13, 2005

500 in ticket sales... is that... a full stadium??

If it’s possible to change our name, I think we should do so to “Backpfeifengesichter FC”, for two reasons: we’ve earned it, and it’s even dumber. (EDIT: boooo one letter over the character limit)

Pokeytax fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jan 24, 2023

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
I'm so excited for us to get our Backpfeifengesichter punched in next season by much stronger teams!

Now the fight to not immediately drop down begins. I'm super pumped. The quality of our recruits doesn't go up with promotion, right? We just get more money/glory to update out facilities and staff to get better recruits and to train them better?

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


We made it!

I like to imagine that BAC got started because a bunch of guys were drinking in a pub/beer hall/etc, and that it's still run out of the pub (including the management meetings).

So, first trophy for the pub's trophy case! Go Punchable Faces!

DTurtle
Apr 10, 2011


Congratulations! I can't believe that it actually worked.

I was sure that the various plans working against each other would prove the thread title.

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.
Go team! Great job from the players and the coach!

PotatoManJack
Nov 9, 2009
e: never mind, just saw you picked level 3 skill trainable

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...

PokeyTax posted:

500 in ticket sales... is that... a full stadium??

Yep! I meant to mention that, but it seems I edited it out for some reason. We had exactly 100 fans going into the last match. No room for more, but also nobody was turned away either.

Torrannor posted:

The quality of our recruits doesn't go up with promotion, right? We just get more money/glory to update out facilities and staff to get better recruits and to train them better?

No difference in quality, we need to invest in club upgrades to make that happen. We do get more money and glory from being promoted, but arguably more importantly a lot more matches and our players will improve faster from them as they are at a higher level of competition. Esp. important for players 2* and up, as they can't get enough experience in the Amateur League to approach their ceiling. Third League gets them a lot closer to doing that.

Quackles posted:

I like to imagine that BAC got started because a bunch of guys were drinking in a pub/beer hall/etc, and that it's still run out of the pub (including the management meetings).

Legit, at least until we get further in improving the club.

DTurtle posted:

I can't believe that it actually worked.

I was sure that the various plans working against each other would prove the thread title.

We pretty much just hit one of those tipping points; enough overall talent and development to flip from almost bottom to almost top of the league. Ya'll will have a much better chance of screwing things up now that we're about to join a tier that actually has standards - albeit minimal ones.

Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jan 25, 2023

Dragongem
Nov 9, 2009

Heroes of the Storm
Goon Tournament Champion
Against my better judgement I'm going level 2 skill trainable. Gotta use that cannon before the fans love me.

Coward
Sep 10, 2009

I say we take off and surrender unconditionally from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure



.
Up the crabs!

BraveLittleToaster
May 5, 2019
Moving up in the world! They'll learn to fear the sight of our teal crab logo yet.. Or be quite annoyed by it popping up, either one works.

Nizaha
Oct 12, 2021
Nice, we made it! Good job, team! Shame about the title, but we're either onward to bigger and better things, or we'll have another crack at it in a couple of years lol.

megane
Jun 20, 2008



:j:: Thanks, Johan. We’re here on the field with BPG defender Megane. You’ve become a fixture on the Backpfeifengesichter defensive line this year; what do you think you bring to the team?

[Megane stares solemnly into the camera]

:geno:: Well, Inez, the other team is out there trying to score lots of goals. They want to run past me, or kick the ball past me, and put the ball inside the net. If we let them do that even a few times, well, it could lose us the game. So it’s my job to take the ball away from them whenever they try, so that they can’t score any goals.

:j:: Fascinating. You had a rough first half there. What does your team need to change in the second half?

:geno:: We let the enemy team move the ball near our goal, and it even went in a few times. So we should try to avoid that if we can. I told the coach, I think it’s probably better to move the ball to the other end of the field instead.

:j:: All right, and we’ll see if the Backpfeifengesichter can pull that one off in just a few minutes. Back to you, Johan.

Kangra
May 7, 2012

I knew we could make it! (Gotta admit I was half-hoping to see Oberhausen pull a draw on us as a farewell present. But we may well see them again.)

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


megane posted:

:j:: Thanks, Johan. We’re here on the field with BPG defender Megane. You’ve become a fixture on the Backpfeifengesichter defensive line this year; what do you think you bring to the team?

[Megane stares solemnly into the camera]

:geno:: Well, Inez, the other team is out there trying to score lots of goals. They want to run past me, or kick the ball past me, and put the ball inside the net. If we let them do that even a few times, well, it could lose us the game. So it’s my job to take the ball away from them whenever they try, so that they can’t score any goals.

:j:: Fascinating. You had a rough first half there. What does your team need to change in the second half?

:geno:: We let the enemy team move the ball near our goal, and it even went in a few times. So we should try to avoid that if we can. I told the coach, I think it’s probably better to move the ball to the other end of the field instead.

:j:: All right, and we’ll see if the Backpfeifengesichter can pull that one off in just a few minutes. Back to you, Johan.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
LOL.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
2030 Offseason

First up there were three skill completions:

- Insurrectionist gets L3 Head Play. His new value is north of 800k, more than tripling our previous record. Almost 40% of our club's total value if all assets were liquidated is his selling price. You might say our sweeper is now kind of a big deal.

- Dragongem reaches L1 Cannon Shot, and commences with L2 training.

- BraveLittlToaster finishes L1 Playing Out. He can't train further yet - this is of course mostly due to him sitting out some matches to ensure our promotion.



It's nice to be recognized here beyond the usual 'you still suck, better luck next year' drivel that we're used to. I feel like calling them out for the vicious lie of referring to our level of football as 'outstanding', but ... let's not. Let's just take the W for the moment.

We also win the 'boringly effective' award for our trio of 1-0 victories, and our 6 clean sheets were best in the Amateur ranks. Other notables:

- Longest streak of matches without a loss: 11
- Longest streak without conceding a goal: 4
- Longest run of away victories: 4

I was surprised by that last one. It's still active.



That's well done; we are the only club to have three players earn this honor. Remember when we and Oberhausen were the only clubs to not ever have anyone for years? (they still haven't). Ahh, the memories.

Also note: it is as of this moment that we exceed capacity for our 'stadium', otherwhise known as 'rented corner of a public park', for the first time.





They wouldn't even all fit on one screen. And Tevery Best thought he was done earning honors :)

The President basically says, great job! I'll give you three more years to get promoted from Third League. I find that ambition ... unlikely.



First peek at the new financial situation. We'll take WMS Group here. We're roughly tripling what we made before with a low-end sponsor in the Amateur League, and that's before you factor in the increased number of matches. Of course, when you drastically increase a very insignificant revenue stream it still doesn't matter that much - but it'll help some.



Which of these fine upstanding young players should we take on? It more or less comes down to whether we want another attacker in the pipeline, or another defender.



One of these years is not like the others.



I find these pie charts a lot more generally useful than the line graphs, which I didn't include this time. A few important percentages about our time in the Amateur League:

- 81.5% of our income came from selling players
- 9.8% came from sponsors
- 3.7% came from ticket sales
- 88.9% of our expenses went to their contracts

I expect more investment in club upgrades will happen now, and probably a shift towards a more diverse income. The bottom line will still primarily be about selling and paying the players though.



I looked for this a while back and forgot where it was. I've set it to show the Amateur League matches only. Over the whole eight-year history, the overwhelming majority of goals scored and conceded came from Precision Shot. No surprise there, but the main point here is that it's becoming more diverse, on both ends. We're relying more on other ways of scoring, and crosses - the orange section - are becoming a more significant threat as our defense improves to cut off the easier path of creating chances.

I will probably post one of these annually from here on out, so we can see what we are doing well - and not - at a glance, in both attack and defense.



Before we get into the particulars of our club's situation for the coming year, a few words on our new league might be useful. The trophies on offer are a bit more intricate and impressive, but not that much. Top 5 in the standings receive money & glory rewards at the end of the year, compared to just 4 previously. And of course we have a larger selection of opponents. Some of them we've seen in the past, others are entirely new to us.

We have no expectation of advancing in the Prestige Cup yet; we're still going to be bashing up against Second League competition in the first round. Until we get to the point of battling for promotion from Third League, we won't have reasonable expectations of doing more than showing up and quickly going home. Third League clubs will still have holes in their rosters, but not as many. Same for skill development; it's a little better here but not a huge jump. Where we'll really see the largest difference is in their attribute levels. Opposition here will typically have starters in the upper 20s to low 30s; we're in the mid-teens. Closing that 'development gap' will occupy much of our time at this level.

The Third League is the most volatile league we will ever run into. Half of it's members change every year; a quarter are relegated, and a quarter are promoted. You're pretty much either in a promotion battle or in a relegation battle, or even both, for much of the season when you play at this level. There's not much of a 'safe midtable' to aim for. As you can see, 1.5* is pretty much the standard here, and we are ... not that. On the larger scale, the way I like to look at the domestic leagues in FTG is to basically split them in two: professional and semi-pro.

- Premier League are the elite professional clubs. In strong countries like Germany, roughly the top half compete continentally and the bottom half don't. First League are the lower-half professionals, and both of the top two leagues compete in the National Cup.

- Second League are the good semi-pro clubs, Third League are the bad semi-pro clubs, and Amateur League are the barely-existing ones, though technically still semi-pro since they are paying their players.

Finally, a look at the bad news of how we don't measure up in the Third League.

Aspach - 22 stars, 23 skills, 29.3 ave. level
Offenbach - 15 *, 20 skills, 22.5 ave.
Wurzburg - 15 *, 18 skills, 23.1 ave.
Meppen - 17 *, 23 skills, 18.7 ave.
Krefeld - 16 *, 14 skills, 20.5 ave.
Lotte - 15 *, 19 skills, 21.2 ave.
Munich-Old - 16 *, 20 skills, 24.0 ave.
Rostock - 10 *, 15 skills, 18.3 ave.
Schwerin - 12 *, 22 skills, 19.7 ave.
Erfurt - 9 *, 14 skills, 14.5 ave.
Backpfeifengesichter - 16 *, 17 skills, 12.7 ave.
Burghausen - 11 *, 14 skills, 14.6 ave.

Drawing on our Amateur League history, we know that we don't have to be as good as the opposition to compete with them, but we do need to be in the same general ballpark. We look pretty respectable here on the stars and skills front, but as mentioned before it's the attribute level gap that leads to most of those who promote getting sent right back down again. The value of our roster is actually higher than anybody else at this level, which speaks well of our long-term aspirations.

I think we can avoid that fate, at least in theory. We need three clubs we can beat. We know we can beat Burghausen, though they're not a pushover. Erfurt is a maybe. Rostock and Schwerin are also possibles - Schwerin has no proper keeper and has no less than six aging players, four of them listed as starters, that are set to retire probably in the next couple of years. But they still have nine players in their 20s for their level - and we have zero. It'll definitely be an uphill battle.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
Coaches Report: Summer 2030

Resources

- Glory: 179
- Money: 105,534
- Fans: 165

We gained a sizable chunk of Fans from promoting, but of course they'll leave as fast as they came if we don't stay up here.

Squad



Didn't lose as much value from NiftyBottle and AverageLettuce as I expected. We do of course have to decide what to do with them now, as noted by the red to warn us.



Another handful of skills will be finished by the time winter rolls around.



We'll be getting through seasons more slowly now, particularly while we crank up some Specialization Levels for our players. AJ_Impy just needs a little over half a match of standing around to become a midfielder, and a number of others will follow.

Extensions













Facilities & Personnel







Youth Academy Giftedness *:

- Current: 40% 0%, 56% 1*, 3.5% 2*, 0.5% 3*
- Next Upgrade: 12% 0%, 80% 1*, 6% 2*, 2% 3*

Full Experience 'Ceiling' by Giftedness *

- 0*: Level 5
- 1*: Level 15
- 2*: Level 30
- 3*: Level 50
- 4*: Level 70
- 5*: Level 90

This is the point at which a player starts getting reduced experience gains.

Youth Work

These remain unchanged. 9 Glory each for:

- Request Defender
- Request Keeper
- Youth Rivalry

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
Routine Contracts

- PotatoManJack; 1 year for 7,348
- Torrannor; 1 year for 7,077
- AJ_Impy; 3 years for 8,745

Signing these three would leave us with 82,364 Money.

Critical Contracts

Average Lettuce and NiftyBottle are obvious, and there's no punt option this time on them. If there isn't a majority in favor of extending them, they will be sold; the manager isn't letting them just walk without getting anything back for them under any condition. Call it my personal veto power.

Odd Wilson is also here, as a bit of an asterisk. He's over a year away from his third skill level .... BUT if we went with a 1-year extension and then he chooses 70% training time reduction on his next upgrade, that could potentially slide his third skill completion time down far enough that we wouldn't have another bite at the apple before it's done. So he's here as well, with the usual consideration to sell, take a short deal, lock him up for 3, punt, whatever.

Stadium Expansion?

We're now well over capacity, but if we flounder in the Third League that won't last long. If we get relegated, we'll have a mostly-empty stadium again. This partially depends on how well you think we'll do this year. At 10/ticket and our current fanbase, 650 per home match in potential revenue is the amount that will be lost if we don't pay the piper. Unlike real life, this would of course be an instantaneous expansion, not a 'you'll see it in several months if you're lucky' deal.

Facilities Upgrades

Perhaps we'll have a greater consensus now; perhaps not. Whacha wanna buy, if anything?

Playing Time

Another 'it depends on who we sell, if anyone' bit. Aside from going all-in for development, or alternatively doing everything we can to stay up, there's a 'middle ground' approach I used in my sim run. I'm not saying this is necessarily a good idea, just running it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes it. Call it an adaptive approach. It involved playing the best players at the start of the year to try and get a position above the relegation zone, and then the safer that position got, the more the developing ones would get phased in until they were splitting playing equally if everything was going well. If the club started sinking towards relegation again, I'd throw back in the top players to start. That's one way of possibly relieving the pressure to pick an approach to player rotation without knowing how the year is going to turn out; it can also turn out rough for player development if you really struggle, and there can come a point where you just throw up your hands and say 'we're going down anyway, might as well let everyone play so that they all keep moving forward'.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
Coach Ballot: Winter 2030

It would be good to hear from everyone on the three critical contract extensions, stadium expansion, youth work, and which new player to sign. As if that wasn't enough, club upgrades/player sales/hiring new staff/etc. are up for consideration also.

Busy, busy, busy. Coaches of Backpfeifengesichter, tell me where to shove it. I mean, what you think I should do. Yep, totally what I meant.

ShadowedFlames
Dec 26, 2009

Shoot this guy in the face.

Fallen Rib
Okay, let’s see here…

CRITICAL CONTRACTS
Sell Nifty. 219K or thereabouts is nothing to sneeze at here.
Sign Lettuce* and Wilson to 1-year deals.
Given the jump Insurrectionist had in value, I could see Odd Wilson providing similar if he takes the 70% time and it comes around the time we could sell him.
Lettuce stays as depth in the midfield, though I claim the right to revisit that stance in 6 months’ time. The asterisk is included because part of me is actually leaning into giving Lettuce two years—that second year is only 23K more, so not even double the 1 year contract, which is a rarity in my personal experience—but 2-year deals have always made me leery as to their value versus two single year bids with age starting to be a potential factor in player sell value. But that jump from 2 years to 3 is 33K more. So I could see the 2-year option being in play if he’s staying for position depth. (Average per year: 1Y is 26.5K, 2Y is 24.9K, 3Y is 27.5K so there may be some value in that if we go by the numbers, too.) The downside to the 2-year plan is that Lettuce is already suffering from an XP penalty so additional levels are going to be hard to come by…and that’s why I’m on the side of a single year with my actual vote.

Stadium Expansion: I say pass for now. If we start doing unexpectedly decent (read as: avoiding relegation) we can pull the trigger then. But I foresee a rough patch coming that’ll drop us to under 100 fans by mid-season. Some of those upper teams worry me.

Youth Work: Rivalry. But do this before facility upgrades in case that changes the math on how much it costs. That segues into…

Facility Upgrades: I’m maintaining my stance of Training Grounds, GK and DEF Coaches (0.5* each). All the offensive levels in the world won’t help us if the defense is too weak to keep the opponents out of our net. That and 105K seems a bit much to be spending on an upgraded Academy at this point, unless we sell both Nifty and Lettuce.

Youth Signing: Zoecke. Trying to think ahead since I have a feeling my namesake’s next contract is going to be too expensive. We’ll need a replacement forward, so might as well get him now.

Playing Time: I’m content with the Adaptive approach you outlined.

ShadowedFlames fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jan 25, 2023

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


I do like the adaptive approach, but also, I think the time is now to expand the training grounds and buy at least our first level in many of the XP coaches. That attribute gap isn't going to fix itself - and, if we do get relegated, we'll grow faster and dig back out of it faster.

Edit:

quote:

Youth Work: Rivalry. But do this before facility upgrades in case that changes the math on how much it costs.

This too.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Sell Lettuce and Nifty.

See how we go and expand the stadium if we’re good.

Youth Rivalry again. Pick Zoecke from this batch.

Upgrade Training Grounds. GK and Def coaches. Additional training ground upgrade at managers discretion if there are sufficient funds.

Adaptive approach.

AJ_Impy fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jan 25, 2023

ShadowedFlames
Dec 26, 2009

Shoot this guy in the face.

Fallen Rib

Quackles posted:

I do like the adaptive approach, but also, I think the time is now to expand the training grounds and buy at least our first level in many of the XP coaches.

The inevitable follow up question is going to be “how many?” At 179…well, 170 after a Youth option…I think we can do at most 4 coaches but that’d take basically everything we’ve got.

Pokeytax
Jun 13, 2005

Hold on! Nifty’s going to be worth more next window with a 4th skill, won’t be any older, and we effectively re-signed him anyway when we chose to hold him till the last window. We should sign him for a year, let him train his skill and substitute for people, then sell him at the next window for more money. We’re talking a 100k+ return on a 26k investment.

This does entail playing him enough to maintain interest but we’ll have plenty of mids running themselves hoarse and wingers we just want to stick a body in front of.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...

AJ_Impy posted:

Additional training ground upgrade at managers discretion if there are sufficient funds.

The manager's discretion here is 'no, because it would be useless'. Each Training Grounds upgrade allows for five coach improvements. Unless we have enough Glory to get all five and are ready to buy a sixth - we don't - it won't help to expand the Training Ground a second time.

Pokeytax
Jun 13, 2005

Sign NiftyBottle for 1 year (intending to sell him next window)
Sell Average Lettuce
Sign Odd Wilson for 3 years (assuming he's taking -70% Training Time, 1 year if he says otherwise)
Youth Rivalry
Take Zoecke, although we probably need to start looking for defenders again after this
Upgrade Training Grounds and take 4 Midfielder Coaches
Upgrade Youth Academy (not wild about the single upgrade but we have the funds)
Upgrade Stadium (could stall longer, but we might as well pick up the trickle of ticket money while it's here, much more important at Third League prices)
Adaptive approach

Looking to get that second Youth Academy upgrade in Winter (if everyone else decides to sell Nifty, we should do it now!). We're in Third League and getting 2 star players is an even bigger difference for us now.

Pokeytax fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jan 25, 2023

Left 4 Bread
Oct 4, 2021

i sleep
I will state that I'm absolutely aiming for my dude to get -70% Training Time if applicable. Sage can mark that down as a done deal if it comes up.

Otherwise, I'm over here working on branding deals for more Punchables lunch snacks, the other coaches know what they're doing with management.

Left 4 Bread fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Jan 25, 2023

DTurtle
Apr 10, 2011


Pokeytax posted:

Sign NiftyBottle for 1 year (intending to sell him next window)
Sell Average Lettuce
Sign Odd Wilson for 3 years (assuming he's taking -70% Training Time, 1 year if he says otherwise)
Youth Rivalry
Take Zoecke, although we probably need to start looking for defenders again after this
Upgrade Training Grounds and take 4 Midfielder Coaches
Upgrade Youth Academy (not wild about the single upgrade but we have the funds)
Upgrade Stadium (could stall longer, but we might as well pick up the trickle of ticket money while it's here, much more important at Third League prices)
Adaptive approach

Looking to get that second Youth Academy upgrade in Winter (if everyone else decides to sell Nifty, we should do it now!). We're in Third League and getting 2 star players is an even bigger difference for us now.
I’m going with this plan.

Nizaha
Oct 12, 2021

Pokeytax posted:

Sign NiftyBottle for 1 year (intending to sell him next window)
Sell Average Lettuce
Sign Odd Wilson for 3 years (assuming he's taking -70% Training Time, 1 year if he says otherwise)
Youth Rivalry
Take Zoecke, although we probably need to start looking for defenders again after this
Upgrade Training Grounds and take 4 Midfielder Coaches
Upgrade Youth Academy (not wild about the single upgrade but we have the funds)
Upgrade Stadium (could stall longer, but we might as well pick up the trickle of ticket money while it's here, much more important at Third League prices)
Adaptive approach

Looking to get that second Youth Academy upgrade in Winter (if everyone else decides to sell Nifty, we should do it now!). We're in Third League and getting 2 star players is an even bigger difference for us now.
This is interesting, I'm fine with this plan, minus the Stadium upgrade. This doesn't pay off at all yet. At its current price, if we'd make 650 extra per match it'll take 35 matches to break even, and it sounds more likely that we're going to lose fans rather than gain them, so we can probably invest this money somewhere else (or just save it for later).

Buying 4 Midfielder Coaches is pretty bold and I'm curious where it'll take us, I think we'll have to focus a lot more on midfielders but there are larger returns per coach in the same category iirc so it's probably worth giving it a shot.

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


Counterpoint: We already have a focus as a team with an ironclad defense. What if we bought 3-4 Defender coaches?

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...

Odd Wilson posted:

I'm absolutely aiming for my dude to get -70% Training Time if applicable. Sage can mark that down as a done deal if it comes up.

Done. That's a when, not an if by the way.

ShadowedFlame posted:

Some of those upper teams worry me.

I want your optimism. There's not a team in this league that doesn't worry me.

We have unanimous consent on a few points. The one I'm going to move on right away is signing Zoecke, so that his coach can decide to what to do with him.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
The Punchable Face Formerly Known as Zoecke





I don't know about Punchable, but this sad specimen seems destined to be mocked mercilessly at the very least. This material belongs to Kyoon Griffey Jr.. We need the usual:

- Base Class: Forward, Midfield, Defense, or Keeper
- Attribute Training: Accuracy, Passing, Defense, or Control

Kyoon Griffey Jr., come on down! And make something of yourself, would you please. You are now on the clock.

Strategic Sage
Jan 22, 2017

And that's the way it is...
Did some slightly overdue updates to the OP, including some key stats for the players we've sold, updating everyone's age & position for the new year, and so on. We still have 2.5 years worth of eager recruits on the waiting list.

Pokeytax
Jun 13, 2005

Quackles posted:

Counterpoint: We already have a focus as a team with an ironclad defense. What if we bought 3-4 Defender coaches?

Our defense is definitely about to be tested and it would help us out while we go through the desperate scramble for scoreless draws. I have a lot of gimmicky reasons I like the MF, but primarily, my thinking is that our 2*+ players get the most benefit from this and chance has put half of ours in midfield. 80% XP for both Odd Wilson and AJ_Impy is huge and lets them actually compete in the league. Nothing is keeping AJ or Fat Samurai from training Defense, going DM, and bolstering our defense from midfield, either.

I don't want quibbles over which coaches we get to delay the Training Ground, I definitely want one regardless of what coaches we end up with. They're all good. The stacking bonuses are nice but not gamebreaking so it's perfectly reasonable to go 2 MF/1 GK/1 DF or whatever if that's how the team vote is split.

Pokeytax fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Jan 26, 2023

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Cross-training AM and DM for maximally versatile box to box presence could be interesting. Is that viable?

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Tevery Best
Oct 11, 2013

Hewlo Furriend

AJ_Impy posted:

Cross-training AM and DM for maximally versatile box to box presence could be interesting. Is that viable?

This is doable, but it wouldn't work like you think and it would be a lot of effort for almost no payout. You're only using the benefits of one class at a time, and you can only swap them when you would be allowed to substitute players, so at any given part of the match you're either an AM or a DM. Both of these classes need very different stats (DM needs a lot of Defence, preferably some Control, some Passing also goes a long way; AM needs a lot of either Passing or Accuracy, depending on their exact function in your strategy, and Control is nice to have on them, but not a deal breaker), so it's difficult to find someone who excels in both positions. Finally, both AM and DM are slow (DM can move quite quickly in the backfield, but slows down the moment he approaches the centre), so you're not getting a box-to-box presence out of either of them.

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