Good ole Icelandic league. Sadly I haven't started my save on this game yet. A friend wanted me to do one with Celtic and make them the richest club in the world and I am in like 2024 right now and got them up to 6th. Trying to finish that goal before I start the Iceland one, plus decided to do San Marino (although I feel that is going to be easy compared to what you are trying to do).
I started a save with Stjarnan last year, and when like 30 or so years (was trying to get Iceland league to be the best in the world which I started to come close since I got them up to 5th). So going off of last year's game might be a little different than this year, especially since I played on 11.3 patch as well.
Tactic's doesn't really matter. Just use whatever you like. As far as signing people just go after some free's for the first couple of years and you should either win the league the first year, but if not at least by the second. I personally didn't really care about pre-season cup, I don't think I won my first one until the third year (although I won the league every year except for maybe two and my first loss came about 10 years in). Most of the free's you can find will be a lot better than the majority of the league which is why you should do good. KR will be your biggest challenge for the first couple of years.
You might find the save very boring because winning the league will become super easy when you start making it to champs league. Which should be your top goal behind winning the league. Get there and you get the 9 million from group stage, although you won't be able to get out of that for at least 5 years (again going off of last year). Plus your team will become very powerful compare to everyone else. Basically its like taking Manchester United and putting them in League 1. Most teams are not professional yet so while they are fighting for promotion and getting professional you will be cruising. I feel like playing in Iceland to be like playing NCAA football (Sorry I'm an American so best analogy I can give). Basically you will have a brand new team every 4 years, or at least it will feel that way. Especially in about 10 years in. Once you make it to the champs league and start making noise you can start bringing in better players. Once this happens and you will win the league hands down without any trouble, unless KR keeps pace with you, your players will get a lot of attention from the bigger clubs in Europe and they will be coming at the end of the year for at least 3 of your players. Which is why I feel like I am playing with a college team cause the longest tenure player I had on my team was like 9 years. Most of them stay between 3-5 years.
Also for your stadium hopefully they will build a new one after the first year. They did that when I was at Stjarnan and it went up to be the biggest in the league, but still not enough money. Plus every year they will take money out to relay the pitch (even with the new stadium that had undersoil heating and all that they still had to pay for it). Although I will admit after like the 30th year they did allow me to build a new one (started out at like 6 or 8K, then to 22K, then up to 45K) and that is when you can make some money, but still can't have over a million dollar wages else you will lose money. I had at one point a 3.4 million wage budget (if I wanted) and was getting about 150-200 million a year (in US dollars) to spend on a transfer budget.
Hey lets talk about the good or the exciting part. First it is going to be fun trying to take on big boys when you make it into the champs league. Also try to make the league the top of the world to keep you motivated if it does become too easy. Also get feeder clubs as soon as you can so you can send people down to help out Iceland teams grow (I waited like 15 years before I did and felt bad). Also it's great when you start getting more bids to the champs league with Iceland.
As for help or hints to help you out is don't try to buy people until you have improved all your facilities first. Also don't worry about training really until you have good coaches and again top training facilities. And training facilities should come first before your coaching staff (more ways to help save money).
As for players to buy its all free's until you can either make the champs league. When you do buy people go big. Don't go for someone is good or just barely amazing. You will understand what that means as you go on, but for now it means if you are buying someone look for a cream of the crop players who shouldn't be in the league cause they are just that good. Also go for youth instead of older people.
Also try to link up with a club to get some loans hopefully and some money as well (but I guess this is always a given). Your team as you grow will become basically a feeder club for other nations. The good news is that you can take the rejects of ELP, Serie A, La Liga and get them on your team from free (again free's are the best way to go even if you do get money to spend). One fun thing I had last year was signing people on a free who couldn't make it in those leagues. They were amazing players for Iceland league of course, and would dominate with the rest of my team. This is also at least 7 years in my save though and on the third patch so it might be a little different. They would come in around 2-5 million in value. After a year, especially a striker or attacking player, if they did really well they will jump up anywhere between 12-18 million. Then they would be wanted by a club from those three leagues and I would sell them for at least 20 million. One great way to make money. I think I spend like 800 million on transfers in my 30 years, but i made around 2 billion in selling off players. I also sold 3 players for over 100 million each. Only time I bought people to get into the champs league which I did by my second or third year, and I did that by buying on 48 month loans, and again in year six cause by year seven I could get out of the group stages if I didn't have top teams with me.
