The Random Newbie Challenge
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Sorry for the lack of updates to this thread recently. Bank holidays and weekends mean the wife is at home a lot, which means I don't get a lot of opportunity to play. Without further ado, I bring you:
April 2010
I like the Chinese league, because the players have funny names:
View attachment 23534
I didn't even go out looking for silly names, this was a guy who I was apparently trying to buy according to the seemingly woefully inaccurate transfer rumours in this game. Whenever things went wrong for the next few weeks (which was quite often) I went back and looked at this guy's name, which always cheered me up.
In fact, this was a tough month all round really. First up was another away league game against one of the weaker sides in the league. I was hoping to win this one to get our league campaign going.
View attachment 23533
Hmmm, well at least our defensive problems seem to have cleared up a little, but no win. The point lifted us off the bottom of the table though. Next up we had our home opener against a team languishing with us towards the bottom of division 1. A perfect opportunity to get our season going after a spluttering start.
View attachment 23531
Uh-oh, this was not good at all. At this point thoughts of promotion to the Superleague were starting to drain away and were replaced with the following targets.
1. Don't get relegated!
2. Don't lose your job!
3. Achieve some modicum of respectability by the end of the season.
Next up was another home league game against another mediocre team. They were doing okay in the league but didn't seem to have much to scare us:
View attachment 23532
Yay finally a win! This restored a bit of my confidence again. The following game was away against the team that knocked us out of the cup, who had started the league with 4 straight wins. Didn't really expect much out of this game and it duly delivered.
View attachment 23536
This left us in a precarious position in the league after only five games.
View attachment 23535
Meanwhile I was having to make my toughest decision so far. As you may or may not remember, my star player is a 16 year old midfielder by the name of Xie Hue. During my run of horrid results I received a huge offer for him. I managed to negotiate it upwards even further to a total package worth around £300k, Okay, so much of it was being paid in installments, but this is a huge amount of money, about double what our total transfer budget was for this year. On the downside, selling our best player would almost rubber stamp this as a season of failure on the pitch and would require some frantic shopping for a replacement before he left in the July transfer window. I thought about it hard, but ultimately decided I simply couldn't turn down an offer of that size, so I accepted.
Meanwhile in England's green and pleasant lands, Chelsea were looking good to win the league with only two games to go:
View attachment 23547
And the Champions League final would be contested between Juventus and Real Madrid. No English teams even made the semis. By the way, why is it called The Champions Cup, and the Europa League called The Euro Cup? Is there any way to fix that?
Next month - The search for Xie Hue's replacement. Plus the winners and losers in the European competitions. Plus some league games probably.
April 2010
I like the Chinese league, because the players have funny names:
View attachment 23534
I didn't even go out looking for silly names, this was a guy who I was apparently trying to buy according to the seemingly woefully inaccurate transfer rumours in this game. Whenever things went wrong for the next few weeks (which was quite often) I went back and looked at this guy's name, which always cheered me up.
In fact, this was a tough month all round really. First up was another away league game against one of the weaker sides in the league. I was hoping to win this one to get our league campaign going.
View attachment 23533
Hmmm, well at least our defensive problems seem to have cleared up a little, but no win. The point lifted us off the bottom of the table though. Next up we had our home opener against a team languishing with us towards the bottom of division 1. A perfect opportunity to get our season going after a spluttering start.
View attachment 23531
Uh-oh, this was not good at all. At this point thoughts of promotion to the Superleague were starting to drain away and were replaced with the following targets.
1. Don't get relegated!
2. Don't lose your job!
3. Achieve some modicum of respectability by the end of the season.
Next up was another home league game against another mediocre team. They were doing okay in the league but didn't seem to have much to scare us:
View attachment 23532
Yay finally a win! This restored a bit of my confidence again. The following game was away against the team that knocked us out of the cup, who had started the league with 4 straight wins. Didn't really expect much out of this game and it duly delivered.
View attachment 23536
This left us in a precarious position in the league after only five games.
View attachment 23535
Meanwhile I was having to make my toughest decision so far. As you may or may not remember, my star player is a 16 year old midfielder by the name of Xie Hue. During my run of horrid results I received a huge offer for him. I managed to negotiate it upwards even further to a total package worth around £300k, Okay, so much of it was being paid in installments, but this is a huge amount of money, about double what our total transfer budget was for this year. On the downside, selling our best player would almost rubber stamp this as a season of failure on the pitch and would require some frantic shopping for a replacement before he left in the July transfer window. I thought about it hard, but ultimately decided I simply couldn't turn down an offer of that size, so I accepted.
Meanwhile in England's green and pleasant lands, Chelsea were looking good to win the league with only two games to go:
View attachment 23547
And the Champions League final would be contested between Juventus and Real Madrid. No English teams even made the semis. By the way, why is it called The Champions Cup, and the Europa League called The Euro Cup? Is there any way to fix that?
Next month - The search for Xie Hue's replacement. Plus the winners and losers in the European competitions. Plus some league games probably.
Last edited:
May 2010
I've noticed a drop off in the number of replies to this thread of late. I don't know if people have stopped reading or are just not seeing the need to comment. If you have any suggestions for improvement to the story then let me know.
Anyway I left you last month having just sold my best player and in the middle of a string of dire results. I needed to remedy both situations this month badly as the players and press were starting to ask questions about our underachieving. With the July transfer window approaching, I needed to find a replacement for Xie Hui, which turned out to be harder than expected. So few quality players in the Chinese league and those that did exist, their respective managers were naturally reluctent to let them go. While I never found a true replacement, I did bring in a couple of promising players on the cheap:
View attachment 23790
View attachment 23789
Hu Jun I feel can slot in immediately alongside Le Beisi, who has cemented himself in the AMC role of late. Li Benjian on the other hand will be an exciting player on the left or in the middle, who might facilitate a more dynamic midfield. I underpaid for both of them due to them being on the transfer list, so I still have quite a large transfer kitty should the right player come along. Obviously I'm disappointed not to be able to find a real marque player, but hopefully we won't suffer too much after Xie Hui's departure. I have also been quietly offloading some of the players that never even make the bench to streamline our squad a little. In the transfer window out will go Midfielder Han Hao and Defenders Li Jian and Yin Liangyi. All players who I haven't mentioned thus far and likely never would due to their fringeness.
We kicked off the month with a win against Rizhiquan
View attachment 23794
This wasn't a particularly well deserved win, but we did defend well, especially once we went down to ten men after Xie Hui was sent off for a second booking. This also meant our star player was suspended for the next game, giving us a taste of what life will be like in the post-Xie era.
View attachment 23791
Not too bad, could have been worse. At this point I decided to revamp our tactics again, reverting to a more traditional 4-4-2, with one rock (Xie) and one playmaker (Le Beisi) in the middle of the park and a more conventional front two.
View attachment 23792
Not the result we wanted, but I was very encouraged by this performance. Chongqing are one of the better sides in the league and we dominated large segments of this match, just not being able to find the crucial breakthrough. This improvement in our overall performance spilled over into the next three games too:
View attachment 23793
View attachment 23795
View attachment 23796
True, all these games were against weaker opposition, with two of them at home, but the three consecutive wins bumped us up to 5th in the league, far closer to where I hoped to be at the start of the season.
It's now the beginning of June. The European season is now over, but the Chinese season is just getting into full flow. I will post the winners of all the European competitions next month, because there is a bit of a season break in June and July in China so I will need something to fill up the space
I've noticed a drop off in the number of replies to this thread of late. I don't know if people have stopped reading or are just not seeing the need to comment. If you have any suggestions for improvement to the story then let me know.
Anyway I left you last month having just sold my best player and in the middle of a string of dire results. I needed to remedy both situations this month badly as the players and press were starting to ask questions about our underachieving. With the July transfer window approaching, I needed to find a replacement for Xie Hui, which turned out to be harder than expected. So few quality players in the Chinese league and those that did exist, their respective managers were naturally reluctent to let them go. While I never found a true replacement, I did bring in a couple of promising players on the cheap:
View attachment 23790
View attachment 23789
Hu Jun I feel can slot in immediately alongside Le Beisi, who has cemented himself in the AMC role of late. Li Benjian on the other hand will be an exciting player on the left or in the middle, who might facilitate a more dynamic midfield. I underpaid for both of them due to them being on the transfer list, so I still have quite a large transfer kitty should the right player come along. Obviously I'm disappointed not to be able to find a real marque player, but hopefully we won't suffer too much after Xie Hui's departure. I have also been quietly offloading some of the players that never even make the bench to streamline our squad a little. In the transfer window out will go Midfielder Han Hao and Defenders Li Jian and Yin Liangyi. All players who I haven't mentioned thus far and likely never would due to their fringeness.
We kicked off the month with a win against Rizhiquan
View attachment 23794
This wasn't a particularly well deserved win, but we did defend well, especially once we went down to ten men after Xie Hui was sent off for a second booking. This also meant our star player was suspended for the next game, giving us a taste of what life will be like in the post-Xie era.
View attachment 23791
Not too bad, could have been worse. At this point I decided to revamp our tactics again, reverting to a more traditional 4-4-2, with one rock (Xie) and one playmaker (Le Beisi) in the middle of the park and a more conventional front two.
View attachment 23792
Not the result we wanted, but I was very encouraged by this performance. Chongqing are one of the better sides in the league and we dominated large segments of this match, just not being able to find the crucial breakthrough. This improvement in our overall performance spilled over into the next three games too:
View attachment 23793
View attachment 23795
View attachment 23796
True, all these games were against weaker opposition, with two of them at home, but the three consecutive wins bumped us up to 5th in the league, far closer to where I hoped to be at the start of the season.
It's now the beginning of June. The European season is now over, but the Chinese season is just getting into full flow. I will post the winners of all the European competitions next month, because there is a bit of a season break in June and July in China so I will need something to fill up the space
June 2010
This update will be a bit rubbish for some people. I only played one match during the whole month. Here it is:
View attachment 23900
This meant we were in 5th in the league heading into the season break, which lasts about 6 weeks. I thought I would use the vast chasm of nothingness to let you know what has been happening in the leagues around the world and also the World Cup. I know some people love to see how the football world pans out in each individual saved game, while other people couldn't give a toss what happens when you put one string of numbers in a database up against another string of numbers in a database and add a random element. I am in the former group and find this kind of thing fascinating, but if you are in the latter group, you may want to just skip this post and move on.
So anyway, for those who are still with me, the Premier League finished like this:
View attachment 23901
Chelsea were champions, Man City managed to claim the last champions league spot at the expense of Liverpool and Portsmouth, Wigan and Bolton went down. Here are some other noteable winners from the elite of the football world (runners up in brackets):
Serie A - Juventus (Roma)
La Liga - Real Madrid (Athletico Madrid)
Bundesliga - Leverkusen (Shalke)
Champions League - Juventus (Real Madrid)
UEFA Cup - AC Milan (Dinamo Kiev)
FA Cup - Blackburn (Tottenham)
Carling Cup (like anybody cares) - Chelsea (Blackburn)
England got another nice easy group in the World Cup
View attachment 23902
But shouldn't there be another European team in there? I guess the draw works differently in the game to how it does in real life.
Believe it or not, my team did actually have a representative at the World Cup. Striker Jon Song-Rim was there, not only playing for, but captain of North Korea. His World Cup was an eventful one, with North Korea losing all three games by a combined score of 14-2. Despite getting whalloped every game though, North Korea did have a major impact on the tournament. They were in a group of death with France, Mexico and Anrgentina. France beat everybody, while Mexico and Argentina played out a draw. Mexico qualified for the second phase on account of the fact they beat N. Korea by 4 goals rather than the 3 that Argentina managed. Hopefully this results in Maradona getting sacked, so I can have the satisfactory feeling that would go with my player having a part in the sacking of that little fat douchebag. Chaos theory is so much fun.
At time of writing, at the end of June, the tournament is at the Quarterfinal stage. England are safely through, as are most of the big sides, the exceptions being Holland (who had a mare in the groups) and the aforementioned Argentina.
View attachment 23903
We'll see how that pans out next update. Ill also update you on all the transfers I have been involved in as it will be another quiet month for actual results.
This update will be a bit rubbish for some people. I only played one match during the whole month. Here it is:
View attachment 23900
This meant we were in 5th in the league heading into the season break, which lasts about 6 weeks. I thought I would use the vast chasm of nothingness to let you know what has been happening in the leagues around the world and also the World Cup. I know some people love to see how the football world pans out in each individual saved game, while other people couldn't give a toss what happens when you put one string of numbers in a database up against another string of numbers in a database and add a random element. I am in the former group and find this kind of thing fascinating, but if you are in the latter group, you may want to just skip this post and move on.
So anyway, for those who are still with me, the Premier League finished like this:
View attachment 23901
Chelsea were champions, Man City managed to claim the last champions league spot at the expense of Liverpool and Portsmouth, Wigan and Bolton went down. Here are some other noteable winners from the elite of the football world (runners up in brackets):
Serie A - Juventus (Roma)
La Liga - Real Madrid (Athletico Madrid)
Bundesliga - Leverkusen (Shalke)
Champions League - Juventus (Real Madrid)
UEFA Cup - AC Milan (Dinamo Kiev)
FA Cup - Blackburn (Tottenham)
Carling Cup (like anybody cares) - Chelsea (Blackburn)
England got another nice easy group in the World Cup
View attachment 23902
But shouldn't there be another European team in there? I guess the draw works differently in the game to how it does in real life.
Believe it or not, my team did actually have a representative at the World Cup. Striker Jon Song-Rim was there, not only playing for, but captain of North Korea. His World Cup was an eventful one, with North Korea losing all three games by a combined score of 14-2. Despite getting whalloped every game though, North Korea did have a major impact on the tournament. They were in a group of death with France, Mexico and Anrgentina. France beat everybody, while Mexico and Argentina played out a draw. Mexico qualified for the second phase on account of the fact they beat N. Korea by 4 goals rather than the 3 that Argentina managed. Hopefully this results in Maradona getting sacked, so I can have the satisfactory feeling that would go with my player having a part in the sacking of that little fat douchebag. Chaos theory is so much fun.
At time of writing, at the end of June, the tournament is at the Quarterfinal stage. England are safely through, as are most of the big sides, the exceptions being Holland (who had a mare in the groups) and the aforementioned Argentina.
View attachment 23903
We'll see how that pans out next update. Ill also update you on all the transfers I have been involved in as it will be another quiet month for actual results.
July 2010
Let's conclude the World Cup before we go any further. England managed an against-the-odds win against Italy in the quarter-final and then another one against Spain in the semis with an 88th minute Wayne Rooney goal. This set up a dream final against Brazil. England were the underdogs, but had won every game in the competition so far and could cause an upset:
England expects...
View attachment 24026
And England delivered! A 1-0 win with the unlikely hero being Michael Carrick scoring with a header off a rebound. Why does this kind of thing only ever happen in computer games? There is only one way that this World Cup could possibly get any better...
View attachment 24031
I love it! Check the last post if you missed the significance of this.
Back in the more mundane world of the Chinese First Division, it was transfer window time. I had already agreed a transfer to sell my best player, Xie Hui, but unexpectedly Shakhtar Donetsk put in an enquiry about my other superstar youngster, right winger **** Jianlin. I set the asking price at £350k, not really expecting a reply, but to my surprise they came back offering the full amount. Despite the obvious downside of selling your two best players in the transfer window when you're not in any particular financial difficulty, I decided to accept for the following reasons.
1. He was innevitably going to go to a bigger club eventually, so by selling him now, on my own terms, before he got unhappy I would likely geta better price for him.
2. He wasn't really playing all that well. I hadn't really found a way to fully unlock his potential.
3. £350k is a ridiculus amount of money. He is only valued at £120k.
4. Because of an obscure transfer law in China, I couldn't sell him to a foreign team until he was 18, so I would get to keep him for another season, but I would get the money now!
So I closed my eyes and accepted. This gave me a transfer budget of around half a million quid, some of which I used to bring in the follwoing two players:
View attachment 24028
View attachment 24029
Along with the two midfielders I had already signed, that would arrive at the start of the window, I hoped this would give me a competitive team going into the second half of the season. They would probably take a while to gel, but maybe promotion wasn't completely out of my grasp just yet!
At the end of July, league fixtures started up again. First a home match against the top of the league side Dongya:
View attachment 24034
Annoyingly I could have and should have won this game, I just couldn't convert my chances, despite them playing the whole game with 10 men. Next up was another home game, this time against a team from the other end of the table.
View attachment 24035
Oh dear, the **** results are back... Still in 5th place, but plenty to think about going into August.
Let's conclude the World Cup before we go any further. England managed an against-the-odds win against Italy in the quarter-final and then another one against Spain in the semis with an 88th minute Wayne Rooney goal. This set up a dream final against Brazil. England were the underdogs, but had won every game in the competition so far and could cause an upset:
England expects...
View attachment 24026
And England delivered! A 1-0 win with the unlikely hero being Michael Carrick scoring with a header off a rebound. Why does this kind of thing only ever happen in computer games? There is only one way that this World Cup could possibly get any better...
View attachment 24031
I love it! Check the last post if you missed the significance of this.
Back in the more mundane world of the Chinese First Division, it was transfer window time. I had already agreed a transfer to sell my best player, Xie Hui, but unexpectedly Shakhtar Donetsk put in an enquiry about my other superstar youngster, right winger **** Jianlin. I set the asking price at £350k, not really expecting a reply, but to my surprise they came back offering the full amount. Despite the obvious downside of selling your two best players in the transfer window when you're not in any particular financial difficulty, I decided to accept for the following reasons.
1. He was innevitably going to go to a bigger club eventually, so by selling him now, on my own terms, before he got unhappy I would likely geta better price for him.
2. He wasn't really playing all that well. I hadn't really found a way to fully unlock his potential.
3. £350k is a ridiculus amount of money. He is only valued at £120k.
4. Because of an obscure transfer law in China, I couldn't sell him to a foreign team until he was 18, so I would get to keep him for another season, but I would get the money now!
So I closed my eyes and accepted. This gave me a transfer budget of around half a million quid, some of which I used to bring in the follwoing two players:
View attachment 24028
View attachment 24029
Along with the two midfielders I had already signed, that would arrive at the start of the window, I hoped this would give me a competitive team going into the second half of the season. They would probably take a while to gel, but maybe promotion wasn't completely out of my grasp just yet!
At the end of July, league fixtures started up again. First a home match against the top of the league side Dongya:
View attachment 24034
Annoyingly I could have and should have won this game, I just couldn't convert my chances, despite them playing the whole game with 10 men. Next up was another home game, this time against a team from the other end of the table.
View attachment 24035
Oh dear, the **** results are back... Still in 5th place, but plenty to think about going into August.
Last edited:
olimaster123
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great read mate u r doing alright considering
Brilliant thread, you seem to be pretty keen on signing players for the future, why not try and sign an experienced striker?? or a short quick one, to play as a poacher, i guess most chinese players are fairly small (no offence meant...) so you seem unlikely to win the ball in the air, there is a pass to feet "shout out tactic" as well as pass into space one that i find useful.. also perhaps think about whether it's better to 'float' or 'drill' crosses.
Good luck - i hope at least some of that helps, probably a bit late now i've just discocered this...
how big is yoru squad now?
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------
league update??? screenshots please.. how do we put up our own screenshots?
Good luck - i hope at least some of that helps, probably a bit late now i've just discocered this...
how big is yoru squad now?
---------- Post added at 06:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------
league update??? screenshots please.. how do we put up our own screenshots?
Oops
---------- Post added at 02:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 PM ----------
August... and beyond
Hi everyone.
I'm sad to say that this story has come to an end. I went to load the saved game this morning and it just wouldn't load. It hung on the loading game screen for ages and just didn't move so I had to terminate the application.. Unfortunately I was only operating out of one save file so I now have no means of playing this game again. I'm really sad because I had high hopes for...
... Ah who am I kidding.
The above is a complete lie. Well except the bit about the story ending, that's true. The real reason the story is ending is that I have been fired. A bit embarrassing, but there you go. Following the season break, I decided to try experimenting with a few formations to see if I could find something that would work with all my new players. I figured that I was way too far behind the top two to get promoted anyway, so I may as well salvage what I could from the season and use it for testing out new things. Unfortunately I hadn't counted on a very impatient chairman. I figured that in a low profile league such as this I would get at least a season or two at the helm before I got the kick right? Wrong! After messing around withsome crazy formations, and losing a few games a a result, I in 7th place at the end of August. Mr Chairman decided enough was enough and gave me the kick.
I did contemplate waiting around to see if I could get another job, but with so little time elapsed and not a lot that realy made this game unique yet (other than the England WC win of course) I didn't think there would be enough continuity to make it worthwhile. Besides, I would like to play with far more leagues running as it seems my PC can handle it better than I thought.
So I guess that's the end of this thread. Thanks everyone who read along. I am going to start another game in the same vein (random league, bottom division, random team), but I don't know if I should run a story about it or not. Much will depend on whether I perceive there to be any interest in it, so please say if you would or wouldn't follow another thread like this.
Regards
Piemaster
---------- Post added at 02:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 PM ----------
August... and beyond
Hi everyone.
I'm sad to say that this story has come to an end. I went to load the saved game this morning and it just wouldn't load. It hung on the loading game screen for ages and just didn't move so I had to terminate the application.. Unfortunately I was only operating out of one save file so I now have no means of playing this game again. I'm really sad because I had high hopes for...
... Ah who am I kidding.
The above is a complete lie. Well except the bit about the story ending, that's true. The real reason the story is ending is that I have been fired. A bit embarrassing, but there you go. Following the season break, I decided to try experimenting with a few formations to see if I could find something that would work with all my new players. I figured that I was way too far behind the top two to get promoted anyway, so I may as well salvage what I could from the season and use it for testing out new things. Unfortunately I hadn't counted on a very impatient chairman. I figured that in a low profile league such as this I would get at least a season or two at the helm before I got the kick right? Wrong! After messing around withsome crazy formations, and losing a few games a a result, I in 7th place at the end of August. Mr Chairman decided enough was enough and gave me the kick.
I did contemplate waiting around to see if I could get another job, but with so little time elapsed and not a lot that realy made this game unique yet (other than the England WC win of course) I didn't think there would be enough continuity to make it worthwhile. Besides, I would like to play with far more leagues running as it seems my PC can handle it better than I thought.
So I guess that's the end of this thread. Thanks everyone who read along. I am going to start another game in the same vein (random league, bottom division, random team), but I don't know if I should run a story about it or not. Much will depend on whether I perceive there to be any interest in it, so please say if you would or wouldn't follow another thread like this.
Regards
Piemaster
Okay, I think I will start another game tomorrow. I plan on having all 51 countries active, but most of them on 'watch only' andn just 5-10 of the larger leagues on play. Is that viable while stilll having the game move along fairly reasonably? I have 3Gb of Ram.
New game (and thread) has been started...
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f81/le-mont-ls-swiss-2nd-tier-t27343.html#post286791
http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/f81/le-mont-ls-swiss-2nd-tier-t27343.html#post286791