Warrior General Games

My team finished 0-16 last season and is on the verge of another rough season. I would really like to know what is going on with my team and what can be done to help it.

I decided to write off last season since I picked it up just in time to start and had to destroy my teams chemistry at the beginning of the season. (Getting rid of CPUs). I'm considering this my first real season so I'd like to at least get some victories.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help my team compete? I understand that the owners/gm's have their own little tricks, but can someone throw me a frickin' bone on what can be done? Is it really just avg player lvls? It would be greatly appreciated.

Get ready for the long haul, take this time to explore player builds and how to maximize your scouting. You have several glaring weaknesses, namely the lines, wideouts and secondary. People are going to exploit this every chance they get. Tactics won't bridge the gap when your line is being manhandled due to the level difference, nor when your corners are getting run over, or your QB throws a series of deflected passes. The only suggestion I can offer is to play passively, favor zone coverage and blitz only if it looks like you can get away with it against a run heavy team.

We went 1-15 last season in AAA#2 as a fresh team of levels 1-4 going up against 10-14s. Our prioritys were playtime, player development and keeping an eye on what and how the tactics were working in practice. It has paid off in full so far.

Without looking at your schedule, if you keep these things in mind you should start to see your team develop into something more competative toward the end of the season.

You are gonna bleed, make sure every knows and acknowledges that, then pull the bandaid of and deal with it. Shuffling the roster around will just compound the situation more by damaging your already poor chemisty, so even if you bring in a bunch of higher level folks you will still be hurting.

Couple things, just glancing at your roster and depth chart.

a) Run plays have a strong tendancy to go to the right. So, to counter that, the left side of your defense needs to be shored up, IE your LDE and your LOLB. I would move your MLB to the LOLB. Generally speaking, the LOLB has to be the best LB on your team, particularly when you aren't strong across the board in player levels.

b) Take the above, and apply that to your offensive line. If run plays have a tendancy to go right, even out your line a bit more to the right side. The ROT is arguably the most important person on that line.

Couple things in general:

-Read every guide posted about skill builds and daily training. Then, create a development plan for your team, based on how you want to play football in GLB. Last year, as Fiddy said above, we were a brand new team in arguably the toughest conference in the game. So, instead of lamenting and crying about our 100 pts losses, we started thinking bout this season. Discussions came up about how we wanted to play on offense, on defense, pieces we would need, etc. In the end, we decided on gameplans for both sides of the football, and built our players around those premises. As he also said, we made depth a priority, leveling out playing time as much as we could. We weren't just building starters, but backups that could slide into starter spots, as well.

-Read the forums from other leagues. Want the best way to find out tips and tricks, read up. People will post things, sometimes without realizing about it.

-Be prepared to put ample amount of time into this game. Just like IRL, football can be a complicated game that requires time to break down to the baseline x's and o's.

-SCOUT SCOUT SCOUT your opponents. I'm the D coordinator for the Lowell Tigers, and I can honestly tell you I have done the following (as soon as we knew what league we were in and what our schedule was):
-Reviewed each team pre-season, taking notes on levels, last years success/failures.
-Reviewed gamefilm from last year, of our opponents. I probabley watched about 40 games in total.
-Created specific threads in our forums about each team. Strengths/weaknesses, player personel, our gameplan against them, and a post mortem section to dissect what went well and what didn't work are typical things in each post.

And now, with the season started, i've watched games for each team we play, i've gone back over DC's, etc.

It's amazing the knowledge you gain from simply looking at DC's (depth charts).

Anyhow, these are just some things you can do.

Thanks for the advice. I do most of what you have mentioned as I know my GM's do as well. I don't know where I'd be without them. I still feel as if lvl difference is killing us though.
I was not aware of the run tendency however.
And your right, the forums are always a good place to pick up tips.

It would help to own most of the players on the team like you guys. No contract problems or inactives to worry about. Might be buyin me more flex points.

Thanks again

Ya, it helps. We're all friends from another game, so when we started this, we had wanted to really have our own team. I'm not sure any of us realized how much fun we would have and how involved we would become with it.

As last season progresses, we lost interest from roughly 1/4 of our guys, so we started making players to fill holes.

However, that being said, we def. miss out on one unique aspect of the game, playing the FA market, trading, etc.

Nothing you can do about level difference really apart from boosting but your better boosting at the end if your levels are much lowere anyway let them get the xp fast help them catch up for next year, You'll get the win eventually(now that I've said that it'll be against us lol)

Haha, how funny that the people responding are ones who can totally empathize with you. You're right, the Free Agent problem can make it tricky. When you scout players, find ones whose personality fits... Ones that don't mind working the team out, don't mind losing, will be active in the forums. Don't take "EyeKick Ass" who has one player, responds to your request by simply asking for more money. Get the guy who asks about your long term plans, seems interested in your goals, the GMs experience. They are out there, we have a team full of them.

Having guys who have fun watching the dots move, win or lose, will help a lot. Make 1-season deals with what you can afford, with an option to renegotiate after the season. Even making that offer will make a lot of players more likely to take your offer seriously. A season takes a month, the hardcore players LIKE being on a team that is turning around, to beat everyone's expectations.

And your damn avatar is mesmerizing.

Edit: Hell, you scored 14 pts in your first game! Last season, we didn't score until game 12. At all, not even a FG. Our first TD happened in game 15, I think, in our one win.

Actually the avatar is starting to bug me as well. lol.

Last season we scored our first touchdown in game 9 or 10 with a lvl 1 QB.
I think I need to do some weeding on our team to find the guys that want to build a franchise and not just lvl a character. Especially on the lines. Heartbreaking shutout today, 0-3.

I may just create a new character for every player/position that doesn't expect to stay with the team. I'm sure by the end of it I will have 15 - 20 players lol.

Again, thanks for the support.

If you do that, put them on a computer team in the D leagues for now. They'll get plenty of PT (for the most part) and you can relax and have some fun with them. Soak up as many low-levels as possible before you boost, in order to maximize your XP potential. Then end of season boost, and if you need them right away next year, start of season boost, and they are right in the mix level wise to compete.

Originally posted by beefrog

shutout today, 0-3.



Heh, after this thread, we'd figure we'd try to keep it close.

just kidding, it was a good game. i'm fine now with everybody giving you advice, but couldn't you guys have waited until after our game?

Dang, a 0-3 game. Never seen a score that low.

Sydney almost had their first victory. Nice job on defense! There's no way we would have won that game if y'all had an answer for our D line. I have a feeling that y'all might be turning things around.

Originally posted by atlanta837
Dang, a 0-3 game. Never seen a score that low.

We lost a game last season 0-3 as well. and 6-9. It's been upsetting lol.

Again guys, I can't thank you enough for the support. I want to build a competitive team not only for myself, but more-so for my players. They have had to put up with a lot and I'd like to help them out as much as I can.

My GM's have been working their balls off and are getting even better as the games go on. Can't wait to see that first W.

Originally posted by atlanta837
Dang, a 0-3 game. Never seen a score that low.


you didnt play our D last year, did you?

Originally posted by Cape
Originally posted by atlanta837

Dang, a 0-3 game. Never seen a score that low.


you didnt play our D last year, did you?


No, we were in the tough AAA #2. Looking forward to going back there next season

Or AAA #1