Tactical Genius? or Gentleman of the Wrist? (The Officially Unofficial thread)

I may be way off here but it seems to me for every one Poster in the T&TF forum who claims to have a decent & successful tactic there are dozens in the General Forum proclaiming their genius without really giving tactical insight into their "wonderful" methods.

Dont get me wrong, Im not looking for a downloadable wonder tactic but if anyone has been so successful that they can call this game "easy", or worse "too easy", I think they should back it up with a bit of theoretical debate, and not just a screeny of a League table which is more likely a work of Paintshop mediocrity than FM tactical genius.

...or am I in a bad mood because I just lost 1-0 at home?

Sounding a bit ranty TBH. I think your just in a bad mood, walk away, calm down and breathe.

I may be way off here but it seems to me for every one Poster in the T&TF forum who claims to have a decent & successful tactic there are dozens in the General Forum proclaiming their genius without really giving tactical insight into their "wonderful" methods.

Dont get me wrong, Im not looking for a downloadable wonder tactic but if anyone has been so successful that they can call this game "easy", or worse "too easy", I think they should back it up with a bit of theoretical debate, and not just a screeny of a League table which is more likely a work of Paintshop mediocrity than FM tactical genius.

...or am I in a bad mood because I just lost 1-0 at home?

You may well be in a bit of a mood but I agree with what you have to say. I would like an insight to others' success and it seems the amount of debate constructed by the 'Im doing great' threads is minimal and something I would love to get involved in.

You may well be in a bit of a mood but I agree with what you have to say. I would like an insight to others' success and it seems the amount of debate constructed by the 'Im doing great' threads is minimal and something I would love to get involved in.

On the contrary, if someone is doing well enough and feel the need to sound off about it, just let them. Chances are they are only doing to inspire some reply, especially if they fail to back it up.

you're probably in a bit of a mod cos you lost. However you do have a point about some of the tactics that are created they seem to me to be a bit fishy. Or maybe it's cos i've downloaded a couple and found them to be so carp i've binned them and come up with a tactic for the team i'm playing as

On the contrary, if someone is doing well enough and feel the need to sound off about it, just let them. Chances are they are only doing to inspire some reply, especially if they fail to back it up.

I'm not saying that people should give us an insight; it would just be nice sometimes.

Especially for people bad at tactics like moi.

Im no tactical genius, but i have noticed the way forward seems to be to keep things simple.

I'm just really bad

It was a bit ranty to be honest but it developed a germ of an idea I had a few weeks ago. I have followed the Threads here for about 3 years and FM09 is the first release not to have a plethora of "wonder tactic" threads. Now I agree with SI, we dont want wonder tactics but the amount of players who have said "with team abc and tactics x, y & z I have been very successful" are few & far between!. There are about 6-7 exceptions and they have intelligently detailed their team & tactics (wwfan, Heathxxx, The Game & a few others spring to mind.).

It seems to me that these few apart the game is either not quite accesible enough or that in depth tactical debate is dead or dying. The most furious debates in here in the last 24 hours are either about team talks (!) or FM10 tactics (!) - worrying?

Im no tactical genius, but i have noticed the way forward seems to be to keep things simple.

Ive been struggling for ages so I went to a bog basic 4-1-3-2 and its going great, although Barcelona have just tonked me 4-0.

i usually play lower league and just make up a random tactic that i like the look of , sometimes it works sometimes it fails

You can't really edit a league table so that point is wrong. I have done really well with a few different tactics. The best tactic to have is more than 1 tactic in the first place.

I know what you mean, and I will watch out for that when I release tactics I am making for the 20 Premier League sides. Basically what I do is play a season as one team, without making any transfers or staff changes, custom training (Tugs), and if the tactic proves well, I release it along with a whole bunch of screenshots showing a lot of useful info about how successful it was. If it fails, I do the same team again. Once I get a tactic, I move on to the next team. All teams managed in 08/09 season.

Starting now, so might take a while.

I'm just really bad

What he said.

I know what you mean, and I will watch out for that when I release tactics I am making for the 20 Premier League sides. Basically what I do is play a season as one team, without making any transfers or staff changes, custom training (Tugs), and if the tactic proves well, I release it along with a whole bunch of screenshots showing a lot of useful info about how successful it was. If it fails, I do the same team again. Once I get a tactic, I move on to the next team. All teams managed in 08/09 season.

Starting now, so might take a while.

That's definately going to make for interesting reading, so I'm sure a lot of people will look forward to that... no pressure or anything

tigerhgrrrrrr - What I've found quite amusing in my own thread, was that really I didn't particularly want to start a discussion about the tactic I was using, but an overall approach to playing the game at lower levels. The main reason I posted the information about the tactic I was using was to give examples of how I was going to build a team around it. With that in mind, it was more mindful of what player attributes I felt would work best with my chosen tactic. However many times I pointed out that I felt using a similar "approach" to the game could potentially harness good results with any sensible tactic I still received the inevitable requests to upload the tactic or discuss the tactic itself in great detail.

Thankfully, there are lots of people who read the thread and understood what I was aiming at. They've since provided overall feedback with not only the tactic I used as an example, but lot's of other variations and other completely different tactics and formations.

The thing is, we read dailly how people are going back to the "simpler times" of FM08, FM07, FM06, etc... etc..., when in fact nothing in essence has changed throughout any of these games in one key respect... team building!

It's fair to say that no matter what level you're playing, if you have an understanding of player attributes overall, you can build a pretty decent team around a fairly simple tactic, and be successful. No magic formula. No exploits or need to cheat. You don't even need world-class players either.

Of course, it all comes down to individual patience. Some people want everything now and when they can't win the EPL in the very first season with Hull or Stoke, then there's clearly something wrong. I for one doubt I could do it, no matter how comfortable I feel with the in's and out's of the game.

most people develop their own tactical preference, for instance, i always prefer to play 4-1-3-2, But for that to really work you need a very talented Holding player, or, 3 incredibly talented attacking midfielders and at least 1 amazing striker, so i tend to build a team around that formation. Untill i can do that i just generally play around with different tactics to see what suits the players i already have.

As someone heath pointed out, there aren't really any special tactics, all it takes is for you to find a tactic you personally like, then build a team around that. As opposed to making players fit into positions thta just wont help the team at all.

I'm a pretty half-assed tactic-maker that gets lucky sometimes because I'm willing to try the crazy!

Anyways... I usually can make good tactics for low-league teams, but I can assure everyone here that I can't for my life make a tactic which Man Utd or such would play well with. >_<

Only real moment of brilliance I had was when I tried a 2-5-3-tactic in Indonesian 2nd division... Man, that owned. I scored like mad, eventho I conceded quite alot too. Except of that... Nah, I'm nothing special when it comes to tactics.

It was a bit ranty to be honest but it developed a germ of an idea I had a few weeks ago. I have followed the Threads here for about 3 years and FM09 is the first release not to have a plethora of "wonder tactic" threads. Now I agree with SI, we dont want wonder tactics but the amount of players who have said "with team abc and tactics x, y & z I have been very successful" are few & far between!. There are about 6-7 exceptions and they have intelligently detailed their team & tactics (wwfan, Heathxxx, The Game & a few others spring to mind.).

It seems to me that these few apart the game is either not quite accessible enough or that in depth tactical debate is dead or dying. The most furious debates in here in the last 24 hours are either about team talks (!) or FM10 tactics (!) - worrying?

I actually think T&TT is healthier than it has been for years. There's very little of the ranting and raving that blighted FMs 06-08 and much more focus on holistic tactical strategy rather than one off super-tactics. Granted, a fair bit of the tactical ranting has shifted into GD, but even in here it is often met with a reasonably widespread 'well, if you are not even trying to be strategic, what do you expect?' response. There are exceptions, of course, but in general, I think FM has fundamentally shifted the user-base focus towards multi-tactics within an overall strategy and away from designing super-tactics. At the same time, it has highlighted fundamental issue with the slider system that FM2010 will address.

im english , was born up north , supported a low league team from down south, i use a very british formation 4-4-2 with wingers. 1 of the center mids is set to defensive the other center mid is attacking.

the 4 man back line has to have pace , the fullbacks have to be able to contribute with a couple of assists per season each, i have 1 tall striker that holds up the ball the other i like to have a bit of pace.

in essence when we attack we have 2 wingers 2 strikers and 1 center mid going forward thats half the outfield players, even if the fullbacks decide to get forward that still leaves the center backs and the defensive mid back trying to keep a clean sheet.

and when defending we have the back line and the midfield ( includeing wingers back ) defending

i think what that fella up there said is correct, find a formation that gives you a decent feeling of control or 1 that brings you success and stick with it, then build a team around it

when i join a club im never gonna have all the players i want

a monster of a keeper

2 quick strong fullbacks which can attack and defend

2 tall quick center backs who can get the odd goal from corners (and have i got a tactic for corners)

1 def mid who can head the ball aswell as slice the opposition open

1 att mid center who can chip in with 10 goals in all comps

2 quick wingers who can chip in with 10 assists each

1 tall striker who's goo at heading

1 quick strikeer whos good at finishing

but the formation i play requires those types of player . and it may just take you a little time to get them in, but when there in , there in and im having to expand the trophy room.

;0