Ingredients for a long-term save

On my way to work this morning I was already thinking of restarting my planned long term save, and I haven't even made it past the friendlies yet.

This got me wondering, what are your ingredients for a long term game? What type of teams, how many players and perhaps more importantly; what are your long term goals?

For my FM 2012 long term game, I chose BK Kenty of Sweden. It's a tiny local club that cannot spend more than 500 euro for its first team at the beginning and has a fanbase of whooping 50 people.

My long term goal (I am thinking about 30 ~ 50 season) is to get Sweden to UEFA coefficient rank 5ish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient

Sweden overall is a low-ranking football country and it's hard to earn money, which can be improved by your club doing better in UEFA champion or Europa. It's called "UEFA coefficient".

The better Swedish clubs do in UEFA continental leagues, the better / more spots will be given to tier 1 teams. Ranking up in UEFA coefficient also means significantly more TV revenue and finally better prize payout for the Swedish premier league. At the beginning, the prize payout for Champion team is merely 290k. (Compared to England's 20m, you see why Sweden cannot do better in continental cups.)

The prize payout can go into millions if UEFA coefficient rank goes up.

It will be fun to watch a country getting overall better in football and I, as a manager of a small local club, will be the beginning:p

But for those playing in England, Spain, Germany, you will almost never experience UEFA coefficient changes since those countries are already on top.

I usually either play a long term save with liverpool or start with a smaller side and try to build them up. I find sticking with one team and making them a big force is more entertaining than a journeyman type of save but thats just my own preference.

I really like the Italian leagues so I often have a save where I start with a team in the 3rd or 4th level of Italy and I try to build them up to Serie A. But one thing I always try to maintain is to develop young players and maintain a squad of players from the nation i'm managing in.

For my FM 2012 long term game, I chose BK Kenty of Sweden. It's a tiny local club that cannot spend more than 500 euro for its first time at the beginning and has a fanbase of whooping 50 people.

My long term goal (I am thinking about 30 ~ 50 season) is to get Sweden to UEFA coefficient rank 5ish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient

Sweden overall is a low-ranking football country and it's hard to earn money, which can be improved by your club doing better in UEFA champion or Europa. It's called "UEFA coefficient".

The better Swedish clubs do in UEFA continental leagues, the better / more spots will be given to tier 1 teams. Ranking up in UEFA coefficient also means significantly more TV revenue and finally better prize payout for the Swedish premier league. At the beginning, the prize payout for Champion team is merely 290k. (Compared to England's 20m, you see why Sweden cannot do better in continental cups.)

The prize payout can go into millions if UEFA coefficient rank goes up.

It will be fun to watch a country getting overall better in football and I, as a manager of a small local club, will be the beginning:p

But for those playing in England, Spain, Germany, you will almost never experience UEFA coefficient changes since those countries are already on top.

I tried this with Forward in FM11, another small swedish club. Got them into first division but just got stuck, stadum and facilities were never improved, never enough money and got killed in Uefa cup. Was fun playing in Sweden anyway.

Regarding OP, IMO long term saves have to be LLM. There's a great feeling of moving up the leagues and having great loyalty. If I get sacked, its usually the end of the save.

I can't seem to get into a career game, ie. Start at Blue Sq, do well, get a job off in L1 do well, get a premiership job etc etc. It seems like all that hard work goes to waste, when you can just start a game with Man U anyway.

Ingredient I think for a long save; progression opportunity, youth set up and youngster dev. (seeing your star develop), new stadium chance (more money adds years), national team job chance (will def add a 2-4 seasons to a save).

Yeah, I know it's going to be hard. I spent few seasons for a Sweden club in FM 2011. My chairman sucked and sold my key players for money at that time though.

My longest saves were definitely started as LLM games, but I often got out after promotion (Bar FM11 where I took a Finnish team to promotion and title glory in the 4th and 5th season). On FM12 I've started a save with Lechia Gdansk in Poland, mainly because after 1 season they will move to the jaw dropping 44,000 seater Baltic Arena. But there seems to be no way to attract any decent players, which means it will all come down to my poor skills as a tactician... Well, maybe I should just stick it out.

I always start with Bromley in the BSS, with as many other leagues loaded as possible to run at a good speed. I wait until the final patch and then play until I have won everything. Normally this takes around 15 years, but I'm currently in 2036 and still in the Championship so FM11 was a lot harder than previous for me. I'm still on FM11 and given I don't have steam yet I will probably wait until the final patch before installing FM12 this time round.

I have always wanted to try a real journeyman game, so when the add/remove league feature works so that you can get job offers from inactive countries I will go for that, but not quite there yet. Great feature though.

My best saves are always at small clubs in different countries, I find i get overwhelmed at big clubs with big squads and find it hard to get to know all my players.

I love taking small teams where i can really get to know all the players and have a sense of achevement at improving them

My best long terms saves have had me start at Perth Glory staying there for a couple of seasons before trying to get a national job or into europe

My best long terms saves have had me start at Perth Glory staying there for a couple of seasons before trying to get a national job or into europe

What is managing in Australia like? I've been tempted to give Sydney or the Mariners a go, but found all the rules a bit overwhelming and am afraid I cannot attract any decent players.

What is managing in Australia like? I've been tempted to give Sydney or the Mariners a go, but found all the rules a bit overwhelming and am afraid I cannot attract any decent players.

Haven't tried it yet in 2012 as i made a new a-league but i'm starting tonight. In 2011 it was fun and you can get decent players on free or cheap, one thing thats frustrating is that you only have 4 subs with one of them being a keeper so players that are versatile are key. Best thing about it is that with any team you have a chance of winning.

I like to take a club fallen from grace into the light again. This time around it is Bradford, which was in the Premier League ten years ago. They have a decent stadium at 27k so this means that whenever I reach the glories of Premier League again, the income will be competitive already. That is the one thing I have found can be de-motivating in long-term saves, when you see that world domination is 20 seasons ahead and not 5 - because if you control a lower-league team with 10k or less seats the first new stadium you'll build will be twice or thrice as large or something... and so after fighting for that new stadium for years and you finally get it you are still very far away from having a competitive economy compared with the other clubs in the top league. Knowing that the next new stadium is 20 years away (FM11 limitation), that long-term game will be long-term indeed.

So I choose a lower-league club with a nice stadium, disregarding the squad and everything else, because by experience I know that I will very likely not go very far beyond 10 seasons in a rl year of FM. And by experience I know that by February season two I will have replaced everyone in the club with my own personel, and small clubs don't have money anyways so the economy doesn't matter. I will more than make up for the poor economy once in the Premier League.

On my way to work this morning I was already thinking of restarting my planned long term save, and I haven't even made it past the friendlies yet.

This got me wondering, what are your ingredients for a long term game? What type of teams, how many players and perhaps more importantly; what are your long term goals?

At the minute my long-term games involve me loading lots and lots of leagues from different countries and having a huge database. I then start in BSN or BSS and set myself a goal or a target for that season (usually based on the media prediction or something similar). I'll never sign more than a 2 year contract anywhere as if I fail the goal I just move on somewhere else (applying for any available jobs and taking whoever will have me, but usually a bigger club).

I've found it really fun as in my FM2011 save I never stayed anywhere for more than 3 seasons, went all over Europe and ended up challenging for the CL in around 2030 with Arsenal. You never dominate as you're never at a club long enough to set up the infrastructure needed to dominate and you get to undo the mess the AI has made at a host of different clubs. My favourite was turning up at Juventus in around 2028 to find out they had 89 scouts.

You do need a lot of patience but I play these saves far longer than any other kind of save. You never know where you're going to end up next, which is part of the attraction I think.

Long term goal is to see how far I can get. This save I might keep going until Barcelona offer me a job. As I'm currently at Harrogate Town that may take a while.

At the minute my long-term games involve me loading lots and lots of leagues from different countries and having a huge database. I then start in BSN or BSS and set myself a goal or a target for that season (usually based on the media prediction or something similar). I'll never sign more than a 2 year contract anywhere as if I fail the goal I just move on somewhere else (applying for any available jobs and taking whoever will have me, but usually a bigger club).

I've found it really fun as in my FM2011 save I never stayed anywhere for more than 3 seasons, went all over Europe and ended up challenging for the CL in around 2030 with Arsenal. You never dominate as you're never at a club long enough to set up the infrastructure needed to dominate and you get to undo the mess the AI has made at a host of different clubs. My favourite was turning up at Juventus in around 2028 to find out they had 89 scouts.

You do need a lot of patience but I play these saves far longer than any other kind of save. You never know where you're going to end up next, which is part of the attraction I think.

Long term goal is to see how far I can get. This save I might keep going until Barcelona offer me a job. As I'm currently at Harrogate Town that may take a while.

HAHA 89 scouts!

I always start out either 1) planning to build a club up to invincibility 2) to play as a career bouncing around. Ends up the same- wherever I first get hired in my "real career mode" i start to love my team and fans and never want to leave.

HAHA 89 scouts!

HAHA that is more trouble than it is worth. Can't imagine those contract renewals.

Take one part ambition, mix with three ounces of potential, fold in a pound of percieved 'difficulty'. Place in the oven at 100 degrees and simmer for many seasons. Meanwhile enjoy ride.

Starting unemployed with sunday league rep, that's it really...

I always do a game with my supported team, Lincoln City and progress through the leagues and try adn be a bit of an Arsene Wenger or Fergy in building every aspect of teh club up so building young teams that grow together and trying to get the finances up to afford stadium extensions etc with the aim of winning the champions league one day and having a +30,000 seater stadium, etc

i never been able to do a save longer than 3 seasons, i get so tired of it, mainly down to very slow laptop, usually takes me 2 to 2 an half hours of playing, to cover 3 or 4 matches, so you can guess how long to cover 1 season, and with only the english and spanish league loaded, so this year, i am getting a new laptop, then i hope to, do a long save,

I've always wanted to do a journeyman/lower league save. I always start with Spurs as I support them and they have good players and some money, but are not in the top tier of European clubs. I like getting younger players in and building the club up

Always start with Scottish division 1 club. Not really lower league yet clubs are all are pretty strapped for money. Cup runs can be fun and long term goal of promotion and european qaulification ,if you can hold your job, make for good saves as well.

At the minute my long-term games involve me loading lots and lots of leagues from different countries and having a huge database. I then start in BSN or BSS and set myself a goal or a target for that season (usually based on the media prediction or something similar). I'll never sign more than a 2 year contract anywhere as if I fail the goal I just move on somewhere else (applying for any available jobs and taking whoever will have me, but usually a bigger club).

I've found it really fun as in my FM2011 save I never stayed anywhere for more than 3 seasons, went all over Europe and ended up challenging for the CL in around 2030 with Arsenal. You never dominate as you're never at a club long enough to set up the infrastructure needed to dominate and you get to undo the mess the AI has made at a host of different clubs. My favourite was turning up at Juventus in around 2028 to find out they had 89 scouts.

You do need a lot of patience but I play these saves far longer than any other kind of save. You never know where you're going to end up next, which is part of the attraction I think.

Long term goal is to see how far I can get. This save I might keep going until Barcelona offer me a job. As I'm currently at Harrogate Town that may take a while.

Exactly the way I play it too, hope you also have lots of fun mate

And good post describing what this game can offer us in a long-term game

I much prefer bringing a club back to it's glory days. A medium/small club. I've grown very fond of N.Forest and that's the team i'm currently playing now. I've also brought league titles to Huddersfield in previous versions of FM. I love rebuilding clubs and watching as the youths i've trained/brought in become global superstars.

In this year game I'm trying to take Portstewart from the Northern Irish 2nd division to become European champions

This year I'm starting in MLS and seeing where I can go; I'm sure I'll end up in Europe eventually, but I'm hoping to hit Brazil, Argentina, China, or Korea before I get there. I'm particularly interested in Brazil, but that might be a different save.

The key used to be setting up a big enough database at the beginning to support a long-term save, but that's kinda changed now that you can add leagues later.

Normally I play a journeyman save, bouncing around getting bigger and bigger teams, or pulling up smaller teams. I sometimes end up settling at a club for a while towards the end if I get a feel for them. Some teams you just end up liking and want to stick with for longer, others you do just tend to see as a stepping stone. You do end up having a soft spot for a lot of clubs though from FM05 to 11 I've ended up taking a shine to St.Johnstone, Braga, Souchax, Messina, Celta and so on. So now I end up keeping an eye on them and following results I wouldn't normally care about, in RL and FM.

This year I'm doing another journeyman save, expect this time round I'm blogging it. My brother is doing the same and we've set up twitter accounts so we can keep each other on the scores and ahem, breaking news. A little odd I guess but it's been great fun so far

Should be great with the Dynamic league rep and adding league options. No real limits on where the save can go, so no need for lots of different saves.

I've honed my ingredients for a year-long save down the years.

I always start in BSN (or lower if I add an edited file) with a club I create in the editor.

My squad has a pair of old war-horse player/coaches and the rest are kids, aged 18-14. I give myself top youth/training facilities and top coach attributes, and the kids all have -8 potential, 10 year contracts, 20 for loyalty and 100 for our club being their fav.

Obviously at first we're hopeless; most of the kids have strength, stamina, decisions etc under 4 and just get blown over. But the long-term plan is to nurture them and together we scale the heights.

True, since I started this 5 years ago we've never yet made it to the football league, but this year's our year!!

Normally start in BSBP with my favourite team, the now defunct Rushden and Diamonds, so this year i started with FGR. Was hoping to build them up and it started to work as first season finished 6th, thebest ever finish in clubs history, and second season finished 9th. Main problem is small crowds and all decent players can only get on non-contract terms so no sellable assets really. Left at end of my two year deal and was unemployed until BSBP side Crewe offered me a deal in October till end of season.

Took over with club 21st with 12points from 11 games. Just finished the season and been crowned champions, so back to League 2 they go. Main objective now is to build up Crewe and take them to the top, using my 3year knowledge of non league game.

Like to use young players and build them up over a few years but this time i have gone over the top, only 4 players in my squad over 21 years of age. The oldest being 27...

I usually start with a lower league team (BSN) get them up a few leagues till a good offer comes in and move on .. and repeat

Started that on FM11 at Fleetwood got them to the Championship then moved to Barnsley after 6 seasons, was planning on moving on from Barnsley but ended up there for 25+ seasons making them Europe's best team ... not what I started out to do aimed to get in the Premiership as a stable team but I started to enjoy working with the group of young players I had gotten together so had to seem them all through to they retired most becoming good mangers over the world!

What is managing in Australia like? I've been tempted to give Sydney or the Mariners a go, but found all the rules a bit overwhelming and am afraid I cannot attract any decent players.

Always give it a crack - there really isnt more than 5 seasons in it. Only 1 league. No cup. The challenge is asian Champ league.

Well - after reading all of these comments I've set up a game with 75,000 players loaded (max. recommended on my machine) and have leagues running on every continent. I have decided to start off with FC Groningen in the Dutch premier league as I follow them the most and know a little about the players, something that I think makes the game a tad more enjoyable.

I've decided that my goal is to win the league and to set up a decent, profitable, youth "farm". Hopefully after that I can move on to Australia or the US before ending up in Europe for a final encore. That to be said, let's first get through Pre-season:p .

the now defunct Rushden and Diamonds

Not based in England, so I wasnt aware of this :/

I remember me managing this team a lot of years ago, when they had andy burgess (with high PA ^^) and a nice sugar-daddy, was fun to play !