Plymouth - Is game too easy

Been managing Plymouth Argyle as Sunday League Footballer Rep. Just started my 3rd season here are my stats

1st season League 2 (2011-2012)

Finished 1st 96 points Goal difference +42

Signed Free Transfers and loans + 1 player value 26k

Sold 2 players free transfers

Got taken over by Tycoon 6/8/2011 but he put no money into transfer kitty.

2nd season League 1 (2012-2013)

Finished 1st 92 pojnts Goal difference +51

Signed 16 players total 4.4million (inlcuding 4 loan signings and 4 free transfers)

Sold 9 players total 22k

3rd season Championship (2013 - present)

Currently 1st Played 4 Won 4 Goal difference +5

Signed 8 players total 3.1 million (including 3 loan signings and 1 free transfer)

Sold 8 players total 0 (including 2 players out on loan)

I know Ive been taken over by a tycoon but surely even with the latest patch the game shouldnt be this easy and my team constantly top of the league. I know my championship season has just started and it could go wrong but it shouldnt be this easy to win games and be more of a struggle even with the money to spend

The game will be easy if you're spending £4.4m as a League One side. Plymouth have quite a strong side and alot of the squad take wage cuts in the first season, big ones too. So with the amount of good free agents, it wouldn't be that difficult to build a side capable of not only winning promotion, but winning it comfortably. The money you have spent in your second season would be enough to and is more than most Championship clubs can afford to spend.

So it's not that game is neccessarily easy, you have money and money makes things alot easier. Or makes there be more potential for the game to be easier.

The game will be easy if you're spending £4.4m as a League One side. Plymouth have quite a strong side and alot of the squad take wage cuts in the first season, big ones too. So with the amount of good free agents, it wouldn't be that difficult to build a side capable of not only winning promotion, but winning it comfortably. The money you have spent in your second season would be enough to and is more than most Championship clubs can afford to spend.

So it's not that game is neccessarily easy, you have money and money makes things alot easier. Or makes there be more potential for the game to be easier.

I agree League 1 with 4.4mill should be a doddle however I would have thought the championship maybe harder, but after start Ive had I can see it going the same way as other seasons

Waits for the predictable "Maybe you're just good at FM" post.

But no, the game shouldn't be that easy, with or without the patch. The problem is the AI can't match the human player when it comes to team building, player development, utilising the transfer market, making tactical descions, and developing effective tactics. And in your case it shows our unfair transfer advantages perfectly - i.e. if we've got it we will invariably go spend millions on a new squad when in the lower leagues while the AI rarely, if ever do. How often do AI clubs in league 1 or 2 just go for it and spend multi-millions on a new squad and dominate their league? - gaining promotion from the depths to the championship in successive seasons? Very rarely in all the saves I've played, infact I can't recall it at all. On occassion I've seen AI teams win successive promotions, but not by spending multi-millions - tycoon or not. Yet we can do it, and often do once the monies in the bank ready to spend. The AI should have that same desire and ambition given the relevant resources.

Away from transfers it also doesn't take us long to learn what works and what doesn't. I look at the AI as being permanently stuck in amatuer mode so I tailor my style of play with that in mind and try to even the field. Stuff like LLM rules, self-imposed restrictions, and even creating restrictive tactics is one way to get some (artificial) challenge. We shouldn't have to go to such lengths but until the AI is significantly overhauled, and dare I say it, given some useful advantages we human player don't have, then it'll always be easy to dominate the game.

You can't unlearn all the knowledge you've gained playing this and eariler versions of FM's so we will always start any new game with a massive advantage, and it snowballs from there.

An elequent post from Erimus1876 that pretty much sums up the problems.

My Basel game is "easy" in the Swiss League because my nearest financial rivals, with a Foreground 'sugar daddy', Neuchatel Xamax have a balance of £27m, a transfer budget of £11m and are sitting 5th in the League.

Give a human manager £11m to spend and a 'sugar daddy' Chairman and they won't be languishing in 5th for much longer.

Just wait til you get in the prem...

Just finished my 1st season with Argyle, and like my previous save with them, promotion out of League 2 is pretty easy. Larrieu, Walton & Fletcher all took wage cuts meaning I could bring in some free-agents, and loan market was a help too. I had a decent tactic, and only lost once at home in the league, and won the Johnstone Paint Trophy.

In League One, you was always going to have it easy with a tycoon. It will be interesting to see how well I do in League One.

Anyway, I'm pretty confident a lot of the stats for most of our players will be dropped ahead of the January Transfer update, so then it will be much more of a challenge to get out of League 2.