FM09 Community Guide to Tactics

In recognition that the Match Engine changes in FM09 have fundamentally altered people’s perception of the tactical module and the slider system, possibly causing much confusion, SI and Paul Collyer have encouraged a few of the more tactically astute Beta testers to work on a Community Guide to Tactics during the last couple of months. The document will come in pdf format, complete with a foreword from Paul, and will be available to download on 14 November. Alongside the main document, we will release easier to access supporting material and all the tactics we used in testing the theories.

Downloads

Tactical Theorems and Frameworks ’09: 49-page pdf document detailing all tactical instructions

TT&F ’09 Crib Sheet: 2-page pdf document referencing basic instructions

TT&F ’09 Tactical Wizard: Excel-based wizard providing a step-by-step tactical design guide (requires Office 2003 or later)

TT&F ’09 Tactics: 72 generic tactics that can be used as alternative defaults to those provided by the game

The main document will also be released as a forum thread in the SI Games and FM-Britain tactical forums and will be fully supported by the tactical mods and the document authors.

Teaser Threads

Prior to release day, I’m going to upload four teaser threads at SI Games and FM-Britain that detail the most fundamentally important tactical settings. Each thread will come with a set of three tactics; Defensive, Normal and Attacking versions of a single formation. Due to uploading restrictions at SI Games these tactics will only be available to download via FM-Britain and can be found at the bottom of the opening post of each teaser thread in their tactical forum. These threads and tactics are intended to reduce the information overload of the full document/tactical sets and provide the user base with ideas to test and play around with in the Demo prior to the release of the full game.

Teaser Thread No 1: Managerial Type and Mentality Systems (Nov 6)

Teaser Thread No 2: Player Roles and Forward Runs (Nov 8)

Teaser Thread No 3: Closing Down (Nov 10)

Teaser Thread No 4: Passing Patterns (Nov 12)

Each thread will be released in the SI Games and FM-Britain tactical forums. They will be fully supported by the writers of the document who will do their best to answer any questions you might have. With luck, even Paul might poke his head through the door. There will also be a sneak preview of the next teaser thread on the FM-Britain home page a day or so before the forum thread is uploaded.

Have fun and play well

Is the Teaser thread 1 out yet? If yes where can I find? Thanks in advacned!!

In the tactical forums here or at FM-Britain.

In the tactical forums here or at FM-Britain.

Tops mate ^^

looking forward to reading it wwfan!!

cheers

Must be a great thread. Cheers!

In recognition that the Match Engine changes in FM09 have fundamentally altered people’s perception of the tactical module and the slider system, possibly causing much confusion, SI and Paul Collyer have encouraged a few of the more tactically astute Beta testers to work on a Community Guide to Tactics during the last couple of months.

And this means that I will have zero input. Ineptitude is my middle name.

You are too hard on yourself, Serps. Your input is crucial, for if you can make it work, everybody can

So you need this to understand tactics in the game? Why is it not in the manual?

So you need this to understand tactics in the game? Why is it not in the manual?

It's a guide not a manual and it was written by non-SI employees, in recognition to the possible issues people would have with the arrowless engine (which seem to be coming to pass). As we had to actually play and test the game long enough to know what we were writing was helpful, there was no time at all to add anything to the game itself. Thus, the best we could do was make it available via the forums.

quite interested in the document TT&F ’09 Tactical Wizard

Excellent news!

An advanced "Thanks", in case I forget on Nov 14th while I am busy reading it at work trying to make it look like TPS reports

Can help but think if they just made the sliders work differently then there wouldn't be as much confusion. Generally speaking if a system is not intuitive and requires a manual even for the most basic aspects of its operation it might be because of poor system design in the first place.

Can help but think if they just made the sliders work differently then there wouldn't be as much confusion. Generally speaking if a system is not intuitive and requires a manual even for the most basic aspects of its operation it might be because of poor system design in the first place.

Agreed, but it is a different argument and one, that if debated constructively, will probably be extremely helpful for future development. This is just about helping people get the best out of the current system and thus as much enjoyment as possible out of FM09.

Great news!

Would be essential manuals to be a good manager in FM09

Do you know whether the Excel spreadsheet TT&F ’09 Tactical Wizard will work with OpenOffice?

Where can i DL the tactic pack?

FM Britain doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks

Where can i DL the tactic pack?

FM Britain doesn't seem to be working.

Thanks

It's working fine for me

OpenOffice: Not sure.

WOW wwfan, you are offerring more and sooner than I expected - cant wait. As a teaser, you would have tested these tactical set ups with success so can you tease us further with a rough idea of the success achieved and with which level of team(s).

Not wanting you to waste too much time on this though!

We've been using them throughout the beta. Some of them fall down a little at lower levels on big pitches, but that will be explained in the full document. However, we are just trying to make good generic default shapes, rather than title winning tactics. I would say that with logical decision making, you should overachieve by a good few positions.

From memory, they have been tested at:

Man Utd

Arsenal

Villa

Spurs

Stoke

Walsall

St Pauli

Randers (Danish team)

Athletico

Palermo

I think there are more, but Millie did much more testing than I did so he's the man to ask. The only team that did badly was St Pauli, chosen because of the big pitch. However, a few changes in width, d-line and closing down sorted it out.

Fantastic stuff as always wwfan

Anyone who's struggling with tactics really should read this stuff. It's what i did when FM06 was released and I was struggling a little to make my own tactics. And a lot of the theories I learned back then are still the same today and have helped me make my own successful tactics throughout FM07, '08 and now in the '09 demo. I can't stress enough how much knowledge I gained from reading stuff like this.

Hey wwfan, when can we hear you again on Get Sacked podcast?

Was a great episode when you were on, laughed my ass off!

Or is Millie affraid you know more about tactics?

Excellent news. For anyone struggle to get to grips with the tactical side of the game, I personally can't recommend this sort of things enough. It adds so much more depth and realism to the game.

I'm glad S.I are encouraging you to do this sort of thing.

Looking forward to reading these.

Will be another Get Sacked podcast on November 14th. Won't be quite as light hearted as it basically outlining the Tactical Document and is thus very detailed.

Millie still hasn't quite twigged that if our 72 tactics are widely downloaded, he will have made more user tactics than anybody else in FM history (he made circa 60 0f them). If everybody thinks they suck, it's all his fault

Do you want to come and press continue for us as well? It is strange that there is talk of a guide already when the game isn't even out yet. Hopefully people will try to figure things out on their own which is what makes the game so good. Is this to stop people complaining it is too difficult? Looking forward to the game even more if that is so.

Do you want to come and press continue for us as well? It is strange that there is talk of a guide already when the game isn't even out yet. Hopefully people will try to figure things out on their own which is what makes the game so good. Is this to stop people complaining it is too difficult? Looking forward to the game even more if that is so.

oh shut it Rob!

these are people that out of their own will and free time are doing an effort to help people who might find the game difficult!

is there anything wrong in doing so?

if you don't need help or want to find out stuff yourself you can do so...no one said you have to download these by force!

we should be thanking people like wwfan not be sarcastic and try to be smart!

Ye those guides are really handy, even for long time players.

Do you want to come and press continue for us as well? It is strange that there is talk of a guide already when the game isn't even out yet. Hopefully people will try to figure things out on their own which is what makes the game so good. Is this to stop people complaining it is too difficult? Looking forward to the game even more if that is so.

Get over yourself mate. No one's holding a gun to your head forcing you to read these guides are they?

More proof that even though there's been an improvement in attitudes on the boards this year there are still plenty of pathetic idiots around who really will complain about anything.

You TT&F guys are Gods. I am now shaking you by the metaphysical hand. Keep up the stellar work! My success and enjoyment of FM2008 went through the roof after I had studied the pearls of wisdom found in the tactics theorems and frameworks.

I was being sarcastic about the continue button so apologise for that.

I stick by what I said about hoping people have a go themselves rather than follow the guide from the off. There are many ways to setup a tactic and have success and I hope more people experiment, as the people who write these guides do.

Rob , the problem is that lots of ppl are confused by the slider system and they explain how to setup a framework where they can start from.

Also the guides give lots of info on other things that arent really clear.

Definitely looking forward to the guides as it's always good to do tactical comparisons.

Thanks to those who contribute.

SI should make a system that when you hold your mouse over a slider for example, it gives some info about it.

I really think that would help a lot.

I was being sarcastic about the continue button so apologise for that.

I stick by what I said about hoping people have a go themselves rather than follow the guide from the off. There are many ways to setup a tactic and have success and I hope more people experiment, as the people who write these guides do.

Fair enough. But unfortunately every year you get a lot of people who genuinely struggle with the tactical side of the game and would simply stop playing it if it weren't for the people who go out of their way to make these kind of free guides in their own spare time. I've seen plenty of people on these boards go from the brink of packing in the game altogether to loving it again because of some advice they gained from the T&TT forum.

As I said, I've always been one to make my own tactics on FM games. But these guides are not a simple 'use this tactic and you'll win' type of thing, the information in them gave me knowledge about the tactical side of FM that allowed me to go on and make my own tactics not only much better, but much more realistic.

Excellent idea.

Does this mean that said theories and tactics have SI endorsement, I.E., is this tacit admission that we're all barking up the right tree?

This is great, especially for the tactically........naive, like me

Looking forward to it!

wwwfan that is just great news! I really appreciate you guys that are putting work in that will benefit us tactical morons!

Excellent idea.

Does this mean that said theories and tactics have SI endorsement, I.E., is this tacit admission that we're all barking up the right tree?

Yes, from my understanding it is not official but the lads putting these together are being encouraged to do so from SI.

Yes, from my understanding it is not official but the lads putting these together are being encouraged to do so from SI.

Paul will write a foreword. Unlike the previous TT&F's, we have had direct contact with SI about this one and it will be an 'unofficially endorsed' guide to tactics.

As I said, I've always been one to make my own tactics on FM games. But these guides are not a simple 'use this tactic and you'll win' type of thing, the information in them gave me knowledge about the tactical side of FM that allowed me to go on and make my own tactics not only much better, but much more realistic.

Absolutely. What we don't do, and even less so this time, is do a cause and effect 'Do A and B will happen' guide to super-tactics. We suggest how things work which should then challenge the reader to experiment, but from a position of some knowledge, rather than guess and click. We expect people who read our stuff to make their own tactics and to eventually deviate heavily from where we are coming from in order to stamp their mark on their tactical outlook.

For example, if someone wants to make a Milanese tactic in the style of Ancelotti, he could use the guide as a starting point but then change and shift things towards his own vision of how such a tactic should look/play. At times he will deviate quite far from our suggestions, at times he will remain close. However, in the end, his tactic will be very much his own.

Thanks wwfan, what a great idea. I was new to FM in 2006 and your tactics threads really helped me through a double learning process ie FM tactics and understanding football in general (US player with no football knowledge). For me, it was a great help to use your work as a base to develop tactics tailored to my teams abilities. Without your guides I would have been lost and perhaps given up on the game.

I'm glad you are putting out teasers to tide us through 'til release day. Will make the week go faster being able to test them out in the demo.

Thanks wwfan, what a great idea. I was new to FM in 2006 and your tactics threads really helped me through a double learning process ie FM tactics and understanding football in general (US player with no football knowledge). For me, it was a great help to use your work as a base to develop tactics tailored to my teams abilities. Without your guides I would have been lost and perhaps given up on the game.

I'm glad you are putting out teasers to tide us through 'til release day. Will make the week go faster being able to test them out in the demo.

Thanks. The feedback we've had from all quarters regarding this year's version is that it far surpasses anything we've done previously, so I hope it can take you to the next level. One major step we've taken is moving away from the 4-4-2 and instead supporting all formation shapes and strategies. Took a while to work out how to do it, but I think our solution has come out quite nicely.

Looking terribly forward to do this too. Maybe i won't have to use much editors anymore if i have some more insight in tactics .

Just a Q though: Will these tactics still hold their own when changes to the match engine are being made through patching?

Looking terribly forward to do this too. Maybe i won't have to use much editors anymore if i have some more insight in tactics .

Just a Q though: Will these tactics still hold their own when changes to the match engine are being made through patching?

I've been doing backwards compatibility testing and they work fine in FM08 as well. I haven't had to change many assumptions at all between FM07 and FM09 and I don't expect to, even after patching.

Thanks. The feedback we've had from all quarters regarding this year's version is that it far surpasses anything we've done previously, so I hope it can take you to the next level. One major step we've taken is moving away from the 4-4-2 and instead supporting all formation shapes and strategies. Took a while to work out how to do it, but I think our solution has come out quite nicely.

I'm glad to see you are doing more shapes. While learning the game using v2006 and 2008 I've been strictly 4-4-2 unless going defensive late to protect a lead. Then I'd go 5 at the back and use your "rules" to adjust my spacing and adjust my player instructions with some success.

This year I was planning on trying out some different formations (a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing:)). This will make the task a bit easier.

You'll be amazed at just how many shapes we have

Get over yourself mate. No one's holding a gun to your head forcing you to read these guides are they?

More proof that even though there's been an improvement in attitudes on the boards this year there are still plenty of pathetic idiots around who really will complain about anything.

Yep, well said.

Rob_ = Fun Police

Yep, well said.

Rob_ = Fun Police

Being a little unfair. Unless you've read our earlier stuff, you could easily believe we are promoting the standard plug'n'play super-tactic thread which teaches you nothing. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. If that were my perception, I'd make a similar comment, although hopefully slightly less bluntly

Very good, looking forward to this guide. Could one hope for an early release on the evening on 13th of November so I can read the document and do some thinking before I boot up the game?

I was thinking this myself, it would certainly whet the appetite of the tactical community ahead of the release.