Thomas_Spurgeon
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Posts posted by Thomas_Spurgeon
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I had so much memories dominating Hungary with Gyor ETO in FM15. Hope you can give them a helping hand since they are going through rough times.
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So far a pretty good season mate! Even if you don't get promoted right away, next season you'll reinforce a bit and get even better to attack VNL.
Good luck for the playoffs
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On 03/11/2019 at 16:19, ajt said:
nice job so far, unlucky vs Chesterfield that's a massive club to get in the 4th quali round!
As for the posts limit maybe it is just until you reach a certain number of overall forum posts? I can't quite remember if that's the case or not.
Indeed, but I'm not much into cups anyway, will just miss the money handouts for wins.
6 hours ago, bigmattb28 said:Not bad going mate, keep it up
Thank you guys for the support. This save has been awesome to change my mindset on FM, after these up and downs I think I'll be able to avoid Savescumming even in future saves, and just be patient and understand the ups and downs of a season.
I do think I need to get much better at understanding and managing the tactical part of the game, to ease my frustrations.
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While I understand SI's reasons not to include Instant Result, and disagree with those who are demanding it, I do have times I like to have instant results.
Playing LLM, there are times the season is basically dominated, tanked or i'm hating playing said leagues with weird rules, and just want to reach the end of the season.
Having Instant Result skins is a solution, and I've never seen any issues with it so far (I don't use it that much tbh)
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Ep. 4. This. is. ROLLERCOASTER!!
-We advanced 3 full months, and went through 3 funny (to say the least) moments of our club.
Funny phase 1
-If you remember (or scroll up), we had a great form, followed by 2 draws against high-end clubs, parking our spartan bois in 7th place, which was ok.
-Next, we drew against 14th placed Alfreton at home 1-1, on a absolutely ridiculous game, followed by a 2-2 draw (that I salvaged last minute) against last fricking placed King's Lynn...
-I clearly felt my (lack of) tactician savvy was once again clearly prejudicial to the team. Also that feeling I was being FM'd and if I savescummed I would absolutely win those games. Anyway...!
-I resisted the temptation, of course, because of my commitment to this story, but felt I needed to just let the AssMan do a better job than me, so I went back to Instant Resulting.
-If you pay attention, other than a 4-1 victory over Chester on the FA Trophy (after going to replay) followed by a 2-0 win over Bradford, my AssMan only won friendly games, and absolutely tanked my team. We were already in 12th place or something like that.
-This led me to think I should give it another try leading the team. I thought the assistant couldn't be worse than me, but I was wrong...
Funny phase 2
-So the game kept trying to annoy me, as no less than 4(!) games were postponed last minute because of bad weather (who knew northern england had so much rain???). So between Dec 21st and Jan 5th I played no games, filling up my schedule for the next month. As the cherry on top of the cake, since it was always last minute, I couldn't even plan friendly games to keep our match sharpness at acceptable levels.
Funny phase 3
-On a terrible form, with players out of match sharpness, out of nowhere my starting (and only senior) goalkeeper + my best central defender ended up their loans (their teams refused to renew the loans too), and about to play games every 3-4 days for the whole month of January AGAINST THE BEST TEAMS OF THE LEAGUE, with ME leading the team.............. You guessed it, didn't you?
-We beat 3rd place AFC Telford (home) who had just kicked us out of FA Trophy 1-0. Nerve-wrecking game until the end...
-We beat 5th place Hereford (home) 1-0 again. Another nerve-wrecking game until the end...
-We lose against 12th place Boston Utd (away) 3-1, although our team played really well. We suffered 2 late goals while trying to play for the win.
-We win against 4th place Chester (home) 3-1, in a very special game where the striker I signed in late December scored his first, second and third goal for the team! My first hat-trick in FM20! He kept playing terrible in the January games, but I kept believing in him.
-We beat 14th placed Guiseley (away) 2-1 with another goal from my best boi striker Danaher.-Next is an away game against 1st placed York, which I have a feeling will start another Funny phase for our club. Then 9th placed Gloucester at home. Then 2nd placed best-form in the league Kidderminster away. Y'Know what I mean? You do. I know you do.
-We are starting to know our team and figure out who we like and who we don't like. I'll present some of our stars in the next update. (still only one injury in the whole save, even after the update woohoo!)
(League table at end of January) -> Not too shabby, eh?
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Ep 3. Wait... We (really!) are SPARTA(ns)!!
-Now, that is freaking cool. I am actually overachieving at this game. Sure, I delegated 99% of the work of a manager, but even when I send the AssMan to lead a game, I'm the one who chooses the players.
-Let's be real though... I don't expect this to hold out for long... If nothing else, I should have a coup from the players I'm not using in the squad, most of which are Team Leaders or Influential.
-This dynamics thing seems important and I've been mostly ignoring it. Any suggestions from you guys on how to deal with it will be appreciated, or else I'll try to look at some videos.-So this is the second time "these takeover rumors are rubbish" I get. Was this a thing on FM19? Im starting to get concerned.
-I send the AssMan to work his magic against Peterborough Sports in the FA Cup, and he ties 0-0, basically getting FM'd. It's more fun when it happens to other people, ain't it Mr AssMan? I think after this game we bury the hatchet, since we have a common enemy now.(FA Cup 2nd Rnd VS Peterborough Sports) 38 shots vs 1!
-We will get Chesterfield, who are dominating the Vanarama National League, if we pass this round.
-I decide I'll still try to pass for the sweet money.
-For the first time in regular season, I actually let the Assistant pick the players he thinks gives us the best shot to win, and we almost get FM'd again.-They tie the game at 90+1, and we almost lost to a team that their players are so terrible they failed 3 fricking penalties... I need someone to help us score more goals and prevent us getting to this point.
-The time has come for our first big rivalry game, against Gateshead. His manager tries to do mind games, I'm having none of it (hey, I was pretty good at this on FM15!), and I tell the AssMan to hold my beer, so I can show these rivals how its done.
-My best game so far! It was not even close. We scored, they get a bogus penalty, we keep pushing and score two more. Never been this proud of my Spartans!
-The game had everything to go bad: Gateshead were playing at home, they are 21st in the league (anyone below 18th and we lose or draw), I was leading the team, but we made it! I'm so proud.
-Obviously, I'm waiting for the next few games to send us back to earth again.
-I say what the heck and sign 2 players even though I don't have the budget for them. I'll drop people at some point to balance the books. Hopefully. Surely. At some point. It's doable.
-With us playing so well, there's no way we will be fired, anyway, amirite?-Next comes Curzon Ashton.
-Once again we dominate.-I'm starting to like this team. I keep showing the games because of how surprised and happy I am with these results.
-I still feel like I'll get dropped on my face very soon.
-My AssMan now understand who the Alpha in this Coaching team is. I don't ever need him to lead a game for me again. He is left at his duties on stuff I'm too important to care about.-Next is Chesterfield for FA Cup. I expect us to lose, but there's a wee part of me (there's no such thing, just a figure of speech) that believes we can fight toe-to-toe with the big boys.
-We lose, but we really put up a fight. Im proud of my boys.-Next we get Farsley, bland game, they score first, it seems things aren't looking good until minute 60, I actually risk making some tactical changes! and boom! 3 goals! Awesome!
-And look at that!!-We are in 5th place, promotion hunting now?! Holy smokes!
-Of course, we draw the next 2 games against 6th place Leamington (away) and 9th place Darlington (home) on games we were dominating, but it's still all good.
-That closes October for us and we are 7th place! Not bad, innit?(VNN Table October) Fancy 7th place, eh?
(Blyth Schedule October) <- This might just be the best month in the history of this club!!! Surely! For certain!
Should have another update later today. And I already saw that Steam wants to update the game, so, I have this feeling my "reverse injury bug" situation will be normalized...
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On 02/11/2019 at 02:22, Deisler26 said:
Best of luck with this if you’re playing it straight for the first time!
Yes, always used "crutches" until I started this save. It's been challenging, but actually a bit easier than I thought. I'm hoping to turn a new page on playing FM, and never used outside help again. Tbh, I think I'll probably go for Forum tactics at some point, because I'm really weak in that area, but not during this save, this save I'll keep just on my own merits (and my Assistant ofc, but that's why I pay him anyway^^)
On 02/11/2019 at 07:22, bigmattb28 said:Being from the North East I'm very much looking forward to this, following with great interest. Good luck, you're gonna need it!
Awesome. I honestly thought it would get disastrous very quick, but it's been a pleasant surprise. We might survive it, if I can get the budget under control.
Thanks for both your encouragement. One or two more updates today.
Question: yesterday I was trying to post but apparently this forum has a limit on posts for a period of 24h, do any of you know how it works?
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The goal to surpass Norwich as pride of East Anglia is pretty cool, and just gave me ideas for a future save. What are you thinking to measure it?
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Barnsley sure look like an interesting challenge. Too high on the tiers ladder for me, but look forward to watch how you are going to make this happen. I love one good fight to avoid relegation.
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Ep 2. We are SPARTA(ns)!!!!
-We might have some problems with happiness soon... erm, I didnt sell any player and I brought in 7, because... well, I remember when FM had injuries... Thing is... After 12 friendlies and 8 regular season games, I have 0 injuries... NOBODY GETS INJURED ON THIS TEAM, hahaha.
-My Physios need a raise. Certainly when ManUtd and co. hear of the cutting edge techniques being used here, they'll come get my physios.
-My AssMan wins an away game 3-2 against Chester and I start to feel like it's getting to his head that he could do this job without me.
-We get into an heated argument and I tell him I would fire him if I had the money for it, and he is not going to coach another game until I get my first victory. (I really want to get one victory)
-We play at home versus Kidderminster and I proceed to shove it in my AssMan's face that I could win as much or more than he does if I really had the time for it (remember, I'm studying for a coaching license!)-Ok, this scouting system is messing me up. Is this bugged too? Look at this:
-You finished the report on the player? You believe he will be a very good signing?? Based on what?? That he can be trained as right winger?? Show me something scout man!!
-Anyway, I get 4 more reports like that and I go back to what I know: get those guys in on trial. One of them seems a good DC, if I can find the budget, I'll sign him.
-Being high on my victory over Kidderminster I brag to my Assistant I'm going to show him how to score lots of goals with my tactic, as we are about to play non-league Needham Market for FA Cup.
-This is the first (and probably only) game of the season we are favorite to win. Since we are over-reaching so much, I can feel the victory on my hands.-As the game ends, I avoid eye contact with my Assistant, and since then, avoid being on the same room as him. I start using e-mail for all my interactions with him, on each e-mail I discreetly write "Do not reply to this e-mail" without adding to which e-mail he should reply to.
-Some players start complaining about lack of First Team football. "Ask yourself: Am I really better than that trial player?" is written on a very large plaque I passive-aggressively have on my desk when they come to see me.-Next we play Kettering, who are in 19th place. Perfect for my AssMan to go and grab us some easy points.
-He only grabs a draw, and I suspect he might start losing on purpose just to screw me over.
-The tactic should be good and regardless of being me or the AssMan leading, we get around 55-60% of possession and make more shots than the opponents. Even on that game against York.
-The noob in me thinks we just need a good Striker and a good DC to get our team to really shine. I even have the players I want on trial, but no money to pay them.-For the replay against Needham Market in their home court, I send the AssMan to get slaughtered with backup players. He pulls the miracle and gets the 1-0 win. I'm happy. It was a win-win situation for me.
-We get 5k for the win and are playing Peterborough Sports next, another non-league.
-Im trying to sell players to no effect. I might have to offer them for 0€ just to clear budget, or just send them away.
-I receive an e-mail from our Press Officer that our 6 game unbeaten streak is a new club record. Not so bad, innit? Who knew this was possible on a terrible team without external helps?-Just as things seem to be so averangingly good, we lose 1-2 at home against 19th place Southport (another game we were favorites) to send us back to our place.
(VNN table after the first quarter of the season)
Oh! And we still haven't got one single injury. Is there a Steam achiev for "whole season without injuries"? I guess we will find out.
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Love this idea. It'll be impossible, but look forward to it!
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At Blyth Spartans chairman's office:
"I'm not gonna lie to you. Things are bad. You were not our first, second, or third option. You are basically our last option.
We are expected to be relegated. We have basically one good player, don't ask me how we convinced him to join, but he will probably want to leave at some point. Nobody wants to join on loan. We have no senior affiliates...
Now, this is an opportunity for you. You have no experience, but you'll have a very decent Assistant Manager to help you in all you need.
My expectation is that you fight off relegation this year, and take the next 4 years establishing us as a good VNN team.
I also expect you to stay within our financial budgets."
Hey guys and gals, I played FM15 for the longest time, and I caught the fever to play FM20.
I always relied on forum tactics, editors and save scumming to hide my failures and general laziness as a Football Manager.
I will drop all that to write this story, so between my noobishness and learning all things new since FM15 we have a recipe for disaster.
Poor Blyth Spartans are the chosen ones to take the punch to the stomach. They look very bad and projected to finish 22nd even without me, so we'll only ruin one house.
My 1st goal for this save is to not use forum tactics, editors or save scumming.
2nd goal is to keep the job as Blyth Spartans as long as possible.
3rd goal is to have fun and enjoy the disaster unfolding.
If disaster doesn't hit too quickly, and I stay alive for a few seasons, I might consider jumping jobs.
I will gladly accept any help/suggestions. Just be patient and remember I haven't played FM16-19.Pre-Season
Things look bleak. This was the summary of my pre-season:
-I look into all the new/different things in FM20. I am completely lost. Everything is different. (remember, I come from FM15...)
-I hired semi-decent staff to fill the gaps in the Staff Room. I instantly delegate almost everything to my staff (I'll get it bit by bit back once it's not so overwhelming)
-I look at my team, and they are as bad as I expected...
-One pretty good player lost in the midst of mediocrity, even for VNN standards.-I choose a 4-1-2-3 tactic on GenGenPress. No idea if it's good for Lower League Management (LLM). I'm pretty sure FM15 didnt even have GenGenPress option (I always used forum tactics anyway). All tactics screens are super different. I accept my AssMan suggestions on how to build the "tactic" (being generous here, but LMM demands simplicity anyway, amirite? *wink wink nudge nudge*).
-I use an old LMM trick and invite half the english speaking free agents in the world to trial with us.
-Management draw a line at how many people I can actually bring in on trial. (What do you mean I cant invite 100+ people into the club?? How else am I suppose to scout them?? Did you know in FM20 you actually pay scouts expenses to scout people???)
-All the decent players ask for money I cannot pay them, be it in part-time or even non-contracts.
-The decent players who asked for lower salaries are poached by better teams.
-Spartans Management allows me to go on Coaching Course, anything good to take my mind off the terrible season ahead.
-We do win all pre-season friendly games. Well... "We" as my AssMan seems to take my GenGenPress ideas and turn them into gold (sure, against a bunch of non-league teams but also PortVale!)-I realize a bit too late that my AssMan is only placing trial players on pre-season games, so my actual players are about to start the season on terrible match fitness.
-Can you smell the disaster incoming? I certainly can. It's Blyth's fault for placing a Sunday Footballer at the helm of the club.
-I have 0 injuries the whole pre-season tho. That might just be bugged...
-I get my first Steam achievement - 3months without injuries - to celebrate this (probable) bug.Regular Season
-I play the first competitive game and lose, but the team played pretty good. (my expectations were very low, that helps...)
-I remember I have this (apparently) genius Assistant who turned this team into gold on the pre-season. (I get an Instant Result skin)
-I wonder if it will break immersion, but this team deserves someone who can lead them to some victories.
-As an inexperienced manager who has to study a lot for coaching courses, I guess it would be ok to lean on the AssMan to help me out the first steps...
-Being a smart man who wants to keep his job, it would certainly make a lot of sense to let the AssMan lead us to some victories.-Well... I led us to 2 defeats out of 2 possible.
-Our genius Assistant led us to 2 victories, 2 losses and 1 impressive draw against unstoppable York City (7W,1D,0L).This guy is going to help me keep my job!
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[FM20] My name is Roy Rivers, and these are my Spartans
in FM Career Updates
Posted
Ep. 5 Mid-season report
-So this is our present squad:
(Blyth Squad in Mid-season)
-You'll notice that most people are very below average.
-These are our stars at the moment:
(Star Goalkeeper Luke O'Reilly)
I got this GK on a free in January after I sold my only senior GK for 0€ and lost the other one I had who was on loan. He has been nothing short of awesome. Are GK's improved since FM15? Because they didn't matter much back then.
(Star Central Defender James Cook)
Got James Cook on a free in December. Not even that good, but a notch above the others and finally someone I feel can keep up with pacier strikers.
(Star Pressing Forward George Danaher)
Got this boi who I think will take us to multiple promotions on a free in December as well.
-I also already showed Callum Roberts in the first episode. He is the best player, even if he has been very average, however I still enforced a one year extension on his contract. I'll probably try to sell him in the summer, as I have some very decent IFs, on much cheaper contracts than him.
-I showed the guys who are good and young. They should earn us some moneys soon.
-This is our current Club Vision:
(Club Vision Mid-season)
-This is our stars being generated in our youth intake (not):
(Youth Intake Report)
-My one and only injury so far:
(Kokolo boo-boo)
-And my brexit lottery (is it good? who knows):
(Brexit decision)
Next update very soon. Let's shock the world and get York and Kidderminster!