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Play Creatively

When you use Play Creatively, there is a greater chance that special events (both positive and negative) will occur during the match. If both teams use Play Creatively, the chance for special events will be even greater.

The downside is that teams playing creatively will be less focused on the defense, thus losing some defensive ability.

Playing creatively will probably be good for SE-optimized teams.

Now after I have observed the effects of this tactic for a couple of matches, I can share my thoughts on it.

Theoretically speaking, there is no reason why a team should get more SE chances if the other team chooses to play creatively. I understand the need to balance out the benefits, but this is ridiculous. It's a design flaw, the name does not fit the concept too well.

Indeed, I must agree that special events were significantly underpowered, and needed a boost, but come on. The HT team should be able to do better than that.

All this being said, who should use the new tactic? Let's review the benefits.

First, it seems like playing creatively increases only the chance for goal special events as opposed to weather special events. These include (by position):

Defenders: tiredness (negative), unpredictable (positive/negative), technical vs head (negative)

Midfielders: tiredness (negative), unpredictable (positive/negative), technical vs head (negative)

Wingers: cross pass (positive), experience (positive), quick (positive), technical vs head (positive), unpredictable (positive)

Forwards: unpredictable (positive, 2 kinds), experience (positive), technical vs head (positive), quick (positive).

Others: counter-attacks (positive), corners (positive), long shot (positive)

Unless I missed something, it looks like the forward and winger positions account for 10 different positive events, and the midfielder and defender positions - just for 2, both of them carrying significant negatives.

The natural conclusion is that Play Creatively is designed for offensively profiled teams. 3 scorers + offensive winger or 2 offensive wingers + 2 scorers seem to be the minimum required for maximizing the potential benefits from the tactic.

As far as negative events are concerned, defensive trainers might want to avoid the tactic, since the presence of 4 or 5 inexperienced defenders in the squad turns it into a time bomb.

Also, since the method of calculating the defence penalty is probably based on a percentage decrease, teams with weaker defence lose less.

Cup Round 2

I am playing a bot team, and I will again risk the less experienced starters for some boost in this area. Last week I managed to get away without an injury against a team, who was sporting 3 temperamental and 1 fiery player (and a huge bunch of balanced ones). This week's opponent only has 2 temperamentals and quite a number of tranquils.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to chukcha on his re-election to the Bulgarian U20 coach office. Good luck to him in his quest to qualify Bulgaria to the next world championship.

Word Out

I remember those beautiful days in the end of 2003 when I was first starting to dabble in the world of Hattrick. I've had the team for a day, and after some thinking I decided it is smart to start training passing, because it helps both my midfielders and forwards. In short, I had a lot to catch up 2 seasons or so from then.

I thought I'd put some random advice for other new players together, just in case.

1. Start training a main skill. Main skills are goalkeeping, defending, playmaking, winger, scoring. This is the fastest way to create some value in your team. You can train passing, set pieces, and other fancy stuff later on if you so desire.

2. Speaking about value, in order to make it to the top, you have to earn money. A lot of it. Therefore, make sure you have the best coach you can afford (skill counts, not leadership!), and have a full set of youngsters to train. Even if that means losing some games in the short run, it will pay off later.

3. Watch the upper divisions! Do not run for promotion before you are sure that your team is strong enough to finish in the top 4 of an average division of the upper level. Playing against stronger opponents is certainly instructive, but getting beaten up like a dog is no fun.

4. Follow the conferences, and look at the games of more experienced managers. There is always something useful to learn.

With all this being said, make sure you enjoy the experience. Hattrick is just a game, after all!

Hello!

This is a blog about Hattrick. Hattrick is an online soccer game where players manage teams by training, buying, and selling players.

I have been on Hattrick for quite a while, and I spent a lot of time and effort on the game. That's why I thought I'd put together this blog, so that my knowledge and experience might be of use to other people as well.