retired_workoutman

This is my story.
Specs: All England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and N.Ireland leagues + all players from all these nations loaded. Large database, use real players, no attribute masking.

Fisher. A weird club if you ask me. Just promoted from the Isthmain Premier, yet they're already Pro in a league full of Semi-Pro clubs, with a stadium and a budget that would make most of these clubs cry.

Makes a nice challenge don't you think?

Season One: Fisher Athletic
Looking at the squad, they're not going to last the season. Luckily there's some interest from clubs below us when I offer these players and pretty soon, before the start of the season, I got rid of the 15 bad apples in my team.
The youth squad does look promising, with 4 players standing out and looking to get promoted to the 1st team immediately. Upon return my one of my 3 scouts has found a real gem of a striker in N.Ireland, who gets a 2-year contract. The squad gets another boost when I manage to trade my 3rd goalie for a star in Scotland. But he's not Scottish, he's Slovenian.. how did that happen? After a quick 'buy now, ask questions later' and another scouting trip to Wales and Ireland, my scouts recommend another list of unpolished gems who immediately get signed.

Players in: 22, €1k
Players out: 16, €54k

After a shaky start of 8 matches with 4 points, this young team combined with some experience rocks the league and takes everyone by surprise. My N.Ireland striker nets an amazing 40 goals in 50 appearances and gets the league award for Young player and player. Fisher wins the BSS and the board & fans are delighted with my performances.
Meanwhile, the board decides that our 1500 attendance ground is too small and makes sure that next season we'll play in a bigger stadium.
Highlight of the season, after winning the Blue Square South, is winning the FA Trophy, beating the other surprise in the Cup, Redditch Utd, by a comfortable 3-1.

League Position:
1st W25 L10 D11

Cups:
FA Cup: 3nd Round (0-6 vs Portsmouth)
FA Trophy: Winners (3-1 vs Redditch)

So a double in my first season, stadium expansion coming up and the fans shouting for a statue. Does it get any better?

Season Two: Fisher Athletic
The board have given me a brand-new 8000 all-seater stadium, along with some training ground and youth facilities upgrades. You'd think that would make me happy.
I was. Until the loan figures came in and we'd have to be paying a whopping €100k a month for the next 3 years. (NOTE: we lost about €30k a month last season).
Fortunately the players all decide to stay and I have a decent squad that can begin the hunt for more glory.

Skipping a bit into the season, this hunt for glory turns into a hunt for points. A 15-game loosing streak leaves us rock-bottom of the BS National with confidence plummeting. And then it happens: board take-over. Fearing the worst, I still keep trying and we actually manage a 3-game winning streak before the new board comes in, gets rid of all the debts and sents me off to unemployedville.

After much applying for clubs in every single bit of the UK & Ireland, Mid-February I got an offer from Raith Rovers and decided to take it.

Season Two continued: Raith Rovers
Welcome to Disasterland. Bottom of the 3rd Division, into receivership, a stadium that's far too big for this division, this seems to be more then a challenge; this is mission impossible.
Looking at the team, however, things are looking up. There's a lot of young talent in this team that can still improve. No purchases can be made due to lack of funds, so no new players.
With Raith Rovers already eliminated from every cup, the season is still 14 games long and with the No.4 spot, which secures the playoffs, 25 points away, we'll settle for gaining a bit more confidence and winning some matches. However, our winning streak doesn't seem to end and with a few lucky wins along with it, we somewhow manage to end on that 4th place, go into the playoffs and shock the world by gaining promotion to the Second Division!

Highlight of the season: Aside from the promotion? Making a solid €50k profit a month and managing to sell my top striker to Motherwell for the unbelieveable price of €1 million, taking us out of receivership. Only half a million debt to go and hopefully next season we'll be cleared!

Season Three: Raith Rovers
With renewed confidence and a few additions to the squad, the season in the Second Division begins with a league win and an immediate exit in the League Cup, loosing 1-0 to Livingston after overtime. The Challenge Cup seems to be more our thing and we manage to get to the final, in the process eliminating 3 1st Division sides, before beating reigning Cup holders Partick Thistle in the Final. Another trophy and the fans & board are delighted!
The rest of the season is spent mid-table, not loosing track of the promotion contenders and finishing the season in 3rd place. Off we go to another promotion playoff! After beating odds-on favourite Queen of the South in the Semi Final by drawing 0-0 and winning 2-0, it's yet another Playoff Final and once again Partick Thistle is trying to stop us. They wouldn't get very far, as we humiliate them at their ground by beating them 4-0, following it up with a 3-2 loss at home. First Division, here we come!

And with our debt cleared due to the succesfull season, maybe we can actually buy some players next season, YAY!

League Position:
3rd W20 L8 D8

Cups:
League Cup: 1st Round (0-1 ae vs Livingston)
Challenge Cup: Winners (3-2 vs Partick Thistle)
Scottish Cup: 3rd Round (0-2 vs Stirling)

retired_dandadub

KUTGW

retired_mandyrae30

:thdn:

retired_workoutman

:thdn: </BLOCKQUOTE>
What's so wrong with that? Besides, I can't find a rule that would prevent me for doin that... right?

retired_dfhern

I guess you are right. It's not in the rules or guidelines.

But it's just not realistic.

That's what this is all about, realism.

Therefore I would always go for masked attributes.

retired_mandyrae30

LLM is about playing the game as realistic as possible. Real managers do not have all the statistical information related to players available to them instantly, hence scouting and why we scout players at least 3 times before considering signing to discover their abilities (or lack of ability!).

Perhaps a mod could confirm why having 'turn attribute masking on' is not in our rules and guidelines.

retired_angeliwuoma

I'm with the others on this one, attribute masking should be left on.

I'm also sure it has been mentioned/discussed before, may be another forum though.

retired_pmetzger1

I'm guessing none of the zealots would clear Fog of War, Max. I guess it's so ingrained that it got overlooked for the rules.

retired_corbettk4

Yep, I am with mkus too.
However, nice save, and welcome o LLM.

retired_workoutman

I apologise then for turning the attribute masking off But does this make my story non-LLM? I didn't really think about it until now. Cheers for the heads-up though, will remember it from now on

Update could very well be in less then a week or so, I'm finding myself clinged to this save and leaving my Xbox360, Wii, DS and other PC games collecting dust