retired_jleb04

Lower League Watch.

I didn't realise LLM is now a spectator sport!

martinnn

Me too.

To my knowledge there has never been a clear, consensus LLaMa guideline on this issue, as there has been with scouting, for example. My rule is that I stick to default formations as long as I have 11 players. If I have fewer I'm allowed to be creative as long as it's symmetrical and the left-wing and right-wing columns have at least one player in them.

This despite the fact that computer-managed teams in FM 08, when down a goal late in the day, will almost always go to a non-default tactic that seems to work pretty well for them. You know the one I mean. I wouldn't think it un-LLaMa to use non-default formations that have been used against you. I'd just rather not fiddle with it myself.

creative36

I go with whatever seems to work for me. I'm fairly conservative with my tactics anyway, so it's unlikely to be anything remarkable unless I've somehow found an incredible player who doesn't fit into my default set up.

As for super tactics, what you don't know can't hurt you. As with the others, if you don't go looking for the information, be happy if you stumble across anything that works for you.

retired_corbettk4

I think Ian was the conservative one - where tactics are concerned...

Uknowmehfo

As stated by others, what's known as supertactics in other parts of SI forums are usually tactics exploiting a flaw in the match engine.

That being said, I've found each iteration of the game favours a given formation. In the beginnning it was unreal, flawexploiting ones, but since the FM rebranding it's been more a case of following the trend of what's working in RL footie and trying to apply it to the match engine.

As for the late attacking tactic used by the AI when it 'needs' to win or draw a match, I wouldn't call it unrealistic at all. Watch a footie match, watch the last 10 minutes of an even match and you'll see that formation used a lot of times and even the more unbalanced version in which a legshatterer joins the attack for the injury time period.

There's ways to prevent your lads being overwhelmed, and quite logical ones I must add which involve a certain grasp of the 'hang on to a lead in the dying minutes' concept.

hth,
Jordi.

martinnn

Oh, I know it's realistic, Jordi. It's just not default.

Had a beaut tonight on the same lines. Leading 2-nil, other team dominating late, they finally pull one back in the 95th minute -- stoppage time added to stoppage time -- and it's disallowed. I'm asked afterward about their kvetching because they claim that the decision was wrong and affected the outcome.

I opted for the "they're just bitter" response.

retired_dvrsecuritylab

From what I've gathered from colleagues at FMB and from the Beta test of FM Live, the current iteration of the FM engine (i.e. FM08 and to FM07 to an extent too) allows varying degrees of engine exploits through unrealistic and/or contradictory (with regards individual instructions) use of the arrows on the tactics screen.

This doesn't mean you will necessarily win all the time, but things like having 60% possession with loads of shots on goal and still not winning can occur without any apparent logical reason - i.e. it confuses the engine resulting in skewed and illogical feedback to the player about what they might be doing wrong/right.

If you use arrows in any but the simplest ways, chances are you may be inadvertently exploiting an engine flaw... (moral: keep it simple stupid).

FM Live has seen a number of engine changes to plug up these exploits, the results of which we should see in the FM09 engine.

martinnn

I don't touch the freakin' arrows. If they're there in the default, there they are.

Keith, you make the match engine sound like an evil robot in old low-budget sci-fi flick. "Information ... is ... contradictory ... Does ... not ... compute ..." (smoke billows from machine)

retired_dvrsecuritylab

Probably because I've watched waaaay too many movies like that.

retired_ash5560

But... but... without those arrows my players won't know which goal to <STRIKE>run to </STRIKE> <STRIKE>walk to</STRIKE> face!