Whatever game I am in to at the mo I feel compelled to start a thread about it. My tastes lately have moved away from traditional sims, I've even put aside Falcon for the time being. The past year or so has been mostly RPGs and strategy games. And now I've come back to FM, after not having played in a few years. The last version I bought was FM13, though my saves go on so long that I was still playing it in 2015.
A few weeks ago I picked up FM18, and FM 18 Touch, which is FM, but without much of the extraneous interaction like press conferences, squad dynamics and so on, with the focus squarely on squad building and match tactics. FM has changed considerably since I last played, many new features, and I am really enjoying it again. My first save was on Touch as Wolves. Gained promotion at the first time of asking, and managed to win the Premier League title on the final day of season number three, but did go out of the Champion's Leagues quarterfinals on penalties to Real Madrid. Touch does not feature tactical familiarity, so you can instantly judge the effectiveness of any tactical tweak. I found it excellent for helping me come to grips with the new match engine. It's a refreshing version of FM and perfect for anyone who wants to play but is put off by some of the minutiae of the series.
But having reached the top so quickly, I decided to restart in the full fat version, with a team of decidedly lower means, In the end I chose the League Two juggernaut Port Vale, and have started rather brightly, sitting second after 10 matches. To give you an idea of how much there is to do, of the depth here....I spent about 10 hours playing before the first ball was kicked in preseason. On a shoestring budget, squad building is all about finding free transfers and loans. And it takes a long time to scour the market and the leagues! And then you have to sort your staff, hire and fire,and assign duties, sort out your scouting assignments, establish team and individual training routines, create and drill your tactics, deal with contracts and the board, manage personalities, and well, manage a football team
This probably isn't the sort of game folks around here are in to, but there must be a few of you lot. Who are you managing? Which version of FM? How's the career going?
