Товариство » Hattrick Press

Starting out with Hattrick

Автор spanac777

Welcome to the Hattrick world! You’ve just received your team, and you’re probably asking yourself “What next? How do I play this game? When is the next match? Should I increase the stadium size? Who should be my team’s goalkeeper? These players are all no-names, where’s the likes of Maradona, Van Basten, Gheorghe Hagi? How should I prepare the match?”

Anyway, before jumping right into the pool, let’s check the water temperature first and start with some warming up! Take your time, this is only your first day in Hattrick, there’s people around here with as much as 15 years in this game, most of whom have done a ton of mistakes in their first days/weeks – now is your chance to learn from their experience and from their mistakes and, as time goes by, you may as well achieve better results than they had.

You’ve read the game rules and possibly a beginner’s guide to Hattrick, you’ve chosen perhaps one or more CHPP assistant tools and you’ve grown somewhat accustomed to Hattrick’s web interface – having accomplished all these, you’re anxious now to deep dive into the actual game.
So, what are those main aspects you should focus on?

Прихований текст. Натисніть тут для перегляду

Economy is a very important factor in Hattrick, same as in your everyday life. As a newcomer to Hattrick you must be aware that the team you’re managing plays in the lowest division, your squad is weak (to say the least), you’re short on cash and you only have some limited knowledge on how to play the game effectively. In about 1-2 seasons you’ll have a lot more knowledge on the game and on the game’s economy, you’ll know what training plan to follow etc. However, until you gain that knowledge, it’s best you don’t make that many mistakes, especially since the cash you’re starting with is quite low.

What objectives should you follow for the first two seasons?

- Know the game, understand how to play it effectively
Read the game rules, browse forums, follow helper websites and press articles. Experiment various match formations with your squad, and don’t worry if you’ll be losing some of the early games.

- Maintain a positive cash balance
We’ll cover this in great detail in the chapter below.

- Build up your squad
The players you get in your initial squad are, in general, very weak. You can barely keep 2-3 of them, and that with a bit of luck. So you must enhance your squad with new players for those positions you’ll not be training. A squad of 13-15 players will do for the early stages.
The structure for your squad could be (the player’s main skill between brackets): 1 goalkeeper (goalkeeping), 4-5 defenders (defending), 4-5 inner midfielders (playmaking), 1-2 wingers (winger), 2-3 forwards (scoring/passing).
Stamina is required for all players, so a minimum of passable stamina is advisable and solid stamina would be desirable.
As new players are bought you should fire the players from your initial squad (or sell them, if possible).

- Embarq on a training cycle
The younger your trainees, the faster they train, so 17-18 year olds are the most suitable acquisitions for training. Generally speaking, 17 year olds can be expensive, however the training speed is faster for lower skill levels so you might as well start from an inadequate level on their main skill. The market is packed with such players, and their price is low. We’ll cover this in more detail below.

- Build up your Youth Academy and understand how it works.

Now, some more recommendations on your trainer, stadium and Youth Academy:
- Don’t change your trainer! Not too long ago new teams were starting out with a weak trainer and you had to invest some money in a passable trainer with only wretched leadership, the perfect trainer for new teams. That was cheap and efficient, considering you don’t need high leadership trainers right away, and the training speed is more than enough. The price for such a trainer was around 79.600 Euro, but nowadays all new teams start with a passable trainer. You can therefore safely go ahead with that trainer, no need to change him for now.

- Don’t increase the stadium size! You start with a 12.000 seat stadium. Don’t forget you’re in the very last (or penultimate) division, so you have more than enough seats for now. When it comes to the stadium size, the only advice for beginner players is this: Don’t touch the stadium! Don’t build more seats, don’t tear down seats!

- When it comes to junior players, the price is 5.000 Euros (small investment), 10.000 Euros or 20.000 Euros if you choose to go for the Scouting Network. It’s recommended however that you open a Youth Academy, which comes with a one-time opening fee of 5.000 Euros and subsequently 10.000 Euros/week for your scout.

Initial Economy
Maintaining a positive cash balance is mandatory, as it’s the only way you can keep yourself game. So what weekly expenses are there, and what weekly revenue could you rely on?

Revenue comes from selling match tickets (spectator money), then there’s sponsor money, player sales, received commissions etc. There are also other revenue sources, such as end-of-season prize money depending on your finishing position in the league table. Since you’ll not be making a lot of money from player sales, and even far less from commissions on your former players, you’ll have to do with just spectator money and sponsor money. And now to expenses: there’s stadium maintenance, staff salaries, talent scouter’s salaries and, most importantly, player wages. Adding to that, when need be, there’s the money spent on buying players and the interest rate due when living on borrowed money (i.e. going below zero on your cash balance).

It always helps if you can win some of the early matches, even if it’s just lower division bot teams – this makes for a better understanding of the game as well as for getting the hang of it.
So, for the first two seasons, your squad could be something like this: 17-year-old trainees with a minimum of inadequate on their main ability and, for the remaining positions, you could buy some fairly experienced low-wage old players. You’ll have to spend approximately 100.000 Euros in total for said older players, each having at list solid/excellent for their main ability and at least an inadequate experience level. Their salaries would sum up to no more than 6-7.000 Euro per week. It’s very likely that this investment is money you’ll never see back, but that’s ok, the purpose here is to win some of the matches while you’re training your 17-year-olds.

As for the training plan for the first two seasons, there are several schemes you can choose from, described below. But before that, let’s talk about the technical staff.

Hiring your technical staff
The new staff system, which went live on April 14th 2014, has the big advantage of clearly showing each staff member’s precise contribution. So every manager, even those new to the game, can do their own calculations with accuracy. As a general idea, if training is the main focus, one could give up on the Tactical Coach, Psychologist and Form Coach and would hire only Assistant Coaches and a Medic. What’s certain is that the Financial Director is definitely not needed, as he comes into play only when the team holds more than 20 million Euros in cash.
Furthermore, it must be noted that the number of specialists is limited to 4, each specialist occupying one of the available slots. The only exception is the Assistant Coach – one can chose up to 2 Assistant Coaches, and doing so will obviously take up 2 of the available 4 slots.

Starting with December 15th 2015 staff contracts were introduced. Specialists are now hired on fix-termed contracts ranging between 1 to 16 weeks, with higher costs for shorter-term contracts and vice versa. For instance, a level 4 Assistant Coach will set you back 16.920 Euros/week for a 1-week long contract, and will only cost 8.160 Euros/week if offered a 16-week long engagement.

The (minimum) starting formula I propose for beginner players:
• Two level 4 Assistant Coaches, season-long contracts that will set you back 2 * 8.160 Euros/week
• Level 4 Medic, season-long contract, 8.160 Euros/week
• At least one talent scouter for the Youth Academy
In total, you’ll be spending 34.180 Euros/week on your technical staff.

Now, which training plan to follow?
• Goalkeeping Training: you will buy 2 trainees with inadequate goalkeeping and weak defending, age no more than 17 years and 40 days. Acquisition price should be around 25.000 Euros, and the 2 trainees can be sold for about 6 million Euros (in total) when they’re 19 years old.
• Defending Training: you will buy 10 defenders with passable main skill, maximum age of 17 years and 40 days. Acquisition price should be a maximum of 25.000 Euros (they go about 1000 Euros per player). Profit should be 6-7 million Euros when sold at 19 years of age.
• Playmaking Training: you will buy 6 midfielders with passable playmaking, either with no secondary skills or, alternatively, you can go for inadequate playmaking and inadequate passing (preferred). Price for each should be around 2.000 Euros, which makes for a maximum total of 15.000 Euros. Next, you’ll need 4 more players with passable winger and inadequate playmaking. Price for each should be below 5.000 Euros leading to a maximum total of 20.000 Euros. The grand total acquisition price for your midfielder trainees should be somewhere around 50.000 Euros, and the maximum age should not exceed 17 years and 40 days. The profit should be around 10 million Euros when sold at 19 years of age.
• Crossing (Winger) Training: you’ll need 8 trainees with passable winger, age no more than 17 years and 40 days. Acquisition price should stay below 50.000 Euros in total and the sale profit would be around 8 million Euros at 19 years of age.
• Scoring Training: you’ll need 6 trainees with passable scoring, age no more than 17 years and 40 days, acquisition price somewhere around 25.000 Euros. You’ll be getting around 6 million Euros if sold at 19 years of age.
Note that price & profit figures above may vary slightly as the season progresses.

The balance for the first 2 seasons could look something like this:
New teams start with 300.000 Euros in their account.
Initial expenses – 150.000 Euros
• The squad (all except the trainees): 100.000 Euros
• The trainees: 25.000 – 50.000 Euros

Weekly expenses – 61290 Euros
• Player wages: 10.000 Euros
• Stadium maintenance: 7100 Euros
• Staff: 34.180 Euros (2 level 4 Assistant Coaches, 1 level 4 Medic – all with 16 week contracts)
• Talent scouting: 10.000 Euros

Weekly revenue – 95.000 Euros
• Spectators: 100.000 Euros (every 2 weeks), on average 50.000 Euros/week
• Sponsors: 45.000 Euros

Total season revenue – 80.000 Euros (on average 5000 Euros/week)
• 15.000 Euros (on average) prize money, assuming the team finishes the season no lower than the 4th place
• 15.000 Euros from the yearly fan subscriptions
• 50.000 Euros cup revenue (1 cup round played, on average)

That’s one way of keeping the financial balance in the safe zone for the first two seasons, without worries of going into bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, juniors from the Youth Academy will keep growing, you’ll learn the basic game concepts and rules, to the least, and you’ll also grow to like this game.

At the end of the first two seasons you can sell the players you’ve trained and use the profit for starting a new training plan, one that should yield better performance and, why not, get you into your country 1st Division or the Hattrick Masters.

Managers can opt for any of the strategies above or they can choose to adjust their plans according to the transfer market. For instance, I’ve advised that midfielder trainees should start from a passable playmaking skill, however, if solid players can be found for the same price range and age it’s only natural to opt for the latter. As I keep reminding everyone, I don’t offer full-proof recipes but rather mere advice. It’s best that everybody does their own calculations and plans, that they absorb documentation and ultimately draw their own conclusions as to the right plan.
And, most importantly: don’t jump to conclusions until you’ve gone at least once through the game rules! Yes, it’s a lot of information in there and you’ll need time to fully absorb it, however you’ll see going forward that the game rules will provide answers to many of your questions.

Good luck!

Editor's note:
This article is a translate after (19381), written by Cipone (399620) and published in Hattrick Press Romania two months ago!

If you like the article feel free to click "Like" and/or leave a comment. You can discuss the article on the forum: (16949037.1).

Previous article: To mutually PIC or not to mutually PIC? That is the question! (19393)