In your opinion, where's the hardest starting point and why?

[will_the_canuck]

Okay. To clarify the question, as the subject line can only take so many characters, I wanted to ask you, in your opinion, what would be the hardest Continent/Country/Division to start off in? And why do you think so?

Myself, starting off at the bottom and working my way up is part of the challenge. It could be too easy to start in the top division and work on it to win everything. It isn't as much of a challenge as starting off at the bottom I think. Now as I have only been playing a few months, I've only played really two teams: UCLA in South America/Venezuela/Segunda Division and Youth U in Australia/Aus_Victoria/Provincial 3rd Division NW. And from my limited exposure to the game, I would say the Youth U game was the harder of the two and actually would be quite a challenge to a lot of people I might guess. Or at least it will drive people as mad as I was when playing, since it is challenging enough and makes you think for sure.

So my current nomination for a very hard starting position would be in the Continent of Australia, the Country of Aus_Victoria, and the Division of either Provincial 3rd Division NW or SE. And here's why I think so. In the Aus_Victoria country, there are 7 tiers of the football teams. They are Premiership, Division 1, Division 2 NW and Division 2 SE, Division 3 NW and Division 3 SE, Provincial Division 1 NW and Provincial Division 1 SE, Provincial Division 2 NW and Provincial Division 2 SE, and lastly Provincial Division 3 NW and Provincial Division 3 SE. When you see that there are 7 tiers, you may not think anything of it. But really, there isn't that much about it. The real nitty gritty is in the details. For starters, I decided to create a new game from a team in the Provincial Division 3 NW division, Hallam. The average skill of the NW division was 25.8, for 12 teams. The average skill of the SE division was 26.1, for 11 teams. The average skill at the start for Hallam in the NW division was 25.3. The capacity of the stadium was 900, with admission costs of $25. And the average skill for the Premiership would be about double that of the Provincial Division 3 NW/SE divisions. So, how is it looking now? In addition, when I played my Youth U team, the attendance never really got too high, even when I lowered the admission costs down to $20 to $23. It wasn't until the Division 2 that admission got up to 5,000 or so, with Division 1 getting up to 10,000+, although it never got up to 12,000 if i recall, when having admission costs of $22. As for the Premiership division, I have yet to play that round as I am just starting it for the first time, so I'll have to wait and see what the attendance is like, but for the time being, the game has been challenging and it took me 18 complete seasons to get up to the Premiership division. If I were to replay it, I might be able to knock off a season or two, from tips I learned and all, but I might try another Continent and Country afterwards.

Of note for Australia/Aus_Victoria, they do have a country wide league cup that all teams can compete in, but to win, you usually have to be part of the top or second top division with a really good team to win. Myself, I've never won in my 18 seasons playing but I'll see if that can change any. And as for winning the Premiership division, I don't know what happens after that, if anything. Additional points are that there are 12 teams per division, except for the Premiership which has 14 teams and the Provincial Division 3 SE, which has 11 teams instead of the normal 12. You play each team in your division twice with no breaks, so most action goes from Week 1 to Week 24, with the year ending after week 28, for which the league cup is finished and a winner is decided. The transfer list is available from Week 1 to Week 21, who selecting and picking someone is last available in Week 20.

So, I think that is it for now. Do you think my selection would be difficult to play? Do you know of a harder position to start at? Let me know your thoughts and share your fun challenges too. I might end up trying your suggestion if they are good enough.

[will_the_canuck]

Hello again.

Since my last post on this subject, I've played a team from Japan, the USA, England, and even Peru, which I thought was rather interesting and would likely be as difficult, considering the play in Peru. But now I'm trying a different approach from England and Japan and trying a team from the second tier of Andorra, from Europe. So now my second thought on a hard starting point would be a team from Andorra in the Second Tier on the continent of Europe, and here's why.

When you are playing a club team in Europe, you get to play for the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League, and if you win the UEFA Champions League, you get to play for the Intercontinental Cup, which is now known as the FIFA Club World Cup. In the definition files for the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League, there is a property setting of "league_talents". Now when you are playing a strong country like England or Spain or Germany, where their top tier league has an average_talent value of 8000+, the "league_talents" property wouldn't make a big difference since you are basically at the top of the heap anyways. WIth Andorra, as well as a few other countries, their top tiers don't even hit a value of 6000 for their average_talent. And when you make it to the UEFA Cup or UEFA Champions League, you could face teams with average skill values of 70 to 80+. Now that is one obstacle that is hard to beat. But for some perspective, the countries I'm referring to are as follows, with their respective average_talent values:

1) Andorra: tier 1 - 5300; tier 2 - 4800 (2 tiers)
2) Estonia: tier 1 - 5900; tier 4 - 4300 (4 tiers)
3) Faroe Islands: tier 1 - 5500; tier 3 - 4500 (3 tiers)
4) Luxembourg: tier 1 - 5700; tier 3 - 4700 (3 tiers)

So with my case for Andorra, you start off in tier 2 with an average_talent of 4800 for the division, of which there are only 7 teams, and if you get to tier 1, the average_talent factor is 5300, of which there are only 8 teams. Now compare that to a team with an average skill of 70 to 80+ and you see the very large hill you have to climb to actually win something like UEFA Cup or even UEFA Champions League. Whether or not it is possible, I don't know but the game I'm playing now, I'm actually in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and I won the first game but there's one last game to go and then the finals. Now whether or not I can win it, I don't know, but it truly isn't easy.

Winning the national cup and winning the tier 1 division are possible but beyond that, it is a very large hill to climb, although I'm trying. And although I built my team up to a very good skill level right now, attendance is very terrible and being able to actually afford a good team to challenge for the UEFA Champions League is making me wonder. My average attendance for the year so far, with only one home date left in the regular season and at least one play-off game, has only been less than 15,000. The finances make it hard but if you can succeed, then you are truly a grand player for sure. If I were to try my 50 percent youth academy investment trick, it might work, but I'm playing it fair and keeping it at 25 percent for now.

So for now, this is my nomination for another hard place to start for obvious reasons. If you try any of the 4 countries I listed and can actually win it all, good for you. I'd love to hear about it. And on that note, I'll say good bye for now.

will_the_canuck