Inspired from The SLH Beginners Handbook from chinook@gator

Like I told you in my review tactic and advance tactic are pretty essential to set-up. We are going to go in a in deep analysis.

TACTICS:

vs Referees

Here the best way to play the refs

Patty Wagon – Normal (Pansy if losing late on)

 
Jon Bon Phyre – Normal (Pansy if losing late on)
Colin Fairgame – Normal or Mean
Seymour Clearly – Mean (Never Psycho) (Normal if losing late on)
Stan Trial – Normal (Pansy if losing late on)
(Note: I usally got Pansy against this ref)

Ed Jucashun – Normal (Pansy if losing late on)

Stan Dupcomic – Psycho

Note that has been serious debate over the moves to Pansy late on the forum.
Some swear by it, others would never do it.

Remember – These settings are not absolutes. Some refs may decide to call penalties or give out bans even when you set your aggression to normal depending on your players physical style and your opponents settings.

Playling style vs Ice Conditions

Fast Ice – European works best. (Can also use Possession)

Normal Ice – Possession works best. But you can use any tactic that is your teams strength.
Surface Water – D+C (Late game change to European if losing)
Slush – D+C works best. (After 30 mins use possession if your team is fit, but this has also been debated))

Poor Ice – Possession only (if your team is unfit change to D&C after about 40mins)

Instruction

If teams are evenly matched then the tactics decide the game usually. If you have a team with much weaker attributes than they usually do not apply, and your team will lose regardless of which tactics are used. Although, having the tactical edge will make the final score closer than if you didn’t.

Defense beats Counter Attack
Counter Attack beats Attack
Attack beats Defense

Setting up the same tactics as your opponent doesn’t give a edge to any player.

Also of note, when setting tactics is how much time a line will play based on which tactic you select.
Attacking……… Line 1 will play the most (Approximatly 50%)
Defensive……… Line 2 will play the most
Counter Attack.. Line 3 will play the most
So if, for example, you select DEFENSIVE in the tactics page, then you may want your best players on line 2…
Note on setting up tactics versus the psycho aggression level:
Using Counter Attack (unless the ref is Dupcomic) seems to result in more injuries than the other two tactics.

Setting Up For The Game

Scouting (AKA checking the recap)

Go in the schedule of our opponent (click on him first then schedule)

Check some report of his team, the recap part is more important, that where you see when he change tactic.

You see ? When trailing after 12 minutes the Wanderers switched from counter attack to attacking. I might be a good idea to switch to counter if we are leading against them in the advance tactics.

It’s very important for all managers to take a look at their opponents before each game. This is very important against tough teams. You need to go into the team you are playing Schedule. Check back over several games. Try and find tendencies in your opponent.

Read the recaps, and check when he changing instruction particularly, even if you have a weak team vs a strong team if you always have the right counter tactic you can win games.

Try and look at several games where he lost and the same when he won. From this you can see what he does if he goes behind and how he changes things as well as what he does when he is in the lead. If you cant remember it all use a scrap piece of paper or notepad. This will win you games as if you are playing someone predictable you can blast him off the ice 9 times out of 10.

Advanced Tactics

Your opponent can see which tactics you selected, but he cannot see your ADVANCED TACTICS. Like I said previously, this is where you can set your tactics to change depending on what’s happening in the game. For example, switch strategies if losing after the 2nd period or switch goalies or switch aggression levels…

What I usually like to do is to set up one set of tactics (which they can see) and then set my advanced tactics (which they CAN’T see) to something else for the very start to try and fool them….
If you think another manager might do this, you can prevent this by reading their recaps.
If your opponent always plays Counter attack for example but never changes if he is winning or losing, make sure you account for this being the first time he does change, then switch your team in the advance tactic too defence. Note: You can come stuck as not everyone will play the way you expect them to.

Hope you liked that guide, part 2 and 3 cooking 🙂