Newbie Guide

Newbie Guide

Author: Shiataz (HT-Manager)

So you just received your team and you need to figure out how to play the game. A long-term plan is needed for this game. The first thing you need to do is complete the license. After you finish your license and have your bonus money. You will end up with 250,000 US$ (or your respective currency) to spend on your next few steps, to hire your staff.

Alright you are ready to go, be sure to have fun and keep in mind that Hattrick is a long-term game: it is going to be a long run, not a quick sprint. And remember that the best place to learn things about the game is the Questions forum, so read everything you can.

Training

Now decide which training you will be focusing on. To find out which training regime you will focus on we need to look at the benefits of each of the regimes:

1. Goalkeeping training

   I, personally, view this as the easiest way for a new player to start their game. A manager has the possibility to play with all the formations without hurting their training and because you can only train two players, the start-up costs are lower. Should a new trainer find themselves strapped for money, they can sell a trainee rather quickly (even though it would be premature) after beginning the training because goaltending trains 1 pop (skill level up) every 4-6 weeks (depending on the trainee,coach,stamina/intensity levels). Another reason this is a great starting regime is that goalkeeping skill levels have a very high effect on defense ratings. You could have pitiful defenders but with a good goalkeeper, your defense ratings will be alright.

2. Defending training

   I do not recommend this training for brand new players, but not because it is a bad type of training. Not only do these trainers have great defenses that are hard for opposing teams to break through, but they can also play a tactic that is specifically geared towards their training (Counter-Attacks). The reason I discourage this regime is that it is SLOW. You can train 10 players at once with this and for that reason it takes 7-8+ weeks for each pop. You can expect to make only one or two pops a season. This is slow compared to the other regimes. Not only is it slow, but the start up cost is higher because you need to buy 10 trainees to take full advantage of your training.

3. Playmaking training

   This is another great regime for a new player to start in. About 28% of hattrick trains in this regime. These teams end up with the highest midfield ratings which has a direct correlation to the amount of possession a team recieves. The more possession your team has then the more chances your team will get to score (and the less amount of chances your opponent will have). You would need to buy 6 trainees for this regime.

4. Scoring training

   This is a good training regime that will allow you to end up with good attack ratings from your forwards.

5. Winger training

   This will result in good side attacks from your wingers.

The other training options could be considered secondary skills, which I do not suggest you begin as your training. Like I earlier stated, I suggest Goalkeeping or Playmaking.

Specialsts

You can only have a total of 4 specialists. But you don't need so much of them now. So the staff you hire should look like this:

• 2 Assistant coaches (level 3 or 4 for 16 weeks)
• 0 or 1 Medic (level 3 for 16 weeks)
• 0 Sports psychologist
• 0 Form coach
• 0 Financial director
• 0 Tactical assistant

Assistant Coaches helps in training, which is the only think you need at the moment. you can choose 2 assistants. To save on money, choose them with level 3 (the difference in training speed with level 4 is so small you will almost not notice it, though they will cost you a lot more in wages). The only reason you even get 1 medic is to avoid injuries to trainees and to other non-trainees players. But for the sake of saving money, you will not need to hire him.

Financial director accountants are not needed unless you go -$200,000 in debt or millions in the green. Most teams, even in the higher divisions do not make use of accountants, not only because the amount of money you need in the bank is great, but also that they do not make you very much money at all either way.

Form coach helps to maintain your players in shape. Unfortunately, we do cannot predict the amount of effect these staff members have on that number, so it is generally not recommended to hire them.

You may have noticed you will end up spending between 12 240 and 20 320 US$ on staff EVERY week from now on, unless you fire/hire staff.

Trainees

Now, we have covered everything so far under the "Club" Section. We will move to the transfer list in a little bit, so do not worry about it yet.

Biggest mistake of new players is to try to buy a better team off the start, this is not a smart idea!

Have you bought any players? I hope not. We will buy those now. We want to only have 22 players as a maximum. This will help to keep the wage costs down slightly. To understand which trainees are the right trainees, you must first understand the main concept of what makes a trainee worth money. The younger they are, with the highest skill, the more money they are worth. So a player with solid Playmaking at age 17.03 compared to player with solid Playmaking at age 18.15 will be almost $200,000 more expensive. If you buy a young player (as close to 17.0 as possible) with either passable or solid primary skills, then you will be able to train a player with good profit in the end. Should you have the money later, buying players with side skills also (Passing, Defending, Set Pieces, etc.) will result in higher profits.

The first thing you should do. Go through your team and find the players with the most Solid and Passable skills. Should a player have 3-4 skills of this level, sell him. You might say WTF?! Why sell your best player?! Well the answer is simple. He sucks. Yes he is your best player, but he sucks. He is most likely over 25 with those skills, low experience, and as a result worth nothing to your team. He is worth something to someone else, that does not know what they are doing, and will pay some good money for him. If you click transfer compare, he should be worth an average of almost $100k. If he isn't, then go through the rest of your team and find the one person that is (there should normally be one). Sell that guy, if you have none that are worth that much, then sell the one worth the most. This will give you the money you need for trainees.

To goalkeeping trainers, if you fall into this group, buy 1 passable goalkeeping 18.0-18.25 yr old and 1 solid goalkeeping 17.75-18.0 yr old. If you want to, you can sell both of these when they reach outstanding in goalkeeping for about $2 million and buy much better trainees. The best time to sell goalkeep trainees is at Supernatural (SN)(14) or Titanic (T)(15) and as young as possible.

To Playmaking trainers, if you fall into this group, buy 6 trainees. You should buy mono-skilled Playmaking trainees that have passable or solid Playmaking skill. You want them to be as close to 17.0 years old as possible and not higher than 18.25 years old. KEEP IN MIND that you have to buy 6 trainees, this means you need to watch how much money you are spending on trainees. Should you not buy 6 trainees and only buy 5, then you just lost some $2+ million later down the road. Train these guys until Brillant(B)(11) to Supernatural(SN)(14).

These are the only two training regimes that I really suggest for a new manager. You can do the others but I do not know exactly what you should buy or do for them. These are what I know. Moving on.

Match Orders

Go to matches and I want you to set the match orders for your first League match. Pick the line-up you want. Whether you are playing as a Goalkeeping trainer or a Playmaking trainer, I suggest playing a 3-5-2 lineup. This means, set one central defender to extra inner midfielder. Put 3 of your best trainees as the inner midfielders. When you set up a friendly match, put your other 3 trainees as inner midfielders in that game. This way, each of your trainees play ONE game a week and are able to get the training. If you are a goalkeeping trainer, put one trainee in league games and one in friendlies (as keepers of course).

Lastly, you should have changed your training to whichever regime you are doing (Playmaking, Goalkeeping, etc.). If not, do this now. Set the training intensity to 100% (This is non-negotiable. Some people say this increases the chance of injury, and it might. Only thing is, I have never noticed the effect and this way you get the most of your training.) Set the stamina share to 13%, you can make this anywhere from 10%-15% but anything higher than 15% is too high. Truthfully, 13% might be too high but if you have older players, then 13% is good for them. If you do not have these older players (as in 27+) then go ahead with 15-20%.

Mistakes to avoid

Youth Academy

The last big mistake of a new manager is opening a youth academy.

Do not start youth academy from the beginning. It costs money and until you truly understand the game, you will not do well in this. Try to keep about 10-20k in the bank at all times, just to be safe.

Arena

Another big mistake of new managers is upgrading the arena permaturely. DO NOT DO THIS.

You will not need to upgrade your arena until you are selling out about 3 games in a row. When this happens upgrade the arena with the arenasizer tools you can find.You can use Hattrick Manager or Hattrick Organizer, both of which have many useful tools implemented into them.

Under the Fans tab you can see your fan's mood. You really do not need to worry about this too much at this point but just so you know. If your fans are happy, you receive more money from attendance.

Coach

The coach you have currently is not so bad. The type of trainer will help your ratings slightly. A defensive coach helps defense ratings, offensive coach helps attack ratings (neither helps less of both).

You don't need to do it, but you can change your coach anytime. You can externally change your coach from the training tab. Pick poor leadership.Your coach should be of a passable trainer skill with poor leadership. A passable coach will do an alright job at training without breaking the bank. Do not hire a coach worse than passable, as that will be a waste of money.