Hattrick 6.5 New match tactics
The following contents are based on official Hattrick documents and/or official statements — which usually means they should be trustworthy.
This is a separate document released as appendix with the Hattrick 6.5 documentation.
New match tactics
You are now able to use the new match tactics options. (Until the start of Season 21 in November 2003, they are only available for friendlies). There are five options, but the "Normal" option is not described below as it just means that everything works as before.
There are a few things in common for all tactics: When the game starts, there will be a note in the match report for each team indicating if they use a tactic ("Normal" is not reported - it is the default).
You use the regular order form to choose tactics. Please note that it is not possible to set a default tactic - if you don't specify a tactic for a particular match, "Normal" will be used.
Pressing
The "Pressing" tactic means that all of your players try to put pressure on their opponents and they also put slightly more weight into preventing their opponents from building up an attack than trying to build something themselves. The result is that the total number of potential chances in the game is reduced. This may, obviously, affect your own ability to create chances as well. Typically you will want to use this tactic as part of a strategy to go for a 0-0 draw and/or against a team with much better midfield.
The disadvantage of this tactic is that your players will consume their stamina faster than normal.
Two things can greatly increase your chances at successfully reducing the number of attacks in the game: The total defence skill of all your players (including forwards!). If a player has the "Powerful" specialty, his defence skill counts as double for this purpose.
Also, stamina is taken into account for each player when calculating the "pressing skill", so the more tired your players get, the less able they are to put pressure on their opponents. As always, a player with excellent stamina (or better) has sufficient stamina not to lose any of his skills during the game (at least not out of tiredness). When calculating this "Pressing" skill, an experience bonus is added for each involved player, as normal.
Whenever a potential chance is foiled by one of the teams using the Pressing tactic, this is reported in the match report. You will never find out which team could have gotten a chance, because one of the teams spoiled the fun for the fans by their tactics of playing for a nil-all draw... ;)
It is perfectly possible for both teams to play Pressing. The effect on reducing the number of potential chances is cumulative and on average, the number of "lost opportunities" is doubled.
Please note that neither this tactic nor any other affects injuries in any way whatsoever.
Counter-attacks
When your opponent fails to score on an attack, you get a chance to launch a counter-attack. Only one of the teams can use this benefit - namely the team that is not dominating the midfield. If you dominate the midfield, then you will just suffer the disadvantage (see below) of this tactic.
On the other hand, this tactic can be very useful if you have a strong defence and a good attack but your midfield is bad, especially if your opponent has the opposite situation (a good midfield and ineffective attack is a sure way to give your opponent a lot of missed chances from which to counter-attack)
The disadvantage of this tactic is that you lose 10% of your midfield capacity.
Your ability to counter-attack (assuming you are not dominating the midfield, as described above) depends on the total sum of Defender skill and Passing skill among the defenders of your team. Strictly speaking, defenders count, so if you play 5-4-1, you will have the defender and passing skills of 5 of your players added to your counter-attack ability.
Passing skill is twice as important as defender skill when calculating your counter-attack ability!
When calculating this "counter-attack skill", an experience bonus is added for each involved player, as normal.
If you manage to launch a counter-attack, it is reported as either a missed chance or a goal.
Attack in the Middle
When using AIM (I suppose this acronym is inevitable...), your team attempts to make more of your attacks happen through the middle, at the expense of attacks on the wings. Differently put, you trade attacks on the wings for attacks through the middle. You do get a 1:1 "exchange ratio", so no attacks are lost in the process or anything like that.
The disadvantage of this tactic is that your defence on the wings gets somewhat worse.
Your ability to turn wing attacks into attacks through the middle is affected by the total passing skill of all your players (only the keeper is excluded in the summing up of passing skill). When calculating this "AIM skill", an experience bonus is added for each involved player, as normal.
With an exceptional AIM skill, you will get something like 40% more attacks (to qualify for "exceptional", more is required in a game between two top teams than in a Division IV fixture - the same "relative" level is taken into account for the other tactic types as well). At a minimum you are guaranteed to get 20% more attack through the middle. Depending on your AIM skill, you will end up somewhere in between these two extremes.
The AIM tactic is not reported with events like counter-attacks and "missed opportunities" are for the tactics above. The only indication on AIM is the initial event stating that the team uses it. It then keeps adding a modifier throughout the game.
Attack on Wings
This works practically identically to AIM, except that it turns more of your attacks into attacks on the wings, instead of the other way around.
The disadvantage is that it weakens your central defence.
