Scouting in EHM EA and how to use

[batdad]

Not really sure this needs a topic, but please again do not PM me and ask general questions about the game. If you have a question, find a place to put it and then you get everyoe's answer not just mine.

Received this last night or this morning.

I was hoping to find a thread for this but my search didn't really take me to anywhere I felt appropriate. One of the areas of the game I'm looking to really improve at is scouting and you seem to be the expert on it as your posts in various threads highlight. I have taken on board a lot of what you have said there to try and improve my scouting success but I have a few extra questions I was hoping you'd be able to help with.
1) When scouting for a draft do you have one scout doing the "Draft Scouting" option and then pick the players that interest you for more specific scouting or do you just identify individuals and scout them with an eye on drafting them?
2) How would you go about scouting an area like the KHL or SEL for example? Would you do a general scouting trip to establish players of interest and then scout them directly again?
3) I noticed that you say you get the best reports by scouting players individually, do you know if that level of depth comes if you have scouts assigned to your shortlist as well or is it only if you send a scout to watch a player directly?

Thank you for any reply, I apologise if there was a better way/place for me to have asked this but i was really hoping to just pick your brain on the topic!

Several means of scouting, but here are my answers and I am sure others have more to say.

1. Yes...I do pick alot and re scout and re scout. I usually do that from scouting the teams in the CHL though, and having my Euro guys scout Euro specific players when they show up in the draft. But first I scout their team. Takes less time and scouting resources. THen if still want more...scout the individual player.

2. Scout the teams...then player if interested.

3. No...direct only.

[CeeBee]

When I scout the NHL draft I put every scout on the draft in March except the advance scout(opposition) I put them all on intensive and when the draft starts I get every scout and all the coaches opinions on each pick. Thats over 20 scouts+coaches and many times there is no consensus on a pick. Might be 2 or 3 players that get recommended the most. Then I go over the recommended players scouting reports and make the decision to pick one of the 3 or in some cases a player I like better than them. Works most of the time and keeps the duds to a minimum for me anyway.

[batdad]

Yes I do that as well.

[Kopi]

Ok just wondering how you scout if you manage in Europe in small leagues like UK etc...Do you start scouting ECHL and AHL...CHL as well? just wondering your strategy of scouting if you are not in NHL or top Euro league...

[batdad]

Have not played in Europe for some time, so not really able to answer that right now. Sorry.

[saberhagen83]

How much can you trust your scouts in this game though? And is there some attibute (hidden or not) apart from judging potential/ability that can make him do bad predictions?

I just started a "test save" playing with Nashville. I have a goalie playing in the Finnish league and he looks set for a backup role already. Plan is to sign him up during the off-season and have him in my AHL team for a year untill my current backup contract expires. He should be good to be a starter at least, probably not elite though. 2 of my scouts that have watched him agree with me, but I'm having a dissagrement with my "best scout" (20/20 for ability/potential). He claims him to be at best a depth player. I take that to be like 3rd choice and with a little luck backup.

Closing in on playoff times, draft scouting is ongoing. Knowledge from my Florida save is that Konecny never becomes good enough, his technical attributes never really get to the green even. My best scout still ranks him very high though. Would a player like Konecny be good in the NHL, with low-ish technical skills, but mid to high mental and physical? I never reall gave him a chance in Florida cause of this, but maybe I'm wrong to think a player would never be good even on the 4th line with so low technical skills.

I was thinking some extra scouting would change some of the scouts thoughts on players, but he seem to stick to his guns.

[batdad]

Not sure if a hidden attribute, but they are not perfect that is for sure. Which is a good thing, as we can see from today's NHL draft. Lots of boom/bust attempts this year. But yeah even the top level 20/20 superb, etc scouts make mistakes. Just the way it is. Overall picture is more important than the other. How did that scout look at him? Individual scouting? Team scout? Draft scout? Etc .. just find them scouting others? Need to be sure in how they are scouted and if they saw an actual game or not to know the accuracy level of what the scout saw in him. If saw an actual game the game stats will appear in the notes section of the scout report. If not there, not scouted enough.

[Asher413]

Ok just wondering how you scout if you manage in Europe in small leagues like UK etc...Do you start scouting ECHL and AHL...CHL as well? just wondering your strategy of scouting if you are not in NHL or top Euro league...

I'm playing Finland 3 (now 2), and I think the key is to see what kind of folks are realistic targets (from the player search), especially in the first off-season you can see which guys sign, where did they play last? In Finland 3, I can do some college guys, but no one who played above LNAH would consider it. Hopefully that helps!

[saberhagen83]

Not sure if a hidden attribute, but they are not perfect that is for sure. Which is a good thing, as we can see from today's NHL draft. Lots of boom/bust attempts this year. But yeah even the top level 20/20 superb, etc scouts make mistakes. Just the way it is. Overall picture is more important than the other. How did that scout look at him? Individual scouting? Team scout? Draft scout? Etc .. just find them scouting others? Need to be sure in how they are scouted and if they saw an actual game or not to know the accuracy level of what the scout saw in him. If saw an actual game the game stats will appear in the notes section of the scout report. If not there, not scouted enough.

That's true, and I guess it gives us a reason to have a look as well. When it comes to the goalie, I had my scout watch him a few times during the season, I belive he saw 2 or 3 games of him. Usually I send a scout or two to check in on a player that intrest me a lot and might plug a hole in a team need. But my best scout did come up with, what looks like, some brilliant picks for me during the draft in the later rounds. So I won't be too hard on the guy. I can always assume goalie isn't really his forte. 2 of 3 scouts still say he will come good, worth the chance I think.

[lemming3k]

You should be careful with the 'like xxx player' statements as they change. I had 4 scouts on 2 players tell me they were 'like sidney crosby' (my ass), and once drafted they both changed to something a lot more realistic.
Of course on the other hand I had one guy jump to being like Kapanen! Not sure if they'll change now they're on my team though.

[milanhejduk]

Hi all

When are you starting to send your scouts for the nhl draft? February? May?

I cannot see the scout ratings on this screen: http://i.imgur.com/ZKVXnoA.png . What should I do to see the ratings?

Thanks

[Kobrakay]

Hi there.

I usually start sending my scouts out as soon as the season starts. It is important to have the scouts watch the players several times to get a more accurate reading on their actual value and potential. I usually have my main scouts rotate for several leagues and/or regions but they will always do two runs of "NHL entry draft" on intensive in different times of the year (for instance my best scout starts and ends the season on that search, the second best scouts starts in OHL then goes there, etc).

Regarding the scouting rankings, if I'm recognizing that screen, I believe you have to assign a scout to each role. You don't see any evaluations because we have not assigned scout X to position 1, scout Y to position 2 etc.

Hope this helps

EDIT: I find that that screen has a problem in that it will only reflect the state of the current search for the scout. So if you have a scout on a new assignment his prior observations will be clean from his scout page (although in the player page his report is still there of course). As such, in the screen in your link, only if you have players the scout has actually seen in his current assignment will you get the starts for that player from that scout. I think this is a poor implementation of the screen as it loses a lot of its usefulness unless you have one scout specialized in each league/region and scout specialized in the "entry draft" assignment. I usually have them rotating because I like reading the scout reports and watch the report cards given by each scout (the part with the "A";"B";"C";etc ranking) in order to have a broader perspective on the prospect's value.

[PForsberg21]

Bringing back this old thread... I've just starting playing EHM:EA... I've used to play a lot the original EHM which had bugs into scouting. Anyway not the point here. What I am wondering is if I rescout a player multiple times (as stated above)... will I lose the previous scouting from the same scout. If yes. What's the point to rescouting. What tells me that my last scouting would be more accurate than the previous one?

[Kobrakay]

Bringing back this old thread... I've just starting playing EHM:EA... I've used to play a lot the original EHM which had bugs into scouting. Anyway not the point here. What I am wondering is if I rescout a player multiple times (as stated above)... will I lose the previous scouting from the same scout. If yes. What's the point to rescouting. What tells me that my last scouting would be more accurate than the previous one?

The response I gave above, specially regarding the "losing the previous info" part was directed at a very specific table used during the draft.

During the rest of the year, the more your scout watches a player, the more accurate his evaluation will be (at least in theory).

Edit: Just as an example...if my scouts give completely different evaluations to one player and the observations were not simultaneous, I try to get as much scouting on that player as possible (on separate occasions by separate scouts) and if the scouts are roughly the same value, the more they scout, the closer their evaluations of that player will be. I might have some confirmation bias but at least this is what it looks to me that is happening.