EHM The Blue Line

Ah, so you combine many sources like attributes, stats, form, scout reports and so on to decide? I think I played the game with not enough care for its depth ... what would at least explain the extreme difference in the last challenge between your stats and mine

Quote:
Originally Posted by gmerger37 View Post

I try switching up the lines and switching up the tactics. Pretend that the opposition has "read the book" on your team and has figured out a way to solve your plan of attack. Switching it up (whether it's all in my head or has an actual affect) seems to do the trick.

RIZ:

The AI managers/coaches keep note of how different tactics stack against other tactics, so over a longer period of time they can actually catch up to your tactics and find ways to exploit the weaknesses better.

Important refresher and for the new people to the game. Riz is the developer at SI< and this quote is pulled over from HF Boards for you to see.

Right, iv read through loads of threads on here, read up on the rules, formations, tactics, and read up on the terminology of the game to suss this baby out. And i think im doing ok.
Im washington capitals. Im top of the league, the main league, so top of conference etc.
Im scoring tons of goals, lost 4/5 all season and im now in march of season 1
I tweak tactics styles and lines a lot, most games, during games as well. I vary each line to keep it varied. Line 1 is my all out attack fast n furious line. Johannson Backstrom Ovechkin are the forwards. They stay as a 3 all the time. They are unbelievable. Free flow criss cross heavy passing heavy shooting and all out fast pace. Line 2 is glencross letestu fehr, this i vary on style n set up and only recently acquired letestu, atm through looking at attributes, positional breakout is best crisscross again due to these 3 being quick and able to pass. Line 3 is the kids, burakovsky jenner komarov. Big checking line, with good speed and passing skills. Got these boys hitting hard passing hard n fast.
Generally, iv found a forecheck of positional low is as good as any. Makes sense to let the players drop back and defend deep than dive in high up. Stops break aways and gives your team chance to sort themselves out. Faceoffs are always point shot, tees up an instant shot or pass. I vary the OZ set up but overload slot seems best. PP lines i have 5 forwards in the line. SH lines are all DM.
Gap control is tight if my defenders are quick with good positional and pokecheck ratings, looser if not so good. Attack mentality with high backchecking low to med pressure low to medium hitting, i only get 2/3 penalties against memost matches.
I also tweak personal tactics accordingly.
A big hard dman will be set to hit hard. And so on.
Its a simple game

I should add, personal tactics are all set up for every player according to their attributes. Apart from SH and PP tactics. sh all players are defensive, pp all are attack based

Just be careful how often you switch the tactics and lines. Guys get confused and play poorly if you do it ALL the time. I do not do it all the time, just every once in awhile. Mostly for one game then back to original, in mid season a little more often. I quite often find my teams slump a bit between games 22-30 and games 42-50 and games 62-70 if I play too much with tactics, or if I play too little. Like the three bears of fairy tail lore, there is a way to do it where the porridge is just right.

batdad wrote:Just be careful how often you switch the tactics and lines. Guys get confused and play poorly if you do it ALL the time. I do not do it all the time, just every once in awhile. Mostly for one game then back to original, in mid season a little more often. I quite often find my teams slump a bit between games 22-30 and games 42-50 and games 62-70 if I play too much with tactics, or if I play too little. Like the three bears of fairy tail lore, there is a way to do it where the porridge is just right.

So thats your trick...... It's all about the porridge I've been doing it all wrong adjusting the coffee

Pretty much...but porridge becomes coffee for an hour or two and then becomes scotch, beer, wine, rum or gin for the rest of the day.

The above is very correct - my tactics have been working for 4 seasons, but this year we're struggling a bit more already.
Hard to tweak the tactics too much though as they're set up to fit my players and I'm not looking to massively change my style.

So there still must be something I'm doing badly wrong. I read the whole threads, all about tactics in even strength, PP and PK, I changed my tactics after 10 or 12 games if I was convinced they do not work - still nothing got better though.

My stats for the last teams are:
Philadelphia Flyers (standard roster) 27-51-4
Vancouver Canucks (Challenge Season 1) 17-56-9
Vancouver Canucks (Challenge Season 2) 16-60-6
Rovaniemin Kiekko (Fin-3, free game) 6-25-5 76GF 125GA 11,46%PP 75,78%PK
Rovaniemin Kiekko (Fin-3, free game) 3-32-1 55GF 113GA 6,94% PP 85,28%PK

I kept my rows unchanged unless a player had ratings of 5 or less (then I changed them in breaks or after the game), or after 10-12 games to prevent the AI from reading me out - no change.

I adjusted tactics to the attributes of my player (playing with a checking line with hard hitters and good two-way players) - no change

I tried default tactics, tactics from the threads and even the downloadable tactics - no change.

What could I do next? Giving up the game is an option I don't wanna consider, but over the last days it started to frustrate (you know this: No matter, what you do, you can't do it right...)

I don't wanna have a solution or a game where the only thing I have to do is to read how I do it right, but I'm running out of ideas how to improve my performance, so maybe there are a few tricks or hints what to do

NO idea, could be so many things.
1. Bad coaches for developing your players.
2. Bad practice set up.
3. Bad tactics.
4. Bad personal tactics.
5. Bad line combinations
6. bad goaltending.
7. bad settings for any of the above.
8. Bad luck.

Thanks for your response, batdad. I try to watch the things you wrote.

1.) Bad coaches - okay, at RoKi in Finland there were really poor coaches, almost none of my players developed, they stagnated all the time. But I can't imagine that was the matter at Philly or Vancouver, cause the attributes of the coaches were okay so far

2.) Practice set up could be a reason as I still use the practice plan from the guide which seems not to be fully compatible with the new system of EHM

3.) Bad tactics could be a reason too, but I did as you suggested, letting them play the same way for about 20 games and then make minor changes so I can't be read out. I vary between more offensive tactics and defensive tactics as well to be less predictable.

4.) Bad personal tactics, hmm ... I tried to attune the personal tactics to the strengths of the individual player, i.e. a strong hitter will be playing 'hard hits', an unable shooter will rather shoot selective than fire every puck blind to the net and so on. Generally I set every D-men on defensive, forwards on offensive, on PP I give the D-men a more offensive play and tighten up puck pressure for the forwards and on PK I tell the forwards to backcheck very strong and every player is set to safe passes and to often dump the puck.

5.) I learned from LaFontaine83 that chemistry is more important now then it was in EHM '07, so I'll keep an eye on it

6.) Bad goaltending could be a reason, but I had rather strong goalkeepers in my games (Demko and Läck in VAN, Mason in PHI) I think

7.) Bad settings seem to be the most likely reason I think, and I know what will be the answer if I ask what setting it could be: Try out and find out

8.) Bad luck ... hmmm ... in 5 seasons added no more than 69 wins in 316 games? Would be a mass of bad luck

I'll try out a few things now, maybe you brought me to the right way, batdad, so thanks a lot

If I think my personal tactics are not working sometimes I reset them all to normal/unchecked and see if it helps. Team tactics I sometimes let the coach do it for a few games and see if he does better. Practice is different with EHM EA. Now i go full intensity with everyone doing goaltending as well to improve positioning... I think it still works that way. usually go 40%,30%, 30% but if my PP sucks I might up that and drop general for awhile or same for PK. sometimes I try line matching but ususally not. Sometimes I choose a shot tactic, usually high. I did better with EHM 07 but I'm a slow builder and like to build my own team identity with young players so it does take me a few game years. I am doing really well with my AHL and ECHL teams with a similar approach so not everything is a failure.

There's such a thing also as doing too much. Confuses the players.

I personally change tactics when I'm not winning. No clear plan for me. Very much a "feel" based decision. One way to determine what's wrong with your team is by looking at game stats. If I get overshot, I shoot more. If I shoot, but can't get goals, then I go selective. And so on. Look at your game stats and see where you are being overrun by the opponent, and try to counter that trend.

What Tasku and CeeBee said. Of course, cannot do the non-coach thing in a challenge, but in general good advice.

I always use personal tactics but every once in awhile I find a player performs better without any set for him, and I leave them at that. Chris Tanev seems to be one of those for me.

Morning all from a very wet england. Right iv almost lost my mind this morning searching for some detailed descriptions of the breakout tactical systems in the game, remember, im english and know next to nothing about tactics and plays in ice hockey, so iv found all sorts of systems, crash the net? Cross-over? Lots n lots anyway, but i cant find any info describing what the breakouts actually mean on this game? Whats best required from your players to play "free flowing" breakouts? What will this set up and play like? Wing cross?
Could one of you more knowledgable chaps give me some decriptions on the tactical systems please?
Or point me to a page
Thanks guys

Try this to start with: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/wiki/inde ... #Breakouts

Yea, i found that, but thats about all i can find on the explanation and best way to use each system. Cheers tho

So after a lot of net searching, i have found quite a lot of good hockey systems info out, none of it means anything though, iv found a lot out regards forchecking. 212, 122, 131 even! And it all makes sense, and what type of player fits best to each style. As for breakouts! Well i see nothing resembling what we have in ehm,ea! Crisscross maybe, but wingcross? Free flow? Positional!? No, nothing, loads of others, thd rim? Wide wing support? Centre fly!!?
Any ideas? Cos il be honest, im lost, half of the tactics arent in our game by the looks of it?
Come on, a few of you on here seem to know what its all about, well you say ya do
So how about defining each play we have to use and what they actually mean?
Positional breakouts are described in the manual as, players stand in their natural positions??? Eh? STAND!!!?

mrlincolncity wrote:Well i see nothing resembling what we have in ehm,ea! Crisscross maybe, but wingcross? Free flow? Positional!? No, nothing, loads of others, thd rim? Wide wing support? Centre fly!!?

Crisscross = players will crisscross while moving towards the opponents goal
Wingscross = the wingers will crisscross while moving down towards the opponents goal
Free Flow = players go where they want while moving towards the opponents goal
Positional = wingers stay on their wings/center stays in the middle while moving towards the opponents goal

mrlincolncity wrote:Positional breakouts are described in the manual as, players stand in their natural positions??? Eh? STAND!!!?

Yes, you can stand on your skates...so players stand in their natural positions means when you're in your own end and for example your left winger will stand along the left wing boards and your right winger will stand along the right wing boards

mrlincolncity wrote:Any ideas? Cos il be honest, im lost, half of the tactics arent in our game by the looks of it?

I think you'll find that frequently you'll see the same or similar ideas expressed differently.

mrlincolncity wrote:So how about defining each play we have to use and what they actually mean?

I think the EHM07 Guide gives descriptions/explanations (I suggest trying to understand the idea in general, and don't focus on a single word like "stand" and maybe miss the point)

Perhaps the best way to describe breakouts is how it is described in the Wiki I linked to:

This determines how the players will be positioned and how they will play when getting the puck out of their defensive zone and into the neutral zone (i.e. clearing the defensive zone).

As for which is best; it's largely down to experimentation. If you have quick players then wings cross and crisscross can help open up the opposition's defence. If you have slow players or a weak team (compared to the opposition), it might be safer to stick with positional. But that's just my interpretation.

So basically, you either cant be arsed in helping or you know about as much as i do?
Cheers for the help

mrlincolncity wrote:So basically, you either cant be arsed in helping or you know about as much as i do?
Cheers for the help

Wow...if you can't understand the basics by reading reasonable instruction that's readily available that's not the fault of others (and I'm quite sure I know more than you about hockey). I'm really not sure what you don't understand, or what you think is missing from the readily available help here at TBL about EHM, or on the internet/youtube about hockey in general

Maybe you should look up the different breakouts on Google Images to see if that helps...have you ever seen a hockey game? How about basketball?
Maybe try watching some hockey on youtube? I'm really not sure what you're struggling to understand...

Ok, to clarify, i know nothing at all about ice hockey other than the basics. Iv never been to a game and only recently started watching the nhl stanley cup play offs 6/7 weeks ago, i adopted the capitals for no reason except not being highly fancied to win it, all i know is basic rules, offside rule i get, a few penalties i get like hooking, high sticking, and its 3 periods of 20 minutes. I have googled breakouts and forechecks and not really found much to put to this game, what im trying to understand is how the tactics work on the game. All im after really is some help thats all! Im not wanting best tactics to win every game, im not after your ideas, all i want is a simple break down of each tactic/strategy thats on offer to us in this game.
Breakouts. We have positional, board play, crisscross, free flowing, wing cross
Neutral zone off, we pretty much have the same except free flow
(So here, whats the difference between a breakout and NZO and what do each actually mean? What sort of player will be best to use in each tactic)
Offensive zone. I kind of get this, triangle, overload slot. Thats pretty much a formation the forwards take up when in the OZ, big strong players needed to take the hits in and around the goal, deflections would be a useful attribute to flick shots past the keeper
Forecheck. Again, iv found a bit out about this, 1-4 is a defensive style with 1 forward pressuring and the 4 others dropping back to form a box to nullify the attack.
3-2 is an attacking style putting early pressure on the attacking team in their zone
But whats positional high and positional low? And whats 0-4
Iv searched through the threads here, and iv found a lot of good simple breakdowns of players attributes. What each means,
Gap control, i get this, this is how close my players are to the opposition, too close with lack of skating skill and speed and my player will be left standing, right?
Backchecking, im guessing this is how fast a player gets back to defend?
Why do you have 3 seperate formations, 1 for neutral zone 1 for defensive and 1 for offensive.
Which are aggressive and in ya face set ups. Is it best to be aggressive in defence or attack?
Thats all im after, just a run down of all the options on the tactic page.
Im doing ok though
Iv played 79 won 52 scored 307 conceded 210
My lines are
Johnson-Carlsson-Johannson-Backstrom-Ovechkin
Hickey-Green-glencross-Letestu-Fehr
Gleason-Niskanen-Burakovsky-Gordon-Tropp
And iv also got Grossman and Strait in def
And komarov Trochek Kennedy Larsson and Ward
I traded beagle brouwer alzner laich wilson chimera orlov erskine orpik kuznetsov and quite a few other players i brought in to let go again

What do the breakouts mean, what sort of players suit each breakout, how do the players set up to play each one.
Same for neutral off zone. How do players play on each set up? Which go best together.
Which are defensive and which are fast aggresive plays.
Thanks in advance guys, sorry if i came across a bit rude, it wasnt my intention. I love the game, im a football fan and play football manager, but iv got bored of the same thing over n over. Iv had the EHM game from 2005, but never really got into it, but im loving this game, just trying to understand the tactics and styles of play more instead of just guessing my way through

Breakouts are your tactics when you get the puck back in your own zone, it's how you build your play up so to speak. Positional means that the LW stays on the left, Center in the middle and RW on the right and they make their way out from there. Wings cross means that both the wingers goes towards the other wing in search for open space, that can draw their D-men out of position. Criss-cross is when your players try to get out of their own zone with fast passing, you preferrable use this when your players are skilled. board play is your general simple breakout, you keep the puck on the boards to limit the giveaways, it's good to have physically strong wingers for this. free flowing is more or less just for the PP (I don't even use it on the PP, i've found that they score too many short handed goals on me when i have that breakout). That's how i get it and i hope that cleared something up.