EHM The Blue Line

After leaving it alone for the better part of a year, I loaded up EHM and started again. I had the intention of rebuilding slowly, so I traded all my pending free agents, and most of the core of my team. I had a blast, but by the end of the second year, I was winning the Stanley Cup, and my AHL farm team probably could have made the NHL playoffs.

We all know the AI is easy to exploit, and while building a powerhouse dynasty may be entertaining the first time, it quickly loses it's luster. Are there any self-imposed rules you use in order to make the game more competitive/interesting/realistic? Some examples are;

- No trading for superstars on injured reserve.
- No trading a pending UFA just to pick him up again in the summer, or signing a superstar in the summer just to trade them for picks.
- No getting the usual suspects (stars that everyone knows can be had for cheap, like Bobby Ryan and Marc Staal).
- No trading at all, build from the draft and UFA market only.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking to spice up my EHM experience a little.

Why no try the rules we use in the challenges? That's seemed to make the game difficult enough for most people here. We've also done the "no trade" route in past challenges. You should really head over to the challenge forum and read the rules for Challenge 12.

Somewhere there is a thread on this. But I cannot recall where, so I am leaving this alone.

You have all the answer in your text man. Trade for star player injured is way ridiculus. Ryan and Staal are great exemple too. I go pick Ryan like 2 time before I know this was a glitch so now y don't do it. If you want a grat challenge pick some weak team like Islanders, Phoenix, Thrashers, Leafs, blablabla lol.

I'm in my fourth season with the Thrashers and after 2 ordinary years I won the cup in 2008-2009. Some team like the Thrashers don't have a great reputation with the UFA and that's make them more difficult to sign them. After doing the second playoff round in 07-08 I got more chance to sign UFA and my team budget raise up to the max after 2 years stuck to 39 m/y ( I can't offer a 5million deal to a core player lol) Now everything goes great I've got the team I want and my young prospects began to do well in the junior and in the AHL so building by the draft is great to. But all is great in EHM if you know how to play decently and enjoy you're game. So have fun

Written rules for self-restrictions? Needless. Just ask yourself: "Is this has any chance to happen in real life? If i was the opposite GM, would i be stupid enough to accept such a steal?" each time you're doing something (mostly for trades). If the answer is 'no', then don't do it. Simple.

If you want written rules, you can use some or all of the challenge rules. But written rules are needed only for challenge purposes. Out of the challenges, having a brain should be enough.

Only if you're Don Wadell, Ray Shero or Garth Snow

This is not meant to give you more ideas to exploit the AI, but anyway:
I usually exploited the salary cap by offering my pending RFAs qualifying offers but for ten years. Players never accept those contracts (they shouldn't!), but I retain their rights. In the off-season I make new offers but their demands are usually (I'd say 80-90% of the players) lower than during the season. That's especially the case for bottom-pairing blueliners and bottom-6 forwards. You can usually sign them for the league minimum, which is never possible during the regular season, and save tons of cap space.
Now, I stopped doing this. I usually offer exactly what those pending RFAs demand during the regular season, because I think the AI does it exactly the same way. Makes it more difficult I think.

Trades:
I never trade away old, experienced, pending UFAs when I'm a playoff team. Playoff teams just don't do that in real life. What they do is they try to acquire some more experience at the deadline and that's exactly what I do. That keeps my prospect pool small and is simply realistic. Also, I like to give old hacks a last chance to win the Stanley Cup late in their careers
I usually don't try to acquire top-3 picks in the draft. If I do I usually pay a lot more than the AI would take in return.

Scouting:
I've come to the conclusion that I do not need scouts and it adds another dimension of difficulty to the game. I have to trust my "nose" for talent a lot more which makes for a lot more fun.

Very important: Do not overplay your topstars! Lots of guys give their superstar forwards up to 25 minutes per game. IRL that may happen in the playoffs but not in the regular season.

when i play alone my normal rules is this

: 1 trade per year. either for pick players or prospects or pick up one UFA.

this means u can make a total of 5 trades in 5 years and forces to build from within.

Its very hard when starting with a good team couse u get the junk prospects from the draft and 5-8 years from start u are a punch bag team hehe.then it starts all over with best prospects to the top.

I think either writing some rules down or at least making a mental note of them is a pretty neat idea. If you don't make yourself lay them down then there's always the chance/risk that you will start making exceptions to the rules and before you know it they've gone out of the window. At least somehow setting them in stone will make you more likely to abide by them.

Batdad - yes there was a thread somewhere where we had a user (a law student) who wanted to create what would have been like a statute (i.e. law) for how to play EHM realistically. Aha I've just found the link: http://www.ehmtheblueline.com/forums/vi ... php?t=3932