The Definitive Guide to Hattrick for New Managers
Hattrick is a game which can be difficult for new managers as it has all sorts of complex variations and rules. In this article I will outline some of the problems you may face as a new user and give you detailed help on how to set up your team for success.
"Hattrick is an amazing game and a long term one, so be patient and follow the guidelines in this article and you'll be representing your country in the Hattrick Masters in no time!"
IntroductionHi. I'm Broughy1322 from England, manager of
Stinging Scorpions (62264) and founder of
The General Managers Club (85054). Since I joined Hattrick in 2005 improvements have been made to help new players, but many managers still have problems.
My main aim in this article is to give you the information you need to correctly set up your team, minimise mistakes, and understand the game. This should help you find success quicker. I originally wrote this for Syrian Press when I was Suriyah U20 coach but have decided to amend it for global use. I hope you will find it useful.
Initial Basic AdviceWe'll start off with the absolute basics. The following points are things which you pretty much
must do if you want to get to grips with the game when you're first starting out and reach success quicker.
The Manager LicenseThe first thing you'll do in the game is complete your Manager License. Pay attention to this as you go through it! It goes over the basic features of the game and basically tells you how things work. You need to understand the things that are going on during this before you can even start thinking about anything else.
The ManualYour main source of information will probably be "The Manual" page
(/Help/Rules/). It can be found by clicking "Help" at the top, then "Manual" on the left. It basically goes over everything you need to know about the game. If there's something you aren't sure about this should be your first port of call. Even world class managers still use the manual to help them, so it's a good thing for you to read through and study (obviously not all at once, but always remember it when you're stuck with something).
General "First Week" TipsThere are some mistakes that new managers make all the time which sometimes cripple their team before they've even got started.
Read this section if you don't want to make the same mistakes! The following points are key to early success:
- First and foremost, don't spend any money until you've gotten to grips with the game. A lot of teams end up wasting their money on upgrading their stadium, buying bad coaches, investing in their youth academy, or buying a single high priced player.
- Secondly, you must familiarise yourself with your players. You are given a squad of players and you need to choose the best of them to play in your league match. You should know from reading the rules which skills are important for which positions so, for example, choose the players with the best scoring skill to play up front, etc. You don't gain anything from playing players twice in one week so you need to work towards having a separate "Friendly team" for friendly games (comprising of the worse players & trainees in your squad).
- Finally, understand that Hattrick is a (very) long term game. Planning ahead will reap many benefits so don't expect to be the best straight away. Be patient!
TrainingBy far the most important thing in Hattrick (and to your success) is training. It is the main source of income and will improve your team dramatically. At the start of the game you want to keep things simple, so ideally you should choose between the following types:
GoalkeepingThis is what I would recommend for the first few seasons. With goalkeeping you can train 2 players per week (1 in your league and 1 in your friendly match) meaning the start-up costs are quite low. Goalkeeper training is quite quick (approximately 5 weeks to increase a level), gives you formation flexibility, and will increase your team's defence ratings rapidly. It can also be very profitable if you sell your trainees at the right time due to the quick increase in skills.
DefendingThis is one of the most profitable training regimes but is very slow. With defending you can train 10 players per week (3 central defenders and 2 wing backs per weekly match) meaning start-up costs are quite high. You also have to play 5-4-1 or 5-3-2 to make the most of it and this can give you poor league results. It is also quite slow (around 8 weeks per level increase), but is the most profitable overall if you have enough money and patience to make it work.
PlaymakingMidfield is the most important part of Hattrick so this can get you good results quickly. With playmaking you can train 10 players per week (3 inner midfielders and 2 wingers in both matches per week - although your wingers receive only 50% training) so again start-up costs will be high. However you will be playing with 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 which will give you high midfield ratings meaning you'll perform well in league matches. It is also quite profitable and takes around 7 weeks to increase a level (14 weeks for wingers).
ScoringSome say the best form of defence is attack - these people usually train scoring. With this training regime you can train 6 players per week (3 in both weekly games) so start-up costs are fairly average. You'll be playing 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 so will get very good attack ratings, but will need to make sure your midfield is up to the task of getting you scoring chances. Scoring training is pretty much in the middle of everything as far as profit and training speed (around 6 weeks per level increase) are concerned. You'll need to make sure you outscore your opponent though as you may have a poor defence.
Your ChoiceIf I were to restart my team, I would train goalkeeping for the first few seasons due to the low start-up costs and relative speed of profit, then move on to playmaking training once I'd got enough money to buy good trainees. However it is all personal preference and you can choose whichever training method you like. Just make sure you choose one! There are also some basic rules you should follow when training players...
The CoachThe coach is a very important man in your team as he trains your players. You start with a bad coach so will need to buy a better one - the better his coaching skill, the faster your players will train.
It is recommended that you buy a passable coach with poor leadership so make sure you have enough money for him and your trainees. You can change your coach on your training page. Choose "external recruiting" when buying. You can see how much your new coach will cost without buying.
General Training Tips - Stick with something for a long time! Remember that Hattrick is a long term game. You'll make the most profit by keeping trainees for 2 or 3 seasons and selling them at a much higher level than what you bought them for.
- Make maximum use of training slots! If you're training defending for example, don't only buy 6 trainees. You have 10 "training slots" so you might as well use them. It's much more profitable to buy 10 slightly worse players than 6 slightly better players. The same applies for all training types. Maximise your slots!
- Buy young trainees! Players train slower above 21 years old, so ideally you want to buy 17 or 18 year old players to train up. The younger the better, as long as you can afford enough to fill all your training slots.
- A higher "Training Intensity" level will train players faster and give better form, but will also increase the chance of injuries. Combat this with physios (see "staff"). Increase the intensity level when you buy more physios.
- Set stamina share to 10% to start with.
- Play a legal formation! If you play 4 or more central defenders, inner midfielders, or forwards you will lose training for that week. This is disastrous so simply don't do it!
Money!As you continue through your manager license you can accumulate a lot of money. If you don't spend this money wisely it can cripple your progress.
TrainingAs mentioned above, you need to make sure you have enough money to cover a new coach and your new trainees. Ideally these two things should be dealt with and bought first. If you're training keepers you'll only have two players and a coach to buy, but if you're training defending you'll have ten players and a coach to buy. Make sure you spread the money equally among your trainees and have enough for a coach too!
StaffYou can find out what all the staff do by clicking the "help" link in the top right corner of the staff page. Obviously only buy what you can afford per week but I'd suggest 1 GK coach, 3 assistant coaches and 1 physiotherapist to start with (if you train keepers buy 3 GK coaches and 1 assistant coach instead). Only buy doctors when you have an injured player - they do nothing otherwise.
ArenaQuite simple - don't touch it! Only increase your arena when its necessary, and it will only be necessary when it has reached it's capacity for a few league matches in a row. Doing it now is a waste of money.
PlayersMake good use of your default players and you will save money. For example, if you're given a few 18/19 year old passable/solid scorers you'd be best off training scoring. You've already filled a few of your slots and will have more money to spend on other things after buying fewer trainees. You can also sell or fire some of your older/worse players to save on wages and to bring in a little extra money for new players.
Youth SystemThere are two ways to bring young players into Hattrick and you shouldn't worry yourself about either of them in your first few weeks. However, the youth system is a key way to make more money in Hattrick and you should look to get good with it as soon as you can. There is a link below which will provide you with more information when you need it.
Other HelpIf you follow everything mentioned above you'll be well on your way to success! However I've only given a brief overview of what you need to do to start up your team in the correct way. Like I've said before, Hattrick is a huge game and I have only scratched the surface in this article. There are many other things to consider and learn about if you want true success, and there are plenty of ways to find out about them...
ForumsA big source of help can come from the forums. The Hattrick community is a wonderful thing and it has many members out there waiting to help you.
Your first port of call should probably be the national forum for your country which can be found by clicking your country's name or flag and clicking "National Forum" in the top right. Remember you have to join a forum before you can post in it.
Some other forums are Global (English)
(/Forum/Overview.aspx?v=0&f=11056) and Questions (English)
(/Forum/Overview.aspx?v=6&f=13392) where you can go to get help from other teams.
External WebsitesBy far the biggest source of information I've gained in Hattrick comes from external websites. Hattrick is such a huge game that people have actually made many websites to help with team management. One good tip is to just type "Hattrick xxx" into Google (replacing xxx with something you want to find out about) and you'll be guaranteed to find a Hattrick Wiki page about it. I'll list a few of the most useful websites below:
(http://wiki.hattrick.org) - Contains a lot of general information
(http://hattrickinfo.com/en) - An superb place for specific information
(http://www.ht-box.ru) - Work out healing & training times
(http://hattrickinfo.com/en/youth) - Great Youth Academy Guide
Final CommentsI hope you have found this guide helpful. Hattrick is an amazing game and a long term one, so be patient and follow the guidelines in this article and you'll be representing your country in the Hattrick Masters in no time!
Thanks for reading, and good luck!
Broughy1322Manager of Stinging ScorpionsFounder of The General Managers Club
2010-01-14 13:49:53,
16328 views
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