[sterlingice]

Forwards

We more or less have a three forward rotation, depending on form and injuries. Two, Tor Tetlie and Oliver Angulo, are the ideal starters as they both have titanic scoring and good passing. Both are part of an overall strategy of the team to have a little of an events based team to squeeze out some extra goals. Angulo can get those quick events while Tetlie is a head guy and can take advantage of the divine set pieces defenders we send out there.

Volfs Treibahs was a starter with us for a brief time while retooling, but he makes a great super sub with brilliant scoring, solid passing, and head speciality. He has filled in quite a bit in case of injuries and awful form on the part of the other two so he's like having a good proven sub around because you know your stars can't stay healthy.

Tor Tetlie (131517192) #28
26 years and 27 days, Next birthday: 5-15-2009
Born in: Norge
In solid form, solid stamina.
A popular guy who is calm and honest.
Has weak experience and weak leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 8-20-2008 (10/36), 1s 10w 1d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 65 440
Wage: 36 996 $ (30 830 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Head

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: passable
Winger: weak Defending: weak
Scoring: titanic Set pieces: poor

Oliver Angulo (129370922) #25
25 years and 11 days, Next birthday: 5-31-2009
Born in: España
In passable form, excellent stamina.
A pleasant guy who is balanced and honest.
Has inadequate experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 3-18-2008 (4/35), 3s 2d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 68 130
Wage: 36 492 $ (30 410 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Quick

Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: solid
Winger: wretched Defending: passable
Scoring: titanic Set pieces: wretched

Volfs Treibahs (82894503) #27
27 years and 101 days, Next birthday: 3-2-2009
Born in: Latvija
In solid form, solid stamina.
A nasty fellow who is balanced and honest.
Has passable experience and weak leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 7-3-2006 (11/29), 8s 9w 3d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 16 140
Wage: 6 060 $ (5 050 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: 1 weeks
Speciality: Head

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: solid
Winger: wretched Defending: solid
Scoring: brilliant Set pieces: poor

Wingers

I can't remember the last time we played anything other than a 3-5-2 in a meaningful game as that's what the Hippos are built around. That means winger tactics are key. I love playing creatively so I don't stack the middle and go AIM like most teams so any attacks that I can get on the side are hugely important. With Sidorczak rejoining the team in the past season, we have some added flexibility on what to do and I've employed that of late.

Zacarias Regulez pretty much always starts- he's your prototypical winger. He has titanic wing skills to add a lot to the attack and formidable playmaking ability to help boost the midfield a little. He can also score on head events. I'd like to upgrade him to something quick, maybe with a little more passing, and get younger as he's 27. But, as ever, great combo wings are expensive! That's a project that's been on the back burner for the past season or two but will probably happen this season or next before he loses all of his sale value.

Previously, former middie Charlie Partridge was our other winger. He worked great in a pinch as he also was a veteran middie (brilliant experience). Titanic playmaking at wing towards middle was not the worst thing you could do with a winger, particularly one who could get quick events.

Now, however, I brought back Donald Sidorczak to retire to the Hall (only $750K!). Back in the day, he was the $7M man ($7.4M, actually) as he had world class playmaking and world class winger skills. He was one hell of an edge to trot out onto the field as you could get a nice wing attack without losing a step on the midfield. Now he's 34 and still magnificent/magnificent but his TSI and stamina are falling. Still, he's good enough at the moment that I can get a pretty good second or third attack out of him without sacrificing too much midfield.

Zacarías Regúlez (95241738) #20
27 years and 73 days, Next birthday: 4-3-2009
Born in: España
In solid form, solid stamina.
A sympathetic guy who is balanced and dishonest.
Has passable experience and poor leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 3-20-2008 (4/35), 3s 4d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 55 080
Wage: 22 044 $ (18 370 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Head

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: formidable Passing: weak
Winger: titanic Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set pieces: weak

Charlie Partridge (37800274) #11
32 years and 3 days, Next birthday: 6-12-2009
Born in: USA
In passable form, passable stamina.
A pleasant guy who is balanced and honest.
Has brilliant experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 12-7-2005 (13/27), 10s 7w 5d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 26 200
Wage: 24 450 US$/week
Warnings: 2
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Quick

Stamina: passable Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: titanic Passing: weak
Winger: poor Defending: solid
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: passable

Donald Sidorczak (21146546) #12
34 years and 7 days, Next birthday: 6-8-2009
Born in: Polska
In solid form, inadequate stamina.
A sympathetic guy who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has world class experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 1-5-2009 (14/37), 7w)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 5 410
Wage: 4 164 $ (3 470 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Powerful

Stamina: inadequate Keeper: non-existent
Playmaking: magnificent Passing: wretched
Winger: magnificent Defending: poor
Scoring: disastrous Set pieces: formidable

Midfield

Not doing anything real revolutionary here. I have an offensive middie, a regular middie, and another regular middie who plays extra inner midfielder. In a pinch, I have a pair of "older" middies who could still hold their own. They're not guys I want starting for me because of their injury risk and advancing age but they sure as heck are good backups and cup-quality middies. And did I mention: they're all American.

Juan Alberto Quijada continues the long Hippo tradition of offensive inner middies starting with Carlos Alberto Benito. He's 31, so he's getting up there but he can still hold his own with titanic playmaking and solid passing. His midfield mates are a pair of 26 year old middies in Carlos Thacker, who I occasionally play offensive (mythical pm, passable passing), and Damion Marsh (extra-terrestrial pm).

Thomas Little and Erwin Vickers are Hippos destined for the Hall who can still play. Little was a Hippo youth pull back in the day and trained up until he was almost an ET playmaker. At his peak, he was ET-1 pm with excellent passing and excellent set pieces. Now he's 35 and still world class/passable. Vickers is 35 and still has titanic playmaking. Again, both can play in a pinch with bad form but their stamina isn't really where it needs to be in Div III.

Juan Alberto Quijada (58781088) #10
31 years and 82 days, Next birthday: 3-25-2009
Born in: USA
In passable form, passable stamina.
A sympathetic guy who is tranquil and upright.
Has formidable experience and passable leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 10-25-2006 (11/30), 7s 9w 5d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 43 460
Wage: 31 970 US$/week
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Powerful

Stamina: passable Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: titanic Passing: solid
Winger: passable Defending: inadequate
Scoring: inadequate Set pieces: inadequate

Carlos Thacker (112904309) #8
26 years and 15 days, Next birthday: 5-31-2009
Born in: USA
In passable form, solid stamina.
A pleasant guy who is balanced and righteous.
Has solid experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 10-30-2008 (4/37), 1s 4d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 135 680
Wage: 88 990 US$/week
Warnings: 1
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: mythical Passing: passable
Winger: poor Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor Set pieces: poor

Damion Marsh (113922816) #16
26 years and 79 days, Next birthday: 3-28-2009
Born in: USA
In inadequate form, solid stamina.
A sympathetic guy who is balanced and honest.
Has passable experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 5-20-2008 (13/35), 2s 7w 6d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 84 020
Wage: 65 090 US$/week
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: extra-terrestrial Passing: poor
Winger: weak Defending: weak
Scoring: weak Set pieces: weak

Thomas Little (15126966) #18
35 years and 86 days, Next birthday: 3-21-2009
Born in: USA
In passable form, weak stamina.
A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has world class experience and poor leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 8-4-2003 (3/20), 18s 2w)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 2 400
Wage: 2 630 US$/week
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: weak Keeper: non-existent
Playmaking: world class Passing: passable
Winger: disastrous Defending: inadequate
Scoring: disastrous Set pieces: solid

Erwin Vickers (15937430) #17
35 years and 23 days, Next birthday: 5-23-2009
Born in: USA
In solid form, inadequate stamina.
A controversial person who is fiery and honest.
Has magnificent experience and poor leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 2-18-2005 (3/25), 13s 1w 3d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 5 480
Wage: 5 150 US$/week
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: inadequate Keeper: non-existent
Playmaking: titanic Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: poor
Scoring: disastrous Set pieces: poor

Defenders

A long time ago, we all looked at the hattrick world and knew that training was how to make a profit in the game. One always has to ask what to train. Keepers have always been too slow and unprofitable while wingers have always been witchcraft. There were interesting models like set pieces or passing but always seemed too "experimental" and the problem was that if HT nerfed that particular skill, those trainers were completely screwed.

That leaves the "big three" types- scoring, playmaking, and defense. Even if rebalancing was done to the game engine- those would always be useful in some aspect. Your margins might go up or down but you wouldn't be wiped out with a gameplay change. I started out with middies as they made the best profit back in the day and were the best way to improve your team. The problem with training middies is that it's too darn important to the game engine. You either introduce inefficiency to your market system (selling before an optimum time) or you'd have a cycle similar to college sports where you would have good years as those players got older (similar to a team full of seniors) but then you'd take a step back after the sales.

I also tried strikers but offense was much more powerful than defense at the time so you didn't even want to take a hit to your second most important skill so I settled on defense. It wasn't hugely profitable and it was slow, but I could make some money on the side while not hurting my team's performance. So long as I ran with a good midfield, they wouldn't get many chances against my subpar defense, anyways. The engine has gradually made defense more powerful, almost to the point of eclipsing offense, but this is still a reasonable way to go (particularly since I can run out 3 defenders as opposed to 2 strikers).

Now, I don't train naked defenders as I don't think that's nearly as profitable as training guys with secondaries. I train three types: guys with good playmaking for personal use as OCD's (eventual sells, I guess), big money guys in terms of defenders with solid+ passing, and older guys with divine set pieces, both so I can take advantage of their abilities but also so I can sell them off and cycle in new ones.

Also, I don't start with 17yo solids. I can save myself 1.5 seasons of training and some defense skill by buying a little higher up the ladder. This tradeoff costs me some cash, but I find it in the best interest of my team's play. I'll do more on the training entry, which it looks like I've already written half of.

Aurelius Huenul and Arkadiusz Cyburt are the current OCDs: both 23 with formidable playmaking and brilliant defense. The two divine set pieces guys are Chema Delcarte (magnificent defense) and Ryan Linneberg (brilliant defense)- they're 26 and 25, respectively, and have been on the transfer market for a few weeks now. I'd like to cycle them out, soon. Then there are the new guys: Zurab Kavelashvili and Itamar Gafni. Both are 19 old, have formidable defense (should bump in the next week or two) and solid passing. Both were bought for just over $1M and replaced 3 players who were sold between $3.3M and $3.6M over the past season and a half.

Aurelius Huenul (166033259) #32
23 years and 82 days, Next birthday: 3-26-2009
Born in: Chile
In solid form, excellent stamina.
A controversial person who is balanced and dishonest.
Has weak experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 4-9-2008 (7/35), 2s 13w 6d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 24 930
Wage: 5 124 $ (4 270 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: formidable Passing: poor
Winger: poor Defending: brilliant
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: solid

Arkadiusz Cyburt (173675317) #34
23 years and 30 days, Next birthday: 5-17-2009
Born in: Polska
In passable form, excellent stamina.
A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 5-8-2008 (11/35), 2s 9w 5d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 22 240
Wage: 5 460 $ (4 550 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Powerful

Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: formidable Passing: wretched
Winger: poor Defending: brilliant
Scoring: passable Set pieces: passable

Chema Delcarte (147461858) #37
26 years and 78 days, Next birthday: 3-30-2009
Born in: España
In passable form, solid stamina.
A controversial person who is calm and dishonest.
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 10-13-2007 (13/33), 4s 7w 3d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 16 350
Wage: 7 932 $ (6 610 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Head

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: poor
Winger: wretched Defending: magnificent
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: divine

Ryan Linneberg (150988746) #38
25 years and 94 days, Next birthday: 3-14-2009
Born in: Danmark
In passable form, solid stamina.
A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 2-11-2008 (15/34), 3s 6w 1d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 11 100
Wage: 3 972 $ (3 310 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 1
Injuries: Healthy

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: poor
Winger: poor Defending: brilliant
Scoring: poor Set pieces: divine

Zurab Kavelashvili (211697581) #35
19 years and 88 days, Next birthday: 3-20-2009
Born in: Sakartvelo
In inadequate form, solid stamina.
A controversial person who is balanced and dishonest.
Has wretched experience and disastrous leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 2-16-2009 (4/38), 1w 1d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 4 200
Wage: 684 $ (570 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 1
Injuries: Bruised, but playing

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: solid
Winger: weak Defending: formidable
Scoring: wretched Set pieces: weak

Itamar Gafni (202142462) #36
19 years and 110 days, Next birthday: 2-26-2009
Born in: Israel
In weak form, solid stamina.
A controversial person who is tranquil and honest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Owner: Houston Hippopotami (since 2-16-2009 (4/38), 1w 1d)
Total Skill Index (TSI): 4 920
Wage: 804 $ (670 $) US/week including 20% Bonus
Warnings: 0
Injuries: Healthy
Speciality: Powerful

Stamina: solid Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: solid
Winger: poor Defending: formidable
Scoring: weak Set pieces: wretched

Conclusion

So, to put it all together- we have a lot of depth due to keeping a lot of older guys around to retire. We have at least one really good backup at all positions in the event of injuries or bad form, more at the all important midfield spot. We can play some fun tactics with it all, too.

So, here's the real depth chart, not including the "spare parts", with skills in parens and numbers on primary skills for those who need to brush up a little:

GK: Ozkutay (ET:16) /// Manholt (Form:9)
CD1: Huenul-offensive (Bril:11/Form:9 PM) /// Kavelashvili (Form:9/Solid Pass)
CD2: Cyburt-offensive (Bril:11/Form:9 PM) /// Gafni (Form:9/Solid Pass/Powerful)
WB: Delcarte (Mag:12/Divine SP/Head) /// Linneberg (Bril:11/Divine SP)
WI1: Regulez (Titan:15 Wing/Form:9 PM/Head) /// Sidorczak (Mag:12 Wing/Mag:12 PM/Powerful)
IM: Quijada-offensive (Titan:15 PM/Solid Pass/Powerful) /// Little-offensive (WC:13 PM/Pass Pass)
XIM: Marsh (ET:16 PM)
IM: Thacker-offensive/normal (Myth:17 PM/Pass Pass/Inad Def) /// Vickers (Titan:15 PM)
WI2: Partridge- toward middle (Titan:15 PM/Quick)
FO1: Angulo (Titan:15/Solid Pass/Quick) /// Treibahs (Bril:11/Solid Pass/Head)
FO2: Tetlie (Titan:15/Pass Pass/Head)

SI