Football Manager 2012..

[Plymouth Gull]

Comes out on October 21st.

They've massively improved the scouting area, which needed doing, I felt. Some of the new features include a "Play anywhere, anytime" - where you can add new leagues into your game whenever you want, which is quite good, and there is a 'tone' feature, where you can choose from 5/6 different tones for your team talk - I'd imagine these to be like "aggressive/calm/encourage" etc.

Really looking forward to this!!

[TUFC92]

Yep, really looking forward to this too. And it is good that they have announced a release date a lot earlier than usual. I know it is only provisional at the moment but hopefully that will be the date!

Just need to look around for some cheap deals now!

[stevegull]

Looking forward to this one! (As usual!)

Hope our players get a decent rating, it just makes my job as manager so much easier! - although when i eventually let go of Eunan in the last game the fans and players were relieved cos of his disruptive influence! hahaa

[Plymgull]

Just finished my first go with Torquay on the demo, only lets you play half of season and i finished 16th which i was a tad disappointed with, what annoyed me though was how good Plymouth are on the demo... winning every game like 3-0, 4-1 etc... They finished top just above Bristol Rovers!

Howe and Bodin have scored some crackers for me, but Taiwo Atieno can't score to save his life on this game.

My best result was 3-0 against Southend and worst had to be 4-1 to Shrewsbury.

[stevegull]

Sounds difficult if you only finished 16th! I normally aim to go up in the first two seasons. How is the transfer budget? Not that we normally have a lot...

[Plymgull]

Finishing 16th was probably because i'm quite crap at the game. To be fair i only made two signings bringing in Moses Ademola on loan who despite having a poor rating was my top scorer. Also signed Matt Bloomfield from Wycombe.

As far as the budget goes...

Winner = £30k/£19,25k p/w
Promotion = £26k/£19,25k p/w
Top half finish = £22k/£19,25k p/w
Mid table finish = £20k/£19,25k p/w

[Plymouth Gull]

Sounds difficult if you only finished 16th! I normally aim to go up in the first two seasons. How is the transfer budget? Not that we normally have a lot...

Exactly my aim. It isn't a hard league to get out of, especially if you know where to look (Reunion).

On FM11, I had a fairly successful career as TUFC manager, for 8 years, but I stagnated in the Championship as a mid-table side. I couldn't get onto the same level as all of the relegated sides who could spend several millions on players.

It would have taken me even longer to get to where I was, but one signing made all the difference in that game, and it was a deal and a half, from my point of view! (Free transfer in January one year, sold him for 1.1m 6 months later to Porto with 50% sell on - then sold that clause for £6m. Lovely)

---

I had another little buzz on the demo last night, just to get used to it all again, I started unemployed as thats what I'm gonna do this time around when I get it, to see what jobs are available and what players are available etc. I didn't get a job, and then I turned it off in December. Good start.

Just a heads up for people if you choose to be Torquay when it comes out, hunt Reunion, players such as Joris Di Gregorio, Pierre Piskor will bang them in. Also have a look at Curtis Weston from Gillingham, you can get him on a free to add to the midfield.

Really looking forward to this!

[stevegull]

KEEN! So glad this game coincides with the school half-term break! Seem to have overestimated our budget IMO. Although i generally tend to be terrible at spending money, as whenever i have tried spending money at a club i almost always get hammered. For example, in the last game i frittered away 5k (my budget for that season) on a young midfield player from Lincoln (Karl Cunningham) and then released him 2 years later with him making 2 appearances for my affiliated club! D'oh!

I'm much more of a wheeler-dealer with the free-signings. Looking forward to this game now!

[Plymouth Gull]

Indeed, looking for bargains is the best thing about lower leagues. I love it, because even if they're crap, you'll still make a profit on them.

Seriously though, if you want to get out of L2 early, load Reunion. It is a goldmine.

[Regiment]

what is this "reunion" Nick ??

i didn't get FM11, still playing 10 now, but good chance i'll upgrade to the new one.

when i first got FM10, i started as torquay manager, and cheated a bit to get myself a bit more money. i added another manager, for Man City, and bought for them, Tyrone Thompson, for about 200K. I could've offered a lot more for him, but just did it to give myself a bit more cash to play with. I never spent more than about 30-40K on any one player but managed to get into the championship eventually. i just found the first season better when i was able to bring one or two half decent signings in.

[Plymgull]

Not sure what the Reunion is either? some kind of league?

I did manage to take Torquay to the Premiership(even though u got relegated the next season) back on the old championship manager 00/01 (think that was the blue one)

Since then i have bought every championship manager and when they split football manager and have only managed to get to league one on FM 2009.

fm10 and fm 11 i never played more than 2 seasons, this time i hope to get a few seasons in with fm12 and would like to get us to the championship.

[TUFC92]

I think Reunion is a country? All the players are cheap but good quality.

Personally I don't like using it as I want to make the game as realistic as possible.

[Plymouth Gull]

Got it today.

Indeed, 92 is right. Reunion is a country (one of the french colonies I think, something like that anyway), and as 92 says, the players are free and quality in L2.

I started thinking like that 92, but after I took Torquay to League One without them, only to get relegated straight after, I used them in a different one which saw me reach mid-Championship, and settle into the sparkling new "Torquay Stadium".

Hoping we get to name the stadiums on this one!

[stevegull]

Fuming.

Popped into our local Tesco to pick it up today... and they didn't have it!

At least i got a pasty out of the venture.

[Plymouth Gull]

Noticed Tescos didn't have it in Newton Abbot either (was really annoyed as I work there so it would have been ideal).

In the end I went to Asda and got it for £30. Not to bad for something that'll keep me occupied for the next 12 months!