Your first week in a new gameworld

So what do you do in your first week? Everything is new and experiences come thick and fast in the first few days.

I'll assume for now that you have chosen your starting skills package and selected your initial squad (which was discussed here).

Tactics
Sort out your starting tactics and remember to leave your best 11 players selected when you log out. If the AI has to manage your team, it will keep your starting tactics and starting players if at all possible. During the game you may find the need to change your team tactics. You receive 2 minutes of real time for timeouts during a game. You can use these to make tactical adjustments and substitutions.

However, I'd recommend that you build 3 different tactics; normal, chasing the game (when losing) and defending a lead. Then during a game you can shift your entire team from one tactic to another at the press of a couple of buttons rather than individually moving players around. Obviously during the first week of the game its unlikely that you will have unlocked many tactical options - but remember to keep three formations/tactics ready.

Also remember to set all your set piece takers. You can't change your set piece takers during a game, and the only time you will remember it is during your first penalty shoot out and you realise your big centre half is about to take the key kick.

Shortlist and alerts
Building your shortlist is a key priority early in the game. You want to list anyone you think you want to buy sometime in the future. The game will give you far more feedback on anyone on your shortlist - most importantly when they are up for auction. A good shortlist will have 200+ players on it.

Another great feature of FML is the ability to set transfer alerts. You can specific criteria of an auction (DR, AF>£500k, opening bid <£1m) - and anyone who fits those criteria triggers a news alert. These alerts can save you loads of time doing manual searches of the database.

Choosing an FA
FAs take the same roles as national FAs in FMxx. Consider each a different country. FAs are split by time of day and intensity of play. I have played in the All Evening FA (AEFA) where official games take place between 6pm and midnight - handy for anyone with a full time job. There are daytime, midnight, weekend and various other versions available. There is also a social FA for those that prefer the social side of the game (social FA managers still sulk when you hammer them!). Hardcore players gravitate towards the Extreme FAs - one has no time restriction and one scheduled for the evenings.

Choose an FA that matches your session times. FA matches count more in your rating, and provide large amounts of cash, 50% of which is split between all participants and the other 50% based on performance. Not joining an FA is a bad idea - it will stop you from gathering rating points easily and you will be starved of cash. In the first year the FAs are run as qualifying leagues before a tiered structure is introduced in season 2. In the AEFA I was in, the first season was 4 leagues of 20 teams with the top 5 from each league being promoted to the premier league for season 2. During season 2 there was a premier league and 3 feeder leagues where the winners got automatic promotion and 2-5 went into a playoff for a promotion. You can change FAs at the end of each season but you will start at the lowest division of your new FA.

Over time FAs introduce U21 leagues and reserve leagues when there is enough interest (and U19 and U17 if you are lucky). Do well in your FA and you wil qualify for the European cup style competitions, the Gold Cup, the Silver Cup and the Cup Winners Cup.

Work out your best eleven
Play loads of friendlies, enter tournaments and meet other managers. Work out who your best palyers are, and who you would be prepared to sell. After 7 days you can begin to sell members of your original squad. Be careful of tournaments with large entry fees. This is an easy way to lose money. I'd recommend beginning with free tournaments, test formations and players, until you are comfortable enough to move up to cash prize tournaments. Be careful about who sets the tournament up. Does the organiser have a team of trialists (Lescott, Walcott etc)? He might have invited the worst teams he could find into his league to guarantee some easy money. Playing lots of games will give you a good idea who your best players are.

Make friends
Although the game is basically PvP, building up a good contact list will go some way to building a sense of community for you. Whilst the lobby is full of random nonsense most of the time, you will find similar people willing to share their views and provide their advice all around your game world. A few manners go a long way. Whenever you play a game as a bare minimum you should always begin chat with a "gl" (good luck) and end with a "gg" (good game) or "wp" (well played). Anything less than this may be taken as bad manners. Even mods storm out of games without a gg or wp sometimes, but that's just human nature. I firmly believe that you should be gracious in defeat, every dog has its day, and needlessly upsetting someone means there is one less manager who will sell you his players. The official forums are full of people who think the game is rubbish because they got beat. My take on this is the second you start believing your own hype, is the second you start getting disappointed. Only one manager can be number one at any given time, but anyone can play exciting, attractive football on their day and log off contented.