dafuge's FM15 challenge

Quote: Dafuge - SI Games Forum
The Aim

For the tenth year running the aim is the same - to take a small club who were previously unplayable in an unedited game from the Vanarama N/S to Premier League and Champions League glory.

The Rules

Load a game with the English leagues only, with the Vanarama N/S selected. All of the boxed should be left unticked apart from 'do not add key staff' and 'prevent use of in-game editor'. It should look like this.

Just like previous years, the players for the newly playable clubs need to be added which can be done using a custom database. The players from the three feeder league have to be added, which looks like this. If people wish to add extra players, any players from continents may be loaded, but not from individual countries. This is hopefully to provide a challenging game later on, without making the lower leagues too easy with too many cheap talented players available.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed manager, the details are not important at all. I like to call mine 'Holiday Man'.

Go on holiday until 25th June, this shouldn't take too long, perhaps about an hour. Turning off autosaving during this time will speed things up. Saving on 24th June may give you a better choice of teams by reloading the game then going on holiday for one day, I would strongly recommend trying this.

Retire your 'Holiday Man' manager. He had one job, he has succeeded and as a result he is no longer needed.

Add a new manager, the personal details are completely up to you but I would expect people to use their own true nationalities and languages spoken. Coaching badges must be set to 'None', with past playing experience set as 'Sunday League Footballer'. The coaching attributes are completely up to you.

When adding a new manager, choose one of the new clubs promoted to the Vanarama North or South to manage. A quick way to check the new teams is to find the 'England Overview' team, then the 'season summary'. Just above the FA Cup summary you should find a list of six new teams.

They should appear in this list which shows the reputation of the possible clubs. The reputation should act as a difficulty level. The lower the reputation, the harder your game should be.

(reputations taken from FM14 as a guide, until FM15 values are available)

Ryman Football League Premier Division
AFC Hornchurch     1700
Billericay         1700
Bognor Regis       1600
Bury Town          1500
Canvey Island      1600
Dulwich Hamlet     1750
East Thurrock      1400
Enfield Town       1200
Grays              1450
Hampton & Richmond 1650
Harrow             1300
Hendon             1600
Kingstonian        1700     
Leatherhead        1250
Leiston            1250
Lewes              1600
Maidstone          1950
Margate            1950
Met Police         1350
Peacehaven         1050
Tonbridge          1700
VCD                1050
Wingate & Finchley 1250
Witham             1150

Calor Gas League Southern Premier Division
Arlesey            1200
Banbury            1000
Bideford           1100
Biggleswade Town   1150
Burnham            1150
Cambridge City     1600
Chesham            1450
Chippenham         1450
Cirencester        1250
Corby              1800
Dorchester         2100
Dunstable           950
Frome              1100
Hereford           2650
Histon             1650
Hitchin            1250
Hungerford         1000
Paulton            1150
Poole Town         1050
Redditch           1650
Slough             1300
St. Neots          1500
Truro              1500
Weymouth           1600

Evo-Stik League Northern Premier Division
Ashton Utd         1600
Barwell            1450
Belper             1400
Blyth              1650
Buxton             1550
Curzon Ashton      1400
FC United          1900
Frickley           1400
Grantham           1500
Halesowen          1450
Ilkeston           1550
King's Lynn        1550
Marine             1500
Matlock            1550
Nantwich           1500
Ramsbottom         1350
Rushall            1550
Skelmersdale       1550
Stamford           1500
Stourbridge        1450
Trafford           1400
Whitby             1500
Witton             1550
Workington         1700

It is now up to you to manage this club all the way to the Premier League title and UEFA Champions League crown.

You may not move clubs unless you are sacked.

If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that satisfies the original criteria (check the club's league history), or just start again.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

Assigning parent clubs and loaning players is completely up to the player, although it should be noted that on occasions a parent club can lend players which will make the first season or two slightly less of a challenge. It is completely up to you how you play this one, but everyone knows real men don't use parent club loans. Personally, I like to assign a parent club for financial benefits but never take any players on loan from them.

To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them, as long as you have them at the club on trial so you can get a coach report on him. If an agent offers you a player, you can sign him without scouting him.

No external utilities such as scouting programs should be used and the database should be unedited (with the exception of cosmetic changes which cannot be discussed here). Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed but any other data updates are not.

Just as always, no extra leagues can be loaded for the extent of the challenge. Once the challenge is completed, you have the freedom to do what you want.

Use of save game editors is strictly banned, whatever the reason. Ticking that box at the start should see to this.


Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed.

General discussion on tactics is allowed, although people should not refer to downloaded tactics. They are not banned, but I would expect the majority of people to avoid them.

When you join the challenge, post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the 25th June like this.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread, we want to hear the story of your club all the way through. Please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including at least a screenshot of a league table and the clubs transfer page. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier to pick out.


How to Post a Screenshot

While in FM, press Alt and F9
A picture will be saved to a screenshots folder, in the FM15 folder in your documents
Upload the image to an image hosting website such as imgur
Post the direct Url to the image here.
How to Add Links

At the top of the forum, go to 'Settings' then 'General Settings' (on the left). At the bottom, select 'enhanced interface' and save the changes. This will give you access to the extra posting tools that make it easier to post links. Once you've done this, highlight the word you wish to turn into a link, then use the link button (looks like a little globe) to paste in the direct Url to your screenshot.

just so you know on the SI community dafuge challenge thread (scroll down a few posts), there's a bunch of different saves so you have more choice of which team to manage from 2015.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/400804-dafuge-s-FM15-challenge