OFM and Football Manager: Online Football Strategy Games

During my spare time, I like to play soccer management games. These have varied over the years, from 1-Nil to Sick as a Parrot to play by email and Championship Manager Games. My latest fancies are Online Football Manager (OFM) and Football Manager. Both are free with extra costs for add-ons.

OFM is rather simplistic and most of the game mechanics- lineups, tactics- can be completed within 15 minutes or so depending on the speed of your internet hookup. Games are played nightly and a full season takes about a month to a month and a half depending on the league. Unfortunately, you cannot keep your team (with its subsequent changes) past one season though you can keep playing the same team in the same league year after year. I struggled in my first season with the Dynamo- with a 4th place goal, I only finished 7th. I was ready to quit but lucked into a site discussing tactics. The OFM site is secretive at best on this subject so discovering tactical advice was striking gold. My second season the Dynamo came within 4 points of finishing 1st. I added another team- Napoli in Serie A and was only expected to place 16th, avoiding relegation. Instead, I took the crown by 4 points, overcoming much more skilled and wealthy teams. This is a fun game! I am currently managing two teams predicted for relegation- Excelsior (Dutch League; 5th place now but hoping to move up in the latter 3rd of the season) and Fulham (just beginning season). I’m very happy for the OFM Strategy Discussion to continue here though I am no expert.

Football Manager is much more intricate with league games held 1-2 times weekly. This is truly a game for OCD micromanagers- you control almost everything- stadium, coaches, training, training camps… ad naseum. You don’t get a real team- I currently manage Hicksville. You can rename your team but it costs part of your budget. This is great fun if you have the time- which I don’t often have. Tactics are also somewhat guarded on the site- like OFM, you are encouraged to learn by trial and error and this often means losing. Still, I highly recommend both sites.

I tried to play Hattrick but before I could get started, I had to perform lots of tasks as prerequisites to game play. Looks great but already overloaded, especially playing the above. Feel free to comment on your experiences with Online Soccer/Footy Sims and strategies.