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| Main / Friendly Cups / Newbie Bootcamp Friendly Cup Search Forum | |
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| posted: 2024-08-07 18:02:51 (ID: 100185730) Report Abuse | |
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I have written many words in this thread already, about things that I have learned while educating myself in the mechanics of the game. As we’re heading into the new Bootcamp Friendly Cup I want to revisit some of these things and see if they still hold up nearly 4 seasons later.
When the second Bootcamp took place we played the first season in the Elite league and were able to stay there until today… although this season may become the one in which we are not able to avoid relegation. The reasons for this assumption are manifold, and they all stem from experience which I have made playing at this level for the time that the SEA LIONS did. Experience that will maybe shed a new light on the things I wrote last year. In any case, experience that is worth sharing, because the findings enrich the game even for beginners. And because I’m not too creative when it comes to finding titles I’ll post these findings in a series over the course of the S57 Bootcamp Cup that's just called “What playing in the RZA Elite league has taught me“ 
Disclaimer: As always nothing of what I write is hammered in stone. I do not know anything for sure about this game, which is a fact that drives me mad more often than not. So you (and with that I mean the veteran that maybe read some of my words) may find some of the things that I write confusing and/or blatantly wrong, because you have made different experiences. If that’s so please raise your voice and tell me about it. This one is for the noobies and I wouldn’t like it if they get advice that’s just wrong 
Coming up: roster building for Elite level RZA football  |
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| posted: 2024-08-09 11:28:50 (ID: 100185749) Report Abuse | |
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What playing in the RZA Elite has taught me about rosters #1
Disclaimer: Nothing that’s written about this topic is crucial for playing successful in this Friendly Cup. We’re playing in „Power Mode“, which means that every player that’s involved in the game simulation has his skills set at 40. So you’ll basically have an Elite level team to field each time in the games we play here. It is, however, a guide to what you will need if you want to ultimately win a trophy in the league, which will lead you to the Elite in the process. It will be no surprise to anyone reading this that a good team is paramount to play successful football. And as I have written here and here there are skillsets and specific positions to look for if you want to beef up your squad to make them better almost instantly. But if you want to win it all and play with the big guys in the highest league, my experience has shown me that almost all of the teams that are able to stay in the Elite are built the same way, and I’d like to shed some light on that today. And to clarify up front: „elite players“ in my estimation are players with a rating of 4.5* or higher. They usually are trained to have their A-skills somewhere between 40 and 45 and/or have high EXP… which also makes them pretty expensive. Defense „Why does he start with the Defense?“ you might ask. Well, because it’s the Defense that wins championships, as the saying goes. You can get away with having a not so good Defense because your Offense is world breaking, but you have to a degree depend on luck because not being able to prevent scoring means you constantly have to score more than your opponents… which will wear out at some point. D-Line As I’ve mentioned before you need one elite defensive tackle to anchor your line and defend rushing through the middle. If you’re playing 3-4-4 this NT must be complemented with at least one elite DE that you can line up on the blind side of the opposing QB. The other DE should not be worse than 4*, though, or it’ll be tough to stop the rush constantly. And the same applies to a second DT that’d have to line up if you use 4-4-3. Linebacker The Middle Linebacker is often referred to as the brain of the Defense, and in RZA, too, this position should be filled with elite talent. But not only the MLB has tremendous affect on the game, as also the OLBs put a lot of pressure on the opponent rushing the passer and catching interceptions. That’s why a lot of the teams in the Elite pay big money on these positions, and it’s usually well invested. Cornerback When you look up the list of statistical leaders of the Elite in „Tackling“ this position group has by far the most players ranked in the Top 50. Which only makes sense as a lot of teams prefer passing over rushing (for reference: in week 3 of this season in all the games played in the Elite league it was 1269 passing attempts and 784 rushing attempts). So an awesome CB is essential to prevent your opponent from constantly scoring with passes on you, and you better have two as most offensive formations bring WRs on each side of the field. Safety From what I’ve seen when scouting different teams in these past seasons this position is not always filled with elite players. And when it is it’s mostly the Strong Safety position that has very good rated players on it. Make no mistake, though: Even the Free Safety position has always at least 4*-players on it. And from recent experience I can say that letting less rated players play the deep backfield usually succumbs to vulnerability regarding long passing TDs. To sum it up: To be able to get to and compete in the Elite league you need at least: 2 elite DL – 2 elite LB – 2 elite CB Next: the offense
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| posted: 2024-08-10 20:46:04 (ID: 100185761) Report Abuse | |
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As I’m on the road tomorrow, playing real (flag) football myself, I’ll have to announce the games for tomorrow today already. The game engine sorted the first match-ups in our friendly cup curiously, so in both groups the veterans play each other and so do the new managers… which means that two newbies will have a leg up after this game day. Nice one, game engine
The match-ups of Game Day 1 are the following: Group 1 Bear’s Theth @ Black Knights Bear’s Theth come in with a record of 1–3 and won their first game in the league today against the Empty Team. The Black Knights also won and have a record of 1–4 now. Social Distance Runners @ HAMBURG SEA LIONS Those two teams met numerous times in the last season, usually the Runners came out on top in games when in counted. The SEA LIONS have had a pretty awful week and today’s game was lost 14:47, they have a record of 2–2 right now. The Runners are unbeaten in the Sea Devils league at 5–0, having won today 45:28. This game will be brought to you by the RZA network as Match of the Day. Group 2 Bretzfeld Bandits @ Tennessee Frontiersmen The Bretzfeld Bandits won a close one today 28:27 and have a record of 3–2 in one of the toughest division in the Elite. The Tennessee Frontiersmen won 42:15 and stand at 4–1. Salopian Flame @ Άρις Μεσσηνίας Solopian Flame enjoyed their bye-week today and are a .500 team currently. Άρις Μεσσηνίας lost a tough one by one score despite rallying and scoring two TDs in the final 2 Minutes of the game, which leaves them winless in the season so far. Good luck for everyone |
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| posted: 2024-08-12 21:52:23 (ID: 100185782) Report Abuse | |
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On to the examination of the games that were played on Sunday:
Bear’s Theth 25:24 Black Knights The first drive of the Black Knights ended in midfield with an interception which the Bear’s Theth converted to a TD after 5 plays. And the latter scored another two points with a safety after that, but were not able to do anything on the ensuing possession. Two long drives ended with TDs for the Knights, though, and the men from the Albanian alps were only able to score one FG, making it 12:14 at the half. After another TD for the Knights vs. a FG for the Bears it looked like the Knights were going to win the game, but interceptions two and three for the Knights QB brought the home team back and let them score the game winning TD with 3 minutes to go. Both teams still play with the basic playbook and seem to have not opened the playbook editor yet. At least for the Black Knights it will be paramount to do so, though, as they have their stadium fully built and make smart decisions in building their roster. The next step would be to open the playbook section and start developing their own style of play beyond the choices made in the game settings. First steps to start this journey can be read about here and here. The Bear’s Theth should continue to build the stadium to secure a regular income to fully go for it. Now would be a nice window to expand as they have their next home game on Saturday and it takes three days to further build the stadium. The next window is after the Supercup game on Aug. 22nd. Social Distance Runners 35:10 HAMBURG SEA LIONS The fact that the first points for the HAMBURG SEA LIONS came from a failed 71 yard field goal attempt by the Runners pretty much says it all about this game. The SEA LIONS were never a match for the opponent and continue their mindnumbing stretch of losses that was only broken for a very short while in the other Friendly Cup that they play. Not much to tell here, sadly. The Offense of the SEA LIONS was countered with all the right Defenses by the Runners, while the Defense of the SEA LIONS was just overwhelmed by the Runners attack. Since the SEA LIONS were quite depleted morally due to losing games that they maybe could have / should have won I’m wondering if that might be a reason for their bad performance, as the difference in skills should not be the reason in this Friendly Cup. But that’s only me guessing, as nothing’s really working in the favor of the SEA LIONS these days. Bretzfeld Bandits 23:41 Tennessee Frontiersmen While the Bandits scored first in this one, the Frontiersmen overtook them on their next possession and never looked back. Even scoring 17 points in the third quarter did not get the Bandits close enough to make it exciting again, as the Frontiersmen managed to score at least one TD, but mostly two scores, in each quarter. And with shutting the Bandits out in the final 15 minutes of the game the men from Tennessee sent the visitors home with a loss. The Frontiersmen relied heavily on the pass and threw the ball on almost every occasion and for the entirety of the game. I find that pretty amazing as a) I thought that would not work (and in our case it DID not work) and b) I would have guessed that they would start to rush the ball more in Q4 to control the clock and keep the ball. The Bandits tried to overcome this with trying to trick the Defense into Rushing looks and surprise them with a pass, like the 60 Yard TD in Q3, and the other way around, but even a three men front from the Frontiersmen was to good to defend the Rush, so they had no chance to come back. Salopian Flame 17:42 Άρις Μεσσηνίας The second game in Group 2 was equally as lopsided as the first one. The team from Aris scored first and went on to score in each quarter as well, while the Salopian Flame had there issues getting the ball into the endzone or through the uprights. In the second half it became a turnover festival in which the ball was given to the opponent in all kinds of manners, but in the end the Greek were the luckier ones to win the game by a wide margin. The men from Aris played the game pretty clever. It does not seem to be the most sophisticated playbook of all time that their manager has set up, but boy does it work well. Getas used only the I-Formation, but changed from Rush to Pass and backward to try and keep the Defense of the Flame constantly on their heels. It does of course help that the opponent only used 4-4-3 and 4-3-4 (and Goalline D twice) to defend this particular formation. We had games like this, too, when we played one particular opponent that worked from one formation mostly, and it then is important to meet the Offense with as many defensive formation as they make sense… maybe even gamble a bit sometimes. But at least on obvious passing situations like 4th&19 (like it happened in Q4) one should try to meet this with 3-4-4 or 3-3-5. |
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| posted: 2024-08-13 08:19:53 (ID: 100185790) Report Abuse | |
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Really happy for this first win !!
Was really close but still it's a first win. You are right I am still playing with the normal playbook, but I'm waiting again next year to start on good basis let's say. You spoke about the stadium, if I understood well I am close to finish it no ? And thanks for the comment after the game Chrill very interesting |
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| posted: 2024-08-13 11:18:43 (ID: 100185794) Edits found: 1 Report Abuse | |
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MarcelPangol wrote:
You are right I am still playing with the normal playbook, but I'm waiting again next year to start on good basis let's say. That's ok. But you can open the playbook and make some babysteps nonetheless, because you won't start entirely from scratch. Once you activate the playbook the rules that you are playing by now are still there and you don't NEED to change them. But you can begin to look at how things work and if you want to add lines you can do so and see how it's changing your play. You'll have the option to add a second (or third or fourth) playbook to try out things, though, without changing the basic play
MarcelPangol wrote:
You spoke about the stadium, if I understood well I am close to finish it no ? Yes, you are. When I looked yesterday you were at 99K capacity, now you're at nearly 139K, so you used the window that I wrote about wisely  Maximum capacity is 144.300, so you're nearly there
MarcelPangol wrote:
And thanks for the comment after the game Chrill very interesting You're welcome, that's what the Cup is for Last edited on 2024-08-13 11:47:14 by Chrill |
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| posted: 2024-08-14 14:01:59 (ID: 100185814) Report Abuse | |
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Let’s continue our thought process about how the roster that would be capable of playing at the highest level in RZA should be set up:
What playing in the RZA Elite has taught me about rosters #2 As mentioned in the first post about this: „elite players“ in my estimation are players with a rating of 4.5* or higher. They usually are trained to have their A-skills somewhere between 40 and 45 and/or have high EXP… which also makes them pretty expensive. Today we have a look at the Offense Quarterback I mentioned earlier in this thread already: an Elite QB makes the game more predictable for you. High IQ, well developed A-Skills and great experience help tremendously to play the games as clean as possible. Do you need an Elite QB to win a championship and play at the highest level? I’d say no, but he should be rated with 4* at least, or else you run the risk of the QB on a regular basis distributing the ball not only to your players, but to the opposing players as well. Wide Receiver As mentioned in my last post when I wrote about the Defense you’d need in the Elite: the good teams (should) have at least 2 really good CBs. In turn that means you need really good WRs, too, to beat these CBs. We’ve reached the Elite and played there mostly with 4*-WRs, but have never gotten to the playoffs there, and the defending Backs often win the battle for the ball. It’s gotten better since one of our WRs got good enough to be rated 4.5*. So to make some hay at the highest level the WR-Corps needs to be very good, too. Tight End This one depends on how you want to attack the opponent. You can avoid passing to the TE by choosing to let the QB throw to the WRs on every attempt or by using formations without TEs in them for the majority of the game. This does, of course, make your offense more predictable and thus easier to prepare for. TEs also block for Rushing attempts and usually have a pretty high success rate at that, so it does not hurt to have at least one really good one on the team. Remember here, too: Tight End play is picked up on the opposing side by the Linebackers, those are usually pretty good on the premier teams… and only good players have a chance to stand up to good players regularly. Running Backs / Full Backs Another one where it’s a matter of how you want to attack the opposing team. Some teams rely very much on the pass and only use rushing to a limited degree. You don’t need elite Rushers for that. But a very good blocking FB is indispensable in a system like that to protect the QB, or the sacks will pile up in no time. You can even use the FB to rush from various formations, but he’d have to be very good at rushing for that. If he is, though, he can be a very valuable weapon for you. And if you want to have a more balanced playbook with an equal amount of rushing and passing (because staying in the Elite using lopsided playbooks will be hard to accomplish), you’d want to have at least one elite RB on your squad to be able to vary the plays from Pass to Rush and backwards. O-Line This, in my estimation (and about that, too, I wrote some words earlier in this thread already), is the most important unit on the whole offense to be really good / elite. You won’t even get to any championship game without an O-Line that not at least has 3 very, very good (as „on the brink of being elite“) players on it. The O-Line is the anchor for everything offensively, and neither the Passing game nor the Rush will work on a championship caliber level if the O-Line is too weak. I’d say Center, one Guard and the weak side Tackle NEED to be Elite, and the other two linemen can’t be too far off, too, or you will not be able to produce consistent offensive play. So an offense to win a championship game with and reach the Elite should at least have: 3 elite OL – 1 elite WR – 1 elite RB Next: Experience matters |
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| posted: 2024-08-16 10:23:01 (ID: 100185863) Report Abuse | |
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As I've informed both managers already that I'll play against in the next two games of the group round: the HAMBURG SEA LIONS will use the basic playbook provided by the Creator of the game to keep things even between the teams.
BUT: As we're doing this to educate about certain aspects of this game I'll add the following lines to the defensive playbook at the top, so they'll be read by the engine first (as the lines of the playbook will be read top to bottom and the first line that applies will be executed): 2nd half – 3rd Down – any Yardage, Distance, Score, clock, Offense Formation – Defense formation pass: 3-4-4 – Defense formation rush: 3-4-4 – prefer Pass – no Blitz 2nd half – any Down – any Yardage, Distance, Score, clock, Offense Formation – Defense formation pass: 4-4-3 – Defense formation rush: 4-4-3 – prefer Pass – no Blitz What does that mean? In the second half my team will play a 4-4-3 defense (4 linemen, 2 MLBs, 2 OLBs, 2 CBs and 1 Free Safety) on almost any occasion. Only on 3rd Down it will play 3-4-4 defense (3 linemen, 2 MLBs, 2 OLBs, 2 CBs, 1 Strong Safety and 1 Free Safety), as chances are that 3rd Down will be a passing Down and it'll be easier to defend the Pass with 2 Safeties instead of 1. That, of course, makes us vulverable to passes on first and second down, and maybe short yardage plays on third down can be attacked with the rush. I'll make some adjustments to the offensive playbook like this, too... but I'm not sure yet what exactly that'll be
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| posted: 2024-08-17 21:12:26 (ID: 100185883) Edits found: 1 Report Abuse | |
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I have in fact added a few lines to the basic playbook that will be activated if I'm not leading in the 4th quarter, to maybe help get at least past midfield
While examining the offensive and the defensive basic playbooks something curious caught my eye. On Defense there's the following line: Any Quarter, Down, Yards to go, Distance to the Goalline, Score and clock – Offense Formation: Big I Formation – Defense Formation pass: 5-2 – Defense formation rush: 3-4-4 – prefer: rush In plain English that means the following: On almost any occasion the Defense will defend a passing attempt by the opponent with a 5-2 formation, while rushing attempts will be met with a 3-4-4 formation, with the latter being the starting formation. That doesn't make much sense, as this set-up makes you defend the pass with a rush defense and the rush with a pass defense. But it's a nice loophole that can be exploited even by only using the Game Settings. But how? As I wrote already in an earlier post in this thread, you can manipulate your opponent's defenses. Play a certain Formation and play type a few times, and the Defense will adjust to this by changing the formation to which is set in the Playbook. So if you're playing Rush from Formation A, the Defense will switch to a formation that is more suited to defend the Rush. If you now change the play type to Pass you may catch the Defense by surprise and get big yardage gains from that. I have written about the different defenses here. This maybe helps those who still operate from the basic playbook to find a strategy for the games in this Friendly Cup 
Last edited on 2024-08-17 21:50:59 by Chrill |
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| posted: 2024-08-18 08:21:36 (ID: 100185887) Report Abuse | |
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Chrill wrote:
As I've informed both managers already that I'll play against in the next two games of the group round: the HAMBURG SEA LIONS will use the basic playbook provided by the Creator of the game to keep things even between the teams. BUT: As we're doing this to educate about certain aspects of this game I'll add the following lines to the defensive playbook at the top, so they'll be read by the engine first (as the lines of the playbook will be read top to bottom and the first line that applies will be executed): 2nd half – 3rd Down – any Yardage, Distance, Score, clock, Offense Formation – Defense formation pass: 3-4-4 – Defense formation rush: 3-4-4 – prefer Pass – no Blitz 2nd half – any Down – any Yardage, Distance, Score, clock, Offense Formation – Defense formation pass: 4-4-3 – Defense formation rush: 4-4-3 – prefer Pass – no Blitz What does that mean? In the second half my team will play a 4-4-3 defense (4 linemen, 2 MLBs, 2 OLBs, 2 CBs and 1 Free Safety) on almost any occasion. Only on 3rd Down it will play 3-4-4 defense (3 linemen, 2 MLBs, 2 OLBs, 2 CBs, 1 Strong Safety and 1 Free Safety), as chances are that 3rd Down will be a passing Down and it'll be easier to defend the Pass with 2 Safeties instead of 1. That, of course, makes us vulverable to passes on first and second down, and maybe short yardage plays on third down can be attacked with the rush. I'll make some adjustments to the offensive playbook like this, too... but I'm not sure yet what exactly that'll be
Hi Chrill, you are doing a tremendous job here and I hope the new managers are reading what you are writing. Even for me it is interesting, especially as I unintentionally lost half of my players end of last season. I have been out of the game for several months because of real life issues. And I have a question related to this Newbie Bootcamp Friendly Cup so I respect the rules of this cup. Would you like me to go back to some basic playbook settings and not to a developed playbook ? I haven't played with a written playbook for a long time so how do I go about it ? |
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