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players geling is sometimes a debatable issue in this game, for me, one game and my team gels easily :p


as for the best for to get 18 yos..........that is in about 3 weeks, after te draft, a lot of people are either dissapointed, got a stud that's worth 1 mil, and then the extra trainee on the side........and retirees (Free Agents)

all those rooks are around next season at the start.

make sure though to get on in the beginning of the season so you can at least get one!

Why wait 4-5 weeks for 18 year olds?
At season start the best ones will be too expensive for you
go find one or two now - perennial all star potential or higher
make sure they have some skills to start and don't pay more than $100,000
search and you will find
I bought my PG when he was 19 and he will cap with a few more pops
he will have at least 15-JS,10 JR,15-OD & 14-PA

Training is the best part of this game
and as your player gets better his salary won't change until the following season
and his worth rises as well

So, there isn't some hidden attribute called "team chemistry" or anything like that. So, how long a team has been together does not effect how well a team plays. What does matter is making sure all your players have good Game Shape and using enthusiasm purposefully. Play every player between 50-70 minutes between Fridays (when the GS updates) to keep good GS. And use "Take it Easy" effort in every game except those that you can win on "Normal," but would lose on TIE. But be careful not to play Normal too often or you will never build up enthusiasm. You can (very generally) think of Enthusiasm as a defense boost and Effort as an offense boost, although there is some effect both ways, I think. By only using the full power of your offense when you really need it you will keep teams at bay with your good defense.

A lot of complicated advice on buying a 18yo:
First off, you don't really want to buy an 18yo unless you've invested in at least a level 3-4 trainer. (People who are really serious about training usually only take a level 5 or better.) Second, the best time to buy 18yo's is a little bit of a crapshoot. And you have to be diligent about scouting the TL.

The beginning of the season:
A lot of people who drafted 18yo's will put them on the Transfer List as soon as they're drafted, trying to take advantage of all the people who want to get in on the full training weeks an 18yo has. So there's a lot of action in the market then, which means lots of 18yo's and lots of potential buyers. You can find deals if you're disciplined.

After a few weeks:
As the season progresses, you'll find fewer and fewer 18yo's. And the "really great ones" will likely be gone. The ones who are on the TL will likely have missed out on some training opportunities and will be, to some degree, "behind." But this can translate into lower prices. So you can still find deals.

After the All Star Break
I would advise against buying a 18yo after the ASB (week 7). Most of the players available by then are poorly trained and it's better to wait until the next crop of 18yo's emerge. But every once in a while there's a diamond in the ruff. A good rule of thumb is if you add all of the 10 main skills (people call this "total skill points" or TSP). An average 18yo will start with 35. And you can add 1 for every week of the season (though that's a little optimistic) to keep apprised of what "average" is. I wouldn't pay much for a guy that wasn't significantly above average.

19yos?
If you're looking for a trainee and you don't want to spend a lot or you need performance sooner, you might try a 19yo. The market is like the one for 18yo's but with less money involved (on the whole), since the average 18yo with a season of training will be better than the average player drafted as a 19yo. So you can often snag a "good" 19yo for less than what you'd spend on a comparably "good" 18yo, even the 18yo might outperform the 19yo in the long-term.

24-hr market
Also, the market is a 24-hour beast. Its volume swings daily as the evening hits different time zones. Evening in Europe is prime time and there are little bumps for China and the Americas. And the biggest numbers of users are online on days when there are league games and scrimmages.

Above all, keep in mind what training you'll be doing and whether a player is the right height/potential to build you want. And remember (as with all TL purchases) that secondaries (guard skills for bigs, big skills for guards) help players perform better than their salary.

there was a huge 4 page debate spawned after i said that 18 year olds are worth buying right now. You just have to understand you're not going to get a product capable of winning any large scale tourney, micronation or not. Then as tough said they get flooded out in the market early next year, but even with a flooded market primary talents are going to be far too expensive for you to grab the upper tier talent. You'll have to choose from guys who got the 4/4, 3/4, and 2/5 draft ratings mostly given that you are building stadium, and at least a handful of bigger teams i've seen have claimed to save 1mil+ for a new trainee that is probably well over what you can afford right now.

Whether or not a 32 year old works out is dependent on two things to me. Can he be a two-way player, or can he dominate in his area of the court. With your guy, he's not really a dominant inside threat, and while he has good secondaries in handling and passing his 1 in OD kills any chance to defend any shot taken outside. A two way defensive player needs 10+ in ID and 7+ in OD for a D.IV US team. I think your nation signals that an average D.II team should have this. If he's inside only, probably shoot towards a 12 rating when possible. Sometimes to find them cheap, you have to look a bit older than 31. Just set a max budget of around 30-50k for a veteran, and wait for one to be undervalued, if you so desire to do a bit better.

Nice post. I agree with almost everything except for:

A good rule of thumb is if you add all of the 10 main skills (people call this "total skill points" or TSP). An average 18yo will start with 35.

I think 35 is a little low, even for an average 18-yr-old. With that few points, you are a year behind training already. Might as well use the money saved from not training that guy for a year and paying his trainer and put it into a 19-yr-old with better skills.

I read this years ago and have roughly followed this for getting trainees:

age TSP
 18  60
 19  70
 20  80
 21  90

Those are minimums and include all 12 skills tho.

I think you're right, Kumiko.

I did my math wrong. 18yo's have starting skills between 1-7, assuming they're evenly distributed, the average player would start out (ignoring STA/FT) with 40 TSP - not 35. Oops! And I'm advocating that any trainee you buy ought to be above average. If you consider all 12 skills, 48 TSP would be "average." Your 60 threshold means every skill would be 1 better than "average." I like that as a benchmark.

It's good to know, also, that the further above 48 TSP (including FT/STA) you go, the fewer players have been generated. And the highest TSP an 18yo could have be would be 84. That can give you some perspective on the market and where a player you're considering buying is.

Last edited by rhyminsimon at 11/7/2012 3:51:18 PM

Thanx all!!! It's really cool you guys like to help!
From what I read... the game got more complicated... but way more interesting!!! Gracias

no prob.........as i said in the bb mail earlier train your trainee in HA and you will be fine ;)

just hit us up and anyone is happy to help