dafuge's FM17 challenge

[dafuge]

The Aim

To take a small club who were previously unplayable in an unedited game from the Vanarama National League North/South to Premier League and Champions League glory.

The Rules

Start the game unemployed and choose the advanced setup. Like last year, you have the option of loading whatever leagues you like at the start and throughout the game. All of the boxes 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 the 'advanced' option on the database size. The players from the three feeder league have to be added, which looks like this. You can also add anything else you like to increase the size of the database.

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 is the day that the new clubs appear, so saving on 24th June gives you a chance to reload in the hope of getting a particular club.

Retire your 'Holiday Man' manager and allow him to ride off into the sunset.

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.

Isthmian League Premier Division
AFC Sudbury            1500
Billericay             2200
Bognor Regis           1900
Burgess Hill           1600
Canvey Island          1850
Dulwich Hamlet         2100
Enfield Town           1750
Folkstone Invicta      1650
Grays                  1750
Harlow Town            1600
Harrow                 1650
Havant & Waterlooville 2200
Hendon                 1850
Kingstonian            1950
Leatherhead            1600
Leiston                1550
Lowestoft Town         2000
Merstham               1500
Met Police             1700
Needham Market         1550
Staines                1800
Tonbridge              1950
Wingate & Finchley     1600
Worthing               1500

 

Southern Football League Premier Division
Banbury            1500
Basingstoke Towm   1900
Biggleswade Town   1650
Cambridge City     1750
Chesham            2000
Chippenham         1800
Cinderford         1500
Cirencester        1700
Dorchester         1700
Dunstable          1750
Frome              1700
Hayes & Yeading    2000
Hitchin            1750
Kettering          2500
King's Lynn        2000
Kings Langley      1600
Leamington         2100
Merthyr Town       2000
Redditch           1650
Slough             2000
St. Ives           1500 
St. Neots          1650
Stratford          1500
Weymouth           1700

 

Northern Premier League Premier Division
Ashton Utd         1600
Barwell            1550
Blyth              1900
Buxton             1600
Coalville Town     1350
Corby Town         1600
Frickley           1450
Grantham           1550
Halesowen          1500
Hednesford Town    1800
Ilkeston           1550
Marine             1500
Matlock            1600
Mickleover         1400
Nantwich           1650
Rushall            1600
Skelmersdale       1400
Spennymore Town    1650
Stafford Rangers   1550
Stourbridge        1750
Sutton Coldfield   1400
Warrington Town    1400
Whitby             1600
Workington         1750

It is now up to you to manage this club all the way to the Premier League title and UEFA Champions League crown. The challenge is complete once you have won both competitions, this does not need to happen in the same season.

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. 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.

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 FM17 folder in your documents
• Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Imgur
• Post the direct Url to the image here.

Enjoy

[TheEarl]

Leaderboards
User (Manager)	Last division	Last position	New division	Last season	Club	PL won	CL won

@MrDarrenPerry1             Premier League        2                       Premier League        2037/38         Dulwich Hamlet                yes          yes (COMPLETED)
@bartolomeu dias             Premier League        1                       Premier League        2030/31         Frickley Athletic                 yes         yes (COMPLETED)
@profii                               Premier League        1                       Premier League        2032/33          Blyth Spartans                  yes         yes (COMPLETED)
@michaeltmurrayuk          Premier League        1                       Premier League        2031/32          Met Police                          yes        yes (COMPLETED)
@XaW                                 Premier League        4                       Premier League         2026/27          Merthyr Town FC             no          no
@QSF25                              Premier League       6                        Premier League        2029/30          Kettering Town                 no          no
@Barnet                             Premier League        5                        Premier League         2026/27          Tonbridge Angels            no           no
@Wells                                Premier League       15                      Premier League         2027/28          Cambridge City                no           no
@Scab                                Premier League        14                      Premier League         2028/29          Burgess Hill                      no           no
@Hypanimz                       Premier League         12                     Premier League         2032/33           Enfield Town                   no            no
@deadfncat                       Championship           6                        Premier League         2024/25          Dulwich Hamlet              no           no
@vikeologist                      Championship           1                        Premier League         2027/28           Folkestone Invicta         no             no
@Warhawk                        League One                1                       Championship            2022/23           Enfield Town                  no            no
@SuperSubFM                  League Two                 1                       League One                 2020/21          Lowestoft Town              no           no
@Balahara                        League Two                3                        League One                 2020/21          Barwell FC                        no           no
@Kaiserwatman               League Two                1                         League One                2026/27           Stafford Rangers            no           no
@jsar                                 League Two               1                         League One                 2021/22          Chippenham Town        no            no
@LeProfIamNot                League Two                3                        League One                 2021/22           Dulwich Hamlet             no            no
@Dons                              League One                3                         League One                2021/22           Basingstoke                    no            no
@IL Luce                            League Two               4                         League One                 2020/21          Billericay                          no            no
@Andrew Haines             League Two                1                          League One                 2020/21            Merthyr                          no             no
@Moriean                         Vanarama National  1                          League Two                 2018/19          Spennymoor Town        no            no
@darren1983                    Vanarama National  4                          League Two                2019/20           Kingstonian                    no             no
@IainWhite                       Vanarama National  1                          League Two                 2021/22          Harrow Borough            no            no
@GJS93                             League Two               18                        League Two                 2020/21           Lowestoft Town            no             no
@ToxicPedro                    Vanarama National  2                          League Two                 2018/19           Dulwich Hamlet             no            no
@smp20                           Vanarama National  1                          League Two                 2018/19           King's Lynn                     no             no
@darren1983                   Vanarama National  2                          League Two                 2018/19           Dulwich Hamlet             no             no
@The_Gato_In_Goal         Vanarama South       1                          Vanarama National  2018/19           Weymouth                      no            no
@TheMadMonk                Vanarama National  18                         Vanarama National  2020/21           Ilkeston FC                      no            no
@Drew the Cookie Eater  Vanarama National  13                        Vanarama National  2021/22            Lowestoft Town             no             no
@butts                             Vanarama National  5                           Vanarama National   2018/19           Dulwich Hamlet            no              no
@Quasar                          Vanarama South      5                           Vanarama National  2018/19            Chesham United           no              no
@mack4ever                    Vanarama South      1                           Vanarama National   2017/18           Havant & Waterlooville no             no
@leejoelee                       Vanarama South      3                           Vanarama National   2017/18           Billericay                          no             no
@G_D_K                           Vanarama National  5                          Vanarama National    2019/20           Chippenham Town       no             no
@noikeee                         Vanarama National  9                          Vanarama National   2025/26            Stourbridge FC              no             no
@Matt6                            Vanarama South       5                          Vanarama National   2017/18            Staines Town                 no             no
@Weiry                            Vanarama South       1                          Vanarama National    2017/18            Dulwich Hamlet           no             no
@streety                          Vanarama North       2                          Vanarama National     2017/18           Kettering Town             no            no
@DE-Z                             Vanarama North       1                           Vanarama National    2018/19            Workington AFC           no            no
@exacerbating                Vanarama North       1                           Vanarama National    2017/18             Lowestoft Town           no            no
@Fizzle                            Vanarama South       1                           Vanarama National   2017/18             Harlow Town                no             no
@Tecmo                          Vanarama South       5                          Vanarama National    2026/27             Slough Town                 no            no
@Big Geordie                  Vanarama North       2                          Vanarama National    2017/18             Blyth Spartans              no             no
@tse1231                        Vanarama North       4                          Vanarama National    2017/18             Blyth Spartans              no             no

 

 

[Hypanimz]

Good Luck guys. Let the reloading begin!!

[G_D_K]

 

Reserved for 3rd annual installment of pre-generated saves, for those wanting to get into the game quickly with their favorite new team!  This evening I'll generated a dozen or so "beta" save starts, then on full release I'll add another score or so of games...the aim, as usual, to get at least 60% of the playable teams, with as many of the more difficult (lowest rep) teams as I can handle.

First batch of BETA saves follows, using the following setup:  UK&Ireland, Large Database with no additional additions (other than the 3 lower leagues required for the challenge) --- total of about 11.5K players

• Save 1:  Basingstoke, Met Police, Corby, Hednesford, Kingstonian, Kettering
• Save 2:  Havant & Waterlooville, Dorchester, Dulwich Hamlet, Basingstoke, Corby, Workington
• Save 3:  Lowestoft, Dulwich Hamlet, Kettering, Dorchester, Workington, Stourbridge
• Save 4: Havant & Waterlooville, Dorchester, Tonbridge, Stourbridge, Basingstoke, Blyth
• Save 5: Bognor Regis, Canvey Island, Hednesford, Cambridge C, Matlock, Kettering 
• Save 6: Havant & Waterlooville, Hendon, Kettering, Learnington, Stourbridge, Nantwich
• Save 7: Havant & Waterlooville, Basingstoke, Hendon, Workington, Ashton Utd, Dorchester
• Save 8: Bognor Regis, Dulwich Hamlet, Basingstoke, Ashton Utd, Workington, Redditch
• Save 9: Havant & Waterlooville, Dulwich Hamlet, Basingstoke, Hednesford, Marine, Cambridge C
• Save 10: Tonbridge, Basingstoke, Grays, Hendesford, Workington, Dorchester

2nd batch of BETA saves, setup as follows:  All of Great Britain, + all continental rep players, Large Database (25K Players)

• Save 11: Havant & Waterlooville, Lowestoft, Dorchester, Hednesford, Stafford, Kettering
• Save 12: Havant & Waterlooville, Tonbridge, Kettering, Dorchester, Ashton United, Skelmersdale
• Save 13: Havant & Waterlooville, Billericay, Redditch, Hayes & Yeading, Stourbridge, Stafford
• Save 14: Dorchester, Kingstonian, Havant & Waterlooville, Kettering, Hednesford, Buxton
• Save 15: Dorchester, Tonbridge, Billericay, Rushall, Stourbridge, Chesham
• Save 16: Havant & Waterlooville, Lowestoft, Basingstoke, Corby, Ilkeston, Chippenham

 

Save Batch 3:  GB+Spain, Porto, Italy, Holland, Belgium, France, Continental Rep (46k)

• Save 16: Dorchester, Kingstonian, Hendon, Ashton Utd, Blyth, Weymouth
• Save 17:  Havant & Waterlooville, Blyth, Basingstoke, Met Police, Hednesford, King's Lynn
• Save 18: Kingstonian, Lowestoft, Basingstoke, Hednesford, Learnington, Ilkeston
• Save 19: Dulwhich Hamlet, Lowestoft, Dorchester, Blyth, Hayes & Yeading, Grantham
• Save 20: Dorchester, Kettering, Hednesford, Dulwich Hamlet, Staines, Nantwitch
• Save 21: Havant & Waterlooville, Kettering, Harrow, Stoubridge, Cambridge City, Matlock
• Save 22:  Tonbridge, Havant & Waterlooville, Kettering, St. Neots, Ilkeston, Rushall
• Save 23: Havant & Waterlooville, Basingstoke, Corby, Cambridge City, Tonbridge, Sutton Coldfield
• Save 24:  Dorchester, Basingstoke, Canvey Island, Enfield Town, Workington, Ashton United
• Save 25: Dulwich Hamlet, Basingstoke, Bognor Regis, Hayes & Yeading, Whitby, Matlock
• Save 26: Kingstonian, Staines, Dorchester, Weymouth, Coalville, Stafford
• Save 27: Dulwich Hamlet, Bognor Regis, Hayes & Yeading, Learnington, Barwell, Hednesford

[XaW]

Ahh, lovely to see the thread. I'm in, once again. Maybe I'll finish it this year.

[Hypanimz]

I have reached reset day. Time to hopefully find some rare teams.

[Wavelberry]

St Ives looks like a doozy of a team to get. Would love them.

[Crispypaul]

Good work. At the pub ahead of the Spurs game but will try and start later or tomorrow 

[Moriean]

Targetting Merthyr Town for this year. Especially if Wales like Scotland can secede from the UK

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Will be doing this, just waiting for Needham Market to turn up

[Hypanimz]

Been reloading for the best part of an hour now. Haven't seen too many teams that have caught my eye however I have just stumbled across the team I will look to take forward this year. So introducing the new manager of Enfield Town. Lets go!

[XaW]

Releading and trying to figure out who I want. Got Folkstone Invicta as one potential. Going for them unless I get any other fun teams.

[Wenners89]

31 minutes ago, Hypanimz said:

Been reloading for the best part of an hour now. Haven't seen too many teams that have caught my eye however I have just stumbled across the team I will look to take forward this year. So introducing the new manager of Enfield Town. Lets go!

You say keep reloading. When first start,you start on the 1st Jul 2016. How long do you go on holiday for before the new teams come up?

[Hypanimz]

Just now, Wenners89 said:

You say keep reloading. When first start,you start on the 1st Jul 2016. How long do you go on holiday for before the new teams come up?

I went on holiday until June 24th 2017 then saved. Holiday one more day and then see who gets promoted. If I didnt like those teams I reload the save to the previous day and repeat. 

[Wenners89]

3 minutes ago, Hypanimz said:

I went on holiday until June 24th 2017 then saved. Holiday one more day and then see who gets promoted. If I didnt like those teams I reload the save to the previous day and repeat. 

Brilliant, thank you, thought that may be the case but wasnt sure.

[XaW]

Reloaded a bunch of times, but didn't get any one I wanted more. I'm the new manager of Folkestone Invicta. Here we go!

[Tecmo]

That's encouraging, previously you always had to sim multiple seasons to get Enfield and I think Folkestone just became eligible this season

[XaW]

Scrapped a 2-1 win over the U23 team. Hopefully we'll do better soon.

[jsar]

just got the 24th - time to reload until Chippenham shows up!

[Ruh Roh]

Just started up with Stafford Rangers. We have a good target man, hopefully everything else should be enough to get by.

[Ross Ingersoll]

Think this year i will give it a go with Met police although if there is  uglier logo in all of football, im not sure who 

[cmpn]

My favorite way to get my bearings for a new year. On board with Kettering Town.

[G_D_K]

Gonna take a break from holidaying a multitude of saves --- found one of the popular annual clubs....meet the new Chippies manager! (I'll go with this until I get sacked, or my multitude of holiday saves over the next couple weeks turn up something more interesting/challenging!)

[jsar]

3 hours ago, G_D_K said:

Gonna take a break from holidaying a multitude of saves --- found one of the popular annual clubs....meet the new Chippies manager! (I'll go with this until I get sacked, or my multitude of holiday saves over the next couple weeks turn up something more interesting/challenging!)

Any chance you can upload the chippenahm Save, bored of reloading already!

[G_D_K]

2 minutes ago, jsar said:

Any chance you can upload the chippenahm Save, bored of reloading already!

I'll do in morning (just off to bed now...its only 2AM....gees I must be getting old!) if I kept a pristine save....(which I'm pretty sure I did). 

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

And so it begins, didn't get Needham Market, but I got the next best thing, introducing the new manager of Lowestoft Town

[Lanthal]

Oh dear... FM 17 day one and I'm already in Dafuge's challenge.  Why do I hate myself so.

Introducing the manager of Stourbridge.  I look nothing like that IRL.

While I'm the manager of Stourbridge I might try to work out Who put Bella down the Wych Elm

[J4KYorkshire]

I am going to dive into this challenge this year I think. 

[Faultless86]

Cant wait to give this a real go this season, on holiday right now

[sidvic]

Im going as Chelmsford manager .

[jsar]

New Manager of Chippenham here 

 

http://imgur.com/YZwIXeS

 

[Moriean]

Currently rerolling to see if I can find something interesting. Seems to take longer this year before the pattern starts repeating and you have to start over from July 2016 again.  Anyone seen Methyr Town? 

Out of the 36 different clubs I got Grantham Town FC is my favorite so far. Clubs I take to glory need to have a long history (>100 years) of achieving nothing.

 

[Hypanimz]

2 minutes ago, Moriean said:

Currently rerolling to see if I can find something interesting. Seems to take longer this year before the pattern starts repeating and you have to start over from July 2016 again.  Anyone seen Methyr Town? 

Out of the 36 different clubs I got Grantham Town FC is my favorite so far. Clubs I take to glory need to have a long history (>100 years) of achieving nothing.

 

I didn't see Methyr Town and I reloaded for approx an hour and a half last night. The rarest team I came across were Enfield Town.  Ideally I wanted Kings Langley but I think they will be extremely rare.

[Moriean]

4 minutes ago, Hypanimz said:

I didn't see Methyr Town and I reloaded for approx an hour and a half last night. The rarest team I came across were Enfield Town.  Ideally I wanted Kings Langley but I think they will be extremely rare.

Kings Langley is on my list too. You'd take them over after 4 consecutive promotions (3 real life 1 in game) which would make it a proper challenge. 

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

Currently top of the league via goal difference with 10 games to go, bar any injuries we should be able to make it home at the first time of asking.

[Hypanimz]

2 minutes ago, Drew the Cookie Eater said:

Currently top of the league via goal difference with 10 games to go, bar any injuries we should be able to make it home at the first time of asking.

Wow you are smashing through! I've just completed my 2nd game of the season! Hopefully the forums curse doesn't strike you!

[XaW]

Just played my first competitive match and lost 6-2 away to Bath. This could be hard.

[Ledleyking]

Happy to present the new manager of Wingate & Finchley FC.

http://imgur.com/a/pbUNk

Let the fun begin!

 

[Hypanimz]

Had a solid opening 6 games so far. 3 wins a draw and 2 defeats scoring 15 goals in the process. I'm finding wingers and attacking midfielders to be particularly effective so far.

[yerug]

I will give Ashton United a go, but what a mess! Booted the assistant manager and brought in about 10 trial players in two weeks of management. I feel like im throwing d20 dices right now. 

[Scab]

Let's have a go with Burgess Hill.

Wish me luck!

[G_D_K]

1 hour ago, Moriean said:

Currently rerolling to see if I can find something interesting. Seems to take longer this year before the pattern starts repeating and you have to start over from July 2016 again.  Anyone seen Methyr Town? 

Out of the 36 different clubs I got Grantham Town FC is my favorite so far. Clubs I take to glory need to have a long history (>100 years) of achieving nothing.

 

Haven't seen Methyr Town yet.....also have mid-30s in total teams found.  I'll be running some more save seeds throughout the week, and for another couple weeks after full release....I usually manage to get near to 50 of the teams available.....eventually

[yerug]

Ashton Utd

PRE- SEASON

2017/18

 -

 Vanarma National League North

Expectations: Try to survive

My goals: To survive indeed.

 

 

''A twitter storm hits the web; an potato- sack-lookalike ex-Sunday league player from Norway will be running Ashton Utd. The crucial first season  in the VNLN is is in this man’s hands.

Kris Hammer has no recognition, no deep experience as a footballer. This will be a strange circus of a season for sure...   ''

 

 

PRE-SEASON

The team turns out to have a couple of key players like the central back captain Joe Conor and striker Lee Gaskell. But their high age makes them feel very expendable, but probably important for our first season. Our top 3 players are over the age of 31!

Basically every part of the team is poor, as I expected. I decide to spend a portion of the budget on staff anyway, since lacking a decent assistant manager, scout and phyiso is just plain annoying.

New staff hired: Assistant manager, scout, director of football, physio, u21 manager and head of youth dev.

 

We offered about 20 players a trial period of 3 weeks during the pre- season, because we didn’t have a clue which players are decent around these parts. 9 of the trial players were offered contracts, mostly as backups. Aparantly it is difficult to randomly hire good players right from the streets. I think our strategy will have to be to use the players smartly, and not hope for smart players. 

Notable transfers:

-        Alex Wiles, central midfielder. Our only loan player pre- season. And probably our only playmaker’ish player. He knows how to pass a ball properly, so I am guessing he will be our creative man!

-        Paul White, Keeper. Pulled this irishman right off the street for a trial period, and he actually turned out to be a fairly decent keeper! We’ll see how the 22 y.o handles a full season.

 

Friendly matches went okay, but injuries plague our midfielders. We went overboard and played friendlies vs PSG resserves and Preston, which we naturally lost solidly. We’re having trouble getting the right players match fit, so there’s a tough season ahead ! We've also zapped our budged quite a bit when trying to keep our key players, recruiting so many resserves and hiring new staff! 

 

Our planned 1st team for the opening match is ready, in a traditional 4-4-2:

 

 

((please leave a comment on my format or what I should include. First real post)). 

[Dan BHTFC]

9 hours ago, Scab said:

Let's have a go with Burgess Hill.

Wish me luck!

I'm hoping to get them to come up but no luck so far, do you have a save from the start?

[XaW]

Great intro post there, @yerug. Nice to see another Norwegian trying their luck in the lower tier. I'm finding it curious that we speak fluently German as Norwegians. Fair enough that we might understand a bit, but I'm certainly not fluent.

Anyway, Wiles looks like a diamond on this level. Good luck with the season.

[IOA]

16 hours ago, sidvic said:

Im going as Chelmsford manager .

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they're part of the challenge?

Although I loved/love managing them on FM16!

BTW hows Mr. Mullings on it, good lad and he's having a good season.

 

[IOA]

11 hours ago, Ledleyking said:

Happy to present the new manager of Wingate & Finchley FC.

http://imgur.com/a/pbUNk

Let the fun begin!

 

Good luck,

Any chance of a screenshot for Mr. Healey?

Reoccuring theme of local lads on the game who I've played with lol

[Mushtaq]

It is a bit disturbing that I have dived in and bought FM17 with no real desire to start a game just yet, but basically just to holiday and start reloading for rare teams.

[yerug]

59 minutes ago, XaW said:

Great intro post there, @yerug. Nice to see another Norwegian trying their luck in the lower tier. I'm finding it curious that we speak fluently German as Norwegians. Fair enough that we might understand a bit, but I'm certainly not fluent.

Anyway, Wiles looks like a diamond on this level. Good luck with the season.

Thanks, I will have a mid-season update as well this weekend I think. As for the german... yeh, the game picked all of that for me based on nationality. Maybe some have german in school for up to 4 years, but I had 3 years myself and suck at it.

[Drew the Cookie Eater]

BOOM!