[FM23] Attack of the Eastern Bloc!!!

[sat0urn]

“The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc, the Socialist Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed during the Cold War…” – excerpt from Wikipedia.

In the world of football I think it is safe to say that, despite the successes of Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia on international tournaments, the genius of Valeriy Lobanovskiy and the triumphs of Steaua Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League, Eastern Europe is far behind the West in terms of quality, ability and the number of continental and international honors.

The goal of this save then is easy to formulate – win the Champions League with any team from a former Eastern Bloc state. Those include all former Soviet states that currently compete in UEFA competitions (yes, including Russia, which in this alternate universe can compete both on the club and country levels); all nations that comprised Yugoslavia (I do know that Yugoslavia broke off relations with USSR soon after WW2, but since it was aligned with the communist movement, I am including it here); both nations that comprised Czechoslovakia; Poland; Hungary; Albania; Bulgaria; and Romania. You may have noticed one major nation absent from this list.

For the sake of challenge, I can not take charge of East German football clubs. Despite being a big part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, East Germany – or, I guess, Germany in general – isn’t just one of the Top-5 European leagues as of today, but is also a very rich league, which would make this challenge a whole lot easier when I earn enough reputation. Germany will remain as playable, along with other Top-5 nations, but only so that their clubs can generate players and therefore remain strong contenders in continental competitions.

One other thing to mention is that while the Champions League cup is the ultimate goal of this save, it doesn’t mean I should ignore the two other UEFA competitions. On that note, a separate mod that turns the new competition format off is also included.

And no, I’m not going to venture into Asia, Africa and Latin America. While a worldwide communist revolution in football could make for an even more challenging and engaging FM adventure, I feel like just conquering Europe on its own will be difficult enough to last this save many decades into the future. Perhaps an idea for the future… but for now, it’s time to turn Europe red.

[sat0urn]

The problem with setting up a save like this is... well:

Yeah finding my first job will take some time probably. I'll update once I'm all set up and ready for the first game of the season, wherever that may be.

[Javier]

Looking forward to how this save develops! I've always enjoyed playing in the former Eastern Bloc countries in FM, I've had really fun saves in the past in Russia and Ukraine (go figure). What database are you using that allows Russian teams to compete in Europe?

[sat0urn]

53 минуты назад, Javier сказал:

What database are you using that allows Russian teams to compete in Europe?

I've attached the files since the website I downloaded it from originally is Russian and requires registration to be able to download stuff. There are two versions - one with the old Russian cup format and one with the current one - plus the .lnc file that changes Russian league names which you can use with any other name fix I believe.

Competitions and other Fixes.lnc Russia ex-USSR 23.4 d5 (old cup).fmf Russia ex-USSR 23.4 d5.fmf

[Javier]

hace 7 minutos, sat0urn dijo:

I've attached the files since the website I downloaded it from originally is Russian and requires registration to be able to download stuff. There are two versions - one with the old Russian cup format and one with the current one - plus the .lnc file that changes Russian league names which you can use with any other name fix I believe.

Competitions and other Fixes.lnc 1.21 MB · 0 downloads Russia ex-USSR 23.4 d5 (old cup).fmf 398.71 kB · 0 downloads Russia ex-USSR 23.4 d5.fmf 398.69 kB · 0 downloads

Perfect, thanks a lot!

[sat0urn]

My journey across Eastern Europe starts in Latvia, where a humble club in the 2nd division by the name of Salaspils decided to take their chances with a young inexperienced manager from Russia

The club has just 5 points from their first 8 games and are currently sitting in the relegation play-off places, 4 points away from safety. The first league game is against, let's see here... ah, the team at the top. Classic

And in all fairness we did well against one of the big boys. At least in the first half.

I feel like this result doesn't really reflect the quality of this team, after all Leevon are in 1st and we haven't won a game of football yet (in the league, that is, somehow this bunch of semi-amateur players did get to the Round of 16 in the cup). Next update will be at the end of the season, the aim for which, by the way, is to avoid relegation.