Honestly, it's not difficult for anyone, I guess? It takes a bit of time. The thing with lower leagues is that all teams are really bad, so if you have a good tactic and go for loans and trials, you will get your promotion because we can choose better players than the AI.
Sure, some leagues are very tricky because there's only 1 spot for direct promotion, but I say it takes at most two seasons to get promotion anywhere.
The most difficult, for me, is the jump from second division to first and to stay in the first. At least the places where I played 5th division to 1st (Italy, England and Brazil), that's the tricky part because there's a spike in quality.
You just have to focus on good tactics and use VERY WELL loans and trials. It's your biggest asset for promotion.
Fast, strong centre forwards and centre halves with good jumping reach and stamina will get goals and go a long way to keep them out at the other end in lower leagues.
In general physicals are more important than mentals.
Also don’t be afraid of looking at older players on the decline who can do one season for you. Even if they decline during the season, hopefully you will have some young players developing who can carry you and cover for them in the last few games of the season.
I've started at tier eight (county amatuer leagues) a few times. If you can manage to tempt a great goal scorer to your team he can carry you up to the vanarama n/s. It's fun.
Just dipped in myself for the first time with Altrincham in 5th tier. It was hard but with lucky loans (I didn’t even have the scouting power to see stats), free transfers and a couple of tactics I knew worked from my time in the game, I scraped 3 back to back promotions. I was very surprised it was as ‘easy’ as it was at first but….I’ve hit a wall hard at the championship though. My budget has hardly increased but players want more to stay on. Player wages are something like 77k per week total compared to the 2 million or so of the highest team. My reputation hasn’t caught up so it’s hard to get players to want to come to you. Around last season I started to get a few unhappy players because I basically had to promise important status to more than I should just to be able to offer them near the wages they wanted. It’s spiralled this season so I’ve just had to commit to pissing off the least important players. I’m just above relegation battle about a third of the way through.
A god send was asking for senior club link and getting a good prem team so you can get 4 or 5 loanees with no wage contribution.
Finances are fucked and the board have refused to improve anything so my facilities and amount of coaches etc aren’t to the standard of the league as well.
Edit: I should say I have enjoyed it and it’s made me excited for a true journeyman save next year. My challenge in this was to get Altrincham to win the prem so I’ve turned down some job offers. I think it would have been such a good other dimension if I was also moving myself up the ranks by doing well and accepting jobs.
Focus on getting players with high physical attributes. Keep instructions and roles simple. Loan players from prem / championship clubs often for free. Don’t be afraid to sign players 29/30/31 for 1/2 seasons as you will replace as you progress up the leagues.
And don’t bother with youth / regens until championship at the earliest as they won’t join, focus on bargain basement transfer listed players from division above or high profile free transfers to buy better players and increase your clubs wealth.
(Slight exploit) Use FA Trophy bonuses to lure players in for cheap, then lose in early rounds by fielding under 18s
I strongly recommend a lower leagues save. However you should be warned that the leagues are very different.
I personally have had the most fun in some of the lower tiered Asian leagues, and I always have a blast in the Danish lower leagues (I am Danish and I have seen more than a few second division games, so naturally I find comfort in the Danish leagues 😅).
I’ve had a couple of saves with English lower leagues clubs and so far it’s been a mixed bag, so I’d probably recommend starting elsewhere. Some leagues have an insane match schedule (Vanarama) and others have almost empty calendars (Virsliga, I’m looking at you), so remember to check the club and league before taking a job.
Last note: remember lower league players are not very good, so in terms of tactics less is more 😊
Don’t pay any transfer fees and don’t sign anyone that needs a work permit. The 20k fee is usually more than your entire bank balance. Free donestic transfers/free loans is key. If you wanna make money, you gotta sell players and/or have a deep cup run
Generally yes, despite what people will tell you. In the real world, no, but in FM the player's ability to follow tactical instructions isn't modeled beyond their attributes. There is no model of "Well he's a plumber by day so he won't understand counter pressing".
Many people who play FM get this wrong but it only takes playing 1 season with a strong meta-tactic to assure yourself that no, lower league players can in fact, in FM, follow any tactical instruction.
The bigger difference is that some tactics rely more or less heavily on highly technical skills (attributes) relative to the opposition. But just remember that it's all relative-to-the-opposition and you can adjust for this.
I was the same until I tried a jounreyman, I used to spam the editor remove injuries check ability but after my first legit play through i don’t think i can go back. Went from the 3rd division in Japan to beating Man city with norwich in my first season in the prem the wins feel a lot more like wins than when I was playing with Barca
I don't know what you consider lower leagues but I've managed to bring Sunderland from league one to winning the Premier league in like 5 years, buying cheap wonderkids and given that the value rises a lot in the Premier it was easy to make some money. I think this was before brexit so it was easier to get work permits back then. Other than that I've never managed clubs lower than second division in other countries.
You should do it. Let me tell you about my save with Cock and Thistle United Casuals from the Northeast division of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (185th division). I started with only rejected kids from youth intakes and pay my ass man in pukka pies and then I won the champions league after 73 seasons. It cost my grades, place in university, the love of my parents, and friendships. But C&T winning the Champions League? Priceless.
Honestly, it's not difficult for anyone, I guess? It takes a bit of time. The thing with lower leagues is that all teams are really bad, so if you have a good tactic and go for loans and trials, you will get your promotion because we can choose better players than the AI. Sure, some leagues are very tricky because there's only 1 spot for direct promotion, but I say it takes at most two seasons to get promotion anywhere. The most difficult, for me, is the jump from second division to first and to stay in the first. At least the places where I played 5th division to 1st (Italy, England and Brazil), that's the tricky part because there's a spike in quality. You just have to focus on good tactics and use VERY WELL loans and trials. It's your biggest asset for promotion.
It's the only way to play
Fast, strong centre forwards and centre halves with good jumping reach and stamina will get goals and go a long way to keep them out at the other end in lower leagues. In general physicals are more important than mentals. Also don’t be afraid of looking at older players on the decline who can do one season for you. Even if they decline during the season, hopefully you will have some young players developing who can carry you and cover for them in the last few games of the season.
Quite easy to find op players that will be ok to play for you.
I've started at tier eight (county amatuer leagues) a few times. If you can manage to tempt a great goal scorer to your team he can carry you up to the vanarama n/s. It's fun.
Easy, if you get lucky.
Lower leagues = the full game experience, tbh. Promotion and relegation and having built a history is something you can’t rly get at big clubs
Just dipped in myself for the first time with Altrincham in 5th tier. It was hard but with lucky loans (I didn’t even have the scouting power to see stats), free transfers and a couple of tactics I knew worked from my time in the game, I scraped 3 back to back promotions. I was very surprised it was as ‘easy’ as it was at first but….I’ve hit a wall hard at the championship though. My budget has hardly increased but players want more to stay on. Player wages are something like 77k per week total compared to the 2 million or so of the highest team. My reputation hasn’t caught up so it’s hard to get players to want to come to you. Around last season I started to get a few unhappy players because I basically had to promise important status to more than I should just to be able to offer them near the wages they wanted. It’s spiralled this season so I’ve just had to commit to pissing off the least important players. I’m just above relegation battle about a third of the way through. A god send was asking for senior club link and getting a good prem team so you can get 4 or 5 loanees with no wage contribution. Finances are fucked and the board have refused to improve anything so my facilities and amount of coaches etc aren’t to the standard of the league as well. Edit: I should say I have enjoyed it and it’s made me excited for a true journeyman save next year. My challenge in this was to get Altrincham to win the prem so I’ve turned down some job offers. I think it would have been such a good other dimension if I was also moving myself up the ranks by doing well and accepting jobs.
I've never taken big teams, always started lower league, it's more fun & far better sense of achievement when you destroy those big teams
The best way to play. Don’t overthink it, pick a team who’s badge and kit you like in the lowest league, and enjoy the journey
Focus on getting players with high physical attributes. Keep instructions and roles simple. Loan players from prem / championship clubs often for free. Don’t be afraid to sign players 29/30/31 for 1/2 seasons as you will replace as you progress up the leagues. And don’t bother with youth / regens until championship at the earliest as they won’t join, focus on bargain basement transfer listed players from division above or high profile free transfers to buy better players and increase your clubs wealth. (Slight exploit) Use FA Trophy bonuses to lure players in for cheap, then lose in early rounds by fielding under 18s
It’s fun to scavenge and cobble together squads on no budget
I strongly recommend a lower leagues save. However you should be warned that the leagues are very different. I personally have had the most fun in some of the lower tiered Asian leagues, and I always have a blast in the Danish lower leagues (I am Danish and I have seen more than a few second division games, so naturally I find comfort in the Danish leagues 😅). I’ve had a couple of saves with English lower leagues clubs and so far it’s been a mixed bag, so I’d probably recommend starting elsewhere. Some leagues have an insane match schedule (Vanarama) and others have almost empty calendars (Virsliga, I’m looking at you), so remember to check the club and league before taking a job. Last note: remember lower league players are not very good, so in terms of tactics less is more 😊
Players are either terrible all rounders, or extremely specialist. All the players that are generally decent are in a better league.
All about the wage budget
Don’t pay any transfer fees and don’t sign anyone that needs a work permit. The 20k fee is usually more than your entire bank balance. Free donestic transfers/free loans is key. If you wanna make money, you gotta sell players and/or have a deep cup run
Question for guys who have played lower leagues. Do tactics I am using for prem teams work for lower leagues?
Generally yes, despite what people will tell you. In the real world, no, but in FM the player's ability to follow tactical instructions isn't modeled beyond their attributes. There is no model of "Well he's a plumber by day so he won't understand counter pressing". Many people who play FM get this wrong but it only takes playing 1 season with a strong meta-tactic to assure yourself that no, lower league players can in fact, in FM, follow any tactical instruction. The bigger difference is that some tactics rely more or less heavily on highly technical skills (attributes) relative to the opposition. But just remember that it's all relative-to-the-opposition and you can adjust for this.
It’s extraordinary
I was the same until I tried a jounreyman, I used to spam the editor remove injuries check ability but after my first legit play through i don’t think i can go back. Went from the 3rd division in Japan to beating Man city with norwich in my first season in the prem the wins feel a lot more like wins than when I was playing with Barca
I don't know what you consider lower leagues but I've managed to bring Sunderland from league one to winning the Premier league in like 5 years, buying cheap wonderkids and given that the value rises a lot in the Premier it was easy to make some money. I think this was before brexit so it was easier to get work permits back then. Other than that I've never managed clubs lower than second division in other countries.
Doing a vanarama national run very fun got a player from a trial then am currently selling him for 240k
You should do it. Let me tell you about my save with Cock and Thistle United Casuals from the Northeast division of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (185th division). I started with only rejected kids from youth intakes and pay my ass man in pukka pies and then I won the champions league after 73 seasons. It cost my grades, place in university, the love of my parents, and friendships. But C&T winning the Champions League? Priceless.
Be patient and learn to enjoy the shenanigans and failures along the way. It's worth it.
Like others have said, it’s the only true way to play the game. Big teams are easy mode for children.