Favorite way to play historical
 

What's your favorite era/way to play historical?

Take a team as GM and Manager - many times the Mets, Phillies, or Blue Jays - from the '80s, '90s, or 2000's and trade in a few favorite players. Some times I'll do a draft of all the players, but knowing who will be good historically gives me quite an advantage I have to be careful about.

Interestingly, if lousy trades from real life are avoided, the teams (hello, Mets) perform rather well. Also, it's amazing how many real life trades the AI will mimic, even with historical transactions off.

I have a fictional league where I reassigned historical franchise tags every five years to try to sort-of repeat NFL history. It's been really fun and worked out for the most part. I'm to the point now I taking over the Redskins and using the draft now.

BTW, I used Spritze's DB to get 19 yr-old debuts, although it's not updated for OOTP18 yet. So a big thanks to him.

I like to take my time with the replay. Allowing time for absorption is part of the fun so most of the time I limit my games to 1 or 2 per day, sometimes none. Anticipation adds to the enjoyment of seeing how things will play out.

I'm currently doing the Tigers 1915 replay using actual line-ups which I wasn't certain I'd like but so far, so good. This allows for more observing and less day to day management. At the same time I enjoy taking over a team managing day to day, too, just a different experience as opposed to a better one.

Lately I start with 1871 with OOTP expansion. Not a fan of the White Sox coming in at 1882 but whatever. I use WS from day 1 and free agency from day 1. In a few test sims Ruth always goes to the Cubs. Finances do get a bit out of whack though.

I play a 25 season career as a GM/Mgr. and I cheat relentlessly when it comes to exploiting the AI in trades. To make up for the cheating I set several conditions to "win". If I start with a top tier team such as the Yankees I must win 2500 games, a mid level franchise requires 2250 to win, and a team like the Browns needs 2000.

In addition I need to win at least 7 World Series and get to 18 World Series and Playoff appearances. No matter which team I decide to play. My reason for a 25 season limit is I imagine that is on the upper level for a GM or Manager to stay with a team. In addition I will sometimes manage an interesting star with a career that has either been shortened by injury or time off for military service to see what would happen.

It is much easier to play a career up through the 80s than a modern career. Finances during the modern era will preclude a team completely made of all stars even if you can put one together. I win about half the time using this for a system and more importantly, my games stay constantly fresh, I never get bored.

EDIT: I am not particularly interested in pre 1920 baseball so I never start a game earlier than the Babe Ruth Yankee era.

Baseball history is so amazing that there is probably no wrong era to play, and the best part is, your experience will be entirely different with each era and with every team you play! 1920s Red Sox will be much different from the 1940s or modern. Playing against the Yankees in their heyday can be a very challenging task. Seeing Ty Cobb playing a game in the deadball era is so much different from watching Babe Ruth scoring those home runs. Every era has its flavor and the whole set of teams that can be easy to play, almost impossible, or somewhere in between, but hey, if Amazin' Mets did it, so can you!

My favorite game so far was probably playing the Red Sox from the 1933 when Tom Yawkey bought the team and poured some cash in. Challenging those damn Yankees in a time when the Red Sox were doing really poorly was the challenge I needed, and I still remember the experience fondly.

My favorite era is almost anytime in the 50s or 60s because being born in 1954 I seem to relate best then. Although this game is fun in just about any era you choose but I do have less interest in pre 1900.
My favorite way to play is to pick a franchise that's just below .500 and try to turn them into an annual winner. I make the AI average on trades and try to avoid cheating and I'm mostly successful at not cheating. My thing is to try and make a decent career as a Mgr/GM sometimes changing teams once I've had too much success with one team.
Anyway you play is fun and any era you play is fun playing ootp makes me feel young again.

I like to do a "major league" setup with like all-time Red Sox...all-time Yankees etc....when the game cooperates and let's me set it up that way.

Pick a team and start at year one.

Currently I have a Jays game started in 1977 and a Brooklyn Superbas (destined to be the Dodgers one day) started in 1901.

When I started that one I was told that if you start before 1901 the league won't evolve properly. Has that changed?

Prior to 1900 you still have 2 leagues AL & NL. The White Sox and other teams come in in 1882. It's not difficult to manually make changes prior to 1901.
In my current historical league i started in 1871 with the White Stockings/Cubs. I am only in 1876 now with Cincinnati. I have ASG and WS from day one along with FA and awards. I will do HOF starting in 1900.

With pants on.

I'm sorry, but this is the wrong answer

I like starting in 1914 and taking Red Sox (Or start in 1913 and taking whatever team gets Babe Ruth), then playing all game out to try to perfect using him as Both a Pitcher and Offensive force throughout his career.:p

How does he usually compare offensively to actual history? I've done a couple 1920s sims and Ruth is always the best player in the league, but his offensive totals are never quite as good as he did in real life.

I like to take a team from day 1 and manage their games using the real historical transactions to see if I could do better than the real life managers. Right now I am in the 1917 season with my Cleveland Indians. They have been to the World Series 6 times, wining 3 and losing 3.

I like starting in 1915 and retiring Ruth before the season begins and seeing what the baseball world is without him in it.

What settings do you guys like to use? Historical transactions and lineups?

I rarely play historical, so I would appreciate any suggestions.

[QUOTE=slic1149;4229627] If I start with a top tier team such as the Yankees I must win 2500 games, a mid level franchise requires 2250 to win, and a team like the Browns needs 2000./QUOTE]
What would a team like say the mariners need

I like to take a team and follow them game by game. Historical is my preferred play. Teams I am not familiar with like from the 30s, 40s, 50s and see what kind of alternate realities happen.

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