How do I balance tactics fit?

[renojedi]

All of my tactics have one or zero options with players in good or great fit.

How do I pick a tactic if most or all players are a bad/terrible fit?

For example.

Is it better to have a tactic where all categories are blank rather than one with 2 great fit players but also 6 bad fit players?

And if I have no options that have good or great fit players, do I just pick the one with the least amount of bad/terrible fit players?

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by renojedi

All of my tactics have one or zero options with players in good or great fit.

How do I pick a tactic if most or all players are a bad/terrible fit?

For example.

Is it better to have a tactic where all categories are blank rather than one with 2 great fit players but also 6 bad fit players?

And if I have no options that have good or great fit players, do I just pick the one with the least amount of bad/terrible fit players?

Literally none of the players are a positive fit in anything? I'd be concerned about the quality of the team in general in that case but I feel like I remember seeing this in one of my sims and mentioning it on the beta testing forums because I feel like that would be very unlikely.

However, I used to spend AGES going through each unit with a fine toothed comb and making sure that lines were constructed so that I could get guys into a tactic that suited them, it took ages and the results overall I feel were negligible in terms of success. What I've taken to doing lately is setting tactics from the Global screen and just thinking to myself "Right, who are my best players? Let's make sure THOSE GUYS are the ones who we are catering for". For instance, you might have 2 good fits and 6 terrible fits for a tactic but if the 2 goods are your top line guys and the other 6 are roster fodder/4th liners, you're going to be putting those 2 good fit guys in a situation to succeed when they are already going to be on the ice for more time than the lower down/terrible fit guys.

Same thing with special teams tactics, you'll get guys that are a terrible fit on PP/PK but if they're not on the unit then who cares? To my knowledge the tactics feedback shows every players on the main roster, it doesn't know who is dressed and who isn't and unless you're setting by units then it doesn't know who is playing more or less etc.

So yeah, my advice would be, try global tactics screen, set your best guys up to succeed and then maybe put the shooting slider up 1 tick and the attacking slider up 1 tick - that has served me well throughout all of my test games that I've been using and saved me a ton of time too because I don't have to go through it all unit by unit anymore.

Just to say, I run with all games in 2D, also.

[renojedi]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

So yeah, my advice would be, try global tactics screen, set your best guys up to succeed and then maybe put the shooting slider up 1 tick and the attacking slider up 1 tick - that has served me well throughout all of my test games that I've been using and saved me a ton of time too because I don't have to go through it all unit by unit anymore.

Just to say, I run with all games in 2D, also.

Thanks for the advice. Oddly enough, this is exactly what I do (and have done every year) but wasn't sure if it I was getting the best out of my team by doing so

[Félicette]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

What I've taken to doing lately is setting tactics from the Global screen and just thinking to myself "Right, who are my best players? Let's make sure THOSE GUYS are the ones who we are catering for

Hey, could you elaborate on that ? Do you mean by doing this that you don't use the unit tactics anymore ?

EDIT : Forgot how to read, you already answered my question sorry ^^

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by Félicette

Hey, could you elaborate on that ? Do you mean by doing this that you don't use the unit tactics anymore ?

EDIT : Forgot how to read, you already answered my question sorry ^^

No problem! Yes, I basically never use unit tactics now. I used to spend so much time doing it and always found the returns to be minimal - so just opted to stick to global for now and it seems to be doing okay, even players on the bottom 6.

[Félicette]

Thank you for your input. That may seem counter-intuitive on paper to not cater specifically for each line but it's interesting to know that you got good results with this approach, I'll try that at some point to toy around the idea.

To somewhat answer OP question so far I tend to try to have the maximum "great fit/good fit" on my unit line tactics, but also not to be too bothered if I have several "bad fit" players on a specific tactic as long as my tactic makes sense and have a good "flow" all over the ice (like for example not caring too much if my players were a "bad fit" as long as my 2-1-2 forecheck stayed coherent once arrived in the neutral zone, like trying to keep a similar "formation" all over the ice in order to keep a logical positioning while defending in order to have my team behaving as a "block" that stays in place while we backcheck to defense).

I have mixed results with this approach with great successes and great failures hahaha. I took the 2-1-2 forecheck as an example, but if I have not very physical players I try to forecheck less aggressively and more conservatively, as long as my team keeps the same "philosophy" all over the ice. Avoiding "terrible fit", but living with "bad fit" players that could still somehow have an impact in a cohesive team philosophy that flows all over the ice.

But I have to admit that sometimes even if I feel I'm doing something logical on paper it just doesn't work, I guess line combinations and roles also play a great if not a greater role in my unit tactics.

[renojedi]

Originally Posted by Félicette

To somewhat answer OP question so far I tend to try to have the maximum "great fit/good fit" on my unit line tactics, but also not to be too bothered if I have several "bad fit" players on a specific tactic as long as my tactic makes sense and have a good "flow" all over the ice (like for example not caring too much if my players were a "bad fit" as long as my 2-1-2 forecheck stayed coherent once arrived in the neutral zone, like trying to keep a similar "formation" all over the ice in order to keep a logical positioning while defending in order to have my team behaving as a "block" that stays in place while we backcheck to defense).

How exactly do you do know if you have a good flow or if the team "stayed coherent" and "stays in place" when you backcheck? I know it is not (perfectly) represented in the 2D simulator so are you looking at that, some other stats, or a combo of both? My understanding is game scores represent how well a player plays in their assigned role rather than how well they are performing in the game overall so not sure if there is something else I should be looking at.

[Félicette]

Yeah I mainly look at players game ratings and at my team overall stats (especially this tab on the Team Home screen, I think it does a great job to quickly see if your team is doing good compared to the others).

In order to understand if the flow of my tactics is good I applied a lot of tips from this thread

There is a lot to cover but it does a great job to explain what kind of forecheck morphs into a coherent neutral zone defense, etc. I always have this old thread open when I'm playing haha, but I can definitely say that my teams are doing a lot better since I dived into it. It's a great read I definitely recommend to try some of the advices that are given there !

I also tweak a lot of player individual tactic sliders to put emphasis on their role, strengths and weaknesses. For example if I have a stay at home defenseman that is great at blocking shot, I tweak his individual tactic sliders to make him defend more, backcheck more, apply less pressure, play slowly with puck, etc. You'll also find a lot of great explanations about that in this thread.

So yeah I avoid "terrible fit" players for my tactics, but by following this thread I found that a lot of "bad fit" players can still make an impact if the overall system stays coherent. And I'm judging the success of tactic by looking at players game ratings, team stats and obviously if we're winning a lot haha.

[renojedi]

Thanks for the info! I have poked around that thread from time to time and applied a couple of things but may need to do a deeper dive to get the transitions from offence to defence more locked it.

[SR000]

The advice only gives you whether the tactic is good or not for a specific position (the one that is key to the tactic). Like Through the Center or Behind the Net will only tell you whether the center is good or bad. You have to think a little deeper on your own to gather whether other guys would be a good fit.

But that said, I've had good success bringing in players to fit a tactic or choosing lines to fit a tactic.

[VictorAMR]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

No problem! Yes, I basically never use unit tactics now. I used to spend so much time doing it and always found the returns to be minimal - so just opted to stick to global for now and it seems to be doing okay, even players on the bottom 6.

Thank you for that, I used to tweak unit tactics but always seem to have little impact. Even when choosing terrible tactics...