Possible to realiistic play this game without the auctions as a T35 player

[An Bainisteoir]

I have played this game foe a while now and think I know the ins and outs of it.
I am towards the end of level 2 the game play itself is enjoyable but the auctions are a joke at times.
First I lost a total of 10 tokens in two separate auctions in the dead zone at the quiet time of the server 4am/5am local time. ( 3 and 7 tokens respectively - I am aware 5 is the notional limit)
It was extremely annoying.

I then managed to farm 10 tokens and found the perfect player I was looking for aged 30 cheap and verging on a 6 star. I had the guy tracked from way back.

I was all set to bid about 20secs in and the connection error appeared on the phone! (this happens frequently and nordus seem to fudge it - surely they could better with the 62m turnover they get a year)
Next player I saw was a midfielder again 5/6 star would have to wait one hour,

I was confident with my 10 tokens...
I looked at the squads of the other two they were obviously T35 players then. Other guys appeared and one completely bulldozed me with tokens (the two token tactic to avoid a 2sec bid), I got sucked into a bidding war.

So that is a grand total of 20 tokens wasted on nothing (not to mention lack of sleep 5am etc).
I know people say not to buy the 4star youth player for 15 tokens. But I think it is worth it especially at a lower level and your sanity.

Which brings me to the point can the game be played by avoiding the auction completely after your squad is set up for a few years to come - for example average age 24.3. Then save the 35t spend no tokens the next two years and purchase players by the negotiations or buying a scout player.

Has anyone tried this strategy and avoided the madness of the auction? I am only level 2 and already seems like the wild west

I have watched Southparks "Freeium is not Free" about in app purchases and games online. I refuse to buy tokens on principle!

[Cat Harrison]

You need to find the truly dead time on your server. This week is great for 1T players. but why go for someone right below their next star? EVERYONE looking will want him.. so go for ones not so near that look like good players.


On my 35T team I don't have such issues, I bid when no one is awake and at end of season, and don't go for the shiny almost scouts.

This does however mean the team doesn't always promote, to give time to train players since I don't watch videos or anything, this team it's more like every third season is competitive:





Id say the first ten seasons is most of the transactions, 29 in 1st season, and then the next handful of season, buying FA's and selling them on or selling off older benchers.



Connection errors are usually not server side. When on a handy portable I sit next to the router and bid on WiFi never carrier.

[BridgeGoth]

Scouts are rip off, AVOID!!

Negotiations are not that useful unless you're at really high levels or have tons of tokens.
For example...
I have over 1,100 tokens, I will be happy to throw you some tokens for your player that I can't live without. This will cost me about 25 tokens, but I don't care, I have plenty.
Can you do this? No, not if you expect to have any left for the rest of your team.

Most managers will not accept less than 3 tokens for any decent player, that'll cost you 14 on average.
If I have a player that is really good. I won't accept any offer since I don't need the tokens. If I have a bad player that I'd give away cheaply, you probably don't want him.

At high levels if you have the tokens, then negotiations are useful because getting a quality young player for 20 tokens isn't that bad a deal.

The best you can do at lower levels is try to get players for 1 token, preferably young players, that are just barely 5 star. Those will not generate a ton of interest. You might THINK that going for 3 and 4 star players is easier, but not true, because they will get lots of attention from those at lower levels. This is what I did at first, it wasn't until later I had enough tokens to really fight for players.

As for farming tokens, there are plenty of ways. Be creative!
For example, I wanted to get my mom some flowers for Christmas. I bought them via. an offer on T11, same price and quality as anywhere else, but 110 tokens in my pocket.
I was going to sign up for something that I saw on TV, and what do you know... they had an offer for it on T11! That's 120 tokens for me!

Those didn't cost me a dime, I was going to buy those things anyway, I just got essentially a pile of free tokens!

I am still very conservative with my tokens and avoid paying more than 20 for any player on auction. At your level, no reason to pay more than a couple, especially at times of the day/season when lots of nordgens appear. Just make sure you have enough money to get the best ones!! Many times I get a super expensive 18-19 yr old for 1 token because managers just flat out don't have the cash for it, or don't want to invest so much into 1 player.

So stock up on money as well, it'll make your life much easier.

Hope that helps!!

[Cat Harrison]

oh my yes do not buy scouts if you are on a limited budget! That team I pictured above wasted (and it was a waste! I got a lemon!) fifty T on a Scout.

[BridgeGoth]

oh my yes do not buy scouts if you are on a limited budget! That team I pictured above wasted (and it was a waste! I got a lemon!) fifty T on a Scout.

To expand on this...

In 12 seasons I've bought 1 scout.
In season 6 I had what looked like an awesome team with a huge hole at midfield, and lacking a corner guy. Low and behold, a max rated scout MC with corner ability appeared! I pulled the trigger, and he was awesome. 2nd season, also very strong. 3rd season, decent, but nothing special. 4th season, useless.

So i paid 50 tokens for basically 3 seasons. I won the triple in season 6, so i certainly don't regret it, but not something I want to make a habit of. A better plan is to buy young fast training players and power train them. The ones that work out can like 8 or 9 seasons, where as even a really successful scout like that one only was good for 3.

I'll show you my triple team, and explain how it was built. This is a good model to try to follow. Many of these players carried my team for many seasons.
NOTE: Until that point I had very limited resources, so I wasn't shelling out dozens of tokens for these players.



Vucinic: Very strong keeper I used for 5 seasons. I paid I think 3 tokens for him. Was 18yr old fast trainer.
Belacevic: He was my DL was 5 seasons, also paid only a couple tokens. another 18 yr old fast trainer.
Weisser: My superstar DC, I still have him, 9 seasons running. Paid 8 tokens for him in season 4.
Katsafaros: He only paid a couple seasons cause he was older, but got him cheap cause of his age. Useful as sub later, 2 positions and head ability.
Cruz: Also got him cheap before season 6. Older player so didn't cost much, also 2 positions.
Onyeike: The scout I discussed above
Micu: Another 18yr old fast trainer I got before season 6. He wasn't that great, only used him a couple seasons.
Pujol: Got him season 4, he was 19, very solid player, only paid a couple tokens.
de Souza Suarez: Got him as a 19yr old fast trainer in season 3. He was good through season 7. Only cost a few tokens again!
Mierzwa: Not a great player, paid a few tokens for him.
Cubillo: Best player I ever had and it's not even close. Paid 10 tokens for him in season 5, he's still my super star 8 seasons later. Was yet another 18yr old fast trainer when I got him.

Other notables:
Yrjana: The 3rd best player I ever had. Was 18 and fast trainer (noticing a pattern yet?), and was on my season 1 roster when I got the team. I passed him on to a friend on a lower level and he was still good for him for a few more seasons.
McLaughlin: Grabbed him for 4 tokens 1 season after a known scout team sold him after 1 season. So I got the same player as him, but for 46 tokens less! He could play 2 positions and had head ability. Was very useful as a starter and sub.
Farenhorst: Another 18yr old fast trainer I bought, kind of a bust. I sold him after 1 season.
Schachner: I got him cause I needed an MC in season 5 and he had corner ability. He was a useful sub for a couple season afterwards.

So what can you learn from this?
The key is making your players last! Find players that you can rely on, that you know will produce on the pitch (screw ratings), and ride them as long as they can go!
One reason I have so many tokens is I don't have to spend that many, even without farming, I would probably net more tokens by the end of the season. Also, stick with your guys the whole season unless they are clearly a disaster and you have to change them. On that season 6 team, I made a grand total of zero changes after I set that roster up early in the season. I trusted every guy on that list, even my 2 star DC that I'd had since Season 1 I knew I could use if I had to.
The only reason I bought that scout was he was EXACTLY what I needed, and I felt I had a special team. The way to go is for sure with 18-19 yr old fast trainers.

Hope that helps!

[An Bainisteoir]

So in summary you veterans think I need to get smarter buy the average all round player/one with just good attacking or defence depending on what you are looking for. Then train them up.

Also if I am bidding never use phone (which has poorer connection then laptop/PC)

Also I need to figure out a proper dead time on the server.

Be smarter with tokens 2 or 3 max which is likely with average rated players.

As someone else mentioned these lower rated players will attract bidders from levels below. Is a way around this to build up a bank and buy the more expensive younger players?

[Amane Ito]

When I started playing this 3 years ago, I won 7 out of the first 8 leagues without spending any money.
The only thing it took to achieve it was watching my brother played for a few months. He's also f2p with many titles, including a cup title I never won (both of us have CL titles).

My dedication to pulling the extremes of f2p has gone to levels so ridiculous now that I'm shooting for a league title with no token and booster spent during one season. That is, tank (stocking up resources), but still win.


Stay away from bidding wars no matter what happen.
For the best bang for the buck, try to grab young 5* players for 1 token during the middle and later stages of the season.
Decisions of selling should always based on player rating, not quality.
If you lack funds, try not to extend contract but sell them before it expire, and sign new players instead.
Try to keep your average age as low as possible.
Keep track of your captain's performance, if he's not doing a good job maybe someone else can do it better.
Try to keep your building construction non-stop until everything is maxed out.

[cookizzz]

The auction markets for different servers and different levels are different. You must observe before determining the strategy of bidding.

I never buy any scout players. I only bid in auction market when I feel that the competition is reasonable. If the competition is too severe, I may not participate in auctions for several days or weeks. If I cannot buy new players, I will face the reality and try to use the current squad to compete. Team performance is not necessary bad in this case. My current L22 team is the weakest in terms of stars comparing with last many seasons but it has great chance to win the 1st league after 10 seasons. Generally, I only spend two, or at most four tokens on each auction. In my opinion, you never know when the auction will stop after 1st round.

I never pay cash to buy tokens or packs. I can only obtain about 40 tokens in season. All my teams still promoted every season and challenged for league titles in almost all seasons. So I believe there should some ways to play without much resources. But you must be smart and sometimes very patient.

[An Bainisteoir]

Ok update on the actions. Instead of the moaning I had yesterday about how terrbile the auctions were and how I got token bullied, this time I have a success story.

I relaise that using pc/laptop has an advantage over using the the moblie phone (besides the better connection). In that it shows the F for free transfers so it is quicker to spot them. This means that it "slows down" the people using moblie phones because they would have to click each one to see if they are a free transfer.

So I farmed out 3 tokens which gave me four added to the one I received from the token deal.
My intention was to just look at the auction list and see which type are hidden gems to change my mindset.

I saw a Free Transfer guy worth aged 21 only 290k and a three star (level 2). Then I looked at his stats. His attacking were amazing 24.6 which is at "excellent" five star level.

Nobody had bid there was a half hour to go. I decided to throw my one token in. I reasoned that it might put off other bidders as they would then have to bid a two token minimum.

Nobody else bid and I got the player for one token.

Incidentally I think that not showing the "F" for free transfer on the list when using the moblie is a major oversight by nordus and a disadvantage for mobile users.

[Cat Harrison]

So in summary you veterans think I need to get smarter buy the average all round player/one with just good attacking or defence depending on what you are looking for. Then train them up.

Also if I am bidding never use phone (which has poorer connection then laptop/PC)

Also I need to figure out a proper dead time on the server.

Be smarter with tokens 2 or 3 max which is likely with average rated players.

As someone else mentioned these lower rated players will attract bidders from levels below. Is a way around this to build up a bank and buy the more expensive younger players?

Guys who have just turned five star (or half to sixth star) are only visible to you and above. Above won't think of him as an upgrade, so less will bid on him. (mostly)