Pablo Castro: The Cuba Years

[Juventino]

Today I came across this: http://www.thedugout.net/community/showthread.php?t=71496

An opportunity to complete Pablo Castro's managing biography! The years before he made his way to Chelmsford on a banana boat. Is anyone up for this in a small time Succession Game type manner? I think it'd be pretty amusing.

Edit - On second thought, this isn't interesting for a succession game..... It's Cuba. Nonetheless, I would be interested in a new succession game. Is anyone else interested? Ideas?

Second edit - Further thoughts: Germany? Dynamo Dresden is an interesting option, or perhaps Eintracht Braunschweig? Both of them are in the third tier, so it may be very difficult to get them in the Bundesliga. 1. Union Berlin in the Second Bundesliga is another fun cult club, but ShiftyPowers may know more about this.

Or something entirely different: Russia. If we really want to create our own history, FC Krasnodar and FC Nizhny Novgorod in the Russian Second Division were both founded in 2007 and are the newest clubs I'm aware of. FC Krasnodar is also owned by a billionaire, Sergey Galitsky: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Galitsky

I'm just thinking out loud here.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I have a thought: We start in Cuba and then do a succession journeyman game. Whoever controls the game can make all decisions regarding applying for and accepting other managerial jobs. Since we want to pretend this is pre-Chelmsford we could start with a rule that you can only take a job in a nation much lower than England; so basically you just can't go to any of the major European leagues, nor can you go to the lower leagues in those countries, nor can you go to Russia, Portugal, Scotland, and Holland. Thoughts? Would be fun to have 3 managers get attached to a club and the players, only for the next person to relocate us to India. Only problem would be what leagues to load. Generally I'd like to keep it fewer than 10 nations and fewer than maybe 15ish playable leagues because everyone has a different computer. We wouldn't have to load any of the prohibited nations.

 

[Juventino]

Sounds fun. I'd be up for that. As for for what league to load, maybe we shouldn't load any European leagues at all and go with a good representation of the rest of the world. It's a good opportunity for all managers to discover that side of the game. I've never played in Asia for example.

If you haven't seen seen it yet, here's a catalogue of other leagues that we could select: http://www.thedugout.net/community/showthread.php?t=70460

There are a few there that could make this an epic journeyman save. Fiji, Madagascar, Mozambique, Yemen!

The only thing that's kind of worrying is that there are currently only 3 or 4 members regularly active on this forum. I guess it's going to be a rotation of managers, but I wouldn't mind that.

Also, one of us needs to run a test save on holiday to see if eventual added leagues actually run well. I already tested Cuba and that one ran without problems for 2 years.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I tried to run just some normal leagues on holiday when I was at work one day (for cheating scouting purposes) and the game crashed, so I don't know if I can do it.

 

[Juventino]

Well, if we can make a selection of 15 leagues I'll do it.

So far I have in mind: Cuba, Fiji, Yemen, North Korea (that could be interesting), Madagascar and Egypt, and then some nations already in the game. It's difficult to choose those really random nations because so little is known. What nations do you prefer?

Edit - Hahaha, I just checked out the North Korean League in the game and salaries range from 10 to 25 euros PER MONTH for some clubs. Players in Fiji don't have contracts at all because of the league's Amateur status. Madagascar's teams mostly play with youth and the league has a mixture of Semi-Pro, Amateur and Youth clubs. Same goes for Yemen. Egypt has a full-pro league.

It's a total mess but I think that's an accurate display of those leagues. It gives me headaches. Maybe we should just stick with Cuba and nations in the game. I know it'll work that way.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I actually think that could be fun. I'm never going to play in any of those leagues normally, so why not do it this way. At least the game can progress for years without having to play all 4 or 5 yourself. We could use a couple South American nations, perhaps Costa Rica maybe, India, and something in subsaharan Africa.

 

[Juventino]

How about this:

Africa:
Congo, Madagascar, South Africa and Egypt

Asia:
China, Hong Kong, North Korea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and India

Oceania:
Australia's A-League and Fiji.

South America (and the Caribbean):
Cuba, Peru and Venezuela (Costa Rica isn't available)

15 countries, only the Premier divisions selected. This could make for an interestiinngg journey around the world...

Edit (I keep editing posts) - We also need to take into account the different start and end dates of seasons of these nations. It could become a bit confusing for a Succession Game. We need to work out some rules.

I'm also already running a save on holiday to see how it's running. We could always scrap a few nations if that's better for some other managers, though the player database for this save is about as big as when you select the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. I think this should be okay. What do you think?

 

[ShiftyPowers]

I think that's good. I would say that if you take a job in a nation with a different league calender you get to play out that first season. So if you accept a job in a league with a different schedule you will automatically get 18 months. Likewise, if you start in July and automatically hop to a job in the middle of the season, you get to finish that season and play the next one (because I don't think half or less of a season is fair). We could also make a rule that you can only accept 1 job in each turn, so no one is jumping leagues to keep playing.

 

[Juventino]

I agree with those rules. I ran the save long enough now for each league to turn seasons at least once and everything seems in order. This one is ready to go. First destination: Cuba! I can do the first season. I'll open up a new thread with an introduction, rules and a manager log and we're all set.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Awesome. What club are we? I think we should start out in the country, so basically not Havana.