First Steps

Sponsors

Get a sponsor - You can do so by clicking on Club > Economy > Sponsors. Pick whichever one you like. If you feel that you will win all of your matches, go for the sponsor with the highest Winning Bonus. If not, go with the sponsor with the highest Weekly Bonus. Also, after each game you are able to earn Match Day Sponsor Bonuses - You can do so by clicking on each of the three boxes and choosing an advertisement. This is a great way to earn a little more income, as money is hard to come by at the beginning of the game.

Friendlies

New/Current Users can challenge for a friendly here:

http://www.grid-iron.org/index.php?page=community&subpage=viewt&t=14

A friendly enables you to gain valuable experience for your players, as well as aiding your tactical awareness of the game itself - No matter how much you know about football, it will only help you a little here.

In due course, we would like to have a forum based on just friendlies, cups etc. Hopefully this will be implemented by the beginning of next season.

Stadium

For your first step into the Grid-Iron world, I would recommend upgrading your stadium, just not the stand with 500 seats already - Doing the latter would mean that you would have no income from tickets for the next couple of weeks.

Tactics/Formation

Secondly, set your tactics for your next game. If your formation appears to be illegal, it is due to one of the following:

1. You have sold a player, which was due to participate in your formation, before a match has commenced.

2. You have used the same position twice.

3. You have used the same player twice.

Please note: You will have noticed that the circle next to your fixtured match will turn green when you have set a legal formation. However, it will not turn Red when you have set an illegal formation.

Staying on the topic of formations, I would like to add that you are able to position your players on both sides of the field: Offence and Defence. However, it will come at a price - As this game is still in it's Beta season, we are unable to produce numerical values, which state the difference, yet, we believe that a player will perform at a lower standard.

FAQ

Injuries/Training

Injuries are only caused by training - Players cannot be injured from matches. To decrease your players chance of injury, you can reduce your Training Intensity to either "Low" or "Very Low". However, "Average" is seemingly the most common Intensity level.

Also, a players Energy/Fitness levels are only affected by training.

Stamina

Stamina does not aid a players training. However, it is believed that Stamina enables a player to play better in the Fourth Quarter - This is still only an educated guess, and I will update according.

Positional Rating

This is based on matches played. Basically, the more matches a player plays at his position, the higher his Positional Rating will be. However, many people believe that a players skills also have an affect on this Rating. We cannot prove this as of yet, as the GI season is still ongoing.

Natural Position

The Natural Position of a player is generated randomly. Basically, you could have a player with extremely high catching, yet his Natural Position could be Offensive Lineman. The decision as to where you position your players is up to you. Some people like to stick to Natural Positions. However, other people like to position players based on their skills.

If you do decide to position players based on their skills, you must take note that it will take a number of games for that player to change his Natural Position.

For example: Simon Dooley has great catching ability, is agile and has great speed, strength and carrying - He looks like a great Wide Receiver. However, his Natural Position is Offensive Lineman. Simon's Positional Rating at Offensive Lineman is Two Stars. You, the coach, decides to play Simon as Wide Receiver - Because the player has Two Stars at Offensive Lineman, Simon will not have a Natural Position as Wide Receiver until he receives Two Stars or more at this position.

Skills

Which skills matter more than others is still to be seen, but here are the basics:

All positions to some extent: Vision, Positioning & Stamina

Offense:

QB: Passing, Vision, positioning, Intelligence, Footwork, Agility, Stamina, Strength with maybe carrying and Speed

WR: Speed, Catching, Agility, Vision, Positioning, Stamina, Strength, Carrying, Footwork, with maybe blocking and intelligence

RB: Carrying, Speed, Vision, Agility, Strength, Positioning, Footwork, Stamina, with maybe blocking, catching, and intelligence.

FB: Blocking, Strength, Speed, Positioning, Vision, Footwork, Stamina, Agility, Carrying, with maybe some catching and intelligence.

TE: Blocking, Catching, Strength, Speed, Agility, Positioning, Vision, Stamina, Footwork, with maybe some carrying and intelligence.

OL: Blocking, Strength, Positioning, Stamina, Vision, Footwork, Agility, Speed.

Defense:

FS: Speed, Tackling, Vision, Positioning, Agility, Strength, Catching, Stamina, with maybe some footwork and intelligence.

SS: Speed, Tackling, Strength, Vision, Positioning, Agilty, Catching, Stamina, Blocking with maybe some footwork and intelligence.

CB: Speed, Agility, Catching, Positioning, Vision, Tackling, Strength, Stamina, Footwork, and maybe intelligence.

LB: Tackling, Strength, Speed, Vision, Blocking, Positioning, Agility, Stamina, Catching, Footwork, and maybe intelligence.

DT/NT: Tackling, Blocking, Strength, Stamina, Positioning, Vision, Agility, Speed, Footwork, and maybe intelligence

DE: Tackling, Speed, Agility, Blocking, Strength, Positioning, Vision, Stamina, Footwork, and maybe some intelligence.

Special teams:

K/P: Kicking, Punting, Strength, Positioning, Vision, Footwork, and maybe stamina and agility

A more in depth look at some theories on stats and their value for positions can be found at:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pfypTLUr0jngPereERVndJA

Scripts for Grid-Iron

http://userscripts.org/tags/grid-iron


Special Thanks

Koltrain, Shaftdiggity and Will for their Positional Skill threads - Both present and past, respectively.

More Users soon.

Guru.