EHM The Blue Line

I would love a khl one as it is similar to NHL with drafts and all but still something different. SHL and similar needs a new rule set to really be a challenge.

It won't be a KHL challenge. The Swedish league challenge that just wrapped had very poor participation. We'll be heading back to North America for the next challenge.

I meant for the future. It is obvious we need an na one now

visualdarkness wrote:I would love a khl one as it is similar to NHL with drafts and all but still something different. SHL and similar needs a new rule set to really be a challenge.

I'd like that as well. Diversity is fun. Plus, I've never played a game in the KHL.

I find the NHL challenges real fun whenever there are some additional rules - like trare XYZ over 29, sign only americans etc (the last couple of challenges were a treat ).

i tried to get into the Swedish challenge and just couldn't. I'd like to see something in NA maybe a Canadian team as there was the rangers challenge recently.

Melun64 wrote:i tried to get into the Swedish challenge and just couldn't. I'd like to see something in NA maybe a Canadian team as there was the rangers challenge recently.

An all-Finnish Canadies

Any news on the next challenge?

It's been delayed a bit. Probably a couple weeks.

m0fownz0r wrote:

Melun64 wrote:i tried to get into the Swedish challenge and just couldn't. I'd like to see something in NA maybe a Canadian team as there was the rangers challenge recently.

An all-Finnish Canadies

I am all up for it! The American Rangers was one of the best ones if you ask me.

I've been playing a game on my own with the Minnesota Wild and an all-Scandinavian roster. Unfortunately, with the limited pool of players that fit the criteria, I think mostof our teams would look fairly similar.

You can take my Oilers challenge I made for my self.

1. I am not allowed to coach myself.
2. I released all their players and rights to create an empty team with bad economy.
3. After that I signed only players without contracts or from an NA minor league.
4. For the first two seasons no trading at all allowed, only acquisition by drafting. Together with aging "stars" like Hejda you are in hell.
5. After first two seasons trading away veteran players for picks are allowed, but only one player in each trade.
6. You just stock through drafting.


When Hejda is considered your star, Reto Berra your clear starter, BJ Crombeen your best point-getter and Antti Pihlström your best offensive talent for two seasons and drafts are topped by a mediocre Nolan Patrick you are in for a true challenge. 2022 and my team still haven't cracked .300 in a season and the next one doesn't look better.

visualdarkness wrote:You can take my Oilers challenge I made for my self.

1. I am not allowed to coach myself.
2. I released all their players and rights to create an empty team with bad economy.
3. After that I signed only players without contracts or from an NA minor league.
4. For the first two seasons no trading at all allowed, only acquisition by drafting. Together with aging "stars" like Hejda you are in hell.
5. After first two seasons trading away veteran players for picks are allowed, but only one player in each trade.
6. You just stock through drafting.


When Hejda is considered your star, Reto Berra your clear starter, BJ Crombeen your best point-getter and Antti Pihlström your best offensive talent for two seasons and drafts are topped by a mediocre Nolan Patrick you are in for a true challenge. 2022 and my team still haven't cracked .300 in a season and the next one doesn't look better.

that sounds interesting...mb something less restrictive

m0fownz0r wrote:

visualdarkness wrote:You can take my Oilers challenge I made for my self.

1. I am not allowed to coach myself.
2. I released all their players and rights to create an empty team with bad economy.
3. After that I signed only players without contracts or from an NA minor league.
4. For the first two seasons no trading at all allowed, only acquisition by drafting. Together with aging "stars" like Hejda you are in hell.
5. After first two seasons trading away veteran players for picks are allowed, but only one player in each trade.
6. You just stock through drafting.


When Hejda is considered your star, Reto Berra your clear starter, BJ Crombeen your best point-getter and Antti Pihlström your best offensive talent for two seasons and drafts are topped by a mediocre Nolan Patrick you are in for a true challenge. 2022 and my team still haven't cracked .300 in a season and the next one doesn't look better.

that sounds interesting...mb something less restrictive

It is Hell in EHM form but maybe some variation of it!

Honestly, that doesn't sound fun in any way.

I remember with the 1974 DB Challenges, I promoted using the Washington Capitals (worst team in NHL history IRL in 1974-75).....

A bit like your challenge suggestion visualdarkness - "to much of a challenge!" HaHa

It is more an experiment of how hard it is to draft yourself a team in the new EHM. I can tell you, much much harder.

I would love a challenge heavily focused on drafting but developing takes time in the new EHM. But if you had something like three first round picks the first season it may work as a challenge.

I really enjoyed the Red Wings challenge with the 1974db. It's too bad XenHL disappeared and never got her 1980db off the ground. I loved the 80's!

bruins72 wrote:I really enjoyed the Red Wings challenge with the 1974db. It's too bad XenHL disappeared and never got her 1980db off the ground. I loved the 80's!

Which reminds me that a 98/99 DB is about to e realeased. What about that? I would love me some retro challenge.

I think next challenge in Czech, KHL, OHL or UK would be interesting. Promoting team from downstairs to top on specific rules. It has to be fun not boring.

bruins72 wrote:

It's been almost a month since our last challenge.

Our new challenge should launch next week.

visualdarkness wrote:You can take my Oilers challenge I made for my self.

1. I am not allowed to coach myself.
2. I released all their players and rights to create an empty team with bad economy.
3. After that I signed only players without contracts or from an NA minor league.
4. For the first two seasons no trading at all allowed, only acquisition by drafting. Together with aging "stars" like Hejda you are in hell.
5. After first two seasons trading away veteran players for picks are allowed, but only one player in each trade.
6. You just stock through drafting.

This is basically the Roke EHM Challenge from the original freeware days. Blank your roster and your AHL and ECHL rosters, blank your prospects rights as well, only allowed to sign free agent scrubs ever to fill holes, no trading of any kind is ever allowed at all, and you have to build entirely through the draft with only your own normal draft picks. There was/is a thread on the old FHockey forums dedicated to this challenge. I did really well with it at the time, but I had the fortune of drafting a superstar, and in subsequent challenge games since I've never had the same kind of success.

I've actually nearly posted about it here in this thread several times in the past, seeing if anyone was interested in it.

It's difficult on freeware, even moreso on 2007 or EHM 1 (because of what I still see as wonky development, where the AI always develops players better and quicker somehow than a human GM). Blowing a single draft pick can have huge consequences.

If EHM 1 ever gets player development/progression right/balanced, I'd be very curious to see this as one of the forum challenges because I'm betting someone can do it and make it work if they micromanage their player training well enough. The beauty of it is that there aren't a ton of rules and basically no exceptions at all to the rules there are. So it's a simple concept, just a brutal one to play through. It's a very long-term investment, and puts a HUGE emphasis on maximizing your late-round picks.

My suggestion before trying such extreme challenges would be to actually pick a bad team first.....I find challenges are almost always "middle of the pack" teams, rather than one of the recognized worst teams in the league.....and/or simply taking a low Budget team and GMs having to live within the Budget

The other thought that occurs to me is that a lot of what's being described is really close to how I "play"/really close to what I call realistic play (things like building through the draft/developing players...significant trades and free agent signings are extremely rare or don't happen...and living within the Team Budget)

Way back when we used to do challenges with no trades. The downfall of that is that it takes the fun out of the game for some folks. I think the more "extreme" challenges are great when its just someone playing it themselves and plan to stick to that game for a long time. They don't always maintain the interest of enough people to use as one of our TBL challenges though. We've got some people that play fast and will do several seasons before wanting to move on to something else. Other people play slower. It's tricky finding something that works for the majority of the players here.