EHM The Blue Line

I'm an EHM '07 newb. I have been playing for almost a week, and am just struggling a bit with my team and wondering if anyone has any advice. I was sucking a good bit, then found the guide on this site that REALLY helped me get my act together on putting the right lines together.

I started out Unemployed (I know it's not the best way to learn, but I like the biggest challenge possible right away) and signed with Rimouski Oceanic. Frolik and Legault are obviously my two best players, followed by either Skolik or Lachance. I screwed up somehow and won't get Fortin until next season.

Not 100% but I think my lines look like this (again, don't have the game in front of me):
Fortin - Cormier - Plante
Legault - Tanguay - Skokan
Landry - Fortier - Roy (tried to make a checking line...sorta failed)
Laroche - Cornet - Perry

Lachance - Bolduc
Letourneau - Stevens
Goyens - Bona

S Fraser B Ch(forgot his name)

Does anyone who is familiar with this team have any advice for me (going to stick it out)? Is this team just bad?

Also, I'm not sure what to do as far as coaches/scouts are concerned. I hired two scouts, but one left for another team (the other one is garbage - scouts next opponent). I only have the 3 original assistant coaches. Everytime I look at hiring new staff, I'm just completely disenchanted with their abilities...should I ignore their craptitude and just worry about having bodies?

And a super-newb question... How do you guys make your checking line (3rd) really act like a checking line (tactics)?

Sorry about the "Hi, I'm a newb, answer a million questions for me-ness" of this post... I really get the gist of this game, I'm not very hockey savvy, but I know enough (I think - definitely don't know much about Juniors or International hockey) and have good experience with other sports simulations (even played some EHM when it was freeware a long time ago).

Well, first off welcome to The Blue Line!

I'm not the best person to give advice for the Juniors, so hopefully someone else can chime in for you there (I edited your topic so people that can advise you on that will see that's what is being discuseed in the thread). At your level though as far as coaches go a key will be working with youth. Then look for your best available in your categories.

I can though help you out on the checking line question though... I have my teams set for two sets of echo lines. One big and one secondary scoring line and one big checking line and a secondary checking line. I think the key is to set them up to linematch and use a man to man instead of zone setup. Then you set their individual orders to match up in accordance with how you have your linematching set. I actually use my 4th as my main checkers and 3rd as my secondary so I match my 4 with their 1st and my 3rd with their 2nd. Then to make them as effective as possible you should set your lines to 'Equal' as well. That's served my teams very well.

And I think just the help I got from you on the checking line has done a lot for my team so far... 2-0-1 (shoot-out loss) since I made those changes including a 5-2 win over one of the top teams in my league. Thanks.

Though I'm afraid I'm probably going to lose Frolik soon... He has 30 goals and back-to-back hat-trick games (has appeared in 32 of 35 games).

nepg wrote:And I think just the help I got from you on the checking line has done a lot for my team so far... 2-0-1 (shoot-out loss) since I made those changes including a 5-2 win over one of the top teams in my league. Thanks.

Cool I corrected the name in your post for you too. There's a time limit on editing for purposes of administrating the boards.

We talked about the checking line in the guide, as it's oftenly used in the NHL. But you're not forced to have one, especially if you don't have good defensive/checking forwards. Focus on the strength of your team is the key. If all your forwards are good or decent offensive forwards, goal-scoring forwards, playmakers, etc, don't hesitate to run all guns out with 4 offensive lines! If you don't have that much scoring options, but good defensive forwards, checking forwards, and enforcers, don't hesitate to build a steel wall with 4 defensive lines!

Most of the time, you won't have such extreme teams, so it's up to you to balance it a bit. Try to build cohesive lines (ie 1 playmaker and 2 goal-scorers, for example) and then set the tactics of the line according to what kind of players you have on this line. And if some players don't fit really well to your tactics (ie what this enforcer does on a scoring line??? ), you should try to look to make some trades

Hope that helps

Ya, I just made a few trades that added a ton to the line-up (probably at the expense of team chemistry), and now I have to sort all that out... The most important trade (for a goaltender - mine both suck ass) fell through, but I added some solid defensemen and forwards for what seemed like garbage (hopefully).

So now take some time All those changes aren't that good for the stability of the team, so don't worry if things aren't that good at once. Build your lines and tactics, and then wait for around 10 to 20 games before changing anything.

That way, you give your team the needed time to get used to play with those specifical tactics, with those specifical team mates, with those specifical coaches (for newcomers), etc. And once they used to all those things, they'll produce their best hockey, and so you will be able to really judge if things are okay or not.