KickAbout Rulebook

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==== Playing Style ====

For every game that you play you can choose to play in one of five playing styles 

  * Positive, 
  * Neutral,
  * Negative, 
  * Adaptive or
  * Diamond style.

The effects that these styles have are associated with your playing formation as described below, and
only certain styles can be adopted, depending upon your chosen formation. Choosing a playing style
that does not match the requirements of a formation with those played will result in not only the lack of
any gain, but in the loss of any possible style gain that the formation could have been used with.

To use a **POSITIVE** playing style, your team must be prepared to break forwards at every possibly
opportunity, throwing men forward whenever the chance is offered. This will result in many more
attacking runs, but tends to leave the men at the back exceptionally vulnerable. For the formation to
work, you need to play with a full forward line of 5 attackers (the maximum). This means that players
such as the DF/A will not be able to add their own skills to the attack, and that your Sweeper will
doubtless be too busy filling in a role as a normal Defender to be much use in a Sweeper’s normal
capacity.

Formations that qualify are...

  * 2-3-5,
  * 3-2-5, and 
  * SW-2-2-5 (with a SW selected, though he will only count as a DF). 

If the style is successfully adopted, then five levels are added to the Forwards total skill levels.

If you play **NEUTRALLY** with your side, then you are really asking the players to fill in where they are
needed. Basically, they will tend to drift to wherever they see weaknesses, though this will not
necessarily be where they are most needed. The Neutral style, if successfully adopted, will gain you a
bonus of five skill levels in your lowest skilled area, after category (Skill, Power or P/S) additions. For this
tactic to work, your side must be structured so that the number of players in any one outfield area does
not out-number another area by more than one player.

Formations that qualify are... 

  * 3-3-4,
  * 4-3-3,
  * 3-4-3,
  * SW-3-3-3

When a player opts to play a NEGATIVE game, he tends to draw back his players and try to block efforts
on his own goal with sheer weight of numbers. This tactic is all about getting bodies behind the ball, and
tends to result in a more compact, solid defence. To use the tactic effectively, you must have more than
3 defenders (including SW if selected) and only 2 attackers playing in the match.

Formations that qualify are... 

  * 4-4-2,
  * SW-3-4-2,
  * 5-3-2.

If the style is successfully implemented, the team will gain five skill levels added to its defensive totals.

With an **ADAPTIVE** style, the idea is to play a side that closes down your opponent’s chances, rather
than gain you any additional attacking strength. It is a useful tactic to adopt if playing a team you know
little about, and as with all other options, this style will provide you with five extra levels. However, the
location of these levels is not something you can predict in advance, as they will be allocated to the area
in which your team is most overpowered. For example, if your defence is likely to leak the most shots in
the chosen match, the five levels will be pushed into that position, if it’s your midfield, then they will
gain them, and finally, if your Forwards are finding it difficult to hold back the thrusting runs of the
opposing defenders, they will be added there.

This style only tends to be effective if you are not overwhelmingly more powerful than your opponents,
and the only formation that will allow the tactic to work 4-2-4.

This lets the players in both attack and defence drift towards the centre of the park to help close down
attacks through the creative play of the opposition.

The **DIAMOND** style allows a side to adopt a primarily defensive posture while giving the team the
ability to “hit on the break” almost. The main problem is that Kickabout only has three outfield areas, so
formations like 4-3-2-1 are not really on. What closest fits the diamond style is something like many reallife
sides now play, with two midfielders tending to play as left and right wing men, attacking more often
than dropping into defence.

If you want to use the Diamond playing style you must field a side playing with a 3-5-2 formation. The
bonus levels gained are still the same five (as with other styles) and are going to be applied to your FW
line. The down-side to choosing this playing style, which at first seem to have more benefits that some
others, is that even with a five man midfield the team is unable to affectively operate an offside game,
as the “wing men” in midfield are more often rushing up the field to assist an attack than sitting back
waiting to catch the opponents offside.

**Note:** If both options ARE selected, then both the offside tactic and the Diamond formation are lost,
simulating the players caught, trying to do two jobs, and doing neither at all.

There is no point selecting a particular playing style if your team does not conform to the formations
that allow its use. For example, by selecting a 4-3-3 line-up, and then selecting Positive as your playing
style, you are losing out on the levels you might gain by choosing a legal style. Some formations might
not fall into any playing style bracket, so be careful when making your selections. If no style is entered,
then no bonus will be gained, regardless of whether the team fits a particular style or not. Occasionally
you might want this to be the case, such as when you play 2-4-4 or SW-2-3-4 for example.

See also...

  * [[player_positions:start|Player Positions]]
  * [[home_advantage_had:start|Home Advantage (HAD)]]
  * [[play_defensively:start|Play Defensively (PD)]]
  * [[application_of_additions:start|Application of Additions]]
  * [[calculating_the_result:start|Calculating the Result]]
  * [[weather_and_pitch_effects:start|Weather and Pitch Effects]]
  * [[motivation_points:start|Motivation Points]]

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