KickAbout Rulebook

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
• Home Advantage (HAD)
• Application of Additions
• Calculating the Result
• Weather and Pitch Effects
• Motivation Points

After you have added modifiers for HAD/PD, Captain’s influence, Aggression, and Motivation Points, as shown in your totals column on your turn sheet, the remaining modifiers are applied in the following order…

• Additions for team category (power, skill, power/skill),
• Additions for playing style (Positive, Neutral, etc)
• Deductions for marking,
• Assignment of MF/G levels (if any),
• Adjustments for weather and ground effects

Note: the totals shown on your squad printouts are the totals after all these modifiers have been applied.

See also…

• Player Positions
• Home Advantage (HAD)
• Application of Additions
• Calculating the Result
• Weather and Pitch Effects
• Motivation Points
• Playing Style

There are a number of ways in which you can employ your scouts over the season, and you have a couple of them available every session. Scouting can be applied to a particular side’s league and/or cup matches, any cross-league “European” ties or to get information on a single individual player. Scouting a specific team - You may, and should, scout your forthcoming opponents.

A scouting report will tell you the totals of the scouted team’s GK, SW, DF, MF, and FW before additions for category, playing style, marking and weather (i.e. the scouted team’s totals as shown on their orders sheet). It also shows the players involved in the game scouted and what position on the pitch they were playing in.

You are also told how many Aggression or Motivation points that team used in the game you scouted, whether he played offside or not, if a physio point was used, the team’s playing style and category, if he played defensively away from home, and his penalty taker.

To scout a team normally costs 25K. If you purchase a SUPER SCOUT in the auction during the season, or as an International Manager receive one free then you can scout two teams per session free until the end of the season when the SUPER SCOUT leaves your employ.

The use of such reports is up to you to decide. Remember that just because a team used certain tactics in one week it doesn’t mean they used the same the week before, or the week after!! Apart from the basic details given above you can assign extra cash (in units of £1k) to glean EXTRA SCOUTING INFO (ESI). ESI tells you the name and code numbers of all the players in the scouted team’s squad (at the end of the session after transfers).

The code numbers are essential if you wish to mark players of the opposition in future matches. It does not tell you positions and performance levels. Nor can you use a code number that has been reported to another manager by ESI. The numbers generated are encoded and unique to each team. Trying to use the wrong numbers will have your players attempting to mark thin air with a consequent penalisation of your team, so don’t try to be clever, it will backfire on you!

Scouting a specific player - if you are unsure what position or skill a specific player in an opponent’s team plays at, then you can find out more about him by using the Scout Player option (which is free). This is done in the same manner as scouting a match, and the effectiveness of tactical ploys and extra scouting information, but needs a slight change to the way you fill in the details. You need to identify the team name as normal in the first box, skip the “venue” box altogether, and then enter the name of the player you want to scout in the next box. Whether or not you gain the details of this player is dependent upon how much money you spend on Extra Scouting Info when compared to the Tactical Ploys of the scouted team. If the tactical ploys are higher, you’ll gain nothing at all, while a successful scout will reveal all the players relevant details, along with his code number for marking purposes.

European match scouting - You will be allowed to scout any match played in a pre-determined European tie, either in the Champions or Cup-Winners Cup or Super Cup. To scout a match you identify the two sides as normal and after the match has been played (at the end of that same session) you’ll get a report on both teams in the same way as normal scouting information is revealed. This is expensive however, and to scout a European game will cost you 150k per scout. Please note that any European game must be highlighted as such when filling in your scouting, on the off-chance that you choose to scout a side that is in the same league as your own team, and may be confused as a normal scouting mission.

Also it is wise to bear in mind that you don’t receive these scouting details until the session AFTER the one in which you scout the game. European games are played at the end of each session, so the information will be revealed on the NEXT session’s printout.

See also…

• Tactical Ploys
• Marking

If you suspect that your team might be the target for markers then you can assign some cash each session to TACTICAL PLOYS. Other teams can only gain details of your squad through ESI if the cash they assign to this function is greater than the amount you allocate to TACTICAL PLOYS.

HINT – It is wise to put money here every session!

See also…

• Scouting
• Marking

There are two different ways in which a player can attempt to use marking in a match to give him a tactical advantage over his opponent; Man-to-Man marking and Zonal marking.

To perform any type of man-to-man marking it is necessary to get as much information as you can on the player you intend to mark through ESI. A successful scouting report is composed of a list of player names and numbers showing the full squad of the side scouted, and a “marking number” for each player. These numbers are uniquely encrypted for your side, and no other team will be able to use the same numbers with the same results. Players’ squad numbers are encoded in this way to prevent managers from passing the squad numbers of his rivals to other teams.

Once you have these numbers you can then assign a maximum of two players from your side to manmark your opponents players. To do this you must give the squad number of your own player and the encrypted “marking number” of the player you want him to man-mark.

Only players in your defence and/or midfield can be assigned as markers, and your sweeper - if you have one selected - has other duties to attend to. Defenders are restricted to marking opposing forwards while your midfielders mark their counterparts.

Every player in the game has a marking skill, which is normally hidden from sight unless it is described as being above and beyond the norm. All defenders in the game (sweepers included) begin life with a pretty good man-marking ability, with all midfielder being rated nearly as well too. Utility players who occupy either defensive or midfield roles in a match are perhaps the next best option for marking if normal players are unavailable.

When the above criteria are met man-marking can take place during the game. Any player assigned to man-mark another player will generally hit the mark about three times out of four, modified by the marking skill he possesses.

A marking player immediately loses one quarter of his current playing levels (rounded-up) and this increases to one half of his levels if he is assigned to mark an MF/A, MF/D or MF/G, and by threequarters if the marked player is an MF/A/D.

The percentage of levels lost by the marked player, as a base rate, is determined by the following formulae:-

%LOSS = 50 + ((Markers Level - Marked Players Level) X 5%)

This formula will give the “normal” loss of levels for the marked player. It is POSSIBLE for the marker to lose more levels than his opponent, thus swinging the advantage in favour of the marked player, but this normally occurs when a very low-skilled player is assigned to mark one of the better players of the opposing side; don’t do it! These losses are modified in a minor way by the marking skill of a player too.

A superb marker is likely to lose fewer levels and make the opposing player lose considerably more in return. This can make it very difficult to calculate the exact loss on either side.

So, to see an example of how marking works; let’s say that we have a level 12 DF mark a level 10 FW in a match.

The DF will lose quarter of his normal levels and drop to a level 9 DF while the FW would lose (50 %+( 12-10) x5%) = 60% of his performance levels. This figure is rounded upwards so this would leave the FW operating at a skill level of just 4; an effective marking indeed!

If the marked player is an MF/A, MF/D, MF/G or MF/A/D then the loss of levels are applied to every relevant area of the game he effects. It should be obvious why these players are normally a priority when selecting marking for most managers.

Also, any marked player operates at this reduced efficiency level for the whole game, as does any marking player, so it is similarly useful to try marking opposing WG’s to reduce their effect against unlocking the offside game, or opposing FWS’s to reduce their chances of scoring.

Don’t mark with midfield specialists; it is a horrible waste of their talent! UT’s are generally not a good choice for marking opponents with, and tend to be somewhat easier to mark (if you know where they are playing) as they are never quite as sharp as a definitive DF, MF or FW of the same skill level. If you try to “guess” the code number of a player you want to mark and get it wrong (very likely!) then the marking player will still lose 25% of his levels.

If you try to mark a player that is playing in the game but not in the correct position then the marking player will still lose 25% of his levels. However if you try to mark a player who is not selected to play but is in the opposition’s squad then you are not penalised. Therefore, make sure that you have the correct information regarding any players you want to mark.

For each successful marking a player performs, his marking skill will rise by a small amount, allowing him to become even more effective on his next attempt. For every miss of course, there is a subsequent reduction to go with it. However, these gains and losses will only apply to COMPETITIVE matches and will remain unaffected by any marking attempts in friendly games. The gain/loss factor is dependent to some part on the relevant skills of the two players involved. The gain that a level 14 DF makes for successfully marking a level 5 FW is going to be very small, while the opposite scenario (a 5 DF on a 14 FW) is going to yield a much bigger gain for success.

Whatever the marking chance, there is always a factor in the formula which allows for a one-off failure, no matter how spread the skills of either player; nothing is ever certain.

Often a manager knows that his side are going to need to mark their opponents if they are to come out of a game with a result, but they have been unable (or unwilling) to put the expenditure into scouting to come up with the code numbers of the relevant players. Or they may be facing an opponent who has come fresh out of a replay that they didn’t scout, or have a cross-league opponents that they can’t use normal scouting on.

For these cases we have a different marking system, which is primarily defensive in its style, and is once more aimed at hurting the sides with the specialist players; zonal marking.

By selecting this option you are giving your entire defence and midfield instructions to pick up whoever drifts into their area, rejecting man-to-man marking in favour of a more reactionary system. This will obviously work better if you have men to spare in that part of the field, so using four defenders to zonal mark against two attackers will be very affective, while two defenders will have a few problems doing the same to two attackers.

Two things should be immediately apparent from the way this is being described; the system is going to be more use to the defensive sides that field 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 formations than it is to those who favour more obscure attacking styles. The in-vogue at present is to use this ploy when fielding a 3-5-2 formation and, as this is a formation that is becoming more and more popular, it will work quite well when opposing an identical formation.

As zonal marking reduces the effectiveness of both the marked player and the marking player, it is not going to be too wise if a team with midfield specialists opts to use this system. If a midfield specialist is either zonally marked, or chooses to play in a zonal marking system, his effectiveness in all the relevant areas of the park will be reduced. This reduction is in no way as dramatic as if he is man-marked, but it will hurt all the same.

The reductions are calculated in a simple manner. Basically, the marking team’s defenders are compared with the opposition’s number of attackers. If there are an equal number of players in both areas, then the marker’s defenders will all lose one level per man, while the marked player’s forwards will lose two levels per man. If there are more defenders than attackers then the reduction to the levels of the attacker’s increases by another half a level per man, for every additional defender there is playing. Any half levels are randomly rounded up or down at the end of the calculation. This same calculation is also applied to the marking and marked midfields to, with the same conditions.

For example…

A team playing a 4-4-2 formation chooses to zonal mark a side that fields a 4-3-3 style. The marking players are compared with the marked players in each area, so the reductions are;

-1 per man for the marking defenders

-2 per man for the marked attackers (plus a chance of each -0.5 level being rounded to a -1 per man)

and

-1 per man for the marking midfielders

-2 per man for the marked midfielders (plus a chance of each -0.5 level being rounded to a -1 per man)

that gives a total reduction in levels of eight for the marking player and between twelve and eighteen levels lost for the marked player - a healthy gain!

The problems come when a player tries to zonal mark and finds that he does not have enough men in the area to provide affective cover. In such a case, let’s say when three defenders try to zonal mark four attackers, it is the marked player that loses just one level per man, while the marking player is subject to a reduction of two levels per player, and has the same random chance of each additional half-level being rounded to yet another deduction too.

In case it has not been made obvious why this is not a tactic to choose if you have specialists, just think what a loss of -2 per man will do to your side’s midfield if one of the players is a MF/A/D; your side would lose all the normal midfield levels plus another -2 to both the attack and the defence, due to this players reduced effectiveness.

Basically, don’t do it with specialists unless you are certain that it will hurt your opponents more than it hurts you! Don’t fall into the trap of bunging down zonal marking each and every time either, as there are a few drawbacks to choosing this option.

You cannot choose both Zonal and Man-to-Man marking together; either one or the other. Man-to- Man marking remains the most effective way of taking a particular player out of the game. A manager using the Zonal marking system will find that his side is more concerned with holding up the opposition than making chances for themselves. If this option is combined with a “playing defensively” selection too, there is little chance that the side will make any progress at all into the opposition penalty area! The man-to-man marking information gained through Extra Scouting Information remains current for as long as the side retains the players listed (you obviously can't mark someone who no longer plays for the team), and only for the duration of the season. Once the season ends, you'll need to regain these numbers if you wish to mark in future matches.

If you are unsure of which players are worth marking, then it is an idea to pay close attention to the Newsletter, and then try Player Scouting to learn more about their abilities.

See also…

See also…

• Scouting
• Tactical Ploys

It appears that some managers still have little idea how the Ball Winner and Creative statistics affect the game as a whole. They have opted to ignore these rather than try to grasp WHY they have been introduced and when their team loses 1-0 and the newsletter reports how superbly creative their opponents were, those same managers start moaning about their ill fortune.

The Ball Winner and Creative statistic were added to the game for a good reason in that they differentiate between players of the same basic type in a manner that was previously untouched. There can be no doubt that certain players in real life are very similar types of players. Let us assume, for sake of argument, that both can be called level 11 MF/D’s and, again for the sake of argument, both are power players.

In ‘old’ Kickabout that would be that. There was previously no way of trying to simulate the fact that one player was the kind that could break from midfield with powerful runs and get into the box while another was more likely to play just in front of the back four. The Ball Winner and Creative stats were introduced to make that difference. A player who is a good Ball Winner is one that will be in there where the tackles are flying and will, basically, have an edge when it comes to breaking up the moves of the opposition. He will have the better chance of coming away with the ball from a 50-50 challenge than normal. His ability to put his foot in will make the difference between someone getting in a shot and having it blocked. Ball Winners are designed in a defensive frame of mind.

Creative players are just the opposite and, as you would expect, it is they that have the ability to turn a loose ball into a goal scoring chance. They thrive on the more skilful type of play, getting the ball on the floor and playing it to feet. They may not be the greatest of tacklers but they will be able to provide that extra touch that puts a striker through on goal. Every player in Kickabout, with the exception of Goalkeepers, has two figures recorded against them to show their abilities in both these basic areas.

Often, these two figures will add up to a 100, and in this way they can be looked upon as percentages. The first of the two figures is the player’s ball winning ability while the latter is their creative skill. So if a statistic reads “65/35” it becomes immediately apparent that the player is far more suited to a physical, tackling game than he is likely to be putting in killer passes. These figures may sometimes not add up to a hundred, or may total to a good deal more or less. Some player occasionally have figures of “65/65” and above which are very formidable, a type of character who has no problem in tracking back and winning the ball when required. Whatever the case may be, these two numbers DO have an importance in the game now and they should be taken note of by EVERY manager.

The new statistics are aimed at a simple game mechanic - they are used to give a side additional chances of scoring during a game or they are used to nullify efforts created by the opposition; it doesn’t take a genius to work out which does which. The individual statistics of each player are only the “base value” for each formula that uses them. The figures shown are modified by any number of different conditions before they are given a final rating, which is used to determine if he directly affects the match in any way. The kind of players he is playing with, the number of players in his part of the pitch, the weather and the team’s formation are all mitigating factors in how this base value is modified.

Ball Winners are players that thrive in the heat of battle, that love to mix it with the opposition and find their talents easier to use when in packed areas of the pitch. They are primarily defensive players and tend to have more effect if the overall stance of the side is weighted in that direction. For each element of this make up that goes their way, they receive a bonus on their ball-winning ability, along with a subsequent penalty to their creative skill. So, if the Batty of our example starts the game with figures of 75/25 then he will be completely happy playing in a full Power side, with a 4-4-2 formation that uses a negative style. If the weather is cold and the pitch muddy then he has about everything he can get in his favour.

The only ways of bettering this if for him to be playing in a five-man midfield, but then you lose the negative advantage and his figures won’t look all that much better. Each one of the factors in his advantage will add a certain percentage to his abilities and in the example shown it would not be a surprise to see one player’s eventual stats change from 75/25 to perhaps 105/10 or so.

Creative players are the opposite end of the scale, they like warm days with a good surface to play one, they like space to play in and a style that allows them to attack the opposing goalmouth. It doesn’t take too much to work out what sort of formations and playing positions will get the best from them. It may well seem that there are more opportunities in the game for ball winners than there are for creative players - this is a fact. The balance to this is that when a BW or CR affect kicks in, it only kicks in at the position the player is located. A BW chance by a player in midfield will kill off a shot from the opposing midfield area for example, while a striker picking up a creative chance will do so from his forward position. The creative chances always result in an additional chance whereas ball-winners need to have something to stop if they are to be effective. If a side adds an extra four Ball-winner chances to their midfield and the opposition isn’t creating anything in that area, then these efforts are wasted. Thus, while there are many more ways of aiding your ball-winning players, their abilities are not always as valuable as the creative players.

Basically, if a player’s individual ability tops the 85 figure then there is a chance that he will have some effect on the match. If it tops 100 then he will definitely have some effect. In each case it means that he will add a ball-winning stop or a creative chance to the side’s usual tally of stops and shots. Every percent above 85 tests that player’s ability against a simple dice roll and, if they do come up trumps, you will see them registered in the CR/BW report underneath your normal match stats. If they top the 100 range then they will activate without any number being tested and will again show up in that area.

These chances are also shown in another way, particularly in terms of the creative chances. If a team is listed as having no shots but, say, two on target, then you will know where these two efforts came from.

The same may well apply to a side getting no shots on target from a host of chances. That, for individuals, is the basic way things work. However the way that the whole team performs is also affected by these figures and this is done by generating the average BW/CR figure for all the players playing in the same area of the pitch. These averages are also used to find out if that area manages to create or stop a chance that would otherwise be ignored.

The best way of showing this is by an example; let us assume that a side has players out in a 3-4-3 formation and that the players have BW/CR stats as shown here;

65/35 60/40 80/15 - Defence

50/50 30/70 75/25 60/40 - Midfield

50/50 60/40 55/45 - Attack

These figures are checked to give averages of 68/30 in defence, 52/48 in midfield and 55/45 in attack. None of these are particularly outstanding, as you can see, and each is tested in the same way as a player. Any figure above 85 has a chance of making something happen so, in this case, nothing does.

Let us assume the opposing team is set up as follows;

30/70 20/80 40/60 - Defence

20/80 10/90 50/70 10/90 - Midfield

10/90 0/100 10/90 - Attack

This is a far more attack-minded side with better creative players in it. Their averages are 30/70 in defence, 30/82 in midfield and 07/93 in attack and immediately we have a chance of an additional creative chance from up front. One chance might not sound a lot and there is a second test applied to every area in the game. In this test the area BW figure of the defenders of a side are tested against the CR figures of the opposing forwards and the BW of the midfielders are tested against the opposing midfielders CR stats for both sides.

In our examples we would compare a 68/30 DF with a 07/93 FW, on both sets of stats, both ways. While the second side’s creative ability has the edge on the BW ability of the defenders, the strikers own BW ability is way, way below the creative skills of the defenders they are facing. This disparity gives us a new figure (in this case 25) and this number is plugged into a second set of formula. Any figure above 15 has some chance of giving that AREA of the pitch an additional affect, be it ball winning or creative. This figure of 23, for example, means that the defenders might find themselves able to break away quickly without much effort to stop them by the forwards of the opposing side. With this comparison being done both ways, for both teams, there is clearly a fair chance that the figures in these areas might provide a game-turning event too. These are also shown in the BW/CR reports beneath your match statistics. So it should hopefully be clear that while these new figures are not a truly earth-shaking chance to the game, they are not something that you can simply ignore. A good set of BW/CR stats can make a player very valuable indeed, particularly if he is a Skill player with good BW figures or a Power player who is exceptionally creative.

See also…

• Calculating the Result

1. Players are coached to their new levels.
2. Any All-Season Injuries are treated (if required).
3. Scouting is entered.
4. SP’s are turned to cash.
5. Miscellaneous spending, Penalty taker and Captain are nominated.
6. Teams are entered and injuries/suspensions reduced.
7. Matches are played and new injuries/suspensions added. (Match Order is: League Games, Re-arranged Games, Cup Games, Bowl Games, Trophy Games, LeagueCup games, Cross-League Cup Games, Friendlies.)
8. Gate Receipts & Prize monies are added.
9. League tables are updated.
10. Players are sold to the non-league.
11. Transfers between managers are processed.
12. Auction is carried out.
13. New players are entered into the next Auction, including out-of-contract players.
14. SP’s for the following session are calculated.
15. International and/or Representative Matches are played.
16. Outstanding Cross-League matches are played (at end of session for all leagues involved)

See also…

• Coaching
• The Superphysio
• Scouting
• Converting Success Points to Cash
• Club Captain
• Injuries
• Rewards for Success
• Sales to the Non-League
• Transfers
• The Auction
• International Matches
• Cross-League Matches