Newbie thoughts...

Watching a recent Mets game, a flood of memories rushed to me when Keith Hernandez began discussing stratomatic. As a kid, I played this game religiously. Each winter I waited for the mailman to arrive with the latest edition of stratomatic cards. Keith has mentioned the game a few times, and that spurred me to look online and see if the game was still available. Now that I'm hear, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of the game. Be that as it is, I'm wondering how old everyone around here is, and how long have you been playing? Any advice for breaking things down a bit? Thanks all!

Welcome!!

I think the majority of players here are older than dirt and played Strat when the cards were basic side only. (my 1st set was 1964) I Started online play in 2013, but most owners go much further back than I do. (I think)

Some people play many more teams than others, and since the best ones tend to win and get free credits, the competition is stiff in almost every league.

The game is not that much different really. The BP effects were the biggest adjustment for me. (I never played with BP effects before playing online) The parks used in the leagues you play in, and the players you use in your home park make a huge difference.

Best advise I can give is read the Strategy posts--almost all has been talked about, but you may have to go back a few pages and hunt.

Welcome aboard! Your name includes "Lucky" so you've got that part of the game going for you. After that you can add a lot of information from reading board postings. I found reading the "Strategy Forum/Newbie Advice" thread in the General Strategy section useful. There is significant complexity to the game, but you can have fun learning by your mistakes and triumphs.

I have no idea what age the managers are, but I've read some concerns about whether enough people will find this sort of game interesting. Anyway, you are here so start a team and have fun. A mystery league from your favorite era is what I recommend for beginners since there is a larger luck component and you are familiar with many of the ballplayers. Others prefer playing the recent seasons or All Time Greats.

Sounds like you have never played the CDROM game either. In addition to the good Recs above, I'd also recommend getting into a CDROM league. there are leagues openings posted on the Stratomatic web site. There are also other sites to find league openings.

I think learning the dynamics of the CDROM game can only help you with the online game here. Both are fun, but both can be quite different.

My first set was 1969, just before the two sided cards.

I recommend jumping in and get playing. Worrying about the details before you know the basics may kill the joy. I agree the park factor is pretty big. Matching your players to a park really helps. I think park factor was the last thing I got a hold of when I started. I would not agree that the mystery sets have more luck but, they do have more options and a greater learning curve I think. It would be best to start with checkers (single set) then learn chess.

I would also suggest finding a mentor of sorts in your first few leagues. Asking questions of the vets helps you get up to speed quicker. You will find a lot of guys willing to help. And many who won't I'm afraid.

Welcome and good luck.

I'm going to follow your advice, and read through the strategy threads. I started playing sometime around '75, and I'm 51. What a great site. I don't general play games on the computer, but I'm jumping in here. Funny, I was talking to a friend recently about games like this when we were growing up. We had several variations of stickball, wiggle all, and pick up games where we'd have at least 16 kids come out of nowhere and play all day. They don't do that anymore, and that's sad. Oh well!

The reason I think the mystery games involve more luck is that every manager has to deal with the question of which of 5 seasons cards he got. That allows the beginner to have a chance of getting a better player year to compete against the wily veteran who drafted the possibly better player and gets a poor year instead. On the other hand, I agree that skill in figuring out which year you have is part of that game puzzle and adds to the options, including confusion and fun. That element of the mystery leagues makes you weigh the usual strategy of "Don't drop players because of the salary cap hit" versus "I paid how much for Sal Bando's worst year?-I've got to dump him". The single year and ATG leagues allow managers to create a team with a better idea of how their players will perform since there is no "mystery". Many of the experienced managers really know the players so a new person will need to develop their skills of evaluating players and putting together a team, so I think there is less luck in that situation.

I am biased because my first team was in a 1960's mystery league and it benefited from getting some good years for players (good luck) and not too many bad years. Hope for luck and work on your skills in whatever league types you choose. They are all fun.