Team orders must be received by the Gaming Officer by 1800 hours GMT on the day prior to the date of the game stipulated on the season schedule, this will normally be 1800 on a Saturday, unless stated otherwise.  TEAM ORDERS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO THEO KAMIS - GAMING OFFICER. If no orders are received, your previously submitted team orders shall be used and your team shall incur a 15% form penalty. If you have failed to submit team orders on ANY three occasions during the course of the season, you may be removed from the competition and your team put up for adoption by a coach from the Waiting List. You will not necessarily be reminded about this, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure you submit team orders. If you are going on holiday or will not be able to meet the Orders Deadline, you can submit orders in advance.  This can include instructions on what to do with injured players. Please contact the Gaming Officer directly if you need to do this. PICKING YOUR TEAM The first thing to do is pick a starting 17 from your squad. You must list the entire team numbered from 1 to 17. Then you must name 3 players to be rested. Rested players will have their injuries reduced by 1 week (if injured), and may also incur a small form increase/decrease. Picking your team is really the main strategy. Remember that all players in the team are important – poor players will have a significant effect on the teams performance, however, this could be balanced out by having a few star players in important strategic positions. It is up to you how you design your team. Note that you are not obliged to use your players in their specified positions.  Most players have two alternates as per the table below.  If a player is picked in an alternate position, his form should not be too badly affected; in fact, his form may improve in the new position. If the player is picked outside the alternate positions, his form will almost certainly suffer a significant reduction. Rated Position Alternate Positions Full Back Wing or Stand Off Winger Full Back or Centre Centre Wing or Second Row Stand Off Loose Forward or Scrum Half Scrum Half Stand Off or Hooker Prop Second Row Hooker Loose Forward or Scrum Half Second Row Prop or Centre Loose Forward Stand Off or Hooker CHOOSING A STRATEGY There are five strategies you need to choose.  Attacking strategy, attacking style, defensive strategy, defensive style and interchange strategy. ATTACKING STRATEGY After you have listed your team, list your attacking strategy: Balanced Kicking Use Threequarters Use Forward Use Halves Use Dummy half Use Fullback Balanced Use the entire team for attacking plays. Use Threequarters Spread the ball out along the backline whenever possible. Use Forwards Use the props and second-rowers heavily in attack. Use Halves The scrum half and stand off are the chief attacking players. Use Fullback Bring the fullback into the backline as an attacking option. Use Dummy half The hooker runs from dummy-half whenever possible. Kicking Use strategic kicking regularly. ATTACKING STYLE Use to define whether you want to play open, risky football, or tight, controlled football.  The riskier strategies result in more metres gained and better chances of scoring, but may result in more errors. The less risky strategies are less effective, but completion rates will be higher. In order from highest risk to lowest risks the options are: Expansive Open Balanced Controlled Tight DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES These are intended to counter the seven Attacking Strategies - they are: Target Halves Target Forwards Target Three-quarters Target Fullback Target Kicker Target Dummy half Balanced Each one is intended to reduce the effectiveness of the targeted players, but may leave holes in the defence in other areas. DEFENSIVE STYLE The defensive strategies control how aggressive your defence is. An in-your-face defensive style will result in a more effective defence, but may result in more penalties against you. The more controlled defensive patterns do the opposite. In order from most aggressive to most controlled the options are: Aggressive Balanced Disciplined INTERCHANGE STRATEGY Controls how you use your interchange players. The interchange system simulates the 12 interchanges allowed in the current Super League competition. Conservative Interchanges are used sparingly so that there will be fresh players at the end of the match. A good strategy to use if your bench players are weak. Balanced Interchange used regularly throughout the game. Aggressive Use you bench players as much as possible but your team may tire towards the end of the game. Use when you have strong bench players. NAME CAPTAIN By default, your half back will be your captain; however, you can choose any player in your orders. The captains temperament will affect the way your team plays. You MUST name your captain. RESTED PLAYERS AND RESERVE GRADE SIDE Now that a reserve grade game is automatically played alongside your first grade game, you MUST nominate 3 (THREE) players from your squad to be RESTED. The 7 (SEVEN) remaining UNNAMED players will play the reserve grade game by default. You do NOT need to name the 7 players who will make up your reserve grade team. You do NOT need to submit strategies for the reserve grade game. The SIM will automatically play the game without them. NOTE: The nomination of a specific player to be rested will ALWAYS over rule any decision to play the player. If you have named a player in your 17 man first grade line up and also asked for him to be rested he WILL be rested and the most suitable alternative player will be chosen to play in the position you chose him for in your first grade 17 man line up. For example, if you have named Sean Long at scrum half and also asked for him to be rested, then Sean Long WILL be rested and an alternative scrum half will be chosen for you by the Gaming Officer. IMPORTANT NOTE The strategies will not always have the effect you are expecting. For instance, an aggressive defence may not result in more penalties. There are a number of reasons for this: The strategies and/or player ratings of the other team may be nullifying your strategies. Your own team may not be suited to the type of strategy you are choosing. Random elements which are different in every game. The simulator is now quite complex. It can be difficult to predict, although good teams and coaches will always have the advantage. SENDING TEAM ORDERS Orders must list, in this order: TEAM NAME Captain Attacking Strategy Attacking Style Defensive Strategy Defensive Style Interchange Strategy 17 man squad (13 starting players plus 4 interchange players) 3 rested players So, a set of orders should look like this: EUROPEAN EAGLES Captain: No. 4 Attack Strategy: Use Fullback Attack Style: Open Defence Strategy: Target Kicker Defence Style: Balanced Interchange Strategy: Conservative 1 Mr Full Back 2 Ms Left Wing 3 Mr Centre 4 Mrs Centre 5 Miss Right Wing 6 Sir Five Eighth 7 Commander Half Back 8 Senor Prop 9 Herr Hooker 10 Mr Other Prop 11 Dr Second Row 12 Father Second Row 13 Chief Lock 14 Interchange 1 15 Interchange 2 16 Interchange 3 17 Interchange 4 Rest: Player X Rest: Player Y Rest: Player Z When completed, send your orders to the Gaming Officer with EIRL Team Orders as the subject line. It is acceptable to send team orders to the Gaming Officer making either NO CHANGES (no changes will be applied to either your strategies or team line-up), STRATEGY CHANGES ONLY (provide details of the strategies you wish to change, although no changes will be made to your team line-up), or TEAM CHANGES ONLY (please list the players you wish to change, however, it is advisable that if you are changing more than three players, that you should list your entire 17 man squad although no changes will be made to your team strategies). Example: Replace No. 4 Fred Bloggs with No. 18 Saddam Hussein is acceptable, as is: Replace No. 4 Fred Bloggs with No. 18 Saddam Hussein and Replace No. 5 Bill Clinton with No. 7 Tony Blair Any more than this and it is probably easier for you (and the Gaming Officer) to list your entire team for that game. Please note the Gaming Officer holds no responsibility for any ambiguity in your orders, or any misinterpretation thereof.  If in doubt, list your whole squad! IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING TEAM ORDERS If team orders are not submitted with the above subject line (EIRL Team Orders) they WILL be deleted and will be treated as the non-submission of orders. If incorrect strategies are named, duplicate players named, or un-registered players, then a random player will be selected, or a random strategy will be selected. In addition to this your team will be fined. It is in your interests to get things right from the start.