Theres a player I'd like to pull down to my A prestige D3 team, but a sim D2 team has already gotten his interest in that first "sim" round of recruiting the player is "considering" that D2 team. 

Do I stand a chance at pulling him down?

From my experience (which isn't a great deal, but is some) I don't rate sims the same as a human coach.

If it was a human coach (ANY human coach) who had him considering at some point with a DII team, I'd say abandon ship.

With a sim, you may have a chance because they don't compete like humans, so if you throw the guy enough love, you might land him.

I'd say that with the caveat that you will need to throw him MORE love at DIII than the sim does at DII, and perhaps a significant amount more in order to have that chance.

Depends.  If he's only marginally considering the sim, it's likely you have a good shot.

Considering you only have three open schollies you may not want to try to pull him down and then start a battle on top of it.  Getting the player to talk to you puts you pretty much at a zero effort towards signing him.  In other words, you will have to spend thousands of dollars (potentially) in effort to get him to talk to you, then thousands more (potentially) to knock the sim off the guy,

It can be done, but it is very risky.  How important is this guy to your team?  Is it worth getting him and taking two walkons or can you find a similar enough player?

The other option, patience.  See if you can wait it out until the player drops to you.  Once he drops, you can go right after him.  This may also save you money in the event that another DII human coached team tries to take him from the sim.

I agree with milwood. Especially if you're willing to take walkons. Save your money till he's willing to talk, then dump money into him quick before the signing period. If you can knock the sim off before signing starts, the sim will not compete with you. If not, then you may have some competition. If it never happens, you will still have all your money once signing starts to find a couple guys who fell through the cracks or jump into a last minute battle.

What happens if I "only" get the lead over the sim and don't completely knock the sim off the list?  Will the sim compete again around the signing period?  What about if I get a "leading" message instead of a "need more info" message?

my understanding is the sim doesn't put further effort into the player, despite competition.

it can be really expensive to win these battles.  looks like you are going for it though, from glancing at your team.

Yeah I might, I figure I can learn and see if (and for how much) it can be done.  I've got fall back options queued up so, we'll see how it goes.  I will go for it now that I know the sim doesn't make a second push.

Now I gotta decide if I'm gonna pry another recruit from a different sim (D3). 

Posted by milwood on 9/17/2012 9:56:00 PM (view original):
Considering you only have three open schollies you may not want to try to pull him down and then start a battle on top of it.  Getting the player to talk to you puts you pretty much at a zero effort towards signing him.  In other words, you will have to spend thousands of dollars (potentially) in effort to get him to talk to you, then thousands more (potentially) to knock the sim off the guy,

It can be done, but it is very risky.  How important is this guy to your team?  Is it worth getting him and taking two walkons or can you find a similar enough player?

The other option, patience.  See if you can wait it out until the player drops to you.  Once he drops, you can go right after him.  This may also save you money in the event that another DII human coached team tries to take him from the sim.

Most of what was said here is true, but once he talks to you, he's basically yours,in my experience.  You're not going to have to drop 5 or 6 CVs or anything after he's considering you.  Usually it only takes an HV or 2.

Ah so I don't need to send 5 scout trips, once he's talked to me? I can do HV and CV ?

right, Scouting trips don't carry much value once the recruit is willing to talk to you. 

Isack, I would say that is true if the recruit is definitely leaning towards your team, but if it is a struggle or you aren't getting the primary school email then more effort would be a very wise move.  Just because you got the recruit to consider your school doesn't automatically put you in the lead.  There have also been a couple of forums lately on this issue where a human coach has gotten the "in the lead" email in a battle with the sim.  In that case the player still signed with the sim team, so if he is your priority, better safe than sorry is probably a good strategy. 

Posted by isack24 on 9/18/2012 11:00:00 AM (view original):

Posted by milwood on 9/17/2012 9:56:00 PM (view original):
Considering you only have three open schollies you may not want to try to pull him down and then start a battle on top of it.  Getting the player to talk to you puts you pretty much at a zero effort towards signing him.  In other words, you will have to spend thousands of dollars (potentially) in effort to get him to talk to you, then thousands more (potentially) to knock the sim off the guy,

It can be done, but it is very risky.  How important is this guy to your team?  Is it worth getting him and taking two walkons or can you find a similar enough player?

The other option, patience.  See if you can wait it out until the player drops to you.  Once he drops, you can go right after him.  This may also save you money in the event that another DII human coached team tries to take him from the sim.

Most of what was said here is true, but once he talks to you, he's basically yours,in my experience.  You're not going to have to drop 5 or 6 CVs or anything after he's considering you.  Usually it only takes an HV or 2.

i agree with this.

once he is willing to talk to you, its not hard at all to win the d3 human vs d2 sim battle. i haven't played d3 in a while, but in the end, i almost battled up a division once a season, and very very rarely lost my man.

Posted by btetzl50 on 9/18/2012 11:02:00 AM (view original):
Ah so I don't need to send 5 scout trips, once he's talked to me? I can do HV and CV ?

SV are by a significant margin, the least valuable tool, from a credit standpoint. you want to send as few as possible to get him to talk to you, and then use exclusively HV (if hes within 360 miles) or exclusively CV (if hes outside 360 miles). that will maximize your effort spent.

Posted by btetzl50 on 9/18/2012 9:36:00 AM (view original):
What happens if I "only" get the lead over the sim and don't completely knock the sim off the list?  Will the sim compete again around the signing period?  What about if I get a "leading" message instead of a "need more info" message?

assuming you are only talking about scholarship messages, then yeah, you are basically fine if you get the lead. he won't sign right away, opening the door for someone else to jump on, but thats rare for division 3. i think you are safe to get one of the unambiguous leading messages, and then just hold out from there.

note: the sim does benefit from considering credit, and there is something a little strange about considering credit, i think. you'd think, once you are ahead, your lead would continue to build. but i think there is something going on like, you don't build considering credit right when you get on a players' list, or something like that. so i would err on the side of caution, and make sure you get one of the strong "leading" messages, not one of those like, well, i think im probably ahead by a little messages. i would do it slowly too, to avoid over spending.