Hey everyone. I’m new to HD and am really compelled with this game. I have 5 openings this year and have a few questions about recruiting at an A- prestige school at DIII. 1. Is there any way to beat a DI Sim AI on a DI recruit battle? 2. If so, how? 3. Can I beat 6 DI Sim AI in a battle? 4. Is it unlikely that I’d win one of these battles?

Usually you can beat a SIM out for a recruit. It is a lot harder at D3 to beat out D1 sims because of your budget limitations. The SIM can get really fixated on a target and just throw recruiting dollars at it and there is only so much you can do. If you get to the recruit first, I'd say there is a better chance you can ward off any SIMs by just using recruiting efforts. If you are trying to play catch up, it can be a challenge.

Edit: Since you're new, I figured that I'd mention that most everyone here is very inviting. Feel free to sitemail me or pretty much any other active poster on the forums and they would be happy to help you out if you have any questions.

Posted by Wales_ on 9/12/2018 2:26:00 PM (view original):
Usually you can beat a SIM out for a recruit. It is a lot harder at D3 to beat out D1 sims because of your budget limitations. The SIM can get really fixated on a target and just throw recruiting dollars at it and there is only so much you can do. If you get to the recruit first, I'd say there is a better chance you can ward off any SIMs by just using recruiting efforts. If you are trying to play catch up, it can be a challenge.

Edit: Since you're new, I figured that I'd mention that most everyone here is very inviting. Feel free to sitemail me or pretty much any other active poster on the forums and they would be happy to help you out if you have any questions.

Alright thanks man, that’s very nice of you to say. I’m going after a few guys that I’d love to get and I’m debating if I should go after them fully. How do I know if the Sim AI really wants them?

Yes. You can win the battle. Especially if you use a promised start and/or promised minutes. The recruit will respond even more to promises if they have a preference “wants to play”.

At D3, you can get all D1 recruits. It’s a game of patience until the end of recruiting because human coach D1 or D2 will beat you almost always. But you can beat Sims.

There are also some gems at D2 level to recruit for your D3 team.

With 5 openings, you’ll have a good shot, so long as it’s just sim AI you’re up against, and no humans jump in. It doesn’t really matter how many others are on him. Conventional wisdom is that you want to get ahead early, and stay ahead of them. You may need to make promises to do this. You don’t want them starting to do visits,because then it’s going to be too expensive for you to keep up. Try to get them to move on early.

I will typically pick one or two D1 projected players to target, and fill my class with D2 players (normally reserving most AP for the D1 guys, though not always). With 4 or 5 openings, you should be able to go big with your top priorities for the first couple cycles, to offer scholarships (and promises, if necessary) as soon as you can. 40-50 AP on your top priority or two, and most of the time an A prestige D3 can offer a scholarship after the second cycle, unless it’s a bad preference match. At that point, you should be clear of sim AI, and only have to worry about other humans stepping on you.

ETA sidenote - I helped the previous coach of that Nazareth team with recruiting and gameplanning, you picked a good spot to start.

Posted by Sportsbulls on 9/12/2018 2:29:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Wales_ on 9/12/2018 2:26:00 PM (view original):
Usually you can beat a SIM out for a recruit. It is a lot harder at D3 to beat out D1 sims because of your budget limitations. The SIM can get really fixated on a target and just throw recruiting dollars at it and there is only so much you can do. If you get to the recruit first, I'd say there is a better chance you can ward off any SIMs by just using recruiting efforts. If you are trying to play catch up, it can be a challenge.

Edit: Since you're new, I figured that I'd mention that most everyone here is very inviting. Feel free to sitemail me or pretty much any other active poster on the forums and they would be happy to help you out if you have any questions.

Alright thanks man, that’s very nice of you to say. I’m going after a few guys that I’d love to get and I’m debating if I should go after them fully. How do I know if the Sim AI really wants them?

It can be kind of random whether the SIM heavily pursues a recruit. I have gotten into expensive battles against D2 sims on D2 recruits where the SIM just will not back off. It depends on how much interest the recruit gathers. It will be harder to ward off five SIMs than it will be to ward off just one. Something I like to do especially at D3 is too sit on my recruiting dollars at not spend them all in the beginning of recruiting. What used to happen to me often was I put a whole lot of my small budget on a recruit, and then a D1 coach would swoop in and snatch him away. Personally, I like to get a feel for how much interest a recruit will garner before I put money into him, because compared to other divisions, your D3 budget is tiny.

One thing that can really help is promising minutes. Once you promise minutes to a recruit, all other actions after that (HVs and CVs) will be worth a little more depending on how much the recruit values those minutes.

That’s a big no go in my opinion unless you targeted him first and D1 Simmy lands on that recruit as a backup option.

Sure maybe you’d win a battle against D1 Simmy six times out of ten by going all in. But D3 recruiting is a battle of backup options, you have got to have them especially when recruiting in the D1 pool. There will be times when you have yourself locked into a stud recruit since the first cycle of RS1 only to be overtaken by a D1 human in seemingly one cycle in RS2. So I would move on and find a different option if D1 Simmy has target that recruit before or during the same cycle as you.

Posted by zagsrulez on 9/12/2018 2:47:00 PM (view original):
That’s a big no go in my opinion unless you targeted him first and D1 Simmy lands on that recruit as a backup option.

Sure maybe you’d win a battle against D1 Simmy six times out of ten by going all in. But D3 recruiting is a battle of backup options, you have got to have them especially when recruiting in the D1 pool. There will be times when you have yourself locked into a stud recruit since the first cycle of RS1 only to be overtaken by a D1 human in seemingly one cycle in RS2. So I would move on and find a different option if D1 Simmy has target that recruit before or during the same cycle as you.

I don’t know how heavily they have targeted the recruit though because they’re just listed on the considering list but there hasn’t been a scholarship offered.

What if I have 2 guys that are high priority for me that are considering D1 humans but I don’t know if they are backup options to those humans or first choices. Do I back off or engage?

Posted by craigaltonw on 9/12/2018 2:32:00 PM (view original):
Yes. You can win the battle. Especially if you use a promised start and/or promised minutes. The recruit will respond even more to promises if they have a preference “wants to play”.

At D3, you can get all D1 recruits. It’s a game of patience until the end of recruiting because human coach D1 or D2 will beat you almost always. But you can beat Sims.

There are also some gems at D2 level to recruit for your D3 team.

What if they don’t have “wants to play?” Will it still be a decent affect?

Posted by shoe3 on 9/12/2018 2:41:00 PM (view original):
With 5 openings, you’ll have a good shot, so long as it’s just sim AI you’re up against, and no humans jump in. It doesn’t really matter how many others are on him. Conventional wisdom is that you want to get ahead early, and stay ahead of them. You may need to make promises to do this. You don’t want them starting to do visits,because then it’s going to be too expensive for you to keep up. Try to get them to move on early.

I will typically pick one or two D1 projected players to target, and fill my class with D2 players (normally reserving most AP for the D1 guys, though not always). With 4 or 5 openings, you should be able to go big with your top priorities for the first couple cycles, to offer scholarships (and promises, if necessary) as soon as you can. 40-50 AP on your top priority or two, and most of the time an A prestige D3 can offer a scholarship after the second cycle, unless it’s a bad preference match. At that point, you should be clear of sim AI, and only have to worry about other humans stepping on you.

ETA sidenote - I helped the previous coach of that Nazareth team with recruiting and gameplanning, you picked a good spot to start.

Thanks! And yeah he left me with a good team. Harold Aaron is the top scorer in DIII.

Posted by Wales_ on 9/12/2018 2:41:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Sportsbulls on 9/12/2018 2:29:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Wales_ on 9/12/2018 2:26:00 PM (view original):
Usually you can beat a SIM out for a recruit. It is a lot harder at D3 to beat out D1 sims because of your budget limitations. The SIM can get really fixated on a target and just throw recruiting dollars at it and there is only so much you can do. If you get to the recruit first, I'd say there is a better chance you can ward off any SIMs by just using recruiting efforts. If you are trying to play catch up, it can be a challenge.

Edit: Since you're new, I figured that I'd mention that most everyone here is very inviting. Feel free to sitemail me or pretty much any other active poster on the forums and they would be happy to help you out if you have any questions.

Alright thanks man, that’s very nice of you to say. I’m going after a few guys that I’d love to get and I’m debating if I should go after them fully. How do I know if the Sim AI really wants them?

It can be kind of random whether the SIM heavily pursues a recruit. I have gotten into expensive battles against D2 sims on D2 recruits where the SIM just will not back off. It depends on how much interest the recruit gathers. It will be harder to ward off five SIMs than it will be to ward off just one. Something I like to do especially at D3 is too sit on my recruiting dollars at not spend them all in the beginning of recruiting. What used to happen to me often was I put a whole lot of my small budget on a recruit, and then a D1 coach would swoop in and snatch him away. Personally, I like to get a feel for how much interest a recruit will garner before I put money into him, because compared to other divisions, your D3 budget is tiny.

One thing that can really help is promising minutes. Once you promise minutes to a recruit, all other actions after that (HVs and CVs) will be worth a little more depending on how much the recruit values those minutes.

Great! Thanks for the help bro.

Posted by Sportsbulls on 9/12/2018 2:17:00 PM (view original):
Hey everyone. I’m new to HD and am really compelled with this game. I have 5 openings this year and have a few questions about recruiting at an A- prestige school at DIII. 1. Is there any way to beat a DI Sim AI on a DI recruit battle? 2. If so, how? 3. Can I beat 6 DI Sim AI in a battle? 4. Is it unlikely that I’d win one of these battles?

Check your sitemail. ??

Posted by Sportsbulls on 9/12/2018 2:53:00 PM (view original):

Posted by zagsrulez on 9/12/2018 2:47:00 PM (view original):
That’s a big no go in my opinion unless you targeted him first and D1 Simmy lands on that recruit as a backup option.

Sure maybe you’d win a battle against D1 Simmy six times out of ten by going all in. But D3 recruiting is a battle of backup options, you have got to have them especially when recruiting in the D1 pool. There will be times when you have yourself locked into a stud recruit since the first cycle of RS1 only to be overtaken by a D1 human in seemingly one cycle in RS2. So I would move on and find a different option if D1 Simmy has target that recruit before or during the same cycle as you.

I don’t know how heavily they have targeted the recruit though because they’re just listed on the considering list but there hasn’t been a scholarship offered.

IMO, there’s not much incentive in this system to be battle shy. You can get lots of replacement level guys - think ~475 OVR D2 guys with potential, but some flaw or another - with minimal AP investment and a scholarship. In other words, you don’t have to invest a lot in backup options at D3. Just enough to get a scholarship open. You can focus much of your AP on top priorities; the hard part is getting a feel for how high you can reach for guys who are not priorities for higher level teams. Because a guy with a green 50 in ath and def is almost always going to be a priority for a D2 (or D1) human. If they’re blue, they’ll get attention, but may or may not be a priority for them. If one of them is black (or orange/red) your competition is more likely to be sims. And you can beat sims *IF* you beat them early and stay on top. Like I said, it gets hard playing catch-up at D3. But if you’ve got a scholarship offered against sims who are still very low, and you maintain a decent ongoing AP investment, you are probably going to be ok, regarding the sims. If you drop out on AP, it could be another story.

Another question. I have 2 great guys I want that’re getting targeted by DI humans. Do I even bother trying to get them?