ICC tactics thread - share what's worked for you

[LongHopCassidy]

Might be worth compiling a little database of tricks to avert those depressing 1-wicket defeats. Feel free to contribute yours!

Playing ICC 2009 (don't like 2012 because they binned the Pro League), chugging into 2015 with Northants (had a 2030 campaign with Derbyshire but the save file got corrupted).

- RF/LF bowlers - unless in absolutely gun form - tend to get smashed bowling simple line and length. I usually tell mine to bowl short unless back-foot specialists are at the crease.

- Always have two spinners on hand. Playing four quicks will get at least one of them injured if the oppo bats for 100+ overs, and spinners are overpowered anyway.

- Tend to change up length for wickets in FC games, change line to dry up runs in ODs

- Over-invest in youth and coaching for a couple seasons (if you can stand copping a middling season with your 1st XI) and then leave them learning bowling and batting technique for 5 or 6 seasons while languishing in the 2nds. Makes them hungry. Especially effective with 18 year olds.

- An 18 year old youth player with an asking price of 29,000 is generally going to be a freak.

- Phil Hughes.

- Don't be afraid to bat uber-defensively with your top order. Great for getting out-of-form batsmen back into it.

- Spinners wickets seem to work quite well for quicks as well.

- If your players get selected for England, they may as well never exist in your side again as you'll get them for half a season at best if they do IPL and Test tours. Have direct replacements on hand.

- A keeper/opening batsman regen player gives you a lot of flexibility when balancing a batting/bowling line-up.

[ohnoitsyou]

Great tips thanks, i play ICC 2012 so its a bit different.

-One thing i have noticed is that the scoreboard pressure plays a huge part on the ai. I am pretty sure that the bigger the total you get with the bad the easier it gets to take wickets when your bowling.
So for Tests/FC bat slow (try to make your fast innings last the alloted time you would normally reserver for 2) and aim to post say 550. Obviously this doesn't work with a weak batting team, but normally with a big total to defend i can roll up most teams on flat pitches for say 250-300 in both with my modest pace quartet of Doug Bracewell/Neil Wagner/Trent Boult/Matt Henry(Tim Southee can turn out good and Gillespie is easily the best NZ bowler for the first two seasons).

-This is still a theory but it seems that aggressive batsmen get out more easily when in defensive setting. So set naturally aggressive batsmen to aggressive settings sooner than you would otherwise.

-If possible try to train two separate sets of bowlers, one for tests and one for T20 with ODIs mixing them. Most all-rounders should be trained to be defensive as it pays to have the extra batting depth sometimes.

-Try to always bowl first first for LO. Your batsmen tend to have a higher strike rate if your chasing a higher total, so bowling first eliminates scoring a low total and then having it chased easily. Conversely however, if you score a good total upfront, your bowlers can normally roll up the opposition very easily.

[Daemon]

Autoplay is usually better than me.

[ohnoitsyou]

Originally Posted by Daemon

Autoplay is usually better than me.

So true though, no matter how much better your custom fields may be in real life, they don't slow the runs whatsoever.

[morgieb]

- Bowlers bowl better under AutoPlay but batsmen are weaker under AutoPlay.
- Try to bowl first at OD level, but this may not work at county level.
- Don't pick familiar faces, look at averages. Particularly for international mode.
- A 2 until 75% settled, then 3, then 4 when fully settled works well for me.
- More aggressive fields/line and length doesn't always work - I'm still figuring the best way to bowl lineup out.

[Jager]

I've found that bowling at a specific aggression level for a few overs then dropping it one bar often leads to a wicket straight away

[LongHopCassidy]

One thing that's always pissed me off is that we get info on bounce and spin for the deck, but not how much grass/lateral movement there is. Would clear so many things up, especially whether it's safe for my latest callow recruit to **** with Chris Woakes.

[MrPrez]

I play 2007 and I find that part timers are so op when it comes to getting quick wickets.

Then find a quality spinning all rounder, and a heap of mediums.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Jager

I've found that bowling at a specific aggression level for a few overs then dropping it one bar often leads to a wicket straight away

This happens for me quite a bit as well in FC games.

[outbreak]

any other tips on taking wickets? I'm struggling a lot more then I used to in 2010 to get wickets consistently. Most of my bowlers average over 30 in tests. ODI's and t20's are fine just can't seem to take quick wickets in tests. At the moment I start out on 5 aggression bowling to their weaknesses (tried just standard length and line too) if a partnership forms I start mixing up over the wicket and aggression if I'm being smacked around. Some games I roll them but other times I get stuck in marathon partnerships I can't break.

[sledger]

Always tend to ramp up aggression to nearly the top setting for my ODI openers. Bit of a nuclear option, because if it fails you can easily end up shagged. But if it pays off, you're usually going to get an unassailable total.

[Cabinet96]

Yeah, I do the same. I've noticed it's really easy to get runs off new bowlers, even with new batsman, so I always try and cash in on the first four overs of an ODI, and can usually get about 40 runs from them if it goes well.