For those of you who don't know, the premise of a C&C game is simple enough. You create a new manager of international footballer past experience and take over the national job of a fairly minor nation. You then choose a club of the same nationality and put a new manager in charge of them. Retiring that manager immediately, you should be able to apply for the job with your international manager and, hey presto!, you are now the manager of you chosen club and country. Hence the name of the thread.

The first item I'll cover in this guide is probably the most important and needs to be addressed right at the start of the game. Namely:

Choosing the right teams

This is, for obvious reasons, the single (or double seeing as there are two choices) most important factor in getting a successful and enjoyable game. The general idea is to take over a smaller nation and take them from obscurity to world domination. There's really very little challenge in taking over Barcelona and Spain is there? There's nothing wrong with doing this, obviously, but the thread is about the challenge and showing progression over a number of years. The only way you can take either of those teams is down!

Equally, you have to be realistic in your expectations. Unless you are willing to spend 50+ seasons at the game, are you really going to be able to make the Solomon Islands into the world's best team? Again, there's nothing wrong in doing this but it could make for an horrendously long and tedious game. Will you be able to maintain interest for 50 seasons?

I would recommend picking the nation first. For me, a C&C game is more about success with the national side than with the club. Everything you do with the club should be geared into developing players for the national side. I'd try to avoid the top 10 countries at the very least, although even top 20 might prove too easy. Similarly anything outside the top 100 is going to be a really long slog. So that leaves a good 80 nations to choose from, you should be able to find something interesting in that lot. For ease, you can find the current FIFA rankings here, although they are likely to be at least slightly different in-game.

When choosing the nation you should also take into account the following: international continental competitions; club continental competitions; competitiveness of the league; club infrastructure; and existing players. What would hold your interest in the game? Would taking over a nation who only plays in the World Cup every four years (if you qualify) hold you interest? Would lack of a competitive continental competition bother you? If all the nation's good players are 29+ then how long will it be before you can bring newgens through to improve the side?

There is no "right" or "wrong" decision but you should think about the things listed above before starting the game, rather than getting five seasons in and then find that you have lost interest.

Now, let's assume that you have decided on the nation you are going to manage and that this nation is, for example, Lithuania. Currently ranked 47th in the world and without any real star players, they would represent a decent challenge. They could qualify for the European Championships, giving an international competition every two years; and the clubs could play in the European continental competitions, providing extra interest. Seems like a good choice.

But which club? And will playing in a small league prove boring once domination is achieved? Well, we can do something about that. Many C&C-ers will find that they quickly rise to the top of the national game and find the domestic game not only monotonous but perhaps even restrictive as you only face moderate opposition week-in, week-out. This is definitely something to consider when choosing your club and country so why not make things more interesting by making use of The Dugout's extensive catalogue of Downloadable Editor Content. There's some great stuff in there: some of which will activate non-playable leagues like Nigeria or Canada; and some which amalgamates existing leagues to make it more competitive. For our example of Lithuania, you might prefer to use a Former-USSR league system. Or perhaps you'd have your own idea, like a Baltic League, in which case you could use this list of guides to create your own system. This is something I did in my Austria game by amalgamating the Austrian and German leagues and has undoubtedly extended the game's interest for me.

Ok, so now you've chosen your country and the league you wish to play in. The last thing to decide is which club you are going to take over. Most C&C players will take one club from the start and stick with that club. Although there's nothing to stop you from moving around, the whole idea is to develop youth systems and players for the national side; switching teams every few years won't help this. So assuming you are taking a "job for life", consider whether you want to take on one of the big clubs in your league or build up a smaller club. If you have chosen to play in a smaller, less competitive league then building up a minor club can be more fun; but you are then going to lose out on the advantages gained from good youth and training facilities from the start so it's a trade off and judgement call you'll have to make.

Once you have decided, you are good to go. Let's hope you have chosen wisely.

Tactics

One of the reasons that I love C&C games so much is that it requires a level of tactical flexibility that isn't required in other games. You will always be limited in the player pool available to you and making the most of your best players means that you need to be able to see their strengths and then play to them. Also, you will have to adapt over time as different newgens appear. Perhaps you will discover a world class winger when you previously never used wingers. Perhaps you won't get any right backs coming through and you'll have to protect a weak side or play without fullbacks. It keeps it interesting and tests your ability in different ways to other games.

Some people, myself included, will tend to play the same tactics for both the club and the national side; but this is only viable where you have largely the same personnel at both. In the early days, where the international players are likely spread across various clubs and leagues, you may have to play differently.

Even so, it is worth planning ahead tactically, so that you are in a position to change it when players retire / new players come through, rather than suffering from a transitional period. For example, let's say that you have a 32 year old playmaker who is the centre piece of your team but there is no natural successor of the same nationality. You also have two 16 year old wingers coming through that will turn out for the national side soon. While the playmaker is still around, I would experiment with a different tactic utilising my wingers' strengths in friendlies or late on in competitive games that I'm winning. With international games so spaced out, this will give you a better opportunity to experiment than after the playmaker has retired and you need to win qualifiers whilst testing a new tactic.

In part 2 we'll zoom in a bit more on Youth Development amongst other things.