Retro Bowl First Season: How to Rebuild a Two-Win Team

Most people start Retro Bowl by picking a good team and wonder why the fans are furious after a 9-8 season. Fan support moves with results against expectations, so a strong franchise gives you nowhere to go but down. Start with a team rated one or two stars on offense and defense. Expectations are on the floor, every win moves the fans, and the owner gives you time.

The first credits

You get a small pile of coaching credits at the start. Do not spread them. Go to the free-agent list and buy the best quarterback you can afford, even if he is 30 and on a one-year deal: the whole passing game is his accuracy and arm, and a 4-star QB throws catchable balls to 2-star receivers. If credits are left, take an offensive lineman. The line rating decides how long you have before the pocket collapses, which is the difference between a comfortable drag-and-release and a panic throw.

Play a 17-game season on Medium

The league runs 17 games plus playoffs. Medium difficulty is where the offense is fair and the score lines look like football. Extreme is for a finished roster. While you play, learn the two throws: a long straight drag for a bullet down the seam, and a short drag with a right-click to lob over a linebacker sitting in the flat. When nobody is open, drag backwards, scramble to the sideline and dive; a five-yard loss is fine, a sack fumble is not.

Contracts and the cap

The default cap is $150m and it only stretches across ten key players. Let overpaid veterans walk at the end of the season rather than re-signing them: they come back onto the free-agent list anyway, and often cheaper. Never cut a healthy player mid-season unless the roster screen marks him toxic, because cutting a normal player drops team morale and morale is what makes a star drop passes.

The draft

There are three rounds and one pick in each. Prospects show only their position and a rough rating until you scout them, and scouting is limited per draft, so spend the scouts on players you might take in round one. Take the best available at quarterback or receiver in round one, a lineman or kicker in round two, and gamble in round three. Trades let you sell a round-three pick for credits if the pool is thin; do that and put the credits towards a training facility, which raises everyone's XP gain for the rest of your career.

Season two

With a real quarterback, one lineman and a young receiver, a two-win team usually goes 10-7 in its second year. That is when you start the stadium upgrade: better facilities make fans forgive a loss, and a calm owner is the thing that lets you finish a rebuild.