We have all had that moment, you know the one...its one of those moments when you look back and say "If I could go back, I would have done this this way or done that that way". Most of us never heard or even thought about using forums, guides and blogs back when we were a low Town Hall, and because of that we probably made quite a few questionable choices in our upgrades hierarchy. We probably upgraded our goblins before any other troop; thinking that since it helps us get the loot, it must be the most important troop...well now we know better, but unfortunately we can't go back in time and change those choices. On the other hand, if you are actually playing through your first account with Clash of Clans and somehow found your way here, congratulations! You are about to learn what to upgrade when, and why you should do it that way, so that you will never look back and have that moment of regret.
Defenses
Your defenses will always be a priority when looking at what to upgrade next. In general, you want to have your defenses upgraded as high as possible as early as possible when you upgrade your TH level, and you don't want to upgrade your TH until your defenses are upgraded to max level or at the very least within one level of maximum. There are exceptions to this strategy though, most of which have to do with war (which we will talk more about later in this post).
Early in the Game (Low TH Levels):
When you are early in the game and your TH is still low level, your upgrade priorities are a little different from later on in the game. At lower levels, your mines and elixir collectors (and later, your dark elixir drills) will contribute the majority (or at least a large portion) of the resources you gain in the game. Because of this, you will want to upgrade them as high as you can, as early as you can. You will be glad you did after you see the difference it makes in the amount per hour they can produce, it makes a significant improvement in how much you can gain in a day's time.
Once you get your heroes, you will want to begin upgrading them as soon as possible, and try to keep one of them upgrading at all times. You're probably thinking this sounds nuts because the heroes are so expensive, and it is difficult to save up when you first become able to raid for it, but the reason I say its good to begin upgrading them as soon as possible is that in total it will take 227 days to reach the max level of 40 on each of your dark elixir heroes. So the way I see it, the sooner you start, the better, not to mention this can give you a leg-up on the competition since most players put off upgrading their heroes until later on when they can acquire and save up dark elixir more easily. This will really shine in wars, when you will be expected to attack the member on the opposing clan that is supposed to be your equal, and upgrading heroes is not weighted nearly as heavy as upgraded defenses are, so you will not be moved up the war ranks by upgrading heroes, making your war targets much easier to defeat.
* For more on the heroes, read the posts about the Barb King and Archer Queen.
(Also refer to the * at the bottom of the page for information about upgrading spell factories and laboratories)
Next, you will want to upgrade your defenses, and I recommend splash damage defenses first, since they are the most effective at taking out hordes of barbs, archers, and goblins, and this is what you will face most of the time. So upgrade your mortars first, then your wizard towers, then any traps that do splash damage (like bombs and big bombs). After all that, you can upgrade point defenses like cannons, archer towers, and air defenses. Once you start being able to build and upgrade hidden teslas, you can include them with the other point defenses in your upgrade priority hierarchy.
After the defenses are upgraded, you will want to upgrade your walls. The level of your walls makes a huge difference in how hard it is for attackers to get to everything in your base. Early on they won't even have wallbreakers, but even when they do have them, they will only be able to break through 2-3 layers of walls max (if they know how to deploy the wallbreakers properly). After that it will be up to their troops to fight through each layer of walls to get to each enclosure, and higher level walls equals much more time spent hitting walls and likely getting wiped out by defenses before they can get to too much of your base.
When you have upgraded your other structures, you can upgrade the air sweeper and any barracks you still need to upgrade. When you are still working on upgrading your barracks and dark barracks to get new types of troops, you will move them up the priority list so that they are one of the first things you upgrade. But after you have at least one of them maxed out, your barracks can be moved down on your priorities list unless you need more to be able to make the armies you want faster, but that decision is all up to you.
Later in the game (later TH levels):
At later TH levels, your heroes should still take priority but the mines, collectors and drills should be maxed out. If they are not, go ahead and get them all maxed out (the drills especially may need upgraded because they cannot get maxed out until TH-10). Keep in mind that your heroes can only be leveled up to 10 at TH-8, but at TH-9 you can upgrade them all the way to level 30. This will take quite some time, so get to work on them as soon as possible, because if you can get them to level 30 you will have a huge advantage over other TH-9's because very few of them will wait, and will go to TH-10 with level 15-20 heroes or even lower. (Also refer to the * at the bottom of this post for more information pertaining to upgrading spell factories and laboratories)
Your splash damage defenses will still be high on the priority list, but will now fall behind upgrading your heavy defenses, such as your X-bows and Inferno Towers. These defenses have high damage output, and also have high hit points, so they really add a great deal to the difficulty level of 3-starring your base or stealing your resources. They are expensive and take a long time to get upgraded, so get to work on them early on. Once you get them upgraded however, your base will look much more imposing, and the site of fully upgraded inferno towers and x-bows will send many would-be attackers running for the hills!
Once your heavy defenses have been upgraded, your next project will be to work on your mortars and wizard towers. Since these cause splash damage (and wiz towers are very useful for protecting your resources from large numbers of smaller troops), they will be more useful in most cases than the point defenses. You can also take on a strategy of upgrading 1-2 splash damage defenses and 1-2 point defenses at a time, so that you are upgrading them simultaneously. This will make it take longer to finish both kinds of defenses, but it allows them to both be upgraded at the same time.
If you choose to focus on your splash defenses, finish them off then begin upgrading your point defenses. These defenses are great at working down giants and other high hit point troops because while they can only focus on one target, they have a higher damage output than splash defenses. Upgrading all of your cannons, archer towers and air defenses (all your point defenses), will significantly increase your base's ability to deal with giants, golems, and PEKKAs. The air defenses will be able to quickly take down any level air troops, even dragons and lava hounds when they are maxed out, and players with these kinds of armies will notice this when they are deciding whether or not to attack you. When you add in the fact that your infernos and x-bows are already upgraded (or should be), your base will be very hard for players to have any success against, no matter how strong they are.
The rest is basically the same as with lower THs, and a lot of it is left up to your preference. If you want to be able to make dragons, PEKKAs, witches and lava hounds in all your barracks and dark barracks instead of just being able to make them in one of each type of barracks, you can work on upgrading them next. If you would rather get those air sweepers and your traps upgraded, go for that next. It really all depends on what you feel will help you the most at that time.
Now it comes time to start on those walls. They should already have been at the max level for the TH level below you, so you should only have to upgrade each wall 1-2 levels to once again max them out. At these later levels, the walls get extremely expensive and it can take a very long time to upgrade them all completely. To help with this, the game begins allowing you to choose to use gold or elixir to upgrade each wall starting at level 8 walls (the black walls with white skulls). Since it will take so long, you may be best served to go ahead and start upgrading your walls as soon as you run out of other critical upgrades that cost elixir (like troop upgrades and any essential barracks or storage, lab, or spell factory upgrades). This way, you won't be sitting there upgrading walls and have everything else already finished.
* It should be noted that at both low and high TH levels, you will include your Laboratory and Spell Factory in the top of your upgrade priority list. These should preferably be upgraded as soon as you can afford to do so, because upgrading these buildings will give you access to new spells and upgrades for your spells and troops. Since upgrading troops and spells in your laboratory will not take up a builder, you can do the troop and spell upgrades without slowing your progress in upgrading your defenses and other buildings. There is much more information about this in the post titled "Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory - Upgrade Priorities".
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Showing posts with label Walls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walls. Show all posts
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory - Upgrade Priorities
Your spell factory is where you create the spells you will take to battle. Elixir and dark elixir spells can change the tide of any battle, and will become an integral part of your attack strategy. In most cases, you should wait to upgrade spells until you get the troops that you use the most upgraded. This post will focus on where your spell factories and laboratory fit into your overall upgrade priorities, as well as which spells should be upgraded first and why.
Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory
Upgrade Priority:
The spell factory should be upgraded as soon as possible each time you upgrade your TH. Once you initially get your spell factory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you upgrade your TH level.
Why you should upgrade them ASAP:
The reason you want to upgrade it ASAP is because each time you upgrade your spell factory, you gain a new kind of spell. Each new spell brings a whole new set of strategies you can use once you have acquired it. For example, when you hit TH-9 you can upgrade your spell factory to get the jump spell, and the dark factory for the haste spell. With the jump spell, you can now start using all the variations of GoWiPe attacks with much more success than you would have at TH-8. With the haste spell, you gain a huge boost to the speed of your balloons in Lavaloonion and Balloonion attacks, making them much more effective.
They are fairly expensive and time-consuming to upgrade, but it is well worth it to get such a big improvement to your current attacks, while also getting the chance to use new attacks that were impossible to succeed with before.
Laboratory and Spell Upgrades
Lab Upgrade Priority:
Your lab should also be upgraded as soon as you can afford it each time you upgrade your TH level. Once you initially get the laboratory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you level up your TH. Each upgrade will give you access to upgrades for new troops and spells, as well as higher level upgrades for your old troops and spells. It is highly recommended that you always complete all the available upgrades for all your troops and spells before moving on to a new TH level, because you will get way behind if not.
Remember that the game is designed to only make it worth while to attack players with the same TH as you or 1 TH level lower. At 1 TH lower, you can still get 90% of the total loot from that player, but at 2 TH levels below you, you can only get up to 50% of the total loot for that opponent. This is made as a balancing measure so that higher THs don't always pick on the smaller THs. So each time you upgrade your TH, you have to attack higher THs than before to get good loot, and higher level THs will be able to get more loot from you. So it is extremely important to have everything in your village (including troops and spell, as well as defenses and other structures) upgraded as much as possible before upgrading the TH in order to avoid being an easy target for stronger players.
Why you Should Upgrade it ASAP:
The reason you should upgrade your lab ASAP is because until you do, you will not be able to begin working on new upgrades for you troops and spells. If you make sure to upgrade each troop/spell to max before upgrading your TH (like you should be doing), you will have to upgrade the lab to start being able to begin doing upgrades again, and since it is so expensive and time consuming to upgrade everything available to you in your laboratory, you will want to get started right away and try to keep it going all the time without letting it sit idle for very long.
By performing all the possible upgrades at each TH level, you will really boost the ability of your troops to deal damage and survive longer. It will also allow your spells to last longer and have more potent effects. You will need both of these advantages when you are facing the more difficult opponents that will you will be matched with at each new TH level. This applies to both war and farming, since you will have to face tougher opponents in both forms of gameplay when you upgrade your TH.
Upgrading your troops will also help your entire clan out, because you will be able to give them better donation troops. The combination of increasing your attack strength as well as increasing the strength of your clan mate's CC troops means that your upgrades can make significant differences in how tough your clan thinks you are as well as how useful they think you are. Trust me when I say, I know of no clans that like to see members upgrade too early and never upgrade their troops. In all likelihood, most clans will eventually ask you to either start working on your upgrades and threaten to kick you from wars or from the clan itself if you do not start them.
Upgrading Elixir Spells:
When upgrading spells, there isn't one sure way to do it right. It is really up to you how to prioritize your spell upgrades, but do keep in mind that in most cases it will be more beneficial to upgrade your troops first since you can only upgrade one thing at a time. I recommend that you upgrade the spells that you use most often, but I will list some benefits to having each spell upgraded for convenience.
The lightning spell is useful when upgraded because it does increased damage. This is the biggest help with destroying air defenses, as in some dragon and balloonion/lavaloonion strategies. It usually takes 3 of these spells to take out an air defense if they are upgraded, 4 if not so it will save you a whole spell once you have it upgraded. Since the lightning spell no longer does any damage to any storages, the lightning spell has lost much of it's utility unfortunately, so it will likely be low on the list of spells you want to upgrade.
The healing spell obviously heals more when upgraded, which is always useful. This spell can be used in a multitude of attacks, so it is definitely recommended that you upgrade it when you can. It is also a little cheaper than the rage and jump spell upgrades, so it can be more tempting to want to upgrade this spell first because you will be able to afford it sooner.
The rage spell is also useful in many different attack styles. It also affects more than one statistic, so it is sometimes thought of as a more useful spell in that regard. Upgrading this spell will boost the damage and speed increases the spell provides, so troops affected by the spell move faster and hit harder the higher the spell level is.
The jump spell is a critical part of GoWiPe style attacks and variations of it. It allows you to jump right over walls without having to destroy them, and good placement in conjunction with wallbreakers can allow you to almost instantly gain access to the heart of an enemy base. Upgrading this spell is critical and should be done as soon as possible because it gains a significant boost to it's duration with each level. This allows your troops more time to get to and use the jump spell, and can allow your troops to use it multiple times as they clear out different enclosures if it has an upgraded duration and lasts long enough. The first upgrade actually doubles the amount of time the spell will last, giving it a huge boost to it's effectiveness.
Similar to upgrading the jump spell, upgrading the freeze spell will increase the amount of time the spells effects last. This makes a huge difference in higher TH battles, when heavy defenses like infernos and x-bows can quickly wipe out large portions of an attacking army if not stopped. This spell is especially effective against inferno towers, since it can break the inferno tower's build-up damage and force it to start over with decreased damage once in un-freezes. This will allow your troops more time to get to the infernos and destroy them before they are able to take out all of your tanking units and dash any hopes of a 3-star victory. The freeze spell should also be upgraded as soon as you can afford it, for reasons stated above.
Upgrading Dark Elixir Spells:
The dark elixir spells are a relatively new addition to the game, and they have impacted almost every facet of how we wage war, pull CCs, and farm. These dark spells cost only 1 spell space as opposed to the 2 spaces taken by regular elixir spells. They also don't take as long as the elixir spells, usually taking around only 15 minutes to make. These spells are extremely specialized, and their uses are not quite as wide as a heal or rage spell, but they offer huge advantages in their area of use. As with the elixir spells, upgrades on the dark spells can be done more or less by which ones you tend to use most often, since those will be the most useful to you. Many people have questioned whether it is even important enough to bother upgrading some of these spells, and my recommendation is to do so, and I will explain why.
The poison spell is the first dark spell you will get, it comes with the dark spell factory when you first build it. When the poison spell was first introduced, it did a moderate amount of damage per second that remained the same throughout the course of the spell. It would quickly kill off smaller troops, even wizards and some moderate troops like giants, hogs, and balloons, but was not very effective against tougher troops like dragons, lava hounds, and PEKKAs. Now it has been altered so that when it does greater damage the longer a troop stands inside it's radius. It starts out for a few seconds doing very little damage, but after that the DPS quickly builds up to massive amounts before the spell dissipates. It makes it take longer to kill the smaller troops, but it also allows it to do much more damage to the larger troops. Dragons will now lose between 1/2 and 3/4 of their life depending on the level of the dragon and the spell. Upgrading the poison spell is helpful because it increases the maximum DPS it can produce as well as the amount it slows attack speed. This allows the spell to kill smaller troops faster and do more damage to the larger troops.
The earthquake spell has 2 main uses; it can be used to destroy walls, and it can be used to weaken high hit point buildings to make them easier for your troops to destroy. The quake spell does damage differently to walls than it does to buildings, and storages are immune to it's effects. The reason it is so useful against high hit point structures is that is deals damage according to the hit points of the things it hits, taking a certain percentage of it's life away rather than just taking a certain number of hit points. For buildings, using consecutive spells causes less and less damage, but for walls, it has the opposite effect and does more damage with each consecutive spell dropped on the same walls. 4 earthquake spells on the same wall, no matter the level or the spell or the wall, will destroy the wall. Upgrading the quake spell increases the percentage of hit points that it takes, which doesn't affect how many it will take to destroy walls, leading some to question why it is worth upgrading. The biggest reason you should still upgrade the quake spell is that it will cause more damage to buildings like the CC and TH if you use it on them, or air defenses if you use the strategy of 2 lightning spells and a quake to take down an air defense. Sometimes this spell can save a raid by finishing off the TH if your troops are able to take more than 85% (if the quake is lvl 1), if it is the first time the TH has been hit with a quake during the raid. All in all, the quake spell won't be the first on your list of dark spell upgrades, but it should definitely be on the list somewhere.
The haste spell is similar to the elixir rage spell, it speeds up the movement speed of troops a great deal. However, the haste spell does not affect the attack damage of troops, only the movement speed. Because of this, it is best used in air attacks with very slow troops like balloons and dragons, since they don't really need much of a damage boost anyway. Haste spells can really improve your dragon, dragoon, balloonion, lavaloonion and mass balloon attacks, because the achilles heel of balloons are their extremely slow movement speed. With the haste spell, balloons and dragons can quickly move from target to target, and the fact that it only takes up 1 spell space allows you to take several into battle with you, so you can cover a huge chunk of the base with haste spells. Upgrading the haste spell allows it to speed up your troops even more, making it even more effective. If you use a lot of air attacks, especially balloons, this spell should definitely be a priority.
Spell Factory and Dark Spell Factory
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| Spell Factory |
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| Dark Spell Factory |
Upgrade Priority:
The spell factory should be upgraded as soon as possible each time you upgrade your TH. Once you initially get your spell factory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you upgrade your TH level.
Why you should upgrade them ASAP:
The reason you want to upgrade it ASAP is because each time you upgrade your spell factory, you gain a new kind of spell. Each new spell brings a whole new set of strategies you can use once you have acquired it. For example, when you hit TH-9 you can upgrade your spell factory to get the jump spell, and the dark factory for the haste spell. With the jump spell, you can now start using all the variations of GoWiPe attacks with much more success than you would have at TH-8. With the haste spell, you gain a huge boost to the speed of your balloons in Lavaloonion and Balloonion attacks, making them much more effective.
They are fairly expensive and time-consuming to upgrade, but it is well worth it to get such a big improvement to your current attacks, while also getting the chance to use new attacks that were impossible to succeed with before.
Laboratory and Spell Upgrades
 |
| Laboratory |
Lab Upgrade Priority:
Your lab should also be upgraded as soon as you can afford it each time you upgrade your TH level. Once you initially get the laboratory, you will be able to upgrade it once each time you level up your TH. Each upgrade will give you access to upgrades for new troops and spells, as well as higher level upgrades for your old troops and spells. It is highly recommended that you always complete all the available upgrades for all your troops and spells before moving on to a new TH level, because you will get way behind if not.
Remember that the game is designed to only make it worth while to attack players with the same TH as you or 1 TH level lower. At 1 TH lower, you can still get 90% of the total loot from that player, but at 2 TH levels below you, you can only get up to 50% of the total loot for that opponent. This is made as a balancing measure so that higher THs don't always pick on the smaller THs. So each time you upgrade your TH, you have to attack higher THs than before to get good loot, and higher level THs will be able to get more loot from you. So it is extremely important to have everything in your village (including troops and spell, as well as defenses and other structures) upgraded as much as possible before upgrading the TH in order to avoid being an easy target for stronger players.
Why you Should Upgrade it ASAP:
The reason you should upgrade your lab ASAP is because until you do, you will not be able to begin working on new upgrades for you troops and spells. If you make sure to upgrade each troop/spell to max before upgrading your TH (like you should be doing), you will have to upgrade the lab to start being able to begin doing upgrades again, and since it is so expensive and time consuming to upgrade everything available to you in your laboratory, you will want to get started right away and try to keep it going all the time without letting it sit idle for very long.
By performing all the possible upgrades at each TH level, you will really boost the ability of your troops to deal damage and survive longer. It will also allow your spells to last longer and have more potent effects. You will need both of these advantages when you are facing the more difficult opponents that will you will be matched with at each new TH level. This applies to both war and farming, since you will have to face tougher opponents in both forms of gameplay when you upgrade your TH.
Upgrading your troops will also help your entire clan out, because you will be able to give them better donation troops. The combination of increasing your attack strength as well as increasing the strength of your clan mate's CC troops means that your upgrades can make significant differences in how tough your clan thinks you are as well as how useful they think you are. Trust me when I say, I know of no clans that like to see members upgrade too early and never upgrade their troops. In all likelihood, most clans will eventually ask you to either start working on your upgrades and threaten to kick you from wars or from the clan itself if you do not start them.
Upgrading Elixir Spells:
When upgrading spells, there isn't one sure way to do it right. It is really up to you how to prioritize your spell upgrades, but do keep in mind that in most cases it will be more beneficial to upgrade your troops first since you can only upgrade one thing at a time. I recommend that you upgrade the spells that you use most often, but I will list some benefits to having each spell upgraded for convenience.
 |
| Lightning Spell |
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| Healing Spell |
 |
| Rage Spell |
 |
| Jump Spell |
 |
| Freeze Spell |
Upgrading Dark Elixir Spells:
The dark elixir spells are a relatively new addition to the game, and they have impacted almost every facet of how we wage war, pull CCs, and farm. These dark spells cost only 1 spell space as opposed to the 2 spaces taken by regular elixir spells. They also don't take as long as the elixir spells, usually taking around only 15 minutes to make. These spells are extremely specialized, and their uses are not quite as wide as a heal or rage spell, but they offer huge advantages in their area of use. As with the elixir spells, upgrades on the dark spells can be done more or less by which ones you tend to use most often, since those will be the most useful to you. Many people have questioned whether it is even important enough to bother upgrading some of these spells, and my recommendation is to do so, and I will explain why.
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| Poison Spell |
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| Earthquake Spell |
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| Haste Spell |
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Pulling the Clan Castle - The Golden Rule for Wars
If you have ever been in a war or even been part of a clan during a war, you have most likely seen clan mates talking or even been told yourself about the importance of pulling the Clan Castle in war attacks. This is one of the most critical (arguably the most critical) parts of any successful attack. In all ground attacks and almost all air attacks, proper pulling of the CC can (and often will) mean the difference between a 100% 3-star victory and a 2, 1, or no-star defeat. The CC pull is really a simple step in most attacks, but it can easily be overlooked or done improperly, resulting in not only troop losses and wasted spells, but also lost time which can cause the battle to end just as you reach the TH or just before you destroy the last building in the village.
Always Check the CC Range Before an Attack
It is always a good idea to scout your intended war target before launching an attack so that you can plan out the details of your attack, like which side you will approach from, where the best spots are for dropping your funneling troops, where and when you want to deploy your wallbreakers, are there any buildings hiding in the corners, and many other things. Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked and forgotten parts of a good scout is checking the range of the enemy CC and having a precise plan for getting the full CC pull, as well as defeating the troops inside once they are pulled.
As a leader, co-leader or elder, it may be helpful to yourself and the rest of the clan to send out a clan mail during the prep day of each war reminding everyone of all the biggest things to look for when scouting their opponents. This would include such things as CC radius, whether TH is located in center of off-center of base, how many walls to get to the TH from each direction, locations/levels of air defenses (for air attacks), locations of high hit point structures (like storages) and ways to avoid or bypass them, level of CC, level of defenses (making note of abnormally low or high level defenses), checking for hidden corner buildings (usually builder's huts in each corner), whether or not the enemy CC is full (clicking on the CC will show the number of troops it contains over the max capacity), level and location of hero (or heroes), level of walls, and layout of walls looking for weak points and points that if breached will allow access to multiple enclosures at once and looking for the path of least resistance to the TH.
Reminding everyone of these things on prep day when most of them will be scouting and making their battle plans will ensure the best chance that everyone remembers to check all these important things, especially the CC and how best to pull it. Another way of keeping people from forgetting about the CC as a clan officer is to ask that everyone participating in the war presents their battle plan, including how they plan to pull the CC, to the rest of the clan for review during the prep day or at least 12 hours before they plan to attack. This way, everyone will be forced to check the CC or risk being left out of wars for failure to follow the rules. The upside is that most of the time everyone will comply and the war will go much smoother with less attacks flopping, but the downside is that it is very tedious to search the clan chat for every member's battle plan and then going to the intended target to check that the plans make sense.
As a regular clan member, you should make it your responsibility to remember to always check the CC radius and make a plan for pulling and dealing with the CC troops. Try to get into the habit of doing the same set of things each time you scout. If you always use the same process and do things in the same order when scouting bases, you will quickly begin to get into a rhythm and before long you won't even have to think about it, it will just come naturally. Since pulling the CC will be the first thing you do in most of your attacks, just make it the first thing you check when you scout a base. That will make you much less likely to forget about it while you're planning out the rest of your attack.
Check the Number of Troops in the Clan Castle
It sounds crazy at first, but it happens far more often than you'd think. Clan either forget to finish topping off someone's defensive CC or are just trying to get by as cheap as possible and are warring more for clan perk experience than to actually win. Since you are already going to have to click their CC anyway when you scout to check the range of the CC, go ahead and take an extra second to see if it is full. This can be done by looking at the top of the CC when you have it highlighted (when the radius is being shown). It will show something like "25/25" if the CC is full. If it is not full however, the top number will be smaller than the bottom number, such as "22/25" or "15/25".
Checking this really pays off when you notice that the CC is actually empty. There have been multiple occasions in my clan where someone noticed that their target had an empty CC while scouting, which prompted others to re-check their targets' CC which led to us noticing that the entire clan had no CC troops. This was a huge bit of information to know, since we were then able to ignore pulling or worrying about any of their CC troops, and we could focus simply on attacking.
Getting used to doing this will also result in you becoming adept at making educated guesses at the kinds of troops the enemy may have in their CC. When there are numerous smaller troops in the CC, you will need to use a stronger troop to pull them so it can stay alive long enough to get the full CC pull. When there is just one or two larger troops in the CC you only need a troop to get into the range of the CC for a moment to get the full pull. By checking the number you will have a better idea of whether there are smaller troops in the CC or not. For instance, if you see that the CC has 23 units, there is a good chance that some of those units are small units that take a single space (like archers or barbarians), and if a CC is filled to less than 20 you can immediately rule out a dragon, PEKKA, or any larger troops like that.
Planning the CC Pull
Depending on the TH level of your opponent, their base layout and the position of their CC, it can be fairly easy, or very difficult to actually draw out the CC troops. The difficulty of the pull can also be affected by the number of troops in the CC. 5 giants are much easier to pull than 25 archers! If all you have to pull out of the CC is a dragon, you can use a weaker troop like a wallbreaker to pull it instead of something tougher that takes more space like a hog, balloon, or giant. But if there is even the possibility that there are several archers or other single-space troop in the CC, it is always best to take a couple hogs or a giant or two and be over prepared rather than only getting a half pull.
Let's go over the most commonly used troops for pulling CCs and their advantages and disadvantages.
Giants - Upside: great troops for pulling CCs. High hit points, and move past buffer buildings and walk right up to the outer walls (this can usually get them within range to pull the CC). 1 giant can pull a good number of troops, but if there are possibly many small troops you should probably take 2 to ensure a full pull.
Downside: Very slow, and will not be able to get past the outer wall without help, so if the CC range is within the walls or even on the walls and you're not sure, it may be best to use hogs or loons to pull.
Hogs - Upside: very fast, moderate hit points, will move past the buffer buildings and jump right over the walls until they reach a defense. Hogs can usually penetrate the furthest into the base, and can pull even the most protected CCs if they can survive long enough to get the full pull. Taking 2-3 is usually a good idea if you can spare the space.
Downside: because they penetrate into the base so far, they get targeted by many defenses and die out before the CC is fully pulled, a group of 2-3 hogs can get the job done though if you have the space.
Wallbreakers - Upside: they are fast-moving, and can quickly close in on the CC range radius. They also go right past the buffer buildings and head directly to the outer walls.
Downside: they are very easily killed. Extremely low hit points can cause them to be killed before they can reach the edge of the CC range. Wallbreakers will only go as far as the first (nearest) layer of wall, so make sure that will be enough to pull the CC; if the CC range is at or behind the wall, hogs or balloons may be a better choice to pull the CC.
Balloons - Upside: they are an air troop, so they don't have to worry about being targeted by mortars, cannons, or ground-only X-bows. Have moderate hit points and will fly directly to the nearest defense, bypassing buffers and walls.
Downside: they are extremely slow! Although they don't get targeted by some of the defenses, they are vulnerable to the air defenses, and will only last a few seconds once they are targeted by one. Best to use these when they can pull the CC from outside the range of the air defenses. Can also help to take 2-3 if you know they will have to deal with an air defense.
Poison Spell
With the advent of the poison spell, dealing with CC troops has changed dramatically. In many cases, you no longer have to worry about pulling the CC troops out to the edge of the map out of range of the defenses and drop troops around them to despose of them. Now the main concern is usually whether you got a full CC pull and making sure the CC troops are gathered together close enough that they will all be affected by a properly deployed poison spell.
The question now becomes this; which troops can be killed outright by a poison spell and which troops will need to be finished off in the traditional way? Now that the poison spell has been revamped and does increasing DPS the longer a troop remains inside it's area of effect, the poison spell is much more effective against heavier, tougher troops. It still won't, however, outright kill troops like dragons, PEKKAs, lava hounds, golems, and heroes. The poison spell will take down weaker troops just as it did before, the only difference is that now it takes a few more seconds to build up enough DPS to kill them off. Archers, barbs, and goblins will die off after about 5 seconds or less depending on their level and the level of the poison spell, and wizards will go down in 5 to 10 seconds.
For those troops that are too tough to be killed by the poison spell, it is still worth it to use poison on them. If you simply pull them and then drop the spell before deploying any of your troops, you should wait until the spell has ran for its entire duration before dropping any troops because if you start deploying troops, the enemy CC troops will move out of the area affected by the poison spell and will likely miss the most critical part of the spell; when it has had time to reach its maximum DPS. This basically wastes the spell, so make sure not to drop any troops until the orange poison spell circle that appears when you initially drop the poison spell disappears.
Another option is to first pull the CC troops, then begin your attack and allow the enemy CC troops to approach yours. Once you see where your troops will meet the enemy CC troops, drop the poison spell right in the middle of that spot. You can also just wait until they actually meet and start fighting to drop the spell if you are afraid of dropping it in the wrong spot and wasting it. The main idea behind this strategy is to take advantage of the spell's effect on the enemy troop's attack and movement speed, allowing your troops to quickly defeat them without suffering heavy losses. The problem with dropping the spell after deploying troops is that the actual damage of the spell is wasted because your troops will kill off the enemy CC troops before the poison spell has a chance to build up its DPS, so you waste that part of the spell. So this strategy can work just fine, but it is essential to drop the spell so that it hits all the CC troops.
Traditional Clan Castle Pull
Sometimes an attack strategy may require that you use the space normally reserved for your poison spell in order to make room for another spell (such as using earthquake spells to punch a hole in the walls for a GoWiPe style attack). In this case, you will have to pull the CC the traditional way.
The first thing to know about a traditional pull is that you will have to take extra troops besides your main army. These troops will be picked specifically to help kill whatever is in the enemy CC. One really good strategy is to use a couple barbs or archers to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then drop a witch immediately followed by the Archer Queen, so that the witch raises skeletons as a distraction to keep the CC troops occupied, while the Queen takes care of the CC troops. Another good strategy is to use a few archers or barbs to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then surround them with barbs or archers and sprinkle in a couple of wizards to finish them off quickly while the barbs and archers act as a distraction.
To do a traditional pull, you will start out the same; using a troop like giants, hogs, wallbreakers, or balloons to lure the CC troops out of the CC. After that, instead of dropping a poison spell, you will drop a single barb or archer out in the nearest corner of the base (or the corner you choose based on your strategy) to lure the CC troops out to that area so they are out of range of the defenses. Once they reach your chosen spot, you will deploy the troops you brought to kill the CC (often referred to as "the kill squad". Depending on your specific strategy, you will surround the CC troops a certain way and proceed to dispose of them. Once the CC troops have been taken care of, you can begin your main attack. If you get good at it, you can even save a few seconds by deploying your main army just before the CC troops are defeated, once you know for sure your kill squad has their attention indefinitely.
* The best troops to use as your kill squad and the best approach to pulling CC troops will depend on your play style, your TH level, your enemy's TH level, the enemy's base layout, and of course, the kind of troops the enemy has in their CC. I will be creating more posts on CC troops and the best defensive troops as well as the best troops to counter various CC troops in your attacks. Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for reading!
Always Check the CC Range Before an Attack
It is always a good idea to scout your intended war target before launching an attack so that you can plan out the details of your attack, like which side you will approach from, where the best spots are for dropping your funneling troops, where and when you want to deploy your wallbreakers, are there any buildings hiding in the corners, and many other things. Unfortunately, one of the most overlooked and forgotten parts of a good scout is checking the range of the enemy CC and having a precise plan for getting the full CC pull, as well as defeating the troops inside once they are pulled.
As a leader, co-leader or elder, it may be helpful to yourself and the rest of the clan to send out a clan mail during the prep day of each war reminding everyone of all the biggest things to look for when scouting their opponents. This would include such things as CC radius, whether TH is located in center of off-center of base, how many walls to get to the TH from each direction, locations/levels of air defenses (for air attacks), locations of high hit point structures (like storages) and ways to avoid or bypass them, level of CC, level of defenses (making note of abnormally low or high level defenses), checking for hidden corner buildings (usually builder's huts in each corner), whether or not the enemy CC is full (clicking on the CC will show the number of troops it contains over the max capacity), level and location of hero (or heroes), level of walls, and layout of walls looking for weak points and points that if breached will allow access to multiple enclosures at once and looking for the path of least resistance to the TH.
Reminding everyone of these things on prep day when most of them will be scouting and making their battle plans will ensure the best chance that everyone remembers to check all these important things, especially the CC and how best to pull it. Another way of keeping people from forgetting about the CC as a clan officer is to ask that everyone participating in the war presents their battle plan, including how they plan to pull the CC, to the rest of the clan for review during the prep day or at least 12 hours before they plan to attack. This way, everyone will be forced to check the CC or risk being left out of wars for failure to follow the rules. The upside is that most of the time everyone will comply and the war will go much smoother with less attacks flopping, but the downside is that it is very tedious to search the clan chat for every member's battle plan and then going to the intended target to check that the plans make sense.
As a regular clan member, you should make it your responsibility to remember to always check the CC radius and make a plan for pulling and dealing with the CC troops. Try to get into the habit of doing the same set of things each time you scout. If you always use the same process and do things in the same order when scouting bases, you will quickly begin to get into a rhythm and before long you won't even have to think about it, it will just come naturally. Since pulling the CC will be the first thing you do in most of your attacks, just make it the first thing you check when you scout a base. That will make you much less likely to forget about it while you're planning out the rest of your attack.
Check the Number of Troops in the Clan Castle
It sounds crazy at first, but it happens far more often than you'd think. Clan either forget to finish topping off someone's defensive CC or are just trying to get by as cheap as possible and are warring more for clan perk experience than to actually win. Since you are already going to have to click their CC anyway when you scout to check the range of the CC, go ahead and take an extra second to see if it is full. This can be done by looking at the top of the CC when you have it highlighted (when the radius is being shown). It will show something like "25/25" if the CC is full. If it is not full however, the top number will be smaller than the bottom number, such as "22/25" or "15/25".
Checking this really pays off when you notice that the CC is actually empty. There have been multiple occasions in my clan where someone noticed that their target had an empty CC while scouting, which prompted others to re-check their targets' CC which led to us noticing that the entire clan had no CC troops. This was a huge bit of information to know, since we were then able to ignore pulling or worrying about any of their CC troops, and we could focus simply on attacking.
Getting used to doing this will also result in you becoming adept at making educated guesses at the kinds of troops the enemy may have in their CC. When there are numerous smaller troops in the CC, you will need to use a stronger troop to pull them so it can stay alive long enough to get the full CC pull. When there is just one or two larger troops in the CC you only need a troop to get into the range of the CC for a moment to get the full pull. By checking the number you will have a better idea of whether there are smaller troops in the CC or not. For instance, if you see that the CC has 23 units, there is a good chance that some of those units are small units that take a single space (like archers or barbarians), and if a CC is filled to less than 20 you can immediately rule out a dragon, PEKKA, or any larger troops like that.
Planning the CC Pull
Depending on the TH level of your opponent, their base layout and the position of their CC, it can be fairly easy, or very difficult to actually draw out the CC troops. The difficulty of the pull can also be affected by the number of troops in the CC. 5 giants are much easier to pull than 25 archers! If all you have to pull out of the CC is a dragon, you can use a weaker troop like a wallbreaker to pull it instead of something tougher that takes more space like a hog, balloon, or giant. But if there is even the possibility that there are several archers or other single-space troop in the CC, it is always best to take a couple hogs or a giant or two and be over prepared rather than only getting a half pull.
Let's go over the most commonly used troops for pulling CCs and their advantages and disadvantages.
Giants - Upside: great troops for pulling CCs. High hit points, and move past buffer buildings and walk right up to the outer walls (this can usually get them within range to pull the CC). 1 giant can pull a good number of troops, but if there are possibly many small troops you should probably take 2 to ensure a full pull.
Downside: Very slow, and will not be able to get past the outer wall without help, so if the CC range is within the walls or even on the walls and you're not sure, it may be best to use hogs or loons to pull.
Hogs - Upside: very fast, moderate hit points, will move past the buffer buildings and jump right over the walls until they reach a defense. Hogs can usually penetrate the furthest into the base, and can pull even the most protected CCs if they can survive long enough to get the full pull. Taking 2-3 is usually a good idea if you can spare the space.
Downside: because they penetrate into the base so far, they get targeted by many defenses and die out before the CC is fully pulled, a group of 2-3 hogs can get the job done though if you have the space.
Wallbreakers - Upside: they are fast-moving, and can quickly close in on the CC range radius. They also go right past the buffer buildings and head directly to the outer walls.
Downside: they are very easily killed. Extremely low hit points can cause them to be killed before they can reach the edge of the CC range. Wallbreakers will only go as far as the first (nearest) layer of wall, so make sure that will be enough to pull the CC; if the CC range is at or behind the wall, hogs or balloons may be a better choice to pull the CC.
Balloons - Upside: they are an air troop, so they don't have to worry about being targeted by mortars, cannons, or ground-only X-bows. Have moderate hit points and will fly directly to the nearest defense, bypassing buffers and walls.
Downside: they are extremely slow! Although they don't get targeted by some of the defenses, they are vulnerable to the air defenses, and will only last a few seconds once they are targeted by one. Best to use these when they can pull the CC from outside the range of the air defenses. Can also help to take 2-3 if you know they will have to deal with an air defense.
Poison Spell
With the advent of the poison spell, dealing with CC troops has changed dramatically. In many cases, you no longer have to worry about pulling the CC troops out to the edge of the map out of range of the defenses and drop troops around them to despose of them. Now the main concern is usually whether you got a full CC pull and making sure the CC troops are gathered together close enough that they will all be affected by a properly deployed poison spell.
The question now becomes this; which troops can be killed outright by a poison spell and which troops will need to be finished off in the traditional way? Now that the poison spell has been revamped and does increasing DPS the longer a troop remains inside it's area of effect, the poison spell is much more effective against heavier, tougher troops. It still won't, however, outright kill troops like dragons, PEKKAs, lava hounds, golems, and heroes. The poison spell will take down weaker troops just as it did before, the only difference is that now it takes a few more seconds to build up enough DPS to kill them off. Archers, barbs, and goblins will die off after about 5 seconds or less depending on their level and the level of the poison spell, and wizards will go down in 5 to 10 seconds.
For those troops that are too tough to be killed by the poison spell, it is still worth it to use poison on them. If you simply pull them and then drop the spell before deploying any of your troops, you should wait until the spell has ran for its entire duration before dropping any troops because if you start deploying troops, the enemy CC troops will move out of the area affected by the poison spell and will likely miss the most critical part of the spell; when it has had time to reach its maximum DPS. This basically wastes the spell, so make sure not to drop any troops until the orange poison spell circle that appears when you initially drop the poison spell disappears.
Another option is to first pull the CC troops, then begin your attack and allow the enemy CC troops to approach yours. Once you see where your troops will meet the enemy CC troops, drop the poison spell right in the middle of that spot. You can also just wait until they actually meet and start fighting to drop the spell if you are afraid of dropping it in the wrong spot and wasting it. The main idea behind this strategy is to take advantage of the spell's effect on the enemy troop's attack and movement speed, allowing your troops to quickly defeat them without suffering heavy losses. The problem with dropping the spell after deploying troops is that the actual damage of the spell is wasted because your troops will kill off the enemy CC troops before the poison spell has a chance to build up its DPS, so you waste that part of the spell. So this strategy can work just fine, but it is essential to drop the spell so that it hits all the CC troops.
Traditional Clan Castle Pull
Sometimes an attack strategy may require that you use the space normally reserved for your poison spell in order to make room for another spell (such as using earthquake spells to punch a hole in the walls for a GoWiPe style attack). In this case, you will have to pull the CC the traditional way.
The first thing to know about a traditional pull is that you will have to take extra troops besides your main army. These troops will be picked specifically to help kill whatever is in the enemy CC. One really good strategy is to use a couple barbs or archers to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then drop a witch immediately followed by the Archer Queen, so that the witch raises skeletons as a distraction to keep the CC troops occupied, while the Queen takes care of the CC troops. Another good strategy is to use a few archers or barbs to lure the CC troops to the edge of the base, then surround them with barbs or archers and sprinkle in a couple of wizards to finish them off quickly while the barbs and archers act as a distraction.
To do a traditional pull, you will start out the same; using a troop like giants, hogs, wallbreakers, or balloons to lure the CC troops out of the CC. After that, instead of dropping a poison spell, you will drop a single barb or archer out in the nearest corner of the base (or the corner you choose based on your strategy) to lure the CC troops out to that area so they are out of range of the defenses. Once they reach your chosen spot, you will deploy the troops you brought to kill the CC (often referred to as "the kill squad". Depending on your specific strategy, you will surround the CC troops a certain way and proceed to dispose of them. Once the CC troops have been taken care of, you can begin your main attack. If you get good at it, you can even save a few seconds by deploying your main army just before the CC troops are defeated, once you know for sure your kill squad has their attention indefinitely.
* The best troops to use as your kill squad and the best approach to pulling CC troops will depend on your play style, your TH level, your enemy's TH level, the enemy's base layout, and of course, the kind of troops the enemy has in their CC. I will be creating more posts on CC troops and the best defensive troops as well as the best troops to counter various CC troops in your attacks. Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Next Update: Loot Cart, Treasury, and Star Bonus!
This is the latest on the upcoming update, quoted from a Super Cell employee:
"Hello Clashers,
As mentioned in our latest posts, we’re currently working on an update that we intend to roll out as soon as possible. In the meantime here is a preview of what’s coming:
Introducing the new Star Bonus! Win five stars in Multiplayer attacks in order to win a daily resource bonus!
Housed in your Clan Castle, the Treasury is the safest place to store resources. Your daily Star Bonus and War Loot Bonus are automatically stored in the Treasury for safeguarding and only a very small percentage can be stolen.
Last but not least, we’ll introduce the Loot Cart. After your village has been attacked, a percentage of the stolen resources will be added to a Loot Cart in your Village. Once you collect the resources from the Loot Cart, these will be transferred to your Treasury for safeguarding.
Besides these new features, the update will also include a few bug fixes and battle balancing tweaks.
We’ll provide more details soon, stay tuned!
- Clash of Clans Dev Team "
"Hello Clashers,
As mentioned in our latest posts, we’re currently working on an update that we intend to roll out as soon as possible. In the meantime here is a preview of what’s coming:
Introducing the new Star Bonus! Win five stars in Multiplayer attacks in order to win a daily resource bonus!
Housed in your Clan Castle, the Treasury is the safest place to store resources. Your daily Star Bonus and War Loot Bonus are automatically stored in the Treasury for safeguarding and only a very small percentage can be stolen.
Last but not least, we’ll introduce the Loot Cart. After your village has been attacked, a percentage of the stolen resources will be added to a Loot Cart in your Village. Once you collect the resources from the Loot Cart, these will be transferred to your Treasury for safeguarding.
Besides these new features, the update will also include a few bug fixes and battle balancing tweaks.
We’ll provide more details soon, stay tuned!
- Clash of Clans Dev Team "
So this update appears to be adding a few cool new features that should help balance out the changes that were made in the TH-11 update. It seems like many players are complaining of losing more resources and being attacked repeatedly without gaining a shield therefore losing even more resources.
It looks like this update is meant to at least partially remedy that by adding the Treasury which will safely store resources since only a very small percentage can be stolen from it. The Star Bonus and Loot Cart feed into the treasury, so that you have resources being sent there from several places; war loot, star bonus (basically a reward for successfully attacking each day), and loot cart (a partial reimbursement from loot stolen by attackers) will all be sent to the treasury where it will be safer than presumably any other place in the game. Should this work as intended, it should stave off the slew of players that have been begging for Super Cell to revert the game to the pre-TH-11 version.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
General Layout Strategies
The way a base is designed depends upon the intended use of the base. If you are farming, you will focus on protecting your resources, and if you are trophy pushing or designing a war base you will try to protect your TH and make you CC hard to pull, possibly even sacrificing resource storages to protect those structures. Here though, we will discuss some general tips you can follow when designing any base.
Buffers
A buffer is a line of buildings that you place on the outside wall of your village to force enemy units to attack those buildings before attacking the walls or buildings within. Typically, good buffer buildings consist of buildings that don't hold resources and don't cause you to lose anything besides % destruction when they are destroyed. Buildings that work well as buffers are barracks, dark barracks, spell factory, dark spell factory, army camps, laboratory, and resource collectors (if you plan to collect them often).
Builder's huts can also act as buffers, but they have extremely low hit points so they won't slow the enemy down much. Some people like to place the huts in the corners of the map, so that if the enemy ignores them initially, they will likely run out of time before reaching them and will only earn 2-stars from the attack (a good trick to use on your war base). I have seen many instances in wars when an attack is going to be an easy 3-star and ends up being only a 99% 2-star attack because the troops couldn't reach the last builder's hut all the way in the corner on the other side of the map before the timer ran out.
When you are a lower TH level, you may not have enough buildings to create a complete buffer ring around your whole base. That's okay, use it to your advantage. Since most likely the enemy will attack from the side that has the least buffer buildings in the way, put down all your traps in that area so that if they do decide to come that way they will lose a significant portion of their troops before they even get the raid going. This will greatly weaken their attack, and save you a load of resources and trophies. This sounds too easy and you're probably thinking no one would fall for the, but it happens far more often that you would think. To help make sure the traps aren't wasted, you may want to place them so that the attacker is not able to drop a single troop and trip the trap. The best way to do this is by placing most of the traps just inside the walls in the areas that don't have a buffer.
Their troops will bunch up while going through the wall, so you will get far more of them caught in the blast of the bomb or bounced out by a spring trap than you would by placing them on the outside of you walls.
Trap Placement
This is a good time to talk about proper trap placement. While it can be tedious and time-consuming to work out the best spots to place all your traps, it will pay off for as long as you have that layout if you do. Since it costs resources to re-arm your traps (especially big bombs) after they have been tripped, it is well worth it to make sure that your attacker can't trip them on a single troop and completely waste them. The worst thing you can do is create a layout and just put all your traps around the outside. This allows the attacker to possibly trip them using only 1 troop, so if you are going to put any traps outside your walls, put them between a buffer building and the outside walls so that the attacker will have to get through the buffer building before springing your trap (also giving their troops time to bunch up more).
When placing traps inside your base, try placing them in spots that you know the enemy will be trying to get to, such as the TH, storages, and defenses. An effective way to get the most out of each trap is to set the trap between two defenses or between a defense and storage that are separated by walls by taking out the center piece of wall. This will force the troops into a bottleneck, ensuring that you catch the maximum number of enemy troops in the trap (this is a great place to put a spring trap). If two defenses or a defense and a storage are in the same enclosure, place traps between them to ensure many enemy troops are hit by the trap as well. A few well placed bombs between a wizard tower and a storage can weaken the troops to the point that the wizard tower will finish them all off with a couple hits.
Leaving 2 2x2 spaces next to one another between 2 rows of buildings allows you to use the double bomb strategy. This instantly kills all hog riders that are caught in the blast radius, and will take a huge amount of life from Giants or other tank troops that get caught in them. If you use this strategy, make sure to have multiple spaces that could contain the double bombs so that the enemy won't know which spaces actually contain the bombs, otherwise they will simply avoid that area.
Teslas can be deadly when they are within range of one another. When 3-4 teslas are shooting at troops together they will make quick work of almost anything. The same strategy works here as well; try to have multiple areas that could contain teslas so that the enemy won't know which spaces actually contain them. It is a good idea to have teslas in range of both the TH and any storages you can fit in range of them, as they will be able to finish off many of the weakened troops before they are able to take down your TH or steal all your resources.
Defenses
Defensive building placement is extremely important in minimizing the amount of loot and trophies you lose through defensive attacks. A good rule of thumb for cannons and archer towers is to place them on your outermost line of defenses and try to have the radius of each cannon cover as much of your base as possible, and do the same for the archer towers. Space out your cannons so that each cannon's range just barely overlaps with the cannons on both sides of it, and the same goes for the archer towers.
The splash damage buildings should be placed in a more protected position more towards the center of your base. It is usually a good idea to have your wizard towers covering storages as they can wipe out a horde of goblins in just a few hits, it also helps to have the wizard towers covering your mortars if possible, since the mortars have a blind spot range near them the wizard tower can fend off attacking troops if they manage to close in on your mortars. The mortars should be well protected, and since they have such a large range you can place them near the center of your base and they will still be able to target troops as they reach the outer walls. Don't place mortars too close to one another, they at least need to be outside the blind spot range from one another.
Air defenses are your main deterrent against dragons and other forms of air attacks. At low TH levels when you only have one air defense, it isn't as important to protect it, since most of your enemies at this level will not be using air attacks anyway. At later levels, however, you will need to protect the air defenses just like mortars and place them somewhere near the center of the base, and not too close together. Ideally, you want to have your air defenses far enough apart that they cover most of your base, but also close enough that they are in range of one another and can help defend one another should dragons or balloons manage to get to an air defense. For war bases many people like to use storages as shields for their air defenses. This works extremely well against dragons since they will have to destroy the high hit point storage before approaching the air defense, the whole while the air defense will be picking them apart.
X-bows are aquired at TH-9 and add a new dimension to the defense of your base. X-bows can be set to attack both ground and air troops or only ground troops. The payoff for only targeting ground troops is that it gives the X-bow a substantial increase in range. For wars, it is usually a good idea to have at least one set to attack both ground and air to make attackers think twice before committing to an air attack against you. If you find yourself rarely facing off against dragons and you see a lot more gowipe or other ground based attacks (typically starts to happen after your air defenses are max level for TH-9), you can probably set both X-bows to ground only so you can make better use of the increased range on that setting. X-bows should be at the innermost part of your base, with the CC and TH. Having them near the TH allows better protection of the TH since the X-bows have very high hit points. This way, the enemy forces will be stuck pounding on the X-bows in the center of the base while basically every defense is targeting them, and most of the attackers will fall before even reaching the TH let alone destroying it.
Buffers
A buffer is a line of buildings that you place on the outside wall of your village to force enemy units to attack those buildings before attacking the walls or buildings within. Typically, good buffer buildings consist of buildings that don't hold resources and don't cause you to lose anything besides % destruction when they are destroyed. Buildings that work well as buffers are barracks, dark barracks, spell factory, dark spell factory, army camps, laboratory, and resource collectors (if you plan to collect them often).
Builder's huts can also act as buffers, but they have extremely low hit points so they won't slow the enemy down much. Some people like to place the huts in the corners of the map, so that if the enemy ignores them initially, they will likely run out of time before reaching them and will only earn 2-stars from the attack (a good trick to use on your war base). I have seen many instances in wars when an attack is going to be an easy 3-star and ends up being only a 99% 2-star attack because the troops couldn't reach the last builder's hut all the way in the corner on the other side of the map before the timer ran out.
When you are a lower TH level, you may not have enough buildings to create a complete buffer ring around your whole base. That's okay, use it to your advantage. Since most likely the enemy will attack from the side that has the least buffer buildings in the way, put down all your traps in that area so that if they do decide to come that way they will lose a significant portion of their troops before they even get the raid going. This will greatly weaken their attack, and save you a load of resources and trophies. This sounds too easy and you're probably thinking no one would fall for the, but it happens far more often that you would think. To help make sure the traps aren't wasted, you may want to place them so that the attacker is not able to drop a single troop and trip the trap. The best way to do this is by placing most of the traps just inside the walls in the areas that don't have a buffer.
Their troops will bunch up while going through the wall, so you will get far more of them caught in the blast of the bomb or bounced out by a spring trap than you would by placing them on the outside of you walls.
Trap Placement
This is a good time to talk about proper trap placement. While it can be tedious and time-consuming to work out the best spots to place all your traps, it will pay off for as long as you have that layout if you do. Since it costs resources to re-arm your traps (especially big bombs) after they have been tripped, it is well worth it to make sure that your attacker can't trip them on a single troop and completely waste them. The worst thing you can do is create a layout and just put all your traps around the outside. This allows the attacker to possibly trip them using only 1 troop, so if you are going to put any traps outside your walls, put them between a buffer building and the outside walls so that the attacker will have to get through the buffer building before springing your trap (also giving their troops time to bunch up more).
When placing traps inside your base, try placing them in spots that you know the enemy will be trying to get to, such as the TH, storages, and defenses. An effective way to get the most out of each trap is to set the trap between two defenses or between a defense and storage that are separated by walls by taking out the center piece of wall. This will force the troops into a bottleneck, ensuring that you catch the maximum number of enemy troops in the trap (this is a great place to put a spring trap). If two defenses or a defense and a storage are in the same enclosure, place traps between them to ensure many enemy troops are hit by the trap as well. A few well placed bombs between a wizard tower and a storage can weaken the troops to the point that the wizard tower will finish them all off with a couple hits.
Leaving 2 2x2 spaces next to one another between 2 rows of buildings allows you to use the double bomb strategy. This instantly kills all hog riders that are caught in the blast radius, and will take a huge amount of life from Giants or other tank troops that get caught in them. If you use this strategy, make sure to have multiple spaces that could contain the double bombs so that the enemy won't know which spaces actually contain the bombs, otherwise they will simply avoid that area.
Teslas can be deadly when they are within range of one another. When 3-4 teslas are shooting at troops together they will make quick work of almost anything. The same strategy works here as well; try to have multiple areas that could contain teslas so that the enemy won't know which spaces actually contain them. It is a good idea to have teslas in range of both the TH and any storages you can fit in range of them, as they will be able to finish off many of the weakened troops before they are able to take down your TH or steal all your resources.
Defenses
Defensive building placement is extremely important in minimizing the amount of loot and trophies you lose through defensive attacks. A good rule of thumb for cannons and archer towers is to place them on your outermost line of defenses and try to have the radius of each cannon cover as much of your base as possible, and do the same for the archer towers. Space out your cannons so that each cannon's range just barely overlaps with the cannons on both sides of it, and the same goes for the archer towers.
The splash damage buildings should be placed in a more protected position more towards the center of your base. It is usually a good idea to have your wizard towers covering storages as they can wipe out a horde of goblins in just a few hits, it also helps to have the wizard towers covering your mortars if possible, since the mortars have a blind spot range near them the wizard tower can fend off attacking troops if they manage to close in on your mortars. The mortars should be well protected, and since they have such a large range you can place them near the center of your base and they will still be able to target troops as they reach the outer walls. Don't place mortars too close to one another, they at least need to be outside the blind spot range from one another.
X-bows are aquired at TH-9 and add a new dimension to the defense of your base. X-bows can be set to attack both ground and air troops or only ground troops. The payoff for only targeting ground troops is that it gives the X-bow a substantial increase in range. For wars, it is usually a good idea to have at least one set to attack both ground and air to make attackers think twice before committing to an air attack against you. If you find yourself rarely facing off against dragons and you see a lot more gowipe or other ground based attacks (typically starts to happen after your air defenses are max level for TH-9), you can probably set both X-bows to ground only so you can make better use of the increased range on that setting. X-bows should be at the innermost part of your base, with the CC and TH. Having them near the TH allows better protection of the TH since the X-bows have very high hit points. This way, the enemy forces will be stuck pounding on the X-bows in the center of the base while basically every defense is targeting them, and most of the attackers will fall before even reaching the TH let alone destroying it.
Inferno towers buildup damage the longer they are on a target, and also cancel out all healing on their targets. These should also be placed in the center with the X-bows, or maybe just outside them. Inferno towers can be set to either target 1 troop at a time and can build up massive damage (enough to quickly kill any troop in the game), or target up to 5 troops at a time for less build up damage. It seems in most wars that you will come up against multi-target infernos, which can eat up wizards and lower hit point troops in no time.
Walls
Walls are the highest hit point structures in the game and can be the difference between a good base and a great base. You should shoot for having all buildings except buffers enclosed at least partially by walls. You should also try to create several divisions inside your base so that the enemy has to go through as many walls as possible to get to everything in your base. As far as upgrading goes, walls can usually wait until you get most of your defenses upgraded, but keep in mind that if you find yourself always being matched against enemies in war that have more advanced bases than yours, upgrading walls (as well as heroes) is a way of enhancing your base that doesn't weigh heavily on your war rank or opponent. When upgrading walls, first upgrade intersections where multiple sections of walls meet, because troops tend to target these intersections when they want to move into a new enclosure, and upgrading these walls first significantly lengthens the amount of time it will take them to get through that wall.
Secondly, it is very helpful to upgrade the innermost walls that surround your TH and other important structures. Since wallbreakers typically won't make it that far into a base, the troops will have to work their way through, and higher hit point walls mean more time spent attacking walls while they get pounded on by all your defenses.
Thirdly, upgrade sections of walls that divide two enclosures. Same principle here; higher hit point walls means more time spent hacking at the walls while getting hit by all your defenses.
Heroes
The King and Queen should be placed in a location that allows them to cover a good portion of the base and also cover the TH from opposite sides so that no matter which direction the enemy comes from, they will have to contend with one or both of the heroes if they manage to reach the TH.
It is also a good idea to make sure the range of your heroes doesn't go outside your outer walls so that the enemy attacker can't pull them before launching their main force. Placing the King and Queen on opposite sides forces the opponent to have to decide which hero they wish to engage first, and doesn't give them the option of engaging both at once. Keeping all this in mind, you will likely want to put your heroes somewhere in the area just outside the center of your base.
This was a very long post, but if you made it this far and understood it all you should be able to make massive improvements to your base, and even be able to teach your clan mates a thing or two about base design. Later, I will talk about each of these topics in more detail in their own separate posts. Thanks for reading, good luck and clash on!
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