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!
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