Clash of Clans: Official Sherdog Clan--> Just Bleed (Come Join!)

[scrubido]

That was fun. I washed away the stench of failure I was wallowing in from the last war.

 

[CarbonFistprint]

That was fun. I washed away the stench of failure I was wallowing in from the last war.

Whoda thunk that fighting a bunch of frenchies would wash away stench?

 

[Madmick]

Strubzizo, I told you'd I analyze that second attack and what went wrong. Here's the mistakes:

(#1)
You took a Healer-Giant army against a TH8. Easily your biggest mistake. Getting 3 stars was virtually impossible by the simple error of your army composition. I've seen very few 3 stars with Giant-Healer in war even at TH7 and below where there are only 2xAD or fewer. Notice, the only successful attacks of this type we've encountered, such as the one in this war bullying schmidt, was really just a brute force approach. That guy took a TH8 Giant-Healer army with 200 troops against schmidt's TH6. He took 3 healers so he would still have dual-healing if one got poached by AD/air mines, and TH 6 doesn't even have an air-seeking mine, I believe. 3 stars, but an awful attack.

At TH8, you've got 2 x heat-seeking mines to deal with. So you have to assume your healers will get downed by them. Thus, you'd need to take 3xhealers just to reserve one for healing once the others go down. That's 42 slots. That could be 2xdragons, and you could just replace your giants with dragons.

Dragons >>> Giant-Healer, easy. Save up elixir for the weekends.


(#2)
You did a great job:
- clearing cc with your second attack, correcting the mistake from attack #1
- pulling and downing his poorly exposed Barb King so that the BK's burst wouldn't rip apart your pack of giants. Good exploit.
- You did a great job of driving into his TH heart with that rage, and also of laying that 2nd heal to keep the giants up when they were on those dual air defenses.

Problem: then you only drop a single healer. Heat-seeking mines don't splash. They kill one healer. Aside from the 2xHeat-Seeking problem at TH8 described above, then, you simply have to drop both healers there. There wasn't time to waste for them to get out there and get to your giants. So then you dropped some archers/wizards before dropping the second healer. That's why the 2nd healer didn't drift into the middle to heal giants (even though it would have been too late, really). Even with the improved AI I wouldn't count on the healer not gravitating towards the DPS group you dropped before and directly in front of it; especially when that group contains wizards. The AI gives higher HP units priority, but regardless, the Giants were so far away and you dropped this group just in front of the second healer that I doubt it would have mattered. You gotta drop that healer before the DPS so that she b-lines to the pack of giants.

If that SW archer tower happens to target her, oh well. You can't not drop the healer. That's why this attack combo sucks, and why I've said in the past, "There's a million ways it can go wrong, but really only one way for it to go right."

(#3)
Related to following mistake #4, but your first heal spell was poorly used. Don't use heal spells on archers. That's just almost always a bad idea. If they were wizards, great, but they weren't. If that spell had covered the giants, too, then it would have redeemed that spell application a little, because it would have been two birds with one stone, but you missed them with the edge of it.

(#4)
Too many archers. For certain strats, there is call for more archers, and you always want to take archers to hide wiz, but overall, 1 Wizard > 4 Archers if applied correctly in almost any situation in war. They just hit too damn hard, and their superior hp means they won't get downed by a single mortar blast, or several wizard tower splashes. Heal spells can pull them through. With their massive dmg in a slower attack, rage spells will just cause them to wreak hell on earth.

You want to sort of drip release them behind the giants, cleaning up, but also, you want to use precision drops of wizards along the outside to down defenses that are targeting the giants. The idea is that once a defense targets a giant that is in the pack getting healed (or is temporarily being kept up by a healing spell) then that defense will be targeting that giant for a very long time, and optimally for the rest of its life. So you drop wizards along the outside who blast through some mines or other structures, then target that outer defense and down it while it is still targeting giants. You'll keep this drip release to one side. In your attack, it would have been along the east and north side. As the giants progressed, the wizards blast through and drop those defenses. Then they're still BEHIND the giants once the giants turn south and head towards the remaining defenses.

I realize you were trying to keep the healers you drop farther east and away from that SW archer tower, but better would have been to get some wizards out earlier so they'd get through and down those far eastern cannons while those cannons were on the giants. That heal spell on the archers could have kept up the giants better during this period, before they reached the AD's and you used that second heal spell beautifully like you did. With those early wizards out on the east, then, you would have had some fine placement with the healer drops where you dropped them more to the SW so they wouldn't magnetize to those early wiz drops, but go to the giants. Then you could continue to evolve the drip of wizards progressing and tearing through the northeastern front of his village with that strat described above, not getting too far behind, and tearing down defenses that overwhelm a single healer's healing via single target burst.

Advanced: barbs are a great way to hide wizards with this strat. You drop them as meat shields while you drip wizards. This way, if the giants- who are marching northwest- get out of range of these defenses along the NE front where you're dripping wizards, and these NE defenses turn to target your dps, then they'll target barbs by priority. Barbs are melee, so they'll be closer than wizards. They also soak up one more shot than archers against certain defenses. This gives your wiz a chance to down that defense before getting downed. You get more efficient destruction per wizard this way.

 

[Scarzi]

 

[emceeGRENDEL]

we came. we saw. we banged.

 

[Stringer Bell]

we saw. we banged. we came.

fixed it for ya

 

[Higus]

Another great war, guys. For people who are new to the game, it is a big deal to have 100% of your attacks used during a war. I would venture to say that 95% of the wars are won by the team that uses the most attacks.

 

[CarbonFistprint]

Another great war, guys. For people who are new to the game, it is a big deal to have 100% of your attacks used during a war. I would venture to say that 95% of the wars are won by the team that uses the most attacks.

Already we've won one where we were out-attacked.

But yes, the failure rate on skipped attacks is 100%, it's no way to win wars. I'm sure the French dudes sacked a few sorry saps from their team after that last beating.

 

[Madmick]

I just think mandatory attacks is still casual competitive because I think of it like local rec sports. What if you joined a rec basketball league, and guys didn't show up, forcing you play 4v5 against the other team? It's not like you're trying to be the Los Angeles Lakers, but that would piss you off. Well, in CoC, there is no "bench", so that's exactly what you do to the rest of the guys with whom you've teamed when you don't show up to attack; it's a voluntary pastime that the entire group is undertaking for personal enjoyment, so that behavior just doesn't make any sense to me. Even in rec basketball losing isn't fun. You notice the teams that never win fall apart and don't show up the next year. New teams form and take their place. Stringer is SB crew, so you saw that he gets this. He didn't take it personally at all.

So 50/50 attacks was awesome. Third war in the bag with perfect attendance. Thank you, guys.

 

[44nutman]

When I read Mick's war day posts, I get a mental picture of him sitting at a giant table filled with war maps. He has Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name blaring in the background, the table is full of models of CoC troops that he pushes around with a big stick. The table has an ashtray full of smoked cigs and there is like 8 empty Red Bull cans on the table.
Occasionally he smashes the table with his fists and yells" Dammit, pull the Clan Troops"




This post is from a good place, and thanks for the effort.

 

[Madmick]

Cygnus, you asked in chat about this. I'm writing it down here for reference. It doesn't have to be in this exact order. Sometimes it makes more sense to build out of order depending on loot & away time. This is just to relate priority with war as the sole consideration:

TH7 Upgrade Priority Itinerary

1. Instant Traps (Priority Order: Seeking Air Mine, Giant Bomb, then 2xBombs-- all instant to build)
   - you get your first at TH7. It pops a healer, and will nearly wipe a dragon. It's instant, so get it out there first. However, if you time your work so that a builder becomes free on Friday after 2PM, which would be after we are paired against a clan, then this will give you an artificial boost for that war. The algorithm will pair you as a village that doesn't include it. You throw it out there instantly, so now you have a new defense that wasn't factored into your numerical strength ranking. You can use this same strat for upgrading walls on Friday or upgrading/building new defenses that take fewer than 24 hours to complete.
2. Labratory* (Upgrade)
   - should always be one of your first wave of upgrades after leveling TH...unlocks all upgrades to troops/spells)
3. Barracks (Uprade x1)
   - upgrade just one barracks to Level 9. This unlocks dragons, and lets you run them for wars. Usually I use a 10 gem boost on Saturday to prep them faster. It still takes a little over an hour with the boost.
4. Army Camp (Build & Upgrade)
   - so you get your 4th army camp. Build it and upgrade it as quickly as possible. The last upgrade, from 195-200 troops, you can probably delay in service of other priorities up here, but for now, offense > defense. The reason is that even a maxed TH7 base with beautiful layout is going to get wiped in a war by TH8 and TH9 armies. Air defense is just too weak to stand up. The idea is to punish them by baiting them into wasting attacks on it before using someone with a heavy drop to clear it the way Scarzi did this past war. But ultimately, offense > defense because we can presume that you will be cleared. With 200 troops, dragons, and rage...you'll be able to wipe pretty much any TH8 base, no matter how developed, and no matter how well structured. That's the power your offense will have. So get going with offense to secure your ability to net 6 stars in war. It empowers you to shrug off getting bullied in return.
5. Air Defense (Build and Upgrade)
   - easily most important defense at TH7. This TH-level is ALL about air defenses. So build your second, then upgrade both ASAP. Top defensive upgrade priority.
6. Hidden Teslas (Build)
   - x2. These are new defenses that can also attack air. You want to get new defenses up ASAP, almost always, and the fact that these attack air gives them priority. They're expensive.
7. Archer Towers (Build)
   - last defensive structure that attacks air. Get your 5th one out. Early upgrades are quick & cheap if you want to get some in fast while you're in an active session.
8. Wizard Towers (Upgrade)
   - Now that you have your new air defensive structures built, this is the upgrade priority.
9. Archer Towers (Upgrade)
   - Follows wiz tower
10. Hidden Teslas (Upgrade)
    - Building them was a priority over Wiz/Archer Towers, but upgrading is not. Very expensive, and they're not as effective against air targets like Dragons.
11. Air Bombs (Upgrade)
    - Your final air defense upgrade, so they're next.
12. Dark Elixir Storage (Build)
    - another defensive structure. I forgot to include this. You won't have anything to produce dark troops with if you don't have DE. So it should precede the Barracks below.
13. Barb King (Recruit)
    - most buy the Barb King with gems. Either that, or you have to snipe your way up to the Crystal league to find guys with decent DE that you can often take by nailing with 3xlightning. If you want a decent DE win bonus, then you gotta work up to Crystal 2 or better. Once you have him, the top priority for him is to upgrade him to Lvl 5. He gets a rage where he throws out some barbs that effectively functions as a second life for him.

After that it doesn't matter a great deal. Probably order it Mortars, Cannons, Barracks, Dark Barracks, Walls. Then Storages/Mines.

*Lab Upgrades
Lab upgrades don't require a builder to upgrade, so once you get the lab upgraded, here is priority order:

1. Rage (acquire)
   - Hands down the best spell for dragon attacks. Add it to your arsenal first.
2. Dragons (Upgrade)
   - get dragons to lvl 2 after that because this is going to be your war composition for a long time: Dragons + Rage.
3. Wizards (Upgrade)
   I recommend Wiz. Their upgrade from Lvl 3 to Lvl 4 is HUGE (so is their upgrade to Lvl 5, then their upgrade to Lvl 6 sucks, and costs a massive amount of elixir). Their upgrade is prioritized because at Lvl 4 they can kill any other wizard in a single burst whereas at Lvl 3 it would take them 2xfireballs to down Lvl 5+ Wizards. So this means that even if Lvl 6 wizards come out of the clan castle the Lvl 4 wizards are effectively equal to them in a dual. They both blast each other with a single fireball. This really helps with clearing cc.
4. /Barbarians/Archers (Upgrade)
   - for the above your preference depending on how you use them. These are the other troops with the highest war relevance that you'll often take to clear the cc troops as part of your dragon attack.
5. Heal (Upgrade)
   - certain war situations might call for this spell over rage, though very rarely, so I'd train it up next. More situations will call for lightning. The guy who dropped 9 slots to wipe me this past war actually carried out one of the more elegant Rage+Heal dragon attacks I've ever seen...but, thing is, I'm 99% confident that 3xRage would have wiped me just as well, and probably more efficiently (less time).

After that it doesn't matter. Now, at TH7, your opponents should be the same, and will only have two air defenses. Many poor players expose one of these AD's on the outer wall. So it can be really easy to just 3xLighting to blast their protected, inner AD, then down this outer one by dropping dragons right on it, or maybe using borrowed hogs, or even reserve cc-clearing Archers/Wizards if you're really efficient clearing cc.

The reason this isn't an upgrade priority is because at TH7, the max AD is a lvl 5. These have 990 hp. Now, Lightning spells, if you center them correctly, will hit will all 6 bolts; the total damage from a Lvl 3 lightning spell is 360. So 3x 360= 1080 dmg. In fact, if you don't miss at all with a Lvl 2 lightning, centering them over the defense perfectly three times, then even a 3xLvl 2 Lightning will down a Lvl 5 AD (990 total dmg). So upgrade lightning to Lvl 4 from TH6's max of Lvl 3, if you upgraded the spell as much as you could at TH6, shouldn't be a priority. Lvl 3 Lightning will down the max AD's you'll face the same as a Lvl 4 lightning will.

If you want to attack up against TH8, then this could be an issue with a lightning attack, but lightning attacks against TH8 (which have 3xAD) is just significantly weaker than using Rage, and isn't advised.

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

Cygnus, you asked in chat about this. I'm writing it down here for reference. It doesn't have to be in this exact order. Sometimes it makes more sense to build out of order depending on loot & away time. This is just to relate priority with war as the sole consideration:

TH7 Upgrade Priority Itinerary

1. Instant Traps (Priority Order: Seeking Air Mine, Giant Bomb, then 2xBombs-- all instant to build)
   - you get your first at TH7. It pops a healer, and will nearly wipe a dragon. It's instant, so get it out there first. However, if you time your work so that a builder becomes free on Friday after 2PM, which would be after we are paired against a clan, then this will give you an artificial boost for that war. The algorithm will pair you as a village that doesn't include it. You throw it out there instantly, so now you have a new defense that wasn't factored into your numerical strength ranking. You can use this same strat for upgrading walls on Friday or upgrading/building new defenses that take fewer than 24 hours to complete.
2. Labratory* (Upgrade)
   - should always be one of your first wave of upgrades after leveling TH...unlocks all upgrades to troops/spells)
3. Barracks (Uprade x1)
   - upgrade just one barracks to Level 9. This unlocks dragons, and lets you run them for wars. Usually I use a 10 gem boost on Saturday to prep them faster. It still takes a little over an hour with the boost.
4. Army Camp (Build & Upgrade)
   - so you get your 4th army camp. Build it and upgrade it as quickly as possible. The last upgrade, from 195-200 troops, you can probably delay in service of other priorities up here, but for now, offense > defense. The reason is that even a maxed TH7 base with beautiful layout is going to get wiped in a war by TH8 and TH9 armies. Air defense is just too weak to stand up. The idea is to punish them by baiting them into wasting attacks on it before using someone with a heavy drop to clear it the way Scarzi did this past war. But ultimately, offense > defense because we can presume that you will be cleared. With 200 troops, dragons, and rage...you'll be able to wipe pretty much any TH8 base, no matter how developed, and no matter how well structured. That's the power your offense will have. So get going with offense to secure your ability to net 6 stars in war. It empowers you to shrug off getting bullied in return.
5. Air Defense (Build and Upgrade)
   - easily most important defense at TH7. This TH-level is ALL about air defenses. So build your second, then upgrade both ASAP. Top defensive upgrade priority.
6. Hidden Teslas (Build)
   - x2. These are new defenses that can also attack air. You want to get new defenses up ASAP, almost always, and the fact that these attack air gives them priority. They're expensive.
7. Archer Towers (Build)
   - last defensive structure that attacks air. Get your 5th one out. Early upgrades are quick & cheap if you want to get some in fast while you're in an active session.
8. Wizard Towers (Upgrade)
   - Now that you have your new air defensive structures built, this is the upgrade priority.
9. Archer Towers (Upgrade)
   - Follows wiz tower
10. Hidden Teslas (Upgrade)
    - Building them was a priority over Wiz/Archer Towers, but upgrading is not. Very expensive, and they're not as effective against air targets like Dragons.
11. Air Bombs (Upgrade)
    - Your final air defense upgrade, so they're next.
12. Dark Elixir Storage (Build)
    - another defensive structure. I forgot to include this. You won't have anything to produce dark troops with if you don't have DE. So it should precede the Barracks below.
13. Barb King (Recruit)
    - most buy the Barb King with gems. Either that, or you have to snipe your way up to the Crystal league to find guys with decent DE that you can often take by nailing with 3xlightning. If you want a decent DE win bonus, then you gotta work up to Crystal 2 or better. Once you have him, the top priority for him is to upgrade him to Lvl 5. He gets a rage where he throws out some barbs that effectively functions as a second life for him.

After that it doesn't matter a great deal. Probably order it Mortars, Cannons, Barracks, Dark Barracks, Walls. Then Storages/Mines.

*Lab Upgrades
Lab upgrades don't require a builder to upgrade, so once you get the lab upgraded, here is priority order:

1. Rage (acquire)
   - Hands down the best spell for dragon attacks. Add it to your arsenal first.
2. Dragons (Upgrade)
   - get dragons to lvl 2 after that because this is going to be your war composition for a long time: Dragons + Rage.
3. Wizards (Upgrade)
   I recommend Wiz. Their upgrade from Lvl 3 to Lvl 4 is HUGE (so is their upgrade to Lvl 5, then their upgrade to Lvl 6 sucks, and costs a massive amount of elixir). Their upgrade is prioritized because at Lvl 4 they can kill any other wizard in a single burst whereas at Lvl 3 it would take them 2xfireballs to down Lvl 5+ Wizards. So this means that even if Lvl 6 wizards come out of the clan castle the Lvl 4 wizards are effectively equal to them in a dual. They both blast each other with a single fireball. This really helps with clearing cc.
4. /Barbarians/Archers (Upgrade)
   - for the above your preference depending on how you use them. These are the other troops with the highest war relevance that you'll often take to clear the cc troops as part of your dragon attack.
5. Heal (Upgrade)
   - certain war situations might call for this spell over rage, though very rarely, so I'd train it up next. More situations will call for lightning. The guy who dropped 9 slots to wipe me this past war actually carried out one of the more elegant Rage+Heal dragon attacks I've ever seen...but, thing is, I'm 99% confident that 3xRage would have wiped me just as well, and probably more efficiently (less time).

After that it doesn't matter. Now, at TH7, your opponents should be the same, and will only have two air defenses. Many poor players expose one of these AD's on the outer wall. So it can be really easy to just 3xLighting to blast their protected, inner AD, then down this outer one by dropping dragons right on it, or maybe using borrowed hogs, or even reserve cc-clearing Archers/Wizards if you're really efficient clearing cc.

The reason this isn't an upgrade priority is because at TH7, the max AD is a lvl 5. These have 990 hp. Now, Lightning spells, if you center them correctly, will hit will all 6 bolts; the total damage from a Lvl 3 lightning spell is 360. So 3x 360= 1080 dmg. In fact, if you don't miss at all with a Lvl 2 lightning, centering them over the defense perfectly three times, then even a 3xLvl 2 Lightning will down a Lvl 5 AD (990 total dmg). So upgrade lightning to Lvl 4 from TH6's max of Lvl 3, if you upgraded the spell as much as you could at TH6, shouldn't be a priority. Lvl 3 Lightning will down the max AD's you'll face the same as a Lvl 4 lightning will.

If you want to attack up against TH8, then this could be an issue with a lightning attack, but lightning attacks against TH8 (which have 3xAD) is just significantly weaker than using Rage, and isn't advised.

Thanks for this, just finished TH7 yesterday and been upgrading like a madman. Or a madmick.

 

[WalkenWouldOwn]

When I read Mick's war day posts, I get a mental picture of him sitting at a giant table filled with war maps. He has Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name blaring in the background, the table is full of models of CoC troops that he pushes around with a big stick. The table has an ashtray full of smoked cigs and there is like 8 empty Red Bull cans on the table.
Occasionally he smashes the table with his fists and yells" Dammit, pull the Clan Troops"




This post is from a good place, and thanks for the effort.

Lmao, this.

 

[Cygnus A]

Thank you for the tips. I will follow your guide exactly.

 

[CarbonFistprint]

Madmick.

 

[Madmick]

Thanks for this, just finished TH7 yesterday and been upgrading like a madman. Or a madmick.

Thank you for the tips. I will follow your guide exactly.

Whoops, forgot the added Army camp, and Dark Barracks. I also edited the lab upgrades to prioritize Wiz above Barbs/Archers. Read the reason above for why.

Lmao, this.

LOL, that's pretty much me down to a T, indeed, except the Red Bulls are a homemade frappuccino drink that has double the espresso, and I don't smoke cigarettes (on occasion that ashtray will be stuffed with the butts of a cig-o-weed, but only rarely).

 

[D Train]

What troops do y'all prefer in your CW castle? I used to like drags, but now I prefer wizards. A group of wizards can really wreak havoc on an attacker's army.

 

[CarbonFistprint]

What troops do y'all prefer in your CW castle? I used to like drags, but now I prefer wizards. A group of wizards can really wreak havoc on an attacker's army.

For the village, wizards and archers. With a buried CC, the larger number of troops I can pack in there, the more the likelihood increases that my attacker will fail to clear the CC and my guys will actually do damage. I want it to look like a clown car in there.

And for me it has to be a ranged troop. So Archer/Wizs/Drags/Minions. I don't want to have a CC full of giants when a dozen dragons roll in.

For wartime, things change just a bit. When my attacker is looking for stars, not loot, he's going to make damn sure he clears the CC if he can. In that case, I just want to pack as much damage as possible, and delay him as long as I can. That means a dragon (still ranged) or possibly in the future, one of these new-fangledy Lava Hounds.

For lower levels, I've seen other troops be effective as well. A surprise Valkyrie in the CC against a group of giants can be devastating.

Conversely, the worst troops in a defensive CC are fragile ones or slow ones. By fragile I mean Hogriders, which have the offensive ability to jump walls, but in a defensive CC every troop gets that ability so I don't have to pay the price for it.

By slow, I mean Giants or Golems. Watch a Hogrider attack vs. a CC full of Golems sometime. Those Golems are so much tougher, but they just can't catch those speedy hogs. They're worthless.

 

[Higus]

I've always wanted to try a combination of a couple valkyries with a group of barbarians. I could see an attacker not noticing them in the mix and ignoring them until they wiped out 10 clustered troops in one attack.

 

[JinKazama]

th7 is a major stepping stone in the game, as you get a huge boost in offensive power and can unlock dragons which is a game changer for war

in terms of upgrades i think the most important at th7 are:

1) lab (research higher level troops)
2) army camps (more offensive troops)
3) splash defense, which i cannot stress enough ... level 5 mortars at this level can one shot level 5 archers, which can make it harder (though not impossible) to completely wreck your base and take your loot

then further down, depending on how many builder huts, always have a builder working on an air defense and a tesla, as those have long builds and if u wait till the end it really adds up ... and this should go without saying, but dont upgrade 2 of the same defenses at the same time, ie dont upgrade both your ads at the same time of a th8 can take u out with 3 lvl 3 drags

I usually save point defenses till the end, as they are cheaper and easier to do

lab research: while i agree that drags and rage spells will help in war, if you research your farm troops first (at least barbs and archers) itll make farming for resources easier

take home point for th7 is MAX IT OUT before heading to th8! th7 loot is some of the best and easiest loot in the game, and its alot of fun

it wouldnt be the end of the world if you rushed to th8 or th9, it would just tack on months of grinding, which depending on how active a farmer you are can make the experience a whole lot more unpleasant