I’ve not posted any results for a month so I’d like to bring you all up-to-date on how we’re getting on. Out of our last 10 wars we’ve won 6, drawn 1 and lost 3. So not a bad win/loss ratio and we are within a couple of wars of becoming a level 5 clan. Also this week we finally managed to use every single one of our attacks for the first time, some significant culling of the clan is probably something to do with this. The attacking skill across the clan keeps increasing which is great to see, and we’re on the cusp of a few people moving up the TH9 and TH10 too so there’s been plenty of farming activity outside of the wars. All good stuff and we remain a very active clan !

The clan seems to be on a roll at the moment with both the weekend and mid-week war teams delivering two back to back victories each. Well played everyone !

Very interesting video by spencer23$ on the range of 4 earhquake spells. As you might know the jump spell has a range of 3.5 squares, with 4 earthquakes it seems you can break across 6 or even 7 spaces. I’ve recently started using the 4 earthquake strategy in war, and very successfully, but I’ve not been this ambitious yet. Time to up the ante…

After last week’s disappointing wars, we lost both, it was good to see the clan step up their game this week. Our weekend war was a relatively easy win caused by our opponents not really making much headway against our strongest bases. The war search only took 3 minutes, so the clans were very well matched. Quite a lot of people are away at the moment so it was a smaller team than usual.

The mid-week war was a much closer contest but the team delivered with many solid attacks. It’s good to be back to wins again !

Back to a 15v15 war this week which started out badly with a returning player (and our #4) leaving the clan as soon as the war search completed, so we knew we were going to be without a couple of higher level attacks. After a strong few opening attacks the opposition took the lead which they held right through to the end. With only minutes to go we were behind 29-32 and their #3 started to attack, and appeared to be on for at least 2 or possibly 3 stars leaving us with a target or 5 of 6 stars from 3 attacks on their #1, #5 and #6. Our top three duly delivered the results, gaining 2 stars on all our attacks, and the war win. Well played clan, let’s keep the winning streak going !

This week I decided it would be good to have a bigger than usual war, and with a lot of our best mid-clan attackers available we went for 20v20. Our opponents were a swedish clan who appeared to be very close in power to ourselves, so it was likely to be a close war.

Going in to the last few minutes we were behind 47-50 but the opposition didn’t really have any way of getting more than one extra star so we knew our target. The only bases left to attack were their #1. #4 and #5. At the last moment our three TH10s in the war team attacked all these bases and managed to take two stars of each of them to give us the win !

This was an excellent team performance, with fantastic attacks by many players. Well done all !

Now quite a lot of our TH8s and TH9s have stopped using dragon armies and have moved over to GoWi attacks it’s worth reviewing how these attacks work and the basic strategy around troop deployment. A GoWi attack (GoWiPe, GoWiVa, GoWiWi…) all have a standard form though there are variations at TH9/10 due to additional spells and larger camps, however the fundamentals can be learnt at TH8. A GoWi attack is designed to enable you to take a TH reliably for a one star win, and potentially two, or three if you are lucky.

It’s always best learning from an example, rather than just the theory, so I will walk through an attack from this week’s mid-week clan war where Joe (TH8 and our #1 in the war team) attacked their #1 (TH9) with a well played GoWiPe.

First, let’s look at the army composition and the purpose of each troop. Joe went in with this army –

The three main parts of the army are –

1. The tanks, GOLEMS, which are used to take incoming defensive fire and protect your other troops.
2. The clutter clearers, WIZARDS, whose sole purpose is to get rid of anything that might distract your “hammer”, they are not the attack troops…
3. The hammer, PEKKAs and King, the troops who will smash the TH and give you the win.

There are many variations on this but the two rage spells are important as we’ll see. Also some people take a lightning to deal with enemy clan castle troops or some archers/minions to do a clear-up for a clutch win, but Joe’s army is in a fairly pure form so serves as a great example of the attack.

So on to the actual attack, and throughout the commentary I will add a colour in square brackets to show you where on the screenshots to look, so if I write [red] look for the red markers on the picture to see what the text is refering to.

Phase 1 : The Plan

We of course scout the base first and decide which direction our attack should come from. Here Joe decides to attack from the right [red], and many people like attacking from a corner with only two golems, but it depends on the base. Our goal here is to make sure the hammer can head towards the TH by clearing all the external structures or clutter [blue]. This attack direction also has the advantage in being able to lure the enemy CC troops and attack the Archer Queen early, you don’t won’t her alive towards the end of the attack. In clan chat you’ll hear our highest level players talk about “attacking queen-side”, and this is exactly what me mean, attack close to the Archer Queen to take her down early while you have a lot of firepower.

One really important point, once you have decided on your attack direction that’s it, do not change your plan. Go with it, if you’ve studied the base, the clutter etc. you should be on for a win.

Phase 2 (optional) : The Lure

At TH8 enemy clan castle troops can be deadly so here Joe decides to lure them out to find our what’s in there. He does this by deploying a giant to lure out the troops [red]. Seems like there’s nothing here to worry about, just some mid-level wizards and archers so the golems will be able to take hits from those for a while, so it’s now time to get the proper attack started.

Phase 3 : Tank it up !

In the first phase we deploy our tanks [blue] to deal with incoming fire, and in this attack to soak up damage from the clan castle troops [yellow]. Note how the deployment is either side of the attack direction [red] so the golems attract attacks from as many defences as possible.

Phase 4 : Clear the clutter

Now this stage is critical, we have to get rid of everything that will divert the hammer away from the TH, so wizards with their high damage per second are ideal and should be deployed in an arc [yellow] behind the tanks (golems). Note here that Joe did an excellent deployment by clustering more wizards close to the enemy troops [red] so the wizards target them and save the golem some health.

Phase 5 : Break in

So the clutter is being cleared, but our hammer might be distracted if structures are behind walls so we now deploy our wall breakers [red] to clear the path. This is normally the point where the first rage spell is used. Raged wall breakers move very quickly so take little incoming fire and are therefore are more likely to take out the walls.

Phase 6 : It’s hammer time !

Clutter cleared, walls broken open, then it can only mean one thing; TIME FOR THE HAMMER ! We deploy all our main attack troops [yellow]. In this case PEKKAs and heroes, but it could be Valkyries in a GoWiVa or witches in a GoWiWi. Here we see the hammer, four PEKKAs (including one from the clan castle) and the King use the remains of the wall breakers rage spell (a really good thing) and head directly towards the Town Hall. This attack is now a virtually guaranteed win. Note that there are still golems / golemites [red] who are alive and absorbing damage that would be targeting our main troops.

Phase 7 : The swerve

So the hammer is on track but not quite at the TH yet, so we let this run until they move towards the TH ready for the next phase…

Phase 8 : Victory !

Now is the time to deploy the second rage spell to cover the hammer hitting the town hall, It will go down so quickly with the huge amount of damage per second that has been dropped there. That’s the first star and then we don’t really have any more control so it’s just a waiting game to see if the second or third star will be won. At TH8 the second star should be almost guaranteed if the attack was played well. Note that in this raid a golemite and a couple of wizards were still alive to assist, but also note that the King and PEKKAs are almost on full health.

Phase 9 : Nothing left to do

So now we just let the attack play out and see what we get. Here the hammer is still alive and dealing big damage.

Phase 10 : The end

So the attack ends with an epic two star win and 86% damage. A great attack against a TH one level up and a potential three star, though that is more down to luck than anything else.

Please bear in mind that this is a classic GoWiPe, there are variations, use a lightning spell, use clear up troops etc. but all the essential parts of the attack were executed very well here.

TH8s If you can execute this strategy correctly you will win almost all your attacks against other TH8s. Once you move up to TH9/10 there is a little more flexibility, and complexity, but get the basics right and you will be a good place to be great higher TH level attacker. Good luck TH8s, if you can deliver attacks like this we’re on for a lot more war wins !

A bit of a strange war this week; we played 15v15 against a Canadian Clan, Unrelenting Vaj. That clan name boggles my mind 🙂 Towards the end of preparation day we noticed that only a few of their clan castles had troops and I suspected they were playing a trick on us. But it wasn’t and they started the war with only a third of clan castles stocked, and then not even fully. Very strange, if you are like our clan the donations are complete within the first hour or two of preparation day.

We went over to look at their clan and were surprised to find that most of their players were not in leagues so were potentially inactive… could this really be the walkover it looked like ? In short the answer was, yes, they only had 6 active players out of 15. They have only ever won 4 wars… with inactivity and a lack of donations I’m amazed they’ve won that many ! Why do they war at all ? Very strange.

Anyway with that loot bonus for defeating their top 2 bases I’m not complaining ! There were two really good things about this war; 1) the solid 3 star victories from many players, 2) the huge number of witches used ! For anyone in another clan reading this I’m not saying any more 🙂

Our mid-week war wasn’t as successful but then again we do use this as a training ground for our lower level players, but occasionally featuring a guest TH9 from one of main war team. It’s all clan XP so it works for the clan.

For those in the clan haven’t been up in to Masters 3 yet I thought I’d give you an insight in to what it’s like using cheap armies up here. I’m currently at the top of Masters 3 (2750 trophies) and I’m using this army.

• Almost every base I see is a proper TH10, the rushed TH10s were left behind in low Crystal 1.
• There are a few TH9s but they are usually super-maxed.
• I haven’t seen a properly abandoned base yet.
• Enemy heroes are virtually all over level 10 and it’s not uncommon to see them over level 20.
• More bases seem to have clan castle troops than in lower divisions.
• One base design is extremely common and I see it on probably 20% of my spins, unfortunately it’s an awkward one to attack which is probably why it’s so popular.

So why farm up here rather than in lower divisions ? Well firstly the win bonus almost pays for my army, so as long as I win everything I take goes straight on to my loot total. Also there is a lot of loot, in particular dark elixir where it’s not uncommon to see 2000-3000 available.

The downside however is the attacks against your base. There’s still a lot of TH sniping, but when you do get attacked it’s invariably a full on one. GoWiPes are fairly frequent, but luckily there are still a few poor players who don’t have a clue what they are doing.

Anyway, I’m enjoying it at the moment, it’s much more of a challenge than lower divisions, and I’m managing to win most of my attacks and gaining significant loot. I’ll see how it plays out for while before I decide whether to drop back to Crystal 1.