Building a War Base

We’ve talked a lot about the main types of war armies, how to use them, and other tips for attacking, but we’ve haven’t spent too much time on building bases, so now we want to go over some pointers for building a war base that will help you successfully defend against the types of armies you’re likely to get attacked by in war.

1.     The Town Hall is really all that matters (usually). 

Unlike regular battles, your resources cannot be stolen in war. Your mines and collectors are empty, and the personal loot bonus that comes from destroying storages is awarded by the game, so you don’t need to worry about protecting any of these buildings. You also can’t gain or lose trophies in clan wars, so you also shouldn’t be too concerned if attackers can get 50% of your base. Getting one-starred should really be considered a victory, because if the enemy clan is only getting one star on their attacks a good portion of the time, your clan should virtually always win the war. So, you want to protect your Town Hall as much as possible, since an attacker can get 99%, but if the Town Hall is still standing, they’ll only get one star.

There are exceptions to this rule, however, and that is if you're trying to build an anti-3 or anti-2 star base. These bases generally have offset town halls that at lower levels can make 3 starring more difficult (because  you'll get 2 starred pretty much no matter what, even if it's not on the first try), or at higher levels make it tough to get both the town hall and 50%. 

2.    Bigger is Usually Better

Building bases with larger footprints by leaving more space between buildings is a good way to make your base harder for attackers. Slower troops like dragons and balloons will have trouble destroying the entire base in the allotted time, making it harder to get 3 stars. Forcing troops to spawn further away from the center of your base, and cover more ground between buildings, means they will spend more time getting shot at before they destroy defenses. It will also help make it more difficult to lure your clan castle, and for attackers to guess where the traps, bombs, and teslas might be. The downside, however, is that if you spread your buildings out too much, you'll have less overlap in your defenses, and less coverage of non-defensive buildings. At higher levels in particular, you don't want to be giving away free percentage points if you can avoid it--make them work to get 50%.

3.  There are Advantages and Disadvantages to Copying Bases

Generally, we don't really want more than 1 player using the same base, since if they figure out how to beat one, they can beat all the bases with that layout. Similarly, if you use a base you find online without at least some modification (though you have to be careful not to do anything the prevents the base from working like it is supposed to), it may be easy for experienced players to beat if they have seen it a lot. On the other hand, if it has proven to be a challenge for less experienced players, it may be worth having a base that some players have figured out how to beat.

4.   Asymmetry is a Good Thing

Bases that are the same on all 4 sides can be predictable, and also make it easy for players to figure out the best place to attack from. Bases that are slightly asymmetrical, even if that just means switching an archer tower and a wizard tower, tend to give players problems. You may think your base looks ugly, but ugly looking bases end up being some of the best.

5.     Placing Your Clan Castle

Your Clan Castle is your most important building aside from your Town Hall, and should go in the center of your base, pretty much right next to it.  While Clan Castles that can be lured out relatively easily don’t often pose too much trouble for attackers, Clan Castles that don’t get triggered until a wall has been broken, or even better, until the outermost defenses have been torn down, can often play a decisive role in the outcome of a battle.

6.     Placing Your Heroes

Your heroes don’t have the range of your Clan Castle, so it’s not as important to get them quite as close to the center of the base, but you still want them near the middle, where they cannot be engaged from the outer walls of our base, and where they will do the most damage before getting killed by enemy troops.

7.   Defending Against Air Attacks

Placement of air defense is critical for defending against dragon or balloon raids. For TH8s, the closer your air defense is to the middle, the longer it will take air troops to reach, and the more damage it will do before being taken out. You may be tempted to have your air defense slightly more spread out to maximize coverage, but pulling your air defense pretty much as tight as possible will give your town hall maximum protection, as multiple air defenses can quickly take out dragons before they can destroy the town hall. It also helps to place seeking air mines near the town hall to help quickly take out dragons that make it to the middle.

For Th9s and 10s, it is all about having balloons pathing away from the air defense after taking out their initial target. The longer the air d stays up, the better your defense will be. Mines are typically placed near air defense, sometimes doubling up on the side away from the Queen to defend against GoLavaloon. Sweepers generally go in tighter than the air d and point across the base. Also remember that if teslas are grouped too tightly together or too close to the TH, balloons can take mroe than 1 out at the same time, and even take out the TH when they might not have otherwise had the troops left to get it. 

6.  Defending Against Hogs

Having your heroes near the middle will help defend against hogs since the heroes can no longer be lured, but your best defense against hogs is really spring traps, bombs, and your clan castle. If you can set up your base so the clan castle cannot be triggered until one or more defensive pieces are destroyed, it greatly increases your chances of successfully fending off a hog attack.

You also want to have your spring traps and bombs inside your base, positioned between defenses in such a way that the hogs are guaranteed to set them off.  Put two giant bombs together, and if Town Hall 8, pair your third with all your smaller bombs, as hogs can survive a single giant bomb and live long enough to be healed, but will not survive multiple bombs going off quickly in succession. Put the bomb clusters in two different areas of the base, and try to get them in areas where the hogs will trip them before the defense is all but gone. Leave multiple spaces like this to try to keep your opponent guessing. Having them near wizard towers also helps. Spread the spring traps out in other areas of the base, as it doesn’t make much sense to spring hogs that are nearly dead from bombs. This placement of bombs and traps will also be most effective against giants. 

7.  Placing Teslas and Inferno Towers

Teslas and Inferno Towers have smaller footprints than other defenses, making them ideal for positioning near the middle, because it allows you to cram more defense into the center of the base, and maximize the protection around your town hall.

8.     X-Bows

If you have X-bows, they should be set to ground and air. This lessens their range compared to ground only, but is worth it considering the number of players who attack with air armies in war. Next to the air defense, teslas, and inferno towers, X-bows should be the most centralized so it takes longer to destroy them.

9. Other Defensive Buildings

Teslas, inferno towers, and air defense should be closest to the middle, followed by X-bows. After that, wizard towers and mortars, and finally cannons and archer towers as the outermost defense. 

1    10.  Wall Compartments

If you get attacked by a non-hog ground army, it helps to offset your wall compartments so you don’t have 4 of them meeting in a cross. The more separate compartments that meet at a single piece of common wall, the more compartments enemy troops can break into by destroying that single piece of wall. More compartments slow down ground troops, but fewer compartments can help direct troops where you want them to go. The number of compartments is less significant in war too given the number of people that attack with hog or air armies, but that doesn't mean you want a concentric design with just a few compartments that makes it easy to take out the town hall by breaking just one or two walls, either. 

11. Wall Mazes, Funnels, and Openings

Having outer openings doesn’t usually have the same effect as it would in the regular game, since most people don’t use the same kinds of armies for war. Hogs will ignore openings, and don’t get trapped by mazes or funnels, so while they might still be useful to a degree, you’re better off using your bombs, traps, and teslas on the inside as described above.

1    12.  Empty Compartments

Empty compartments are useful in directing enemy troops where you want them to go, or forcing them to break through extra layers of walls to get into the base. Remember though, wallbreakers go after the nearest walled-off building, so if you’re trying get your attacker to use them up without really getting into the base, you can include some compartments with nothing but non-defensive buildings.

13. Leaving space behind walls

If there are two spaces between a building and a wall, wizards and archers will not be able to shoot at it from the other side of the wall. Defensive buildings, however, will be able to reach the enemy troops while they are destroying the wall to get inside. 

1    14.  Storages and Other Non-Defensive Buildings

Since storages don’t need to be protected, and have a high number of hitpoints, they are useful as buffers between enemy troops and your defenses. Storages in particular should be placed within range of at least a couple defensive pieces, but stick slightly further out so troops that go after the nearest target will attack them first, giving your defensive pieces more time to shoot at them.

15. The Non-Defensive Ring

Many players at TH9 and especially TH10 create bases that have a core with infernos, xbows, teslas, and heroes, followed by a ring of walls, and then a ring of non defensive buildings. This often directs golems, giants, hogs, and loons around an outer ring of defenses while any troops that make it to the middle are quickly destroyed.