Guides for strategies, either in war or other will be highlighted here on this page.
Guide #1: Tips to Improve your GoWiPe / Author: JeremyIsKing
I often use GoWiPe in my clan wars, and I can tell you that there are an array of things that can go wrong. Sometimes, those things are out of your control (Archer Queen bashes her head against a wall going towards a Gold Mine while the Town Hall lies undefended), but most of the time, they were either in your control from the very beginning of the attack or a better decision should have been made during the course of it. I am a non-rushed Town Hall 9, and have been using GoWiPe for awhile. Here are some tips to make you a better GoWiPe user.
1. Thoroughly study the base you are attacking.
Certain base designs are specifically designed to give opposing attackers trouble should they decide to use a GoWiPe-style attack. The most common attribute of these bases is the use of "funneling" in one form or another. If you don't know what funneling is, it's essentially the deliberate placement of walls and defenses that leads troops astray from the attacker's intended target (usually the Town Hall). Funneling can be done in many ways, but the most troublesome bases for GoWiPe users to attack often include lots of long, L-shaped corridors. What these long compartments do is lead troops that don't prioritize the buildings they attack (Pekkas, Barbarian King, Wizards, etc.) in a straight line away from the center of the base. These corridors can sometimes cause so much confusion that even if a Jump Spell is placed precisely in the direct path the troops are taking, they decide to ignore it anyways. The best way to prevent this from happening is to either not attack bases that contain many of these compartments (while trophy-pushing) or, in a Clan War scenario, determine the best starting point of an attack that will avoid the larger of the L-shaped corridors (if possible). Also, as a disclaimer, sometimes troops will recognize the Jump Spell or still go the direction you intended them to, but a lot of the time these long compartments can prove fatal to a GoWiPe-style attack.
2. Don't drop the Pekkas too early!
A VERY common mistake that I often see my fellow clan members make is they drop their Pekkas far too early, causing them to veer off to the left and right and completely ruin their attack. The Pekkas are the driving force in a GoWiPe attack and cannot be just placed wherever and whenever. Be patient! Wait for the first enclosure to be opened before and ALL surrounding buildings within the immediate area of placement to be cleared before you drop those Pekkas.
3. Don't drop all your Wall-Breakers at once!
Failure to do this will shave crucial time off the clock and potentially do enough damage to your Golems and Wizards for it to be impossible to recover. Drop them in packs of 2 or 3! There are always people who leave Giant Bombs and Spring Traps around the edges of their base, which can be devastating if you drop all of your Wall-Breakers in one place. Also, dropping them all it once makes them highly vulnerable to splash damage, so it truly is better to drop them in packs.
4. Be meticulous in spell placement.
Another common mistake that I see GoWiPe users make is dropping their spells too early, too close together, or not fast enough. When you use 2 Heal spells in your GoWiPes, the FIRST one should be dropped when the Golem(s) health reaches below half, and the SECOND should be dropped when all of your troops are in the middle (this is obviously debatable and adjustable depending on how a specific attack is playing out). When you use 2 Rage spells, the FIRST one should be dropped once the Pekkas and Heroes have been placed in order to accelerate them to the center (also adjustable depending on the attack), and the SECOND one should be dropped while they're in the center for maximum damage potential (not debatable; at least one of the two Rage spells need to be placed in the center when your troops have entered that enclosure). Jump Spells need to be placed BEFORE the units get near the walls that they will have to clear or else you run the risk of them going astray and making your attack a failure. Freeze spells I have no experience with, but I've watched enough videos, and you need PATIENCE when using them. They need to be dropped when either your Golems, Pekkas, or Wizards (depending on whether or not the Inferno Tower is set to Multi-target or Single-target) are taking a significant amount of damage in the core of the base. You also need to ensure you hit the maximum amount of structures with the Freeze spell; don't just place it wherever and hope it hits all of the defenses.
5. Follow the path that your troops are GOING to take, not the path you want them to.
Troops frequently "disobey" and do odd things that you did not want them to. This can all be because of Skeleton Traps and Clan Castle troops, as well as base designs that make use of funneling. Adjust your attack according to what direction your troops are heading in, not the direction you hope they go in. Pay close attention to their movements, and anticipate the opportunities that you'll be given to make the most out of your spell placement. As mentioned earlier when I talked about the L-shaped compartments, troops sometimes completely disregard a Jump Spell and continue onward if it was dropped too late, too early, or not in a spot where it covers a lot of walls.
Only experience and repetitive use of GoWiPe-style attacks can ensure your success, and everyone has a bad attack once in a while. I hope that these tips make you a better GoWiPe user in the future. Thanks for reading and clash on!
I often use GoWiPe in my clan wars, and I can tell you that there are an array of things that can go wrong. Sometimes, those things are out of your control (Archer Queen bashes her head against a wall going towards a Gold Mine while the Town Hall lies undefended), but most of the time, they were either in your control from the very beginning of the attack or a better decision should have been made during the course of it. I am a non-rushed Town Hall 9, and have been using GoWiPe for awhile. Here are some tips to make you a better GoWiPe user.
1. Thoroughly study the base you are attacking.
Certain base designs are specifically designed to give opposing attackers trouble should they decide to use a GoWiPe-style attack. The most common attribute of these bases is the use of "funneling" in one form or another. If you don't know what funneling is, it's essentially the deliberate placement of walls and defenses that leads troops astray from the attacker's intended target (usually the Town Hall). Funneling can be done in many ways, but the most troublesome bases for GoWiPe users to attack often include lots of long, L-shaped corridors. What these long compartments do is lead troops that don't prioritize the buildings they attack (Pekkas, Barbarian King, Wizards, etc.) in a straight line away from the center of the base. These corridors can sometimes cause so much confusion that even if a Jump Spell is placed precisely in the direct path the troops are taking, they decide to ignore it anyways. The best way to prevent this from happening is to either not attack bases that contain many of these compartments (while trophy-pushing) or, in a Clan War scenario, determine the best starting point of an attack that will avoid the larger of the L-shaped corridors (if possible). Also, as a disclaimer, sometimes troops will recognize the Jump Spell or still go the direction you intended them to, but a lot of the time these long compartments can prove fatal to a GoWiPe-style attack.
2. Don't drop the Pekkas too early!
A VERY common mistake that I often see my fellow clan members make is they drop their Pekkas far too early, causing them to veer off to the left and right and completely ruin their attack. The Pekkas are the driving force in a GoWiPe attack and cannot be just placed wherever and whenever. Be patient! Wait for the first enclosure to be opened before and ALL surrounding buildings within the immediate area of placement to be cleared before you drop those Pekkas.
3. Don't drop all your Wall-Breakers at once!
Failure to do this will shave crucial time off the clock and potentially do enough damage to your Golems and Wizards for it to be impossible to recover. Drop them in packs of 2 or 3! There are always people who leave Giant Bombs and Spring Traps around the edges of their base, which can be devastating if you drop all of your Wall-Breakers in one place. Also, dropping them all it once makes them highly vulnerable to splash damage, so it truly is better to drop them in packs.
4. Be meticulous in spell placement.
Another common mistake that I see GoWiPe users make is dropping their spells too early, too close together, or not fast enough. When you use 2 Heal spells in your GoWiPes, the FIRST one should be dropped when the Golem(s) health reaches below half, and the SECOND should be dropped when all of your troops are in the middle (this is obviously debatable and adjustable depending on how a specific attack is playing out). When you use 2 Rage spells, the FIRST one should be dropped once the Pekkas and Heroes have been placed in order to accelerate them to the center (also adjustable depending on the attack), and the SECOND one should be dropped while they're in the center for maximum damage potential (not debatable; at least one of the two Rage spells need to be placed in the center when your troops have entered that enclosure). Jump Spells need to be placed BEFORE the units get near the walls that they will have to clear or else you run the risk of them going astray and making your attack a failure. Freeze spells I have no experience with, but I've watched enough videos, and you need PATIENCE when using them. They need to be dropped when either your Golems, Pekkas, or Wizards (depending on whether or not the Inferno Tower is set to Multi-target or Single-target) are taking a significant amount of damage in the core of the base. You also need to ensure you hit the maximum amount of structures with the Freeze spell; don't just place it wherever and hope it hits all of the defenses.
5. Follow the path that your troops are GOING to take, not the path you want them to.
Troops frequently "disobey" and do odd things that you did not want them to. This can all be because of Skeleton Traps and Clan Castle troops, as well as base designs that make use of funneling. Adjust your attack according to what direction your troops are heading in, not the direction you hope they go in. Pay close attention to their movements, and anticipate the opportunities that you'll be given to make the most out of your spell placement. As mentioned earlier when I talked about the L-shaped compartments, troops sometimes completely disregard a Jump Spell and continue onward if it was dropped too late, too early, or not in a spot where it covers a lot of walls.
Only experience and repetitive use of GoWiPe-style attacks can ensure your success, and everyone has a bad attack once in a while. I hope that these tips make you a better GoWiPe user in the future. Thanks for reading and clash on!
Guide #2: The Consequences of Rushing / Author: JeremyIsKing
Ever see those ugly looking bases with a level 9 or 10 Town Hall and level 5 walls and underdeveloped defenses? Well, let me tell you something about the player who possesses that base. Without spending an exorbitant amount of time raiding (and I'm talking months upon months) or by dropping quite a few dollars, that player will NEVER recover from their rushed base. Being unable to recover means that their walls, defenses, and troop levels will never reach the maximum level for their Town Hall. There are numerous reasons behind this, and I'm going to list them out for you. This guide will explain in-depth why rushing your Town Hall will cost you far more than you'll gain.
First, I will explain the reasons as to why people rush their Town Hall to begin with:
1) New and stronger defenses appear enticing to inexperienced players.
This is probably the most obvious reason that players rush their Town Halls. If you are a newer or inexperienced player, better and stronger defenses probably look a lot better to you than the ones you currently have. What most players forget, however, is that just because you have unlocked new defenses, as well as new levels for those defenses, doesn't mean that the upgrades are free. You still have to earn/gain the resources for those upgrades, which could prove to be a difficult challenge depending on how far the Town Hall has been rushed. Resources (as far as rushing your Town Hall is concerned) will be discussed later in the guide.
2) Better troops make you a better player.
Totally and absolutely incorrect. Stronger/maxed troops don't make anybody better. You still have to develop strategies through trial-and-error or online guides in order to use troops effectively. A player with maxed troops that doesn't understand how to use them renders themselves ineffective when attacking. Also, as mentioned in #1, those troop upgrades are not only extremely expensive but take a long time to finish. To completely max Golems (they go up to level 5, and are unlocked at Dark Barracks level 4), for example, it takes a total of 50 days. That's nearly two months to max ONE troop. Combine that with the fact that laboratory upgrades can only be done one at a time, as well as the time it takes to upgrade a Dark Barracks to level 4 in the first place, and you're looking at 2-3 months of time to max out one troop. That's a perspective that not many players look from, and further solidifies the argument against rushing the Town Hall.
3) A genuine lack of understanding of the game.
This is by far the reason most people rush the Town Hall. A combination of #1 and #2 are parts of it, but generally, most players rush the Town Hall because they believe that they will be rewarded. That isn't true, for multiple reasons. This will be explained later. Clash of Clans was created to deliberately punish those who rush their Town Halls and give certain advantages to those who don't, in order to keep a strict balance of power among players. The game was also designed to give players something to look forward to as they progress through each Town Hall. Rushing the Town Hall defeats the intended purpose of the game and limits a player's ability to correctly and efficiently make progress. Most players don't find this out until it's too late.
Realize that by rushing your Town Hall, you are creating an environment for yourself with irreversible consequences. Those consequences, as well as other effects of rushing your Town Hall, will now be explained.
1) The Loot Penalty
Not many players know what the loot penalty is, even though there is an in-game warning about it (listed when you are viewing the Town Hall's info). Well, the loot penalty is your worst enemy if you decide to rush your Town Hall, and here's why:
There are maximum percentages of loot available when attacking players in multiplayer, regardless of Town Hall level. For example, you can steal 75% of what's in another player's Dark Elixir Drills and 50% of what they have in their collectors. On the other hand, there are certain restrictions on loot that are based on Town Hall level. I will not list all of them (check out Clash of Clans on Wikia if you're curious), but I will give an example. There is a limit to what percentage can be stolen out of a player's Dark Elixir Storage based on their Town Hall level. At Town Hall 7 and 8, only 6% can be stolen from the Storage. At Town Hall 9, 5% can be taken, and at Town Hall 10, only 4% can be taken. All of these percentages are before the loot penalty comes into play. The loot penalty is essentially Supercell's way of creating the ultimate balance among the Town Hall levels. While Town Hall 10's may be able to completely annihilate a Town Hall 8 rather easily, they won't get a lot of resources for doing so. Here's how the loot penalty puts a further restriction on loot gain, according to Town Hall level:
=== Town Hall Level ----- Percentage of Loot Available ===
Same Town Hall level or above ----- 100%
1 Town Hall level lower ----- 90%
2 levels lower ----- 50%
3 levels lower ----- 25%
4 or more levels lower ----- 5%
This chart shows that if you are Town Hall 10, and have decided to attack a Town Hall 8, the most loot you are going to be able to raid from that player is 50%. Clearly, the loot penalty can be devastating, even at Town Hall 9. Resources are scarce to begin with, but when you add in all of these multipliers and percentages that affect the amount of loot even available, loot can go from being scarce to almost entirely absent.
2) Fighting the battle on two fronts
One of the less tangible yet extremely important issues with rushing your Town Hall is the fact that you are forced to fight a two-front battle. What this means is that you are in a constant struggle while both defending and attacking. If you rushed your Town Hall badly enough (2 or 3 levels higher than where you should be), your troops won't be able to compete with other players' defenses, and your defenses won't be able to compete with their offense. That puts you in a very vulnerable position, regardless of what league you're in. You can choose to stay in lower leagues such as Bronze and Silver to give yourself the most protection, but those leagues won't have a lot of resources to offer, which won't help you develop. If you choose to go up to a higher league, such as Gold, Crystal, or even Master, loot will be plentiful, but you risk losing a lot each time your base gets attacked. Ultimately, a fair balance must be reached (likely to be Gold or Crystal depending on how rushed you are), to where you can raid resources throughout the day and not lose tons while away. Being able to keep your builders busy and retain the little resources you have is key to beginning the long recovery from your rushed Town Hall.
3) Time Spent on Raiding
Once your Town Hall is rushed, there's no going back. The only thing that will allow you to recover is time. You will need to spend countless hours a week raiding and gathering the necessary resources for your endless list of upgrades. It isn't easy, especially with the loot penalty. A lot of dedication (that many players don't have) will be required if you ever hope to get your village up to par with your Town Hall level. Relying on collectors, even if they're boosted, isn't going to supply your needs. The demand for resources is constant, and those demands need to be met in order for a full recovery to take effect. If you aren't the type of person that has the patience to frequently raid, or just simply don't have the time, then there's a good chance your rushed Town Hall will never become fully recovered.
4) Clans don't want rushed players
This is a secondary effect of having a rushed Town Hall. Any decent Clan that takes part in Clan Wars doesn't want rushed players. There are several reasons for this:
-Players with rushed Town Halls look unappealing to the eye, and therefore reflect poorly on a Clan's membership, which decreases your chance of being accepted
-Rushed Town Halls, of any level, make finding fair match-ups in Clan Wars more difficult, mostly because the game tries to compare Town Hall levels side-by-side, meaning that a rushed TH8 could get paired up against a maxed TH8 and stand no fighting chance
-Rushed players carry a stereotype with them that they are inexperienced (stereotypes wouldn’t exist if they weren't often the truth), and inexperienced players offer nothing to an established clan
In conclusion, rushing your Town Hall isn't a fun experience and quite often ruins the ability to enjoy the game. Many rushed players end up quitting because of their mistake, as the game goes from being exciting and rewarding to monotonous and irritating. I hope that this guide helps you better understand the serious, irreversible consequences of rushing your Town Hall.
Ever see those ugly looking bases with a level 9 or 10 Town Hall and level 5 walls and underdeveloped defenses? Well, let me tell you something about the player who possesses that base. Without spending an exorbitant amount of time raiding (and I'm talking months upon months) or by dropping quite a few dollars, that player will NEVER recover from their rushed base. Being unable to recover means that their walls, defenses, and troop levels will never reach the maximum level for their Town Hall. There are numerous reasons behind this, and I'm going to list them out for you. This guide will explain in-depth why rushing your Town Hall will cost you far more than you'll gain.
First, I will explain the reasons as to why people rush their Town Hall to begin with:
1) New and stronger defenses appear enticing to inexperienced players.
This is probably the most obvious reason that players rush their Town Halls. If you are a newer or inexperienced player, better and stronger defenses probably look a lot better to you than the ones you currently have. What most players forget, however, is that just because you have unlocked new defenses, as well as new levels for those defenses, doesn't mean that the upgrades are free. You still have to earn/gain the resources for those upgrades, which could prove to be a difficult challenge depending on how far the Town Hall has been rushed. Resources (as far as rushing your Town Hall is concerned) will be discussed later in the guide.
2) Better troops make you a better player.
Totally and absolutely incorrect. Stronger/maxed troops don't make anybody better. You still have to develop strategies through trial-and-error or online guides in order to use troops effectively. A player with maxed troops that doesn't understand how to use them renders themselves ineffective when attacking. Also, as mentioned in #1, those troop upgrades are not only extremely expensive but take a long time to finish. To completely max Golems (they go up to level 5, and are unlocked at Dark Barracks level 4), for example, it takes a total of 50 days. That's nearly two months to max ONE troop. Combine that with the fact that laboratory upgrades can only be done one at a time, as well as the time it takes to upgrade a Dark Barracks to level 4 in the first place, and you're looking at 2-3 months of time to max out one troop. That's a perspective that not many players look from, and further solidifies the argument against rushing the Town Hall.
3) A genuine lack of understanding of the game.
This is by far the reason most people rush the Town Hall. A combination of #1 and #2 are parts of it, but generally, most players rush the Town Hall because they believe that they will be rewarded. That isn't true, for multiple reasons. This will be explained later. Clash of Clans was created to deliberately punish those who rush their Town Halls and give certain advantages to those who don't, in order to keep a strict balance of power among players. The game was also designed to give players something to look forward to as they progress through each Town Hall. Rushing the Town Hall defeats the intended purpose of the game and limits a player's ability to correctly and efficiently make progress. Most players don't find this out until it's too late.
Realize that by rushing your Town Hall, you are creating an environment for yourself with irreversible consequences. Those consequences, as well as other effects of rushing your Town Hall, will now be explained.
1) The Loot Penalty
Not many players know what the loot penalty is, even though there is an in-game warning about it (listed when you are viewing the Town Hall's info). Well, the loot penalty is your worst enemy if you decide to rush your Town Hall, and here's why:
There are maximum percentages of loot available when attacking players in multiplayer, regardless of Town Hall level. For example, you can steal 75% of what's in another player's Dark Elixir Drills and 50% of what they have in their collectors. On the other hand, there are certain restrictions on loot that are based on Town Hall level. I will not list all of them (check out Clash of Clans on Wikia if you're curious), but I will give an example. There is a limit to what percentage can be stolen out of a player's Dark Elixir Storage based on their Town Hall level. At Town Hall 7 and 8, only 6% can be stolen from the Storage. At Town Hall 9, 5% can be taken, and at Town Hall 10, only 4% can be taken. All of these percentages are before the loot penalty comes into play. The loot penalty is essentially Supercell's way of creating the ultimate balance among the Town Hall levels. While Town Hall 10's may be able to completely annihilate a Town Hall 8 rather easily, they won't get a lot of resources for doing so. Here's how the loot penalty puts a further restriction on loot gain, according to Town Hall level:
=== Town Hall Level ----- Percentage of Loot Available ===
Same Town Hall level or above ----- 100%
1 Town Hall level lower ----- 90%
2 levels lower ----- 50%
3 levels lower ----- 25%
4 or more levels lower ----- 5%
This chart shows that if you are Town Hall 10, and have decided to attack a Town Hall 8, the most loot you are going to be able to raid from that player is 50%. Clearly, the loot penalty can be devastating, even at Town Hall 9. Resources are scarce to begin with, but when you add in all of these multipliers and percentages that affect the amount of loot even available, loot can go from being scarce to almost entirely absent.
2) Fighting the battle on two fronts
One of the less tangible yet extremely important issues with rushing your Town Hall is the fact that you are forced to fight a two-front battle. What this means is that you are in a constant struggle while both defending and attacking. If you rushed your Town Hall badly enough (2 or 3 levels higher than where you should be), your troops won't be able to compete with other players' defenses, and your defenses won't be able to compete with their offense. That puts you in a very vulnerable position, regardless of what league you're in. You can choose to stay in lower leagues such as Bronze and Silver to give yourself the most protection, but those leagues won't have a lot of resources to offer, which won't help you develop. If you choose to go up to a higher league, such as Gold, Crystal, or even Master, loot will be plentiful, but you risk losing a lot each time your base gets attacked. Ultimately, a fair balance must be reached (likely to be Gold or Crystal depending on how rushed you are), to where you can raid resources throughout the day and not lose tons while away. Being able to keep your builders busy and retain the little resources you have is key to beginning the long recovery from your rushed Town Hall.
3) Time Spent on Raiding
Once your Town Hall is rushed, there's no going back. The only thing that will allow you to recover is time. You will need to spend countless hours a week raiding and gathering the necessary resources for your endless list of upgrades. It isn't easy, especially with the loot penalty. A lot of dedication (that many players don't have) will be required if you ever hope to get your village up to par with your Town Hall level. Relying on collectors, even if they're boosted, isn't going to supply your needs. The demand for resources is constant, and those demands need to be met in order for a full recovery to take effect. If you aren't the type of person that has the patience to frequently raid, or just simply don't have the time, then there's a good chance your rushed Town Hall will never become fully recovered.
4) Clans don't want rushed players
This is a secondary effect of having a rushed Town Hall. Any decent Clan that takes part in Clan Wars doesn't want rushed players. There are several reasons for this:
-Players with rushed Town Halls look unappealing to the eye, and therefore reflect poorly on a Clan's membership, which decreases your chance of being accepted
-Rushed Town Halls, of any level, make finding fair match-ups in Clan Wars more difficult, mostly because the game tries to compare Town Hall levels side-by-side, meaning that a rushed TH8 could get paired up against a maxed TH8 and stand no fighting chance
-Rushed players carry a stereotype with them that they are inexperienced (stereotypes wouldn’t exist if they weren't often the truth), and inexperienced players offer nothing to an established clan
In conclusion, rushing your Town Hall isn't a fun experience and quite often ruins the ability to enjoy the game. Many rushed players end up quitting because of their mistake, as the game goes from being exciting and rewarding to monotonous and irritating. I hope that this guide helps you better understand the serious, irreversible consequences of rushing your Town Hall.
Guide #3: Coming Soon!