Defense Basics
The following are some very basic pointers on how to defend your base. Base design can be an art as well as a science. However, if you don't get the following down, you will be easy pickings in war and multi-player attacks. The tips below are focussed on protecting your base and preventing a three star attack from an enemy at the same town hall level as your own. Do that, and you have made a big contribution to the war effort. Given the disparity in army strength and base defenses, it is virtually impossible to defend against attacks from players at a higher town hall level. However, using the advice below, you will certainly make it more challenging for them.
Internet Bases
There are thousands of base designs on the internet. Most of them are absolutely terrible despite their designer claiming they are the "best ever" and "can't be three starred". However, some base designs on the internet are very good and have therefore become very popular. The problem is, once a base becomes popular, so to do youtube videos on how to defeat them. Therefore, it is far better to use the principles below to design your own unique base. This is after all, half the fun of war. It will also make you a better attacker if you spend time thinking about defense and how to defend against the most likely attacks you will face. If you simply must copy an internet base, at the very least change the location of traps and teslas. Be careful changing much more than that or you may inadvertently alter the very thing that made the base strong to begin with.
The Most Common Attacks You Will Face
During war, most players attack bases about the same strength as their own which means usually at the same town hall level and at a similar war map rank. Few clans use strategic targeting like our clan does to maximize three star attacks. Therefore, you can expect to face the following attacks depending on your town hall level. The attacks are ranked in order of popularity based on thousands of attacks we have faced over the last few months (and prove how out-of-touch most clans are with what it takes to three star bases these days):
The following are some very basic pointers on how to defend your base. Base design can be an art as well as a science. However, if you don't get the following down, you will be easy pickings in war and multi-player attacks. The tips below are focussed on protecting your base and preventing a three star attack from an enemy at the same town hall level as your own. Do that, and you have made a big contribution to the war effort. Given the disparity in army strength and base defenses, it is virtually impossible to defend against attacks from players at a higher town hall level. However, using the advice below, you will certainly make it more challenging for them.
Internet Bases
There are thousands of base designs on the internet. Most of them are absolutely terrible despite their designer claiming they are the "best ever" and "can't be three starred". However, some base designs on the internet are very good and have therefore become very popular. The problem is, once a base becomes popular, so to do youtube videos on how to defeat them. Therefore, it is far better to use the principles below to design your own unique base. This is after all, half the fun of war. It will also make you a better attacker if you spend time thinking about defense and how to defend against the most likely attacks you will face. If you simply must copy an internet base, at the very least change the location of traps and teslas. Be careful changing much more than that or you may inadvertently alter the very thing that made the base strong to begin with.
The Most Common Attacks You Will Face
During war, most players attack bases about the same strength as their own which means usually at the same town hall level and at a similar war map rank. Few clans use strategic targeting like our clan does to maximize three star attacks. Therefore, you can expect to face the following attacks depending on your town hall level. The attacks are ranked in order of popularity based on thousands of attacks we have faced over the last few months (and prove how out-of-touch most clans are with what it takes to three star bases these days):
TH5 & TH6
GiWi & GiWiHe BarchLoon |
TH7
Dragons |
TH8
Dragons GoWiPe Hogs |
TH9
GoWiPe & GoWiWiPe Hogs Dragons Balloons |
TH10
GoWiPe & GoWiWiPe Balloons |
Walls
Build multiple compartments in your base rather than surrounding it by one ring of walls. By using multiple compartments, attackers need to break through walls several times to get access to your entire base. Each time they need to break though a wall, they are slowed down giving your defenses time to kill them.
Do not intersect walls with a cross as wall breakers targeting the intersection will open a path into 4 compartments of your base. Offsetting the juncture makes it much more challenging for attackers to break into all of your compartments.
Build multiple compartments in your base rather than surrounding it by one ring of walls. By using multiple compartments, attackers need to break through walls several times to get access to your entire base. Each time they need to break though a wall, they are slowed down giving your defenses time to kill them.
Do not intersect walls with a cross as wall breakers targeting the intersection will open a path into 4 compartments of your base. Offsetting the juncture makes it much more challenging for attackers to break into all of your compartments.
Do not double up your walls. While it may seem logical that this will double the strength of your walls, remember that wall breakers do damage at a radius of 1.5 tiles. Therefore they will break through both layers in one shot. All you will have accomplished by doubling your walls is reducing the amount of area you can protect.
Do not alternate your wall levels with one weak then one strong section. ALL troops, including wall breakers target the weakest point in a wall. So if you have one weak segment between two strong segments, that will just motivate troops to attack the weak segment. Therefore, it is better to link all your segments of the same level together. The one exception is if you want your enemy to target a specific spot on your walls. Placing one or two weaker segments will attract troops in the vicinity who are trying to penetrate your base.
Clan Castle
Your clan castle is the most important structure you have. Even more important than your town hall. In war, every attack relies on killing the clan castle troops early in the strategy. Often that means triggering and luring the enemy clan castle troops at the start of the attack. Making it more difficult to do so, can hamper your enemy dramatically and prevent them from getting that all valuable third star. Therefore, place your clan castle in the very centre of your base. At town hall 8 and up, you can also spread your base out enough that your enemy can't trigger the troops unless they send in a sacrificial hog or balloon. Some of the most advanced base designs at town hall 9 and 10 make it virtually impossible to trigger the clan castle troops until the attack has penetrated deep and the enemy has already been weakened significantly.
Town Hall
Most players think their town hall is the most important building to protect but they are wrong. Sure destroying your town hall gives the enemy another star, but only by destroying 100% of your base can they get all 3 stars (which we know is the objective of every attack). So in effect, your town hall is just another high hit-point structure and should be used to protect other more important defenses such as Air Defenses. Your town hall should usually still be placed deep in your base, usually in the core, but there are many good base designs that have the town hall in a secondary layer.
At town hall level 10 where two stars are often the objective of an attack, protecting your town hall is far more important.
Mortars, Archer Towers, Canon, and Wizard Tower Placement
In order to defend your base against attacks from all sides, it is important to evenly distribute these 4 defensive structure groups. They are the backbone of your defense.
Mortars should be placed evenly spaced but deeper in the base as they have a long range and can not defend themselves when being attacked.
Archer towers and canons should generally be paired together as they complement each other when facing mixed air and ground attacks (this is especially important at the higher town hall levels when hybrid mixed attacks become more common). They should usually be placed evenly spaced inside the outer ring of a base in range of structures outside your walls.
Wizard towers should usually be placed evenly spaced somewhere in between the deeper mortars and the shallower cannon/archer pairs in order to protect those defenses.
Giant Bombs (Hog Killers)
These days, hogs are used in many of the most powerful and elite level attacks from town hall 8 and up. The weakness of hog attacks is the destructive power of giant bombs which do 1.5x damage to them. Pair two level 3+ giant bombs together to form a "double bomb" and no hog triggering the trap will survive (unless a heal spell was placed there first). The trick with using double bombs is disguise where they are placed in your base. The only way to do that is to create multiple 2 by 8 gaps in your base. This will keep your enemy guessing as to where to avoid or where they need to drop a heal spell in advance of their hogs arriving.
Hidden Teslas
Hidden teslas are one of the most over looked defensive structures in the game. From town hall 8+, a maxed telsa does more damage than a maxed archer tower. Add to that the element of surprise, and it is one of the most important defensive structures in the game.
DON'T: Don't put your teslas right up next to your town hall. Balloons target defensive structures as a priority and deal out splash damage. If you have your teslas right up next to your town hall, the splash damage from the balloons targeting your teslas can also destroy your town hall. Remember, your town hall doesn't even need the protection from teslas as it is not the most important structure you have.
DO: Do uniformly spread your teslas throughout your base so the element of surprise exists in multiple places.
DON'T: Don't pack your base so tight that the only gaps are the 2 x 2 spots where your teslas are hidden... that eliminates the element of surprise as your enemy will know exactly where they are.
DO: Do place a hidden tesla outside your walls and outside your clan castle trigger range at a likely entry point to your base. If your enemy tries to send in a balloon or a hog to trigger your clan castle they will be stymied by the tesla popping up while your point defenses kill them.
Air Defenses
Place buildings with lots of hit points in front of air defenses. Gold, elixir and dark elixir storages are your highest hit point structures next to your clan castle and town hall. By placing them in range of and in front of your air defenses, dragons will get hung up destroying them while your air defenses take down the dragons.
Air Sweepers
The air sweeper has a limited purpose and effect: to deter the enemy from attacking from a specific direction and to slow them down if they do. Therefore, do not over estimate its importance. Proper placement is also key for it to be useful at all. Again, because of it's long range, it should be placed near or in the core of your base. It should also be placed between a ring of air defenses so that no matter which direction the enemy attacks from, they must first get through one of your air defenses before reaching and destroying your air sweeper. Remember though that the air sweeper trigger range is 120 degrees, it's blasts only cover 30 degrees. Therefore, you can not, nor should you try to protect two air defenses at once.
Traps
No matter what you do, troops are going to penetrate you base so leaving your traps outside your walls where it is random luck if they are triggered, is not a good idea in general. Instead, place your traps inside your walls in strategic locations where they are far more likely to be triggered by the enemy.
Skeleton Traps: Based on the likely attack list above, set your skeleton traps to either air or ground mode. For example, a TH7 and TH8 base should have all possible defenses including skeleton traps set to defend against air attacks.
Spring Traps and Giant Bombs: Remember that giants and hogs target defensive structures are are very susceptible to giant bombs and spring traps. Therefore, place these traps between defensive structures.
Air Mines and Air Bombs: Place these near air defenses on the side of the base you are most likely to be attacked from. In most cases, an enemy using an air based attack will attack from behind the air sweeper.
Bombs: Bombs are generally not very effective individually because they do so little damage. So you might consider grouping them in an area the size that a hidden tesla or giant bomb might occupy. This increases the uncertainty of where your teslas and giant bombs might be hidden as well as deals out some effective damage.
Gold, Elixir and Dark Elixir Storages
As valuable as these are in the regular multiplayer game, their only value in war is as a high hit-point shield for something you want to protect (like Air Defenses). Since you don't lose any loot when attacked in war, it doesn't matter if your storages are destroyed. Furthermore, next to your town hall and clan castle, they are the highest hit-point structures you have. So place them strategically either inside or outside your walls to protect air defenses (a dragon targeting a gold storage can be held up long enough that the nearby air defense will kill the dragon).
Place all structures in range of at least one defensive building so that the attacking troops don't have an "freebies" they can destroy. The only exception to this is at town hall 7 and town hall 8 where placing builder huts in the corners your base can cause the enemy attack to run out of time.
Base Symmetry
Most people like symmetry in their base so it looks balanced and uniform from all sides. However, the downside to a base designed this way is that it is also easier for an attacker to evaluate and spot weaknesses. As most people have symmetrical bases, attackers are also used to assessing them. Based on the way human perception works for most people, non-symmetrical bases are simply harder to evaluate. They will often scare off weaker attackers (which can be a negative as the stronger attackers will then target your base) and even the stronger attackers will find it more challenging to come up with an effective battle plan.
Keep in mind however, that even though a base may not appear symmetrical, it is still important to build one that has uniform defense capabilities so that there is not a week side or easy entry point. But non-symmetry can be achieved through the use of irregular structured walls or unbalanced non-defensive structures where uniform defensive strength can be achieved through hidden teslas and traps.
Your clan castle is the most important structure you have. Even more important than your town hall. In war, every attack relies on killing the clan castle troops early in the strategy. Often that means triggering and luring the enemy clan castle troops at the start of the attack. Making it more difficult to do so, can hamper your enemy dramatically and prevent them from getting that all valuable third star. Therefore, place your clan castle in the very centre of your base. At town hall 8 and up, you can also spread your base out enough that your enemy can't trigger the troops unless they send in a sacrificial hog or balloon. Some of the most advanced base designs at town hall 9 and 10 make it virtually impossible to trigger the clan castle troops until the attack has penetrated deep and the enemy has already been weakened significantly.
Town Hall
Most players think their town hall is the most important building to protect but they are wrong. Sure destroying your town hall gives the enemy another star, but only by destroying 100% of your base can they get all 3 stars (which we know is the objective of every attack). So in effect, your town hall is just another high hit-point structure and should be used to protect other more important defenses such as Air Defenses. Your town hall should usually still be placed deep in your base, usually in the core, but there are many good base designs that have the town hall in a secondary layer.
At town hall level 10 where two stars are often the objective of an attack, protecting your town hall is far more important.
Mortars, Archer Towers, Canon, and Wizard Tower Placement
In order to defend your base against attacks from all sides, it is important to evenly distribute these 4 defensive structure groups. They are the backbone of your defense.
Mortars should be placed evenly spaced but deeper in the base as they have a long range and can not defend themselves when being attacked.
Archer towers and canons should generally be paired together as they complement each other when facing mixed air and ground attacks (this is especially important at the higher town hall levels when hybrid mixed attacks become more common). They should usually be placed evenly spaced inside the outer ring of a base in range of structures outside your walls.
Wizard towers should usually be placed evenly spaced somewhere in between the deeper mortars and the shallower cannon/archer pairs in order to protect those defenses.
Giant Bombs (Hog Killers)
These days, hogs are used in many of the most powerful and elite level attacks from town hall 8 and up. The weakness of hog attacks is the destructive power of giant bombs which do 1.5x damage to them. Pair two level 3+ giant bombs together to form a "double bomb" and no hog triggering the trap will survive (unless a heal spell was placed there first). The trick with using double bombs is disguise where they are placed in your base. The only way to do that is to create multiple 2 by 8 gaps in your base. This will keep your enemy guessing as to where to avoid or where they need to drop a heal spell in advance of their hogs arriving.
Hidden Teslas
Hidden teslas are one of the most over looked defensive structures in the game. From town hall 8+, a maxed telsa does more damage than a maxed archer tower. Add to that the element of surprise, and it is one of the most important defensive structures in the game.
DON'T: Don't put your teslas right up next to your town hall. Balloons target defensive structures as a priority and deal out splash damage. If you have your teslas right up next to your town hall, the splash damage from the balloons targeting your teslas can also destroy your town hall. Remember, your town hall doesn't even need the protection from teslas as it is not the most important structure you have.
DO: Do uniformly spread your teslas throughout your base so the element of surprise exists in multiple places.
DON'T: Don't pack your base so tight that the only gaps are the 2 x 2 spots where your teslas are hidden... that eliminates the element of surprise as your enemy will know exactly where they are.
DO: Do place a hidden tesla outside your walls and outside your clan castle trigger range at a likely entry point to your base. If your enemy tries to send in a balloon or a hog to trigger your clan castle they will be stymied by the tesla popping up while your point defenses kill them.
Air Defenses
Place buildings with lots of hit points in front of air defenses. Gold, elixir and dark elixir storages are your highest hit point structures next to your clan castle and town hall. By placing them in range of and in front of your air defenses, dragons will get hung up destroying them while your air defenses take down the dragons.
Air Sweepers
The air sweeper has a limited purpose and effect: to deter the enemy from attacking from a specific direction and to slow them down if they do. Therefore, do not over estimate its importance. Proper placement is also key for it to be useful at all. Again, because of it's long range, it should be placed near or in the core of your base. It should also be placed between a ring of air defenses so that no matter which direction the enemy attacks from, they must first get through one of your air defenses before reaching and destroying your air sweeper. Remember though that the air sweeper trigger range is 120 degrees, it's blasts only cover 30 degrees. Therefore, you can not, nor should you try to protect two air defenses at once.
Traps
No matter what you do, troops are going to penetrate you base so leaving your traps outside your walls where it is random luck if they are triggered, is not a good idea in general. Instead, place your traps inside your walls in strategic locations where they are far more likely to be triggered by the enemy.
Skeleton Traps: Based on the likely attack list above, set your skeleton traps to either air or ground mode. For example, a TH7 and TH8 base should have all possible defenses including skeleton traps set to defend against air attacks.
Spring Traps and Giant Bombs: Remember that giants and hogs target defensive structures are are very susceptible to giant bombs and spring traps. Therefore, place these traps between defensive structures.
Air Mines and Air Bombs: Place these near air defenses on the side of the base you are most likely to be attacked from. In most cases, an enemy using an air based attack will attack from behind the air sweeper.
Bombs: Bombs are generally not very effective individually because they do so little damage. So you might consider grouping them in an area the size that a hidden tesla or giant bomb might occupy. This increases the uncertainty of where your teslas and giant bombs might be hidden as well as deals out some effective damage.
Gold, Elixir and Dark Elixir Storages
As valuable as these are in the regular multiplayer game, their only value in war is as a high hit-point shield for something you want to protect (like Air Defenses). Since you don't lose any loot when attacked in war, it doesn't matter if your storages are destroyed. Furthermore, next to your town hall and clan castle, they are the highest hit-point structures you have. So place them strategically either inside or outside your walls to protect air defenses (a dragon targeting a gold storage can be held up long enough that the nearby air defense will kill the dragon).
Place all structures in range of at least one defensive building so that the attacking troops don't have an "freebies" they can destroy. The only exception to this is at town hall 7 and town hall 8 where placing builder huts in the corners your base can cause the enemy attack to run out of time.
Base Symmetry
Most people like symmetry in their base so it looks balanced and uniform from all sides. However, the downside to a base designed this way is that it is also easier for an attacker to evaluate and spot weaknesses. As most people have symmetrical bases, attackers are also used to assessing them. Based on the way human perception works for most people, non-symmetrical bases are simply harder to evaluate. They will often scare off weaker attackers (which can be a negative as the stronger attackers will then target your base) and even the stronger attackers will find it more challenging to come up with an effective battle plan.
Keep in mind however, that even though a base may not appear symmetrical, it is still important to build one that has uniform defense capabilities so that there is not a week side or easy entry point. But non-symmetry can be achieved through the use of irregular structured walls or unbalanced non-defensive structures where uniform defensive strength can be achieved through hidden teslas and traps.