Base Designs

Wow, where do we start? There are literally a limitless number of base designs out there. Well, here is a good place. These videos help explain the basics in building a base by yourself. However, there are also many great bases out there that have already been built so you don’t have to spend hours trying to make one. A great idea is to copy a base then tweak it a little bit by possibly rearranging a few traps or buildings. Keep in mind that other people may know how to specifically beat that base if it is a popular one. For information on popular bases and how to beat them, check out the Popular Bases (replace with link) website.

Do you know how effective your base is? It is a good idea to keep track of the attacks against your base. Look at how far above or below you the attacker is. If you were three-starred, what was the troop composition? Would a slight tweak make your base stronger? Was the attack against you fundamentally simple? Whenever your base is three-starred, review it for potential modifications.

TH8 Base Building Guide

TH9 Base Building Guide

TH10 Base Building Guide

General Info

Below is a check list of things to consider when looking for a base. I have found that trying to start from scratch is not a good way to make a base because it will take you at least 6 or more hours to make a decent base. It is usually better to find popular bases and then change them in small ways. The reason for this is that since it is online, tons of people have seen it and many may know how to 3 star it. Thus, changing small aspects can prevent this from happening. However, don’t just randomly rearrange things. Instead, analyze the base in the same way that an opponent would. If you were attacking your own base, how would you do it? Thus, if you know how to attack your own base, find a way to stop this. Do some traps seem to be located in a bad place? If so, change it and place it in a more useful position.
1. There are a lot of places to find good base ideas. The best bases are unique, but if that isn’t working out, you could steal a base design from a strong opponent in a prior war. There are a lot of decent bases on YouTube or on the forums, but you run in to the major problem of other people being able to find your base design or begin familiar with it already.
2. I have always found symmetrical bases easier to analyze and crack. Also, bases with flat sides, like a square, seem to be easier to attack and to predict troop movement.
3. Don’t rely on a quirky base design to halt your attackers. That Tesla in the corner may mess with the first attacker, but the follow up attacker won’t be fooled.
4. Should builders huts be placed in the corner or not? I’ve come to the opinion that for lower level TH8s this is a good idea, but not for strong TH8’s and upwards. The reason being is that I have seen this foil many Dragloon attackers but provides a benefit to Hog attackers, GoWiPe attackers, or valk attackers.
5. Creating multiple chambers slows down your attackers and allows protected defenses to do damage while the clock ticks down. Generally, wide-open spaces favor GoWiPe attacks while multiple, small chambers works against them.

Also, keep in mind that there is a difference between War bases, trophy push bases, and farming bases.

Below are a few buildings which are important to all Town Hall levels. Whether Town Hall  7 or TH10, these buildings are still important. However, keep in mind that each different Town Hall has different specific buildings that other Town Halls may not have. If you are familiar with this information, visit the page for your Town Hall for more specific information.

Clan Castle

  1. Many players are too concerned with protecting the TH during war when what they really should be protecting is the CC. The building itself isn’t important, but you want to make a CC lure and kill costly for your opponent. A centralized CC is important.
  2. By adding a little bit of real estate to your overall base design, you make it possible to situate your CC in the middle so that the radius is not easily crossed without a significant commitment of troops. Also, you create spaces to place traps and keep the attacker guessing about Tesla and Double Giant Bomb locations.
  3. The CC building itself has a lot of HP. Aside from housing your most important defense; the building can provide an additional shield for valuable defenses such as your Air Defense.
  4. Troops in the CC should be varied. Maxed dragons and a few loons are a very powerful combo but so are witches, valks, and wizards. Recently, baby dragons and valk/wiz combos have been very popular because of the baby dragon’s ability to rage when it is alone. But check your attackers’ profiles before requesting. You can often make a reasonable guess as to the type of troops that will likely be attacking you.
  5. Dragloon attackers can make use of your CC troops to help with their funneling. By attacking opposite the side of your CC, the CC troops, once they approach the attacking dragons, will pull them in to your core. The dragons will stop what they are doing and go for the CC troops. The same is true for the Skeleton Trap and Barbarian King. Once these start attacking the invaders, the other invaders will drop what they are doing to go for these defenders (the exception being Hogs and Balloons which target all defenses first no matter what).
  6. Ground attackers can also use the CC troops to help with their funneling. Thus, it is important to consider this into where you place your clan castle.

Air Defenses.

  1. Max your ADs as soon as possible. Get several of them going at once.
  2. Protect your ADs with storage buildings in range, especially where the range of ADs overlaps.
  3. Place your ADs toward the center of your base. Either in the core or the middle layer.
  4. ADs in the middle layer should not be vulnerable to a one-hop attack from max balloons. Situate other defense to guide balloons around the ADs.
  5. ADs in the core should have sufficient distance from one another and protection from high HP buildings that Dragloon under rage can’t wipe them out. AD should be placed on different sides of the CC and TH for maximum protection.

Air Mines

  1. Red air mines are very weak and can’t do much against dragons. It is better to clump them all up near one AD. Especially if you have one that is slightly more exposed to balloons.
  2. Black air mines are very powerful and one can nearly take down a dragon. However, you don’t want two black air mines hitting the same dragon as this is a waste due to over-damage. Spread them out just enough to prevent this. Upgrade these when you can to increase their damage to dragons.
  3. At TH9 and higher LavaLoon attacks are possible, which means that one air mine will not take a hound out. Thus, u can’t defend against LavaLoon with only seeking air mines. Air defenses really do the trick.

Giant Bombs

  1. Be sure to upgrade your Giant Bombs as soon as possible. Along with your AD, these are very important defensive elements for every Town Hall
  2. A critical feature that every base (except th6) needs is multiple Double Giant Bomb locations. DGBs are a critical defense against Goho. You only need 1 DGB spot (where you place a DGB) but you must have at least 2 possible spots to keep your opponents guessing. These are 2×4 spaces between two defenses. The DGB location should not be placed on the edge of the base as it is an easy matter to send in one test Hog to mess up the defenders plan. Ask your clan mates to look at your base and verify that attacking Hogs will pass over this spot from multiple directions. The best way to make sure of this is to place the DGB in between two defenses that have no other defenses near by so that the hogs are forced to go through the DGB.
  3. When placing the DGBs, place them side-by-side (as opposed to in a line) so that Hogs will go over them nearly simultaneously.
  4. Hogs can be healed through a single bomb, but not through DGBs that go off at the same time.

Teslas

  1.  Teslas are generally found in the core, but can be quite effective in the middle layer if a GoWiPe makes it to the core. Teslas will pound away at the invading BK and Pekka while they try to get through your walls.
  2. Teslas can also reroute attackers, especially balloons to keep them away from your AD and Hogs to direct them toward a double giant bomb location. This is especially useful if your Teslas are low level any way.
  3. Three max Teslas deal nearly as much damage as a single AD but collectively have more than twice the HP.

Other Traps

  1. Spring traps should be placed between defenses and at choke points or gaps in your base, especially where defenses are close together. Attacking Hogs will bunch up in these locations providing efficient use of these traps.
  2. Skeleton traps are great at harassing the enemy, especially Balloons and Hogs. They are often used to redirect Dragon attacks as dragons will turn to kill these skeletons before attacking structures. If placed in range of ADs, you are likely to get additional hits on attacking dragons.
  3. Mini Bombs are potentially effective in a mass grouping, especially near a wizard tower. If a group of these goes off all at once on an attacking pack of Hogs while a Wizard Tower hits them, the attacker may have to use a critical heal spell earlier than intended. They can possibly be used in a CC lure spot to harass attacking troops and give your defended CC troops an edge.

Splash Damage

  1. Generally, splash damage defenses are not especially useful in war as they deal little damage to heavy hitters brought in by the attacker. Wizard Towers barley classify as a speed bump against attacking dragons, although they can bring down a fleet of Balloons. Mortars have little effect on attacking Hogs.
  2. Wizards Towers can be helpful against attacking Hogs. Situate the Wizard Tower so that it can defend multiple defenses at once and then while Hogs are going from defense to defense, the Wizard Tower can do significant damage.
  3. In addition, sometimes Wizard Towers can be placed near outside walls so as to take out groups of wallbreakers, thus damaging the opponent funnel from the start and making them think on their feet.
  4. Mortars could be effective against a mass of wizards following the big troops in a GoWiPe. For this reason, Mortars are best situated either in the middle layer.

Point Defenses

  1. The cannons and archer towers are the work-horses of your defense arsenal. Mixing these up and spreading them out around your base is key.
  2. Archer Towers are more versatile because they can attack both land and air. Give a little more weight to keeping these in the middle layer while cannons in the outer layer. Generally, avoid placing several Archer towers together in one group as these can be taken out quickly by 1 dragon. Cannons can kill a wall breakers in a single shot so use this effectively.

Trash Buildings

Give careful consideration to where you place your trash. This is especially important in a Dragloon attack. Dragons will attack the next closest structure, and proper placement of these buildings will keep dragons away from your core and critical defenses such as ADs.