What I’ve learned from playing Clash of Clans over the years is that the better you understand multiple attack strategies and why they sometimes fail, the better you’ll understand how to design bases that defend against those attacks.
Clash with Eric has created a nice video giving many tips for war defense in 2019. It is very long, but is worth the watch. PLEASE NOTE that his tip from the 8:10 to 11:00 minute mark is no longer correct. The “glitch” with the Eagle Artillery was “fixed” in the February 2019 Balancing Update.
Here’s a review of what Clash with Eric explained in his video:
- 2nd Row of Defenses: They should not be reachable by a Queen Walk. Therefore there should be at least 1 space between the first row of defenses and the second row.
- Clan Castle Placement: It should be centered in the base so that no one can get an easy CC lure using only 1-2 hogs or balloons.
- X-Bow Placement: They should NOT be in the first row of defense.
- Protect your Archer Queen: She should NOT be easily taken down at the outer edge of your base walls.
- Inferno Tower Placement: They should NOT be easily taken down on the outer edge of your base.
- Eagle Artillery Placement:
- It should be well protected and not easily accessed.
- (Not mentioned in the video): It may also be smart to have the Eagle Artillery placed away from the Archer Queen and away from a Giga Tesla (town hall) at TH12, which can prevent Killsquads from easily taking down many key targets.
- Having the defending Barbarian King placed next to a TH12 town hall building can distract and mess up Killsquads that are trying to target the Giga Tesla.
- PLEASE NOTE: The tip from 8:10 to 11:00 in the video is no longer correct since February 2019, as I mentioned above the video in this post.
- Town Hall Placement for TH11 and Below: Do NOT bother putting it in the middle of your base. Defending against 3-star strategies is more important than trying to prevent the 2-star, when facing any half-decent war opponent.
- Town Hall Placement for TH12:
- It should NOT be exposed, outside your walls or on the outer edge of your walls. Because if a Hero Charge can easily take down your Town Hall, it makes many attack strategies so much easier to succeed.
- Do NOT put it in the center of your base. Because if you do, it allows a wall wrecker to easily come into the base at any angle, allowing the attacker’s Killsquad or Hero Charge to effectively achieve key objectives.
- Tesla Placement:
- The best place to put many of them is outside the outer walls of your base. This can surprise the enemy attacker, likely ruining their plan for funneling, heal spell placement, and/or hog or balloon pathing.
- A “Tesla Farm” (group of 3 or more teslas placed close together), which became popular in war base design in 2016-2018, is still sometimes effective outside of your walls.
- A “Troll Tesla” in a corner of the map can be effective in surprising the enemy attacker, possibly causing a time fail.
- Traps Placement:
- Spring Traps: Put them in between defenses, where only 1 space separates the two defenses. Clash Tutor has a nice video going into greater detail on Spring Trap placement. See below.
- Giant Bombs: Some of them should be with Teslas outside of the base in order to surprise the enemy attacker and mess up their plan. Other Giant Bombs should be in between defenses that are inside of your base.
- Black Air Mines:
- Some of them should be in possible/likely Blimp paths or Stone Slammer Paths, if you are aware of how they are commonly used against your base.
- Other Air Mines could be placed outside the outer walls in possible Queen Walk locations or in possible locations where a Baby Dragon or Electro Dragon may be likely used for creating a funnel. Again, it can mess up an attackers plan if a Healer or funneling Baby Dragon or Electro Dragon die early in the attack.
- All other Air Mines should be placed near Air Defenses,.
Other Tips Not Directly Mentioned in the Video Above:
- Inferno Tower Islands (TH10-TH12) and X-bow Islands (at TH9): Islands, as they call them, can be very effective, especially against Bowler attacks — the bowlers will not be able to target a defense if it is the only structure in the island. However, Witches and the Archer Queen can reach the structure in the island if the gap between the wall and defensive structure is only 2-3 spaces. X-bows in islands by themselves can be effective at TH9, but might not be advisable at TH10-12 since Infernos and the Eagle Artillery are more important defenses.
- Multi-Target Infernos vs. Single-Target Infernos: Since attacks that use Bat Spells (PekkaBoBat and DragBat) are becoming very popular, having at least one Inferno set to Multi-Target is highly recommended. However, having a Single-Target Inferno near your Archer Queen can make Hero Charges towards your defending Queen more difficult to perform.
Clash Tutor had posted videos a couple years ago on war defense, and her video on spring trap placement is still applicable to defense design in 2019.
Jesus Knights - Clash of Clans 