Being crushed at TH8 - base feedback appreciated

When I log off, it takes less than an hour, sometimes just a few minutes, and my base gets totaled. 80-100% damage every time. I was at trophy range 1100, now I'm at 1400 to get more DE, but the phenomenon is essentially the same at both spots. I realize my storages are rather full, but I do have to save up for most of the stuff, and I spend resources as soon as I can.

Here's the base:

http://s21.postimg.org/tkn7ztrev/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg

My questions:
- Why isn't anyone taking just the TH? Do I need to expose it even more? What tanking structure could replace it at that more vulnerable side of my base?
- What weaknesses do you see in general with my design?
- The armies that flatten me are usually highest/second highest level. Is what's happening completely normal due to the reduced loot penalty for higher-uppers?

Thanks in advance!


[edit] Here's an updated version based on all the feedback from this thread (thank you!). I decided to call the base "Iron Rose":
http://s22.postimg.org/6nnk5q9y9/Teh_Mikester_TH8b.jpg

[edit2] Another minor variation, this is Iron Rose 3.0:
http://s8.postimg.org/p36z7ydl1/Teh_Mikester_TH8c.jpg

Your base doesn't appear to have any "overwhelming" weaknesses. I would venture to guess that you are a new TH8, as you appear to be at TH7 development. The new TH8 stage is a difficult place to be, because you are now on the menu for maxed TH8 and TH9 players without having the defenses to cope with their higher level troops. This means that keeping lots of resources in your storages will make you a very attractive target since these high level players will suffer a smaller loot penalty to attack what is essentially a TH7 with a few extra buildings.

My advice? Try to constantly deplete the resources in your storages to minimize your attractiveness as a target, and work on upgrading your defenses and walls as quickly as you are able to. Once you get near maxed TH8 defenses, you will find that you are attacked far less frequently in the trophy range you are currently in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Felkaroth

I would venture to guess that you are a new TH8, as you appear to be at TH7 development. The new TH8 stage is a difficult place to be, because you are now on the menu for maxed TH8 and TH9 players.

---

Hey man, thanks for your reply. Yes, you're correct, I've upgraded to TH8 just about a week ago. Do you have any strategy for keeping storage levels lower? Like keeping a builder free just for the walls?

It depends on how well you know your gold income rate. If you don't have any idle time on your builders at the moment, then burn off your excess gold on walls until one of your building gets close to completion. Then you can try to time your next upgrade with your unused builder a few hours before it finishes.

Youre base has hardly ANY weakness!Its been happening to me when I was a little low leveled for town hall 8!All you have to do is upgrade your defences and youll be fine.

Not wanting to sound mean or anything, but your base, while not all that bad, has a mix of TH6 and 7 defenses. I may have missed something, but I don't see any defense that is up to TH8 level. Not very hard for a seasoned raider to overcome. I know you just got to TH8, but you need to prioritise your defenses. I'm also a TH8, but most of my defenses are maxed including walls. I've been hovering around the 1100 - 1400 trophy range and my base wins about 90% of attacks. I even got attacked by a maxed TH10 (why he/she was at such a low trophy range with the loot penalty is beyond me...) and although my base lost (70% damage), the attacker only got 1 star and my TH and main gold storages were untouched.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ExtremeSkater

Youre base has hardly ANY weakness!Its been happening to me when I was a little low leveled for town hall 8!All you have to do is upgrade your defences and youll be fine.

---

Thanks for your encouragement m8, I guess I'll just have to be patient then (I don't gem).

@Babblefish: I'm a bit hesitant to be upgrading more than two defenses plus Tesla at a time because taking out an additional defense also weakens the base. Are you saying it would be worth doing that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

Thanks for your encouragement m8, I guess I'll just have to be patient then (I don't gem).

@Babblefish: I'm a bit hesitant to be upgrading more than two defenses plus Tesla at a time because taking out an additional defense also weakens the base. Are you saying it would be worth doing that?

---

I would say no matter what, your defenses aren't going to be up to speed for a strong 8 for many many weeks. So you can either take the hit by putting all the builders to work or keep a builder free to dump extra gold into walls. I'm surviving moving up through eight by keeping a builder free for walls and timing my raiding/savings for upgrades. You wind up looking less appealing to loot hunters and far more appealing to trophy hunters who might take your TH.

Keep in mind that even when your builders are done ... they aren't. You will still have more defense upgrade levels to work through before you max out. It will take weeks and weeks.

The worst thing about TH8 is it puts you directly in the decent loot sights of TH9's who have a leg up with troops. When you were TH7 the decrease in loot available made them pass you by more often than not but at 8? They want what you got. There really isn't much defense against this no matter what your base design is like - and yours looks pretty solid.

Good luck!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

Thanks for your encouragement m8, I guess I'll just have to be patient then (I don't gem).

@Babblefish: I'm a bit hesitant to be upgrading more than two defenses plus Tesla at a time because taking out an additional defense also weakens the base. Are you saying it would be worth doing that?

---

Well, you have to look at it this way, you're not weakening your base permanently, just for the duration of the upgrade. Look long term. And SC was smart in designing this game because an attacker can't take everything nor is any of the damages permanent where you have to rebuild again. I've played games where an attacker is allowed to take all of your gold and could single you out and attack you anytime and as often as he/she wanted. In that game, I've had people that were 10 times or more higher than me in level attack my base 3-4 times a day, sometimes in back-to-back raids. Talk about frustration! I don't play that particular game much anymore, but I always come back to CoC.:)

Yeah i would expose you town hall more because the lower level players coming up to gold3 will likely miss your base because of their troops and your walls would scare you away. Also by exposing you th more you would get more sheilds and also making the higherlvl people to miss you.But other than that looks pretty good

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Boblo

Yeah i would expose you town hall more because the lower level players coming up to gold3 will likely miss your base because of their troops and your walls would scare you away. Also by exposing you th more you would get more sheilds and also making the higherlvl people to miss you.But other than that looks pretty good

---

I put my TH in a corner with no towers close also throw in a mine and collector

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TNA

I put my TH in a corner with no towers close also throw in a mine and collector

---

Agreed! And you can put decorations around it so people will know it isn't trapped. I have arrow flags pointing at mine :rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Chipperfields

Agreed! And you can put decorations around it so people will know it isn't trapped. I have arrow flags pointing at mine :rolleyes:

---

Hehe, cool idea, and maybe that's what the white flag is for, too! :D

Thanks for all of the advice and encouragement, guys! I'll expose the TH more and surround it with flowers to make it look more welcoming. Hopefully that will do the trick. :)

So here we go: http://s14.postimg.org/hlq3lxs6p/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg

Tell me you wouldn't want to go knocking on that door! :cool:

Looks swell to me!

U got the idea... Looks good

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

So here we go: http://s14.postimg.org/hlq3lxs6p/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg

Tell me you wouldn't want to go knocking on that door! :cool:

---

Excellent flag use ;)

I"m ~3 weeks into th8, i'll share my experience.
The main bait is DE, if you have a lot of it, you'll get attacked at 1400 by pekkas, dragons, balloons etc.
Your base doesn't look "scary" yet. By "scary" i mean golden mortars/cannons, or pink wiz towers. You just get over it, first weeks of th8 are rough. My advice to you is max mortars and get your third AD up to par.

Your defence is actually really good and you would have to be fairly rich if people are raiding you. My only suggestions are that you place your spring traps better, press the outside buildings against your base, use the unnecessary walls to divide a section and place your town hall further out so it is more tempting to trophies hunters, giving you more regular free shields.

I am also just 2 weeks into TH 8, but I don't seem to have too much trouble, using pingfao's tesla theme park and it seems to keep some attackers to a lower level of success. One thing I found helpful was having all collectors and mines at lvl 11 BEFORE moving to TH 8, anticipating I would be attacked a lot so planned to spend time under a shield. I always attack a lot at the end of a shield, but if I do get attacked and have a shield I will not break it, this means the loot taken from me is always replenished by the end of the 12 hours, this may not work for you if u just want to get into the game whenever you feel like it.

Also it seems lots of elixir is not a real magnet, but lots of gold is, and lots of gold AND dark elixir is a recipe for a big attack. I think taking the attitude that you WILL be flattened for a few weeks is also a good suggestion at this level.

hope this is helpful in some way

Definitely move your TH in the corner where it's not in range of any defenses. Lower levels are aware that your TH is in range of your defenses and see it as a threat.
In terms of weaknesses - two storage's are exposed, I recommend switching the exposed storage's with the elixir storage, unless you prefer elixir over gold.
I'm guessing the air defense under construction is placed where the BK is? If so, then great AD coverage.
I'm also gonna guess when you mention "highest/second level" troops, you mean level 5 and 6 Barbs/Archers, if so, then yeah, i'm not surprised you got stomped by tier 1-2 combo, they can easily overwhelm defenses so your best bet is to jack up your splash buildings (which should be top priority).

Your base looks good, just upgrade your defenses.

Ur base. Isnt that bad and i dont see how u can be crushed at that trophy lvl. So can u tell us how crushed u are or a pic of ur defense log? and yes expose ur town hall more. I would need to use about a 4th of my army to get ur town hall so i would skip ur base and leave it for someone else to get u. I put my TH in da corner and surround it with 3 layers of decorations, my first ever bought wall and a seeking air mine (XD lol) but thats the only trap. 3/4 of da time people just go for my TH leaving it at like only 4 or 6% loss.

I'd advise you to chuck out the BK in the center and put a crucial defense there like a mortar, as the bk is almost useless in defense, and the regen times are shorter anyway so putting him in a weaker spot is better

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

When I log off, it takes less than an hour, sometimes just a few minutes, and my base gets totaled. 80-100% damage every time. I was at trophy range 1100, now I'm at 1400 to get more DE, but the phenomenon is essentially the same at both spots. I realize my storages are rather full, but I do have to save up for most of the stuff, and I spend resources as soon as I can.

Here's the base:

http://s21.postimg.org/tkn7ztrev/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg

My questions:
- Why isn't anyone taking just the TH? Do I need to expose it even more? What tanking structure could replace it at that more vulnerable side of my base?
- What weaknesses do you see in general with my design?
- The armies that flatten me are usually highest/second highest level. Is what's happening completely normal due to the reduced loot penalty for higher-uppers?

Thanks in advance!

---

Why, because ur base is a 2 star without ever breaking a single wall.

TH is 1 star
each additional building is worth (approximately) 2% towards the 50% they need for the second star. Nobody needs to break a wall to 2 star u.

You have builders huts in the corners, why? You're giving ur attacker free kills. Attacker drops 1 troop and can kill those builder huts unmolested, take a nap and resume at will.

use exterior buildings to ur advantage, make ur attacker pay for each building they attempt to kill. U do this by placing buildings against ur exterior walls, and defend that building with a weapon i side ur walls.

Wow, a lot of excellent feedback, didn't expect so many meaningful replies, thanks!
As frequently suggested, I put the TH further out in isolation (http://s14.postimg.org/hlq3lxs6p/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg).
Unfortunately, my last attacker didn't care about it and took two-thirds of the village. :rolleyes:

More suggestions I will try (thanks again to the contributors):
- move exterior buildings closer to wall
- put vital defense building where BK currently is
- put only elixir storages in the exposed positions
- think about more effective places for spring traps

Someone suggested to take the extra wall bits and make more compartments inside. I'm assuming the extra wall bits are supposed to be the ones that are strengthening the corners on the left, right and bottom. In a few attacks, barbarians ate their way through those corners, that's why I reinforced them. But I'll try extra compartments and see which helps more in the long run.

To answer some of the questions:
- Yes, by "highest/second level" troops I mean lvl 5/6 where applicable
- How crushed do I get? The last 5 defense losses (discounting "one-drops" and lightningers) were: 68%, 100%, 30%, 74%, 97%.
The 30% in there was from someone with mearly lvl 3/4 troops, the rest 5/6 lvl troops, with seemingly full deployment and some with BKs and AQs.

Prioritize your Splash Damage defense's. Not having level 6 Splash towers is a huge disadvantage for defense that any attacker will jump on.

You said you moved the townhall out more - good - the reason people weren't attacking it before is because it was in range of your defenses - ask yourself: If I was townhall sniping would I use 1/3 or even half of my army sniping this defended townhall when I can drop 5 archers on a more exposed one? The answer is no unless you're at higher competitive trophy counts (+2000)

My biggest advice to you at this point is to increase the intimidation factor of your base - maybe start some black walls but DEFINITELY get those splash damage towers maxed asap.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

Wow, a lot of excellent feedback, didn't expect so many meaningful replies, thanks!
As frequently suggested, I put the TH further out in isolation (http://s14.postimg.org/hlq3lxs6p/Teh_Mikester_TH8.jpg).
Unfortunately, my last attacker didn't care about it and took two-thirds of the village. :rolleyes:

More suggestions I will try (thanks again to the contributors):
- move exterior buildings closer to wall
- put vital defense building where BK currently is
- put only elixir storages in the exposed positions
- think about more effective places for spring traps

Someone suggested to take the extra wall bits and make more compartments inside. I'm assuming the extra wall bits are supposed to be the ones that are strengthening the corners on the left, right and bottom. In a few attacks, barbarians ate their way through those corners, that's why I reinforced them. But I'll try extra compartments and see which helps more in the long run.

To answer some of the questions:
- Yes, by "highest/second level" troops I mean lvl 5/6 where applicable
- How crushed do I get? The last 5 defense losses (discounting "one-drops" and lightningers) were: 68%, 100%, 30%, 74%, 97%.
The 30% in there was from someone with mearly lvl 3/4 troops, the rest 5/6 lvl troops, with seemingly full deployment and some with BKs and AQs.

---

good TH placement im sure u'll get a lot more only town hall goers now. but high loot will make u a target. and what types of troops are used to like 3-star ur base? I get attacked with a lotta lvl 5 and 6 troops now and the most they can do is like 2-star me, 60%

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pranav

and what types of troops are used to like 3-star ur base? I get attacked with a lotta lvl 5 and 6 troops now and the most they can do is like 2-star me, 60%

---

The core is usually Giants, WBs, Healers, supported by Goblins, Minions, and the occasional Dragon or Pekka.

Only taking the town hall if it is WAYYYYY..... In the corner

Alright, based on all yer feedback (thank you!), here's version 2.0 of my base.
I think I'm gonna call it "Iron Rose", since it looks a bit like a flower to me:

http://s22.postimg.org/6nnk5q9y9/Teh_Mikester_TH8b.jpg

Improvements include:

- Placed exterior buildings closer to outer walls
- Created more compartments inside (instead of strengthening some of the corners; we'll see how it pans out)
- Swapped BK with mortar (which is now more centralized, but it doesn't hit the outer top region anymore, what do you think about that?)
- Only Elixir storages are now at more prone spots (gold is more inside)
- Placed spring traps at "giant magnets"

Regarding the "upgrade splash defense comments": Yes, I completely agree, my plan is the following:

1. Bring 3rd WT to max TH7 level with next free builder.
2. When that is done, 3 builders should be free. I'm going to put all three of them on the mortars at the same time. Gold will be empty, and I should reach 20k DE until then, which I will use for the Minion lvl3 upgrade. So while the mortars are all upgrading I should be pretty much empty on gold and DE, making me a very unattractive target (even if they do attack, there's nothing valuable they can get).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

Alright, based on all yer feedback (thank you!), here's version 2.0 of my base.
I think I'm gonna call it "Iron Rose", since it looks a bit like a flower to me:

http://s22.postimg.org/6nnk5q9y9/Teh_Mikester_TH8b.jpg

Improvements include:

- Placed exterior buildings closer to outer walls
- Created more compartments inside (instead of strengthening some of the corners; we'll see how it pans out)
- Swapped BK with mortar (which is now more centralized, but it doesn't hit the outer top region anymore, what do you think about that?)
- Only Elixir storages are now at more prone spots (gold is more inside)
- Placed spring traps at "giant magnets"

Regarding the "upgrade splash defense comments": Yes, I completely agree, my plan is the following:

1. Bring 3rd WT to max TH7 level with next free builder.
2. When that is done, 3 builders should be free. I'm going to put all three of them on the mortars at the same time. Gold will be empty, and I should reach 20k DE until then, which I will use for the Minion lvl3 upgrade. So while the mortars are all upgrading I should be pretty much empty on gold and DE, making me a very unattractive target (even if they do attack, there's nothing valuable they can get).

---

Hows it working now?

I had some problems at the early TH8 Stage too.

Sure you're not exaggerating there? I doubt very much you get 80-100%ed everytime. You have a good base. Keep working on it. Either you are exaggerating or you are just very unlucky to get hit by strong armies everytime. Any chance you could show us your defense log?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kansas

Hows it working now?

---

For some reason only one person has tried only attacking the TH since I set it all the way out.
But since base 2.0, the 5/6 lvl troop attacks (there were three of those til now) have done 64 and twice 68% damage. So that's an improvement of 10-30%. Unfortunately they're still getting all the DE.

@NIAQ: I wish it were an exaggeration, lol. Lightningers and the odd lvl3/4 troop attack aside, the damage percentages since TH8 (i.e. about a week ago) were: 82%, 97%, 74%, 100%. I posted this thread after this sequence. As you can imagine, it was quite frustrating.
As stated above, after the 2.0 redesign, it's gone down a bit. Obviously these are not statistically relevant sample sizes, so maybe I was just unlucky.

Anyways, I'm trying another variation, this is Iron Rose 3.0:

http://s8.postimg.org/p36z7ydl1/Teh_Mikester_TH8c.jpg

Main difference: I used three wall bits from the buffer in the South-West to form an additional compartment in the inner circle. The positioning of the defenses will be different, of course, as soon the upgrade of WT and AD are done.

I'm a fairly new TH8 and I must say I have also been very successful at being thoroughly blown up. Generally, my successful defenses versus my unsuccessful ones could be distinguished from one other by just answering the question of "so, how'd the clan castle troops do?"

Personally, I put my Town Hall inside the first layer of defense as I don't want the free shield. The defensive replays are interesting if nothing else; it's masochism, but I get lots of...shall we say..."feedback" on the state of my defenses.

I think you'll turn the corner pretty soon and be able to fend off the Town Hall 9 farming armies once the splash damage is up higher.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tohibii

Personally, I put my Town Hall inside the first layer of defense as I don't want the free shield. The defensive replays are interesting if nothing else; it's masochism, but I get lots of...shall we say..."feedback" on the state of my defenses.

---

I know exactly what you mean. I usually prefer your way as well, I agree it's a lot more interesting to open the game and analyze an attack. The only problem is that I'm trying to get to 20k DE for the lvl3 Minion upgrade, and I was consistently losing more DE than I was making/raiding. Maybe after the Minion upgrade, I'll go back to "masochism". :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tohibii

I think you'll turn the corner pretty soon and be able to fend off the Town Hall 9 farming armies once the splash damage is up higher.

---

I agree, thanks for the encouragement.

listen to everyone that is talking to you!
for a base use this one
http://clashofclansbuilder.com/plan/178968

Clash on!!
-seahawk22 :cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TehMikester

I know exactly what you mean. I usually prefer your way as well, I agree it's a lot more interesting to open the game and analyze an attack. The only problem is that I'm trying to get to 20k DE for the lvl3 Minion upgrade, and I was consistently losing more DE than I was making/raiding. Maybe after the Minion upgrade, I'll go back to "masochism". :)

---

I know 100% EXACTLY what you mean as I just dumped my dark elixir into the level 3 minion upgrade this very morning. I was:

1) Considering putting out my town hall. I might have put a Hello Kitty sheet over my head if would have helped protect the Dark. ;)

2) Planning to save up to 30,000 DE and do lvl. 3 hog riders instead, but chickened out as I just wanted to get rid of the stuff as quickly as possible.

Good luck!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tohibii

I might have put a Hello Kitty sheet over my head if would have helped protect the Dark. ;)

---

Ooo, that would make a nice avatar for this forum! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tohibii

Planning to save up to 30,000 DE and do lvl. 3 hog riders instead, but chickened out as I just wanted to get rid of the stuff as quickly as possible.

---

Yeah, "resource-magnetism" seems to have even more impact than base design, especially DE. Though I gotta say, I've gotten considerably less attacks since I've made sure my gold is as low as possible (my DE is currently at 17k). So maybe that could be a strategy for when you're saving up on DE: As long as you're at it, get rid of the gold.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tohibii

Good luck!

---

Thanks, u2!