Hannibal’s Farming Base Guide

And for the record all the WT are level 5. I know they still won't one shot, but you're right, that was a blind spot. I move an xbow back and staggered them better. You may cross the alps, but you won't enter the city gates, Hannibal, haha.

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Originally Posted by Hannibal

I don't mean to be unkind, my friend, but look at the northern corner of that base you posted, second spike from the top on the left:

Teslas have an activation radius of five. It's smaller than the range they have once activated. The teslas won't activate to an attack there. Neither of your X-bows nor your cannons are in range.

The only defenses you have in range are a mortar (slow) and a level 3 wizard tower which requires three hits to kill a level five wallbreaker.

I have no doubt that your base stands up well to people who don't know what they're doing, my friend. But to folks who do, your base is a nut begging to be cracked. If you like your base, I'm happy for you. But if you come to a thread about building a base that can withstand a serious raiding attack and try to tell us that it will.... Well, I'm going to tell you that you're wrong.

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Nice guide. I would just like to clear one thing up.
Every village can be defeated. And every farm village can be farmed.
the whole point of building a farm village layout is to increase the difficulty therefore reducing the number of people that can farm you.
I would now consider myself an expert farmer. And while I could farm ClanMcLeodClanLeader's village, I am among the few that can. so just because you could farm it does not make it a bad design.

Your guide is very good, but just because you feel it's the best way does not mean that it's the only way.
I also completely disagree with you that sections are the only way for a farmers village. Also wizard towers are THE BEST defender against goblins not mortars.

Yeah, I try to be pretty clear that max offense > max defense in the guide intro. My contention isn't stopping those attacks, but them less cost-efficient.

I'm surprised you are opposed to sectioning. I don't meet many folks who dispute it. The problem with egg crates at max level is generally they can all be broken either with wbs or raged goblins. And once there's a hole it's pretty easy for an experienced raider to get everything where a sectioned base won't give the same return.

Regardless, if you like a single chamber, don't let me dissuade you. :)

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Originally Posted by Hannibal

Yeah, I try to be pretty clear that max offense > max defense in the guide intro. My contention isn't stopping those attacks, but them less cost-efficient.

I'm surprised you are opposed to sectioning. I don't meet many folks who dispute it. The problem with egg crates at max level is generally they can all be broken either with wbs or raged goblins. And once there's a hole it's pretty easy for an experienced raider to get everything where a sectioned base won't give the same return.

Regardless, if you like a single chamber, don't let me dissuade you. :)

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I didn't say I was "opposed" to sectioning, all I said was that it is not necessarily the best.
The reason that it is not the best is because if you section then you will have several egg crates that can be easily broken into. You wont always lose it all but you can lose some or most. to an average farmer.
With a well designed "fort" only an expert can get in. With a well designed village an average farmer will get none and only an experienced farmer will get in.

So you would rather lose a little often while I would rather lose all or none. And in most cases its none because there are tons of average farmers and only a few pros out there. And the pros have to find your village before someone comes along and gives the village a shield.

So ClanMcLeodClanLeader's village has been working for him because it hasn't faced too many experts so I don't see why you would dispute his claim. Now if you are I ever find that village it would be a different story.
All I am saying is that sections is not always the best or the only answer, I clean section villages just as much as forts.

Shrug, except that I don't dispute that his base has been working for him? Really I'd have no grounds on which to make this claim.

Egg crates can be designed stronger or weaker. Sectioned bases can be made stronger or weaker. A strong egg crate is better than a weak sectioned base. I also farm both plans depending on the strength of the design. I personally found ClanMcLeod's design to be a weak egg crate as per my previous discussion, but I really have no intention of critiquing base designs in this thread. It's just a resource I intend to link to when critiquing bases in the design thread.

However, I'd disagree that sectioned and egg crate design philosophies are equivalent and would suggest that the preponderance of opinion is on my side. Given that you disagree with this point of view and I know of no objective metric to prove one of us right, I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree. ;)

I just want to say thank you, it's really nice to take your time to write this, it's very usefull :)
It will help me a lot.

Have fun !

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Originally Posted by Hannibal

I’m writing this as a reference I want to link to when critiquing baseplans in the base design thread. To be clear, I'm specifically discussing the design of farming bases at TH8 and TH9. None of the ideas in this thread are new, original, or secret. They can all be found in many places on these forums and other CoC websites. On the other hand, I’m happy to make additions if folks think that I’ve missed important concepts.

If you want a critique of your individual base, please post it to the base design thread rather than in this thread.

Also, I’m under no illusions that I’m the most amazing CoC player ever. Feel free to link a screenshot of that one time that I attacked your base and failed miserably. God knows that I attack often enough at high levels to earn my share of failures.

THE GUIDE

First, bear in mind that because loot penalties make resources scarce at TH9, TH8 bases become prime farming targets for max level bases with 220 pop armies and level 6 troops. Those are the armies you need to plan around. However, those armies are also expensive in both training time and elixir. If I only make 60k gold and 60k elixir off your base I’ve wasted my time. It wasn’t a cost effective attack. Start thinking of your defenses in those terms. Max level offense in this game is much stronger than max level defense even ignoring crazy stuff like level 30 heroes. Don’t think of your base in terms of stopping attacks, but rather in terms of making attacks cost-inefficient.

Tip 1: Bulkheads. You may have beautiful level ten walls, but if you’ve distributed them in a single ring around your base, they’re only as strong as the first hole my wallbreakers blow. After that hole, your base may as well not have walls except for funneling effects possibly clumping targets for splash damage. By dividing your base into multiple segments that I have to open individually, you force me to make multiple holes in your walls and increase their effective strength. Ships work under this principle in which hulls are subdivided into bulkheads to prevent a single leak from sinking the ship.

This is particularly true of resource placement. Don’t put them all in a single compartment. This is probably the most common and most significant error I see in bases TH8 and higher – having all their resources in a single compartment. Subdivide them into multiple compartments to slow the attack and make it cost-ineffective.

Example: Level 72? Level six wizard towers? X-bows? High level walls? Strips to deter wallbreakers? No problem. He has made the biggest and most important error of basebuilding in keeping all his resources in a single central chamber. I’ll pass on lower level bases with subdivisions but I’ll eat bases like this for lunch.

http://imageshack.us/a/img560/8662/img0258f.th.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img836/7166/img0259w.th.png


Example2: This base design does a nice job of subdividing, but it has the disadvantage of allowing me the freedom to blow essentially any wall I choose. How do you constrain wallbreakers to attack where you want them to attack? Read on.

http://imageshack.us/a/img255/4470/2...7105418.th.png

Tip 2: Strips and Spikes. Not everyone uses wallbreakers for TH9 farming, but many do and I’m personally a fan. Wallbreaker AI is such that the first wallbreaker will attack the nearest wall, and subsequent wallbreakers will follow the path the first took, hitting the next wall in that line regardless of if other walls are nearer. This can lead to behavior with wallbreakers following long paths through other walls to break walls deep in the core of your base. Spikes are designed to stop your base cracking quickly to these attacks. Do not place single, unconnected, wall segments around your base. Wall breakers ignore single segments.

Bear in mind that most max level attacks with farming troops will fail at some point. Often they’re geared around saturating defenses with too many targets and grabbing resources while they’re saturated. Speed is important in these attacks and wallbreakers speed things up. Spikes and strips slow them back down.

In my opinion, spikes are easier to do well than strips, but both have their strengths. Try to keep them as far apart from one another as possible without letting wallbreakers slip between them. Making this determination involves comparing a wallbreaker’s possible starting point to the length of the spike and the distance between them. Making longer spikes offers another avenue to increase the effective strength of your walls.

Example: A spiky version of a design TNT posted to the base design thread. As far as I can tell from watching replays, there is no possible wallbreaker starting point that won't be pulled to a spike. Note that the spikes are in line with walls behind them. Remember that wallbreakers launched from the same spot as previous wallbreakers will follow the same line to the next wall in that line. Lining spikes up with internal walls has the advantage of denying wall breakers an unimpeded path to the base's core even when the spike is destroyed.

http://imageshack.us/a/img651/811/img0257t.th.png

Tip 3: Surround your base with decorations and collectors. This is a couple tips in one, but it accomplishes a few things. Forcing enemy troops to start farther away gives your defenses more opportunities to shoot before they’re engaged. It can also be helpful in making wallbreakers target the spikes you want rather than dancing between them. Also, if you place collectors around your base, sometimes a goblin rush can be diverted from the core supply dumps to a collector on the periphery. A few extra seconds allowing mortars to shoot once or twice more can be the difference between success and failure of a goblin rush.

Tip 4: Town Hall. Put it outside and undefended. Losing your town hall is paid in a currency (trophies) you don’t care about and carries the benefit of earning a shield in exchange.

Tip 5: Clan Castle. While in farming range, your clan castle and mortars followed by your wizard towers are arguably your strongest defenses. Your clan castle needs to be in the middle of your base. I have no idea why so many people devalue the clan castle to the point of placing it peripherally to their base, but it’s a huge mistake.

Tip 6: X-Bow. Point it at the ground. Yes, I know about that one time that someone revenged you with max level dragons and cleaned you out. But if someone is going to take that kind of time to design a tier 3 army with complementary spells specifically to revenge you, they can just look at your X-Bows pointing skyward and choose to build PEKKAs instead. Tier 3 troops are designed for trophies in terms of both cost and build time rather than farming. There are no air-based farming troops. If you’re in a trophy range for farming, build your defenses accordingly. Aside from the futility of planning for an air-based attack in farming range, X-Bows are really excellent at killing wallbreakers.

Tip 7: DE Supply. Don’t put other resource storages immediately adjacent to the dark elixir storage. Multiple lightning attacks on the DE storage are really popular right now. Keep other storages away to prevent these attacks from being too profitable.

Tip 8: Bombs. I personally suggest forgetting about the large bombs unless you've got them in a spot that they rarely get tripped. If you're farming the cost of each detonated bomb becomes a part of the overall cost of the attack. A couple exploded bombs at 50k can make even small attacks expensive quickly. Small and cheap bombs I'd replace as soon as they're detonated. Remember that you don't need a free worker to replace them.

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Well done sir! I concur with all these strategies. Anyone who adheres to all of the above will surely better their defense.

I added a discussion of the "eggshell" or "egg crate" base.

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Originally Posted by TJwTC

I didn't say I was "opposed" to sectioning, all I said was that it is not necessarily the best.
The reason that it is not the best is because if you section then you will have several egg crates that can be easily broken into. You wont always lose it all but you can lose some or most. to an average farmer.
With a well designed "fort" only an expert can get in. With a well designed village an average farmer will get none and only an experienced farmer will get in.

So you would rather lose a little often while I would rather lose all or none. And in most cases its none because there are tons of average farmers and only a few pros out there. And the pros have to find your village before someone comes along and gives the village a shield.

So ClanMcLeodClanLeader's village has been working for him because it hasn't faced too many experts so I don't see why you would dispute his claim. Now if you are I ever find that village it would be a different story.
All I am saying is that sections is not always the best or the only answer, I clean section villages just as much as forts.

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Thanks Tjwtc, that was really my only point. Sections are all the rage now, but as you say, even average attackers will be able to get one or two storages. For a farming base, keeping my resources is all I care about, so it's an all or nothing design. I would rather defend all my resources against the myriad of average to bad players out there, and risk getting cracked by the occasional expert, or super high tec army, which as Hannibal said, is not very cost efficient and will usually win no matter what kind of base layout you have.

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Originally Posted by ClanMcLeodClanLeader

Thanks Tjwtc, that was really my only point. Sections are all the rage now, but as you say, even average attackers will be able to get one or two storages. For a farming base, keeping my resources is all I care about, so it's an all or nothing design. I would rather defend all my resources against the myriad of average to bad players out there, and risk getting cracked by the occasional expert, or super high tec army, which as Hannibal said, is not very cost efficient and will usually win no matter what kind of base layout you have.

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I agree with Hannibal, ur shell is just begging to be cracked. Have wb or giant break through ur north west walls and that provide immediate access to 2 gold storages and an elixir storage. After wall is cracked, I would unleash barb, archer, and gob, just the standard army, and I believe everything inside can be destroyed.