I am mid-Th 9 and I recently gave up on my push to masters, at the very least I am taking a break. I was using the gem boosts to ballonion and I did get close. I am still push farming, so who knows maybe I will still get their but I gave up on attacking purely for trophies but perhaps some of the formers here can point out errors in my approach.
I got to 2500 just fine. In fact I went from Crystal III to I in a single day (3 hrs, maybe less). Got a bit harder here but nothing too bad.
Then I kept hitting a wall around 2530. I then began to aim for trophies and selecting battles I felt fairly certain I could 2 star. My next button hits probably starting approaching 100. Doing this getting to 2550 wasn't a big deal but right after that I failed over and over. I know this sounds a bit sad, considering how close that is but....
I made it to 2574 on my last genuine effort for it. However after having 2 losses set me back to 2500 again for like the 8th time I was fed up with it (and my 1.5-3 hr runs were annoying people around me). Each of those losses was right at 49%
Defense wise my anti-hog set up with an exposed TH has held up nice. Up here the exposed TH seems like a gift to people and with my current set up the common strategies don't get very far against my base. However, it is a farming base so no defensive wins.
My Comp
20+ Balloons
30+ Minions
10 Barbs and 10 Archers (for the AQ and CC troops)
1 Hog rider for luring
BK When available and if needed
CC troops
Spells-
Mostly rage with a lightening as back up. Been switching over to heal as I run out of rages now (it seems I very often need 2 spells) as it seems I often need 2 spells.
My Handicaps
My Queen is currently going on to level 13 and I am set to jump to 14 after that, my intention is to get her to 15 in a straight run from lvl 5. However, my BK isn't the best for wrapping up that last 1-3%, as most of the exposed buildings have been destroyed by the time I decided to unleash him (lvl 10)
My clan - I have a great clan. I really do, they donate well and are fun to chat with but not many of them have the kinds of CC troops I need. During my bid I groaned every time I was given a lvl 4 archer or barb. When I had wizards or dragons in my CC things were much easier. But sometimes I get a mixture of giants, barbarians, and archers that aren't that useful
Target Selection
I am wondering if this is where I went wrong.
While push farming I simply selected bases where I could make off with a good pot with a reasonable chance at 50%. If the pot was high enough I'd attack anyway.
During my last 75 trophies I began looking for something different
1) Infernos set to single
2) 2 or more X-bows pointed down or grossly under upgraded archer towers
3) Wizard towers either not maxed out or very exposed
4) AD's maxed only to TH8 and relatively exposed (if centralized I would just skip)
5) Hybrid design or exposed TH (less defended TH)
6) Prioritized TH9 bases, unless fully maxed
7) Inactive or lvl 7 or less AQ
8) Lurable CC
9) Ability to gain 30+ trophies and lose less than 20. (honestly I was aiming for 10+ trophy wins)
The above criterion was fairly stiff and the number of TH9 bases was very very slim, also the number of single target infernos just as slim (often if they were set to single, other air defenses compensated for the choice). Heck, premature TH10 (which had been my fodder) are also quite thin.
Some problems I encountered. Th turned out to be landmines half the time and perhaps that is my downfall in my criterion above. I have more than a few instances of 4 red air mines flying out or setting off all the black mines and watching as my great armada was ripped to shreds. Also, I have to be honest, I just plain got tired of spending 5-10 minutes searching for a target. That and just one slip up (from being frustrated at using that dang next button) often meant losing my whole session of gains.
Strategy
During my trophy pushing I tried to neutralize as many of the Air Defenses and Wizard towers as I could. Since I was avoiding disco infernos like the plague, often they were the only things I worried about. I'd drop a rage to take out an AD as quick as possible, especially if a cluster of defenses was present. However, I often ran out of rages because I'd end up dropping 3-4 in a pitched battle. (I never had a problem winning when deploying CC troops, 4 spells, and my hero). I then would drop my minions just as soon as the wizard tower fire was out of the way.
Right now, I am questioning that tactic. I've switched to waiting to deploy my minions (unless a tower is very exposed) and then I deploy just enough to clean up the remainder. I also try to hold on to a few archers for this (as sometimes they can get at stuff my minions can't). If I have archers and barbs in my CC then I'll use them to mop up the opposing CC or AQ. But basically I try and deploy just enough minions to get all the exposed resources and buildings. Often I'll have a handful left and will hit a weak part of the base for the last 50%. I've also switched to baking healing spells after my "overnight" batch of rage spells gets used but I am also back at 2400 trophies, which wasn't a problem before anyway.
Anywho, any thoughts?
