All Clash Of Clans Guide. Part1

We all know how hard it is to collect and maintain a large stash elixir. Whether your a lvl 90 or a lvl 10, farming is a very important aspect to Clash of Clans. This section will cover two very cheap troop set-ups so you can get in on the goods of elixir and gold along with how to use them. Also a very helpful tip get a massive amount of resources every time!

By the way the troop set-up is set at 200

Troop set-up #1

7 Wall Breakers
50 Barbarians
50 Archers
86 Goblins

Optional: 1 Rage Spell, 1 Heal Spell, 1 Lightning Spell

Ratio: 1.4 wb/10 barb/10 Archers/17.2 gobs

How to this set up:
Send about 3-5 Goblins to each Gold Mine or elixir pumps. Then send about 15 barbs as meat shields to bait the defenses and then use however many Wall Breakers it takes to knock down the first wall then send 15 Goblins if resources are in there. Then send all Barbarians then followed by Archers to destroy defenses then send in your Goblins after the Archers and Barbarians penetrate the area of the loot your after. Then when every troop has died you should be sitting with a nice pot of gold.

Troop Set-up #2

7 Wall Breakers
10 Giants
50 Archers
86 Goblins

Optional: 1 Rage Spell, 1 Heal Spell, 1 Lightning Spell

Ratio: 1.4 wb/2 Giants/10 Archers/17.2 gobs

How to Use:
You send about 3-5 Goblins to each mine or pump outside the base then you send all of your Giants to distract outer defenses on the first layer then you send in Wall Breakers to blow a Giant hole leading into the inside of the base were the storages are. Then send Archers to deal more damage to the to the defenses and distract them as well and then send the rest of your Goblins in to completely loot the place dry of all resources.

The Tip:

This is for very patients players who are willing to zip through at least 40-50 villages to find one.
What you look for are villages that have there pumps and mines stuffed to the brim. The biggest give-away when you find one of these is when the gold and elixir amount are nearly equal in amount of gold and elixir or are a flat number with a massive amount of loot with none of which are in the storages. (Hint: Be very careful when you try this on a guy with a Town Hall lvl 9 as the four storages may appear "empty" even though they may have a lot in them.)

Here is an example:

EX: 450,000 gold, 440,000 elixir, 350 dark elixir or 234,456 gold, 240,234 elixir

I hope you guys get the point of this and I hope this guide helps. Comment for any questions with variations or if you want a how-to guide to something that I have not covered yet.

Thanks for Reading!

This is a guide which explores the maximum potential of the single square building, "The Wall", if you're here, I assume that you already have a run through of the beginner and other useful guides in the guide section, because this guide will only cover critical, concentrated and intermediate walling techiniques.

Basic and fundamental rules like, no placing Mortars side by side will not be mentioned, rules are by in no priority, they're all equally important and only work best if you follow every single one of them, any questions or criticisms you have for this guide will be entertained, let's work towards building a better future for our precious resources.

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Rule Number One [Square]

Never waste a single square!

Fill up all spaces with buildings, every empty square will almost always amount to at least if not one wasted wall after rounding off. Try to group empty squares together to place a building, even resource buildings is not a waste, it redirects Barbarians better from the inside, which will be explained in rule three.

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Rule Number Two [Segmentation]

Layering and Segmenting priority buildings

Through countless failed and successful raidings, I felt that the most segmented layer in your design, should be the 2nd layer from the outermost layer. This is where players have no full control over the Wall Breakers, they choose the second outermost compartment that is inside the wall perimeter, how to determine which one they will target from the second outermost is as simple as being one wall further than the other more important compartment, say the Mortar or Wizard, it also protects the T-junction from being blown apart. Segmented layers at the outermost do not work good as well, a decent or smart player would be picking off towers with Archers and even Wizards.

I understand that the new wallbreaker AI is really primitive, they target the nearest compartment (building boxed up with Walls), and not the center most building of the entire wall network, using this as an advantage, this works for both outermost and 2nd outermost wall segments, but like previously having mentioned on redirection, you have lesser control over wallbreakersas they venture deeper into enemy territory, along with fodder buildings outside wall perimeters to increase distance between Walls.
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Rule Number Three [Redirection]

Redirect Barbarians and Goblins from towers and storages, and for most non-flying units.

This rule is as equally important, between Giants and Barbarians, at the end of the day, it is but a mass horde of Barbarians (crazy stacked dps) that will win the day, redirection is key to stopping their infestation as they pillage our base and decimate our defenses.

All units can be redirected by knowing what they are after, by placing a Cannon with a Gold Mine compartment, this draws Giants and Goblins towards and away from the key structures, Wizard, Mortar, resource storages.

Giants are the counter to defenses, and Goblins the counter to resources.
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Rule Number Four [Perpendicularity]

How to use Walls the best way, always keep them straight and bend at right angles.

The best way to use Walls, is to keep them straight and running, a crooked wall is like a layer of fat that is not stretched out and is nothing but a total waste.

Only straight wall and right angles, while crooks and bends may adhere to whatever design strategy you're planning, one wall is wasted for every crook and irregular bend. Calculate it yourself.
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Rule Number Five [Mjolnir]

How to use Hidden Teslas the right way

Tesla towers are underrated and is a waste to leave them loitering outside the base, a walled up corner tesla with Walls on both sides like an L, forms a perfect 3x3 square like any other tower it is also smaller, like a mini double wall vacuum between your Mortar, Wizard or storage and the enemy. It helps to impede movement and forces enemy to walk along another direction (it works better because it is smaller) towards splash towers, and most importantly, it allows space for other stronger shorter range towers to target without taking hit (think Wizards, Cannons) .
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Rule Number Six [To funnel or not to funnel]

Funneling is overrated, while funneling allows better usage of springs and Bombs (Giant and small), they have to be done in moderation, as at the end of the day it is still the wall who stops everybody, this gets better proportionately depending if you have taken the time, resource and effort to actually upgrade the Walls, a dark purple wall is my minimum own recommendation which I bet many will disagree.

Some simple mathematics, the time it takes to destroy a level 7 wall (dark purple) can easily be calculated, I use an all-round troop composition that have 8 wallbreakers, 65 Archers, 35 Goblins, 53 Barbarians, 7 Giants (200 food total), using only Giants for example and calculation, they are the units that go straight for the tower behind the Walls, Barbarians has no building priorities.

7 level 5 Giants = 31 DPS x 7 = 217 dps
To break a level 7 wall, 2500hp / 217 = 11.5 seconds

Compared to a level 6 purple wall, 2000hp / 217 = 9.21 seconds, 2.3 second difference for every 500hp increase of wall.

What difference will it makes? It is a step-up difference, one level of wall makes a small step of difference, but between a L5 gold wall and L7 dark purple wall, it is a good and valuable difference that better determines the survivability of your resources along with decent towers that matches your current Town Hall.

Sidenote : I noticed that many usually upgrades their Town Hall without maxing the Town Hall level related upgrades and Walls, it is important to get the most if not all of what you are able to upgrade, going to a new level will add on difficulty to yourself as you will have to upgrade your towers to match the other formidable same TH level players who have been there longer than you, if not you will be targeted often from the one TH level higher ups. And most importantly the lower levels TH you once raided from would have dropped to 50% loot, peanuts, an issue many players overlooked.
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Rule Number Seven [The Roosts]

Eggs do not belong to the same basket.

Resource storages are the roost for the golden hen's resting place, if you're wondering who's the golden hen, that is you, depending on how many you lay or raid a day. the golden eggs you loot will be stored in the storages.

To be reading this guide I assume you've heard somewhere and sometime in your life, "Do not keep all your eggs in one basket.", how true is that going to be? While you may want to keep your storages all in one place, one swipe from a raider who has a decent amount of trusty Goblins in his troop composition will wipe your storages and its contents off the map clean.

Each and every spell has its strengths and weaknesses, it all comes down to how you like to attack. With the way the updates keep coming, you can expect the creation time to decrease each time. This means you should be setting up your base to defend against these, or have the knowledge to use them properly.

Lets take a quick look at the Lightning Spell. A favourite among players, this spell has can be used in a variety of ways. Firstly, it's capability to take out a defense when paired can help win you the battle. I've found Mortars to be a favourite target, what with their range and power. Lightning Spells are so handy for taking out those pesky Clan Castle troops bothering your own. One Lightning Spell can take out the troops and save you many in the process. Another thing that I'm sure many higher level players such as me are frustrated about is the natural attraction of lightning to dark elixir. Many low level players have a drive for the stuff, so if you're saving, expect to lose no matter how heavily it's defended.

Second is the Healing Spell. Unlocked at Spell Factory level 2, i have found this to be an overrated spell. You may argue that it's capability to heal a swarm if Giants, or protect your Barbarians from Mortar or Wizard fire can be the difference in the battle. However, this spell can be easily replaced by the Healer. The spell can be used to help prolong that Dragon or PEKKAs life, while you get that extra 50k gold.

Next is what I would say is the most used spell in the game, rage. Unlocked at Spell Factory level 3, this is probably my favourite in the game, an if you talk to many higher quality players, they will all agree on its necessity for victories. The Rage Spell makes your troops move faster and hit harder, and when used properly, will win you that 100k you need for that upgrade. All troops are used effectively, but a swarm effect will give you the most bang for your buck.

Finally is the Jump Spell. Unlocked at the final Spell Factory upgrade, this is the most unused spell in the game. Firstly, it's fairly common sense that this spell need not be used with air troops, who just fly over the Walls. Secondly, why jump over when you can just go through? 4-5 Wall Breakers will take the place of this spell no problem, saving you the cash required to make it.

I hope this helped you out deciding which spell to use in your next battle, and gives you an idea on how high of a priority your Spell Factory truly is. Remember, the quick creation times make using spells a privilege, as they can be used almost every battle. Have fun and clash on!

What is a premature Town Hall?

A premature Town Hall is a village in which Town Hall levels are advanced quickly, and usually with the aid of gems, to unlock a high-level feature -- often the X-bow or Inferno Tower.

A premature Town Hall is not the same thing as a non-maximized Town Hall. For many reasons it's often a good idea to complete every upgrade and building project available at a given Town Hall level. While there are reasons to do this, a base which advances with a handful of incomplete upgrades or building projects is not at the same risk to damage their gameplay as described in this thread.

What can you do about it?

First, you need to think hard about deleting your village and restarting. I know that its hard to swallow the financial loss, but you need to think carefully about it nonetheless. The reason for this is the hidden loot penalties which SC never explains, but are nonetheless key drivers of end game play. As you level up your Town Hall you incur penalties to looting villages with Town Halls lower than yours, while those lower Town Halls simultaneously get bonuses to looting you.

The end result of this is that as a premature TH9-10, you are the closest thing to fresh meat that exists in this game. Fully developed TH9-10 villages are going to salivate every time you come up in their attack queue, and even lower Town Halls are going to take a shot at you for the bonus they get against higher Town Hall levels.

Bear in mind also that the money you have invested is a pittance relative to the investment you need to create a competitive TH9-10 base. TH7 is the sweet spot for farming gold in CoC, and you have forever lost access to it.

So in short, your screwed. Youre both the kid wearing a Kick Me sign on his back, while simultaneously having less ability to dig yourself out of the hole youre in. Consider carefully if deleting and restarting is a good option.

But lets say it isnt an option. The reason doesn't have to matter, but maybe theres no way youre going to lose that $100, giving up just isnt how you roll, and screw math anyway. What now?

First, make sure you have all the builders. Theyre far and away the best investment you can make with cash, and if youre going to stick with your gimped base, youre going to need all the help you can get. So cough up that extra $20, and buy the last builders.

Next, bear in mind that you wont be able to defend your loot for a long, long time. Your best defense is simply not to have loot in your storages by spending it as soon as possible. Consider also that most people consider a threshold of 70-100k gold as the low end of what theyd attack depending on the base strength and troop investment. This means that considering loot penalties, provided you have less than 350k gold in storages, youre less likely to be attacked by an equal Town Hall level. (Lower TH levels may still be motivated to attack you though.)

The general strategy is to dump loot as quickly as possible so that you never have enough in your storages to be worth attacking. Some people advocate keeping a builder free to dump excess gold into Walls, but Id personally just keep them all building. But to have the resources to level anything, you need to be gaining loot yourself. Youre going to have to learn how to farm.

There is no shortage of farming guides on this forum, but the nutshell version is to park somewhere between 1200-1500 trophies, and pick on undefended collectors and weak bases for loot with an army consisting primarily of Goblins, Giants, Archers, wallbreakers, and possibly Barbarians. In order to do this, you need to have a viable TH9-10 army. If you have any gems left over after your ill-advised rush to TH9 and builder purchases, this is where you should dump them in your offense. Realistically a viable army at TH9 is a minimum of 200 pop capacity and level five troops. Offense and defense draw largely from separate resource pools, but if theres ever a choice between them, always upgrade offense first.

As far as upgrading your defenses, your top priorities should be the Clan Castle, Mortars, Wizard Towers, and Xbows. However, dont do this at the expense of dumping gold fast. Remember that youre going to be that prime target for a long time. When your base gets steamrolled, it wasnt that you failed to copy somebodys base design well enough. Its that your base is underleveled.

Also, make sure that you're in an active clan that donates. New players underestimate the strength of the Clan Castle, but a fully staffed Clan Castle is a force to be reckoned with if properly positioned in the center of your base.

I never really thought that traps would be very helpful, especially while farming. I always overlooked them and didn't think they were worth investing in. Even to this day I am still skeptical about the cost/effectiveness of Giant Bombs, so I have decided to look into it and do some testing within my base. Now I shall present my results to the clash community. Keep in mind that this is my personal experience/luck with the traps, and if you have better ideas please comment.

#1 Bombs
The classic Bomb. Everyone has bought one before expecting a "BOOOOOM!" and receiving a tiny little explosion dealing 12 damage over a radius of 3 tiles. Bombs are practically useless, unless you group 3-6 of them together. When grouped together they can effectively take out a group of Goblins or Archers running by. Otherwise Bombs will just slightly weaken enemy troops making the clean up for your defenses slightly easier, which could be the difference in an intense battle. Despite being by far the worst trap in the game, Bombs, if used correctly, can be helpful.

#2 Spring Traps
Everyone loves Spring Traps, myself included. These used to be the only traps that I thought were effective enough for their cost. Spring Traps cost 2,000 gold where the Bombs only cost 400, so you expect more from them, right? Other than their poor activation radius and the fact that Goblins can run right over them Spring Traps are far better than Bombs. Bombs damage existing units and leave them for your defenses to finish off while Spring Traps literally throw units off the map. This leaves nothing for your defenses to shoot at letting them focus on the other advancing units, potentially saving your base. Unlike Bombs Spring Traps are better spread out around or in your base. If your farming they are good to put near your Town Hall in defense. Spring Traps are almost impossible to use incorrectly and will usually get the job done, therefor I would say that Spring Traps are cost effective anywhere.

#3 Giant Bombs
Giant Bombs crush units with a massive force of 110 damage, but they come with a price that will hurt your wallet. 50,000 for a one time only explosion. Really?
I have never been a huge fan of Giant Bombs because I am farming, so they hurt my gold levels a lot. Not only are they expensive but they are commonly misused. I'll start to attack someone with a few Archers on the side when "BOOOM!" a Giant Bomb goes off killing all 2 of the Archers there. I start laughing and thinking in my mind...WHAT A DUMB ___ (you know the word). NEVER EVER put Giant Bombs on the outside of your base unless you would like to waste your 50k gold. Giant Bombs need to have a little place to chill inside your base in a heavily traveled attacking path. They are great for covering weak spots INSIDE your base. Even inside occasionally they will go off on a Wall Breaker or 5 Goblins and you will question the profitability of the Bomb. So you just have to know whether or not its worth it to spend 50k to protect the 200k that attackers can take. The best way to find out if it is worth it on your base is to try it when you don't have a lot of money. Giant Bombs aren't very cost effective in my opinion, but I think that this is one of the most controversial traps in the game.

#4 Air Bombs
Air Bombs are basically the flying version of Bombs. They deal 100 damage in a radius of 5 tiles and cost 4,000. I like the air mines, they shred up Balloons like Wizard Towers do and they will hit clumps of Minions/Healers/Dragons as well. They will only be devastating to Balloons/Minions, but they can certainly slow down other units, leaving them weakened for your Air Defenses. I like to put them in clumps of 2 outside my Walls or just inside them. They are decent traps, however I think that they are over priced for what they do. If they were 3,000 instead of 4,000 then I think that they would be totally worth it. In conclusion they will preform well and can be very useful against clumped flying units.

#5 Seeking Air Mine
This is the granddaddy of traps. This air mine will take out almost any flying unit in one shot. It deals a massive 1,500 damage and is only incapable of taking out Dragons in one hit. The seeking mine does not do splash damage and will not target Minions even if they are the only flying unit in range. It costs 600 dark elixir so I don't recommend buying them constantly until after you buy your barb king. There is not much else to say other than DO NOT put these right on top of your Air Defense, they are expensive and you want to maximize their ability to destroy air units. They are very cost effective as well, they can basically stop a Dragon dead in its tracks.

Concluding this guide I would like to thank those who read it and feel free to comment. I would also like to thank http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Traps for actual Bomb radius/damage data. Hope it was helpful

Im going to take you through my beginning stages of battle. Though this may sound un-exciting, Ive found that its the most crucial part of farming effectively so I thought it was a good introductory Clash of Clans guide.

1. Troop Selection and Creation

As already stated, this guide is about farming. Being that were farming we want to do so efficiently, which means low elixir cost for high resource gain. So that being said, this setup has worked extremely well for me (and Ive tried a few).

(Out of 220 maximum troops)
Barbarians x120
Archers x 40
Goblins x40
Wall Breakers x8-20 (really a variable here)

These totals are very much ballpark because I just queue up my Barracks and whatever troops I end up receiving is what I run with. The Wall Breakers are a costly bunch but you cant put too much of a price on a quick entry which would have cost 30 Barbarians and 30 seconds of time to make. It is worthy to note that I pretty much only create more Wall Breakers when I get down below 8 or so. So lets say I have 8Wall Breakers after a battle, Ill reset my Barracks and put 3 Wall Breakers in the front of the queue and the rest Barbarians, and the next Barracks would have 3 Wall Breakers in the front and the rest Archers, so on, so forth. Essentially, one Barracks is for Archer, one is for Goblins and two are for Barbarians. Youre looking around 50k in elixir per battle but it could be more like 30k, due to lessoned Wall Breakers usage.

2. Spell Creation

As far as spells go, since were going for an all out zerg here (mindlessly tossing mass numbers of troops at an enemy), we will get the most benefit from the Rage Spell. So if weve got 80 lil buggers in one place and they are all doing 30% more damage (low level Rage Spell), that damage output is gonna be a damn bit better than what lightning can do. Not to mention Lightning Spell doesnt scale with more troops, Rage does. So the more you increase your army, the more beneficial a well placed Rage Spell will do.

Im obviously not implying were going to use a Rage Spell in every battle but sometimes you come across a really nice setup and that extra bonus to damage will give you substantially more than 40k in resources (price of Rage Spell).

3. Clan Castle

Also, dont forget to check your Clan Castle to see what youre working with. If you have Barbarians andArchers, its not a big deal but if you have Giants or a Dragon, it will change how and where you deploy your troops. Just be aware of what youre working with.

4. Finding a Victim

Finding a victim is often far more challenging than taking their resources. Ive blown over 70k gold trying to find a good victim at times before realizing that during that time of day, at my cup level, I have to go for a low resource victim because the majority of big resource victims have already been ransacked. So theres obviously randomness to the selection process, which can be an infuriating thing.

Furthermore you cant just find any base with high resources and expect the above troop formula to work. There are certain base types that stop this setup dead in its tracks. Since choosing the base you will attack is as important as finding the resources you want, lets go into the pitfalls of this troop deployment:

Separated Storages: We want to have our Barbarians and Archers open a path for our Goblins to come in and steal all the resources but in bases with separated storages the Goblins little death run will get stalled by Walls. The life expectancy of Goblins is so low anyway, we dont have time to have them eating throughWalls to get another storage container.

Barbed Bases: What I mean here is bases with a centralized core that create barbs every few wall units that are around 3-5 wall units in length. They do this to stop Wall Breakers because they get mixed up on the barbs rather than going straight into the area you want them to break. Useless Wall Breakers are not a waste of time but they are a waste of resources as well.

Close Crossbows vs Wall Breakers: Whenever you find a base that you want to ransack and the wall segment that needs breaking is near a Crossbow, you may want to rethink its selection. Crossbows generally target on the closest attacker and if your Wall Breaker runs past all of your other guys to break the wall (as it usually does), the Crossbow will kill him in a few hits. Since youre committed youll keep sending Wall Breakers in to your death and eventually youll want to kick a baby panda in the face.

Level 6 Wizard Towers and Crossbows: They one shot max level Archers and Goblins in packs. Yea... that kind of negates my strategy entirely. Crossbows arent as dangerous as one might think but they will accumulate high loses. The good thing is when youre farming at the 1000 - 1500 cup range, there wont be all that many Crossbows or Double Crossbows to deal with.

5. Prep Work

So lets say youve found a victim that looks like a pushover, now we start the real work. Lets look at the resources your victim has. If you are a high level player and you see 200k gold / 200k elixir up for grabs, its most likely in their storage units. If you see 250k gold / 300k elixir, its gonna be an easy fight. You see the game currently only allows 200k resources (of each) to be stolen, per attack from storages. If the person has more than that, the bulk of their resources are most likely coming from their pumps and Gold Mines. Ive seen as much as 950k resources (combined) up for the taking of a single victim. 200k of each resource in storages, the rest in pumps and mines (can someone say Rage Spell).

Now lets quickly zoom out. This is such an easy step to do and I often forget it due to the lust of obtaining tons of resources. Zooming out lets you see things like is their Town Hall over in the corner so that three of my Archers can pick up easy cups while i go for their resources? It can show you how easy it will be to get your 50% star (if you care) with single Archers around the perimeter of the base. It will let you see if Heroes are around and how easy it will be to lure them out into the open. It basically allows you to plot your educated path before you begin.

Probing is kind of like opening a christmas present and you should always do it before a battle. Send a single barb or Archer to an isolated Gold Mine or pump and watch their resources. If their resources go down 100 or 200, the bulk of their resources probably arent stored in the pumps or mines. If they go down 500-1000, it is so on!

If you know the bulk of their resources are in pumps and mines then the map just got a great deal easier! The thing is, people dont defend their pumps or mines so its usually on the outskirts of their base. That makes things much easier for us. At this point your Goblins are crucial if the mines or pumps are on the inside of the base and you can basically just jab their pumps and mines until you get the resources and then surrender before expending the rest of your troops.

Let the battle begin!

Attacking a base is out of the scope of this particular guide but Ill write a guide for that soon enough. The goal here was to figure out what to look for before an attack (which I find to be far more crucial than the actual battle).

As a rule of thumb if i see anything with 500k+ resources, no matter what the base layout, I attack. Its just too good to pass up. Being that I dont see that as often as Id like, I prefer to methodically figure out what the most efficient approach is and thats knowing the limitation of your troops and the usage of the resources available to you.

Once you get rolling you should be able to do 300-600k an hour of a given both resource as a higher level player and so long as you push that back into strengthening your offense youll gaining even more soon enough.

I, like many others, have bounced around clan to clan to find the right mixture of donations, high level players and non-douchebags. I see similar problems in almost every clan and I find myself wondering how many clan leaders have ever played other, more popular online games with stronger community support and requirements of a clans purpose.

Needless to say Ive seen my fair share of bad clans and I figured Id write a guide about the creation of a working clan as Ive done for various other online games.

Elders

First off let me just say that there is a reason there is a rank of elder. It shouldnt be used as a useless gesture to members to show how much you feel you appreciate their membership. I cant tell you how many times Ive seen donate and youll become an Elder in two weeks. If everyone receives the status of Elder inside of two weeks time, how much of an accomplishment does a member possibly feel theyve earned? There is a reason the game has three ranks, 1) Leader 2) Elders (or police, if you will) 3) Members. Thats why Elders have the ability to administrate the clan, they are intended to be administrators not general membership.

An Elder should be respected and listened to. If a member has Elder next to their name, their words should hold weight. That being said and Elder should be a respected person amongst the clan and they should serve a vital function.

My perspective on Elders (or Officers, etc) is that you dont promote them unless there is a job that needs doing. Likewise, if they are not doing their given job, they are demoted. It just saves awkwardness. Theres nothing quite like promoting someone to lead your clan to a better place and that person doesnt log on, or do their job. If a person is an Elder and chooses not to do their job, the other people who are doing their jobs generally seem a bit annoyed.

I can appreciate how this perspective on promoting to do a job and demoting if its not done may seem awkward but you have to appreciate that if your clan is functionality well, being an Elder is a respected and cherished position. If your clan is implemented in such a manner, everyone knows that an Elder is an important role in the clan, people will feel like they deserve respect and that is because they work hard to be your clans Elder.

As far as requiring an Elder to have a role or function, I mean something like recruiter, kicker, organizer, etc. In Clash of Clans these roles may entail such things as:

* recruiter: should be fairly obvious, recruits and gives the initial info to the members as they join
* kicker: watches donation levels and removes members who do donate or become inactive
* organizer: plans cup competitions, organized events

Im sure the concept of a kicker may be an amazing shocker to some of you that feel that people deserve more respect than to be removed for their lack of effort. Thats just fine but thats not necessarily my perspective, so in the scope of this guide, lazy and selfish people shall be removed because I am a tyrannical gamer!

If you get what Im laying down here, its that Elders have jobs that they do to maintain their clan. These jobs keep the clan well oiled and working properly. Elders are role models and they should be treated as such.

By appointing someone as an Elder you are appointing them to make decisions on your behalf. That being said you have to utterly trust their decision making capabilities. If you do not, youll be put in extremely awkward situations in the future (trust me on this one)

Clan Leader

A clan leader is the jack of all trades who helps in all Elder roles but generally has a much more long term plan of things. They know where the clan will be in a few months, how or if they want to expand the clan in a more competitive manner (cup competitions and the like) and how they can go about doing so.

Above all, the clan leader lays down the groundwork of the clan. Theres nothing saying their decisions are law and that they cant take the advice of his or her Elders but they will make the final call. What I mean by final call are things like the requirements of the clan and how complex they should be. The leader helps assert the vision of those goals to the clans membership to make sure they are not forgotten.

Lets go into some of the things a clan leader can implement into a clan:


* cup quota
* level quota
* troop advancement quota (ie: lvl 4+ donations)
* weekly donation quota
* donation troop type
* maturity quota


While the game doesnt currently have these built into the recruitment process (some like level quota will no doubt be implemented soon), these factors can cause a player to be removed after joining such as maturity quota (big one for me).

The clan leader makes the rules and designates which people they can trust to maintain that those rules are followed properly.

Burden of Leadership

Ill say this once because it is so, so important. If a person doesnt hesitate before taking a position of leadership, they probably wont make a very good leader (be it clan leader or Elder). Leading is a job, its work, its taking the time to administrate rather then going into that next battle. Responsible people realize this and know that the agreement they would be making to lead is not to be taken lightly. If a person jumps towards being a leader without giving it much though, 9 times out of 10 that person is going to be a poor leader. If you are a good clan leader and you are looking for an Elder to help administrate your clan, you already know what I mean.

Membership

The membership get the quotas applied to them after they join (in most cases) and if they fall short, they are removed from the clan. The kicker, Elder can remove them or any Elder who feels a particular member isnt up to snuff. Its important to note that if you have chosen your Elders wisely, you can trust that the removal of a player was done with a thought process behind it rather than an itchy trigger finger.

If there is a donation quota on the membership, it must be maintained. If your clan is formed on the standard of donations then a player who continually does not donate is not a productive member. Its always fun to walk into a new clan and see 5 donation buttons that pop up within a 5 minute period. If they would all just give to each other, theyd be full. That, to me, is a neon sign that the clan is disorganized and lacks leadership in the right areas.

I personally wouldnt advise making a minimal troop type requirement, ie: Archers and up. Youre really just telling your membership that they have to farm with specific troops. I like using Barbarians in my battles and I donate constantly. Ive had level 6 Barbarians the day they were released but due to Barbarians being shunned, I would not be admitted into various clans. To properly donate to these clans I would have to change up what troops I farm with. The clans donation rules should not dictate the troops in which a player deploys. Donations, in most cases, are fodder. They give you 25 extra targets to take a beating while the other, more valuable troops, do the important stuff. Barbarians are great fodder. Take these things into consideration when creating your donation rules.

Pushing Cups

If you are going for a clan who is pushing cups it is obvious you will be more hardcore about your requirements and the follow-through of your membership. Ive been in guilds/clans like this before and comradery often takes a hit to efficiency. There are types of people who thrive in these environments and there are types of people who get stepped on.

Thats not to say that your clan can't have fun pushing cups, but be realistic. I can state with utmost certainty that no clan will make it to the top 10 with the attitude of we are gonna stay strong, stay together and well make it to the top! If you believe your clan has the makings of a top 10 clan, look on the leaderboards, find the 10th best clan and look at the last 5 players on its roster. How many of your clan have similar cups and base setups? Now to put it into perspective remember that the players you are viewing are the LEAST ADVANCED players in the top 10 clans. I say this not to sadden you and ruin your dreams but to wake up the leaders who set unrealistic goals for their clans. If you are going for top 10 you arent grabbing level 50 players and letting them level up, you are looking for 90+ players who have 2500+ cups. The standards that your clan must adhere to, to be a top 10 clan will break your clan apart if its not ready and the vast majority of clan are not.

That being said, I find that cup competitions are a healthy way to get the guild together and break the monotony of farming. The main goal is to let your members know when the next cup race is and for how long it will last. I would suggest doing something like the first week of every month is to push cups. Mandatory or not, you decide, but let your players know ahead of time. Also keep in mind that if an update hits and new content is released, you may have to push that cup race off. People often like to farm after new content is released and if you have goals on that cup race, they most likely wont be met once your clan desires to farm for the new Prince of Goblins Hero (I just made that up, dont get excited).

Bells and Whistles

There are things that I havent seen in the few clans Ive been through. These things are perks but would go a long way into improving the social integrity of your clan.


* centralized web site / facebook page for clan
* skype channel / ventrillo server
* out of game recruitment (i may be able to help with that on this site eventually

Some of these actually cost money and all of which can not be accessed inside of the game. They are external means of communication. Since Clash of Clans doesn't even let you have private conversations with other members, I don't think more advanced means of communication is all that crazy of an idea.


In Conclusion

If you are to take anything away from this novel its that leadership is work and making a good, lasting and respected clan takes a lot of effort from the right people. Selection of those people are imperative and if done properly, your members will respect you and they will feel that the mere joining of your clan is an accomplishment in itself. I cant tell you how rewarding it feels for your clan to respect its membership so much that they love every moment of it and donations are all nearly instantaneous.

Good luck in your clans creation!

I, like many others, have bounced around clan to clan to find the right mixture of donations, high level players and non-douchebags. I see similar problems in almost every clan and I find myself wondering how many clan leaders have ever played other, more popular online games with stronger community support and requirements of a clans purpose.

Needless to say Ive seen my fair share of bad clans and I figured Id write a guide about the creation of a working clan as Ive done for various other online games.

Elders

First off let me just say that there is a reason there is a rank of elder. It shouldnt be used as a useless gesture to members to show how much you feel you appreciate their membership. I cant tell you how many times Ive seen donate and youll become an Elder in two weeks. If everyone receives the status of Elder inside of two weeks time, how much of an accomplishment does a member possibly feel theyve earned? There is a reason the game has three ranks, 1) Leader 2) Elders (or police, if you will) 3) Members. Thats why Elders have the ability to administrate the clan, they are intended to be administrators not general membership.

An Elder should be respected and listened to. If a member has Elder next to their name, their words should hold weight. That being said and Elder should be a respected person amongst the clan and they should serve a vital function.

My perspective on Elders (or Officers, etc) is that you dont promote them unless there is a job that needs doing. Likewise, if they are not doing their given job, they are demoted. It just saves awkwardness. Theres nothing quite like promoting someone to lead your clan to a better place and that person doesnt log on, or do their job. If a person is an Elder and chooses not to do their job, the other people who are doing their jobs generally seem a bit annoyed.

I can appreciate how this perspective on promoting to do a job and demoting if its not done may seem awkward but you have to appreciate that if your clan is functionality well, being an Elder is a respected and cherished position. If your clan is implemented in such a manner, everyone knows that an Elder is an important role in the clan, people will feel like they deserve respect and that is because they work hard to be your clans Elder.

As far as requiring an Elder to have a role or function, I mean something like recruiter, kicker, organizer, etc. In Clash of Clans these roles may entail such things as:

* recruiter: should be fairly obvious, recruits and gives the initial info to the members as they join
* kicker: watches donation levels and removes members who do donate or become inactive
* organizer: plans cup competitions, organized events

Im sure the concept of a kicker may be an amazing shocker to some of you that feel that people deserve more respect than to be removed for their lack of effort. Thats just fine but thats not necessarily my perspective, so in the scope of this guide, lazy and selfish people shall be removed because I am a tyrannical gamer!

If you get what Im laying down here, its that Elders have jobs that they do to maintain their clan. These jobs keep the clan well oiled and working properly. Elders are role models and they should be treated as such.

By appointing someone as an Elder you are appointing them to make decisions on your behalf. That being said you have to utterly trust their decision making capabilities. If you do not, youll be put in extremely awkward situations in the future (trust me on this one)

Clan Leader

A clan leader is the jack of all trades who helps in all Elder roles but generally has a much more long term plan of things. They know where the clan will be in a few months, how or if they want to expand the clan in a more competitive manner (cup competitions and the like) and how they can go about doing so.

Above all, the clan leader lays down the groundwork of the clan. Theres nothing saying their decisions are law and that they cant take the advice of his or her Elders but they will make the final call. What I mean by final call are things like the requirements of the clan and how complex they should be. The leader helps assert the vision of those goals to the clans membership to make sure they are not forgotten.

Lets go into some of the things a clan leader can implement into a clan:


* cup quota
* level quota
* troop advancement quota (ie: lvl 4+ donations)
* weekly donation quota
* donation troop type
* maturity quota


While the game doesnt currently have these built into the recruitment process (some like level quota will no doubt be implemented soon), these factors can cause a player to be removed after joining such as maturity quota (big one for me).

The clan leader makes the rules and designates which people they can trust to maintain that those rules are followed properly.

Burden of Leadership

Ill say this once because it is so, so important. If a person doesnt hesitate before taking a position of leadership, they probably wont make a very good leader (be it clan leader or Elder). Leading is a job, its work, its taking the time to administrate rather then going into that next battle. Responsible people realize this and know that the agreement they would be making to lead is not to be taken lightly. If a person jumps towards being a leader without giving it much though, 9 times out of 10 that person is going to be a poor leader. If you are a good clan leader and you are looking for an Elder to help administrate your clan, you already know what I mean.

Membership

The membership get the quotas applied to them after they join (in most cases) and if they fall short, they are removed from the clan. The kicker, Elder can remove them or any Elder who feels a particular member isnt up to snuff. Its important to note that if you have chosen your Elders wisely, you can trust that the removal of a player was done with a thought process behind it rather than an itchy trigger finger.

If there is a donation quota on the membership, it must be maintained. If your clan is formed on the standard of donations then a player who continually does not donate is not a productive member. Its always fun to walk into a new clan and see 5 donation buttons that pop up within a 5 minute period. If they would all just give to each other, theyd be full. That, to me, is a neon sign that the clan is disorganized and lacks leadership in the right areas.

I personally wouldnt advise making a minimal troop type requirement, ie: Archers and up. Youre really just telling your membership that they have to farm with specific troops. I like using Barbarians in my battles and I donate constantly. Ive had level 6 Barbarians the day they were released but due to Barbarians being shunned, I would not be admitted into various clans. To properly donate to these clans I would have to change up what troops I farm with. The clans donation rules should not dictate the troops in which a player deploys. Donations, in most cases, are fodder. They give you 25 extra targets to take a beating while the other, more valuable troops, do the important stuff. Barbarians are great fodder. Take these things into consideration when creating your donation rules.

Pushing Cups

If you are going for a clan who is pushing cups it is obvious you will be more hardcore about your requirements and the follow-through of your membership. Ive been in guilds/clans like this before and comradery often takes a hit to efficiency. There are types of people who thrive in these environments and there are types of people who get stepped on.

Thats not to say that your clan can't have fun pushing cups, but be realistic. I can state with utmost certainty that no clan will make it to the top 10 with the attitude of we are gonna stay strong, stay together and well make it to the top! If you believe your clan has the makings of a top 10 clan, look on the leaderboards, find the 10th best clan and look at the last 5 players on its roster. How many of your clan have similar cups and base setups? Now to put it into perspective remember that the players you are viewing are the LEAST ADVANCED players in the top 10 clans. I say this not to sadden you and ruin your dreams but to wake up the leaders who set unrealistic goals for their clans. If you are going for top 10 you arent grabbing level 50 players and letting them level up, you are looking for 90+ players who have 2500+ cups. The standards that your clan must adhere to, to be a top 10 clan will break your clan apart if its not ready and the vast majority of clan are not.

That being said, I find that cup competitions are a healthy way to get the guild together and break the monotony of farming. The main goal is to let your members know when the next cup race is and for how long it will last. I would suggest doing something like the first week of every month is to push cups. Mandatory or not, you decide, but let your players know ahead of time. Also keep in mind that if an update hits and new content is released, you may have to push that cup race off. People often like to farm after new content is released and if you have goals on that cup race, they most likely wont be met once your clan desires to farm for the new Prince of Goblins Hero (I just made that up, dont get excited).

Bells and Whistles

There are things that I havent seen in the few clans Ive been through. These things are perks but would go a long way into improving the social integrity of your clan.


* centralized web site / facebook page for clan
* skype channel / ventrillo server
* out of game recruitment (i may be able to help with that on this site eventually

Some of these actually cost money and all of which can not be accessed inside of the game. They are external means of communication. Since Clash of Clans doesn't even let you have private conversations with other members, I don't think more advanced means of communication is all that crazy of an idea.


In Conclusion

If you are to take anything away from this novel its that leadership is work and making a good, lasting and respected clan takes a lot of effort from the right people. Selection of those people are imperative and if done properly, your members will respect you and they will feel that the mere joining of your clan is an accomplishment in itself. I cant tell you how rewarding it feels for your clan to respect its membership so much that they love every moment of it and donations are all nearly instantaneous.

Good luck in your clans creation!

In this game, everyone seems to be in different clans, and advertising different things. For the casual player, they can join pretty much any clan and be happy in it. But for players looking to move up the ranks, there are not as many clans that will really help you along. I personally had much trouble finding a good clan when I was a new player, and when I got higher ranked. This guide is to show the aspects of a good clan to see progression in yourself.

Clan Page

The first thing you see about a clan as a whole is the clan page. The description, clan trophies, players and their levels, players' trophies, and now players' donations are all visible. You can also easily see the elders in the clan. If a clan has few members, and does not state that it "feeds" into another clan, it was likely thrown together hastily without much planning. These clans are generally good for casual players. Also, if a clan has a high number of players, but low trophy points, check the players levels. If they are all low level players, this is likely a group of new players wanting to belong. If they are higher levels though, you may have stumbled upon a farming clan. Based on what you want from the game, this might be a good fit.

Elder Status

The next thing you can check is elder status in a clan. The two extremes are no elders, or everyone is elder. In a clan where only there is only a leader, this may be a sign the leader made the clan, and then stopped playing the game or has been inactive. These clans can get unruly without effective leadership, so avoid at all costs. Similarly, a clan with all elders is also a warning sign. If everyone is elder, only the leader can kick members out. Also, the clan members feel like elder is worth having, but in reality, there is no value to holding the title if everyone has it. Again, avoid at all costs if you want to grow. When eldership is earned in clans, it shows loyalty among the members and elders, this is great to look for. Elders are to be given to players who help out a lot, and who look out for the clan as much as possible.

Clan Title

This may be self-explanatory, but I will cover it anyway. Clans with curse words indicate a less mature clan. Proceed with caution. Clans named after any of the top ranked clans are people trying to trick people into joining. These clans generally have no real goals, stay away. Clans with names based on popular culture can be based primarily on a common interest. Depending on what you want in a clan, judge according to your own tastes. Misspelled clans are either hastily thrown together, or made to be humourous. The former is a warning sign, the latter indicates a fun clan. This is a game, so there is nothing wrong with joining a clan for the fun aspect.

Clan Description

The way a clan describes themselves is a great way to see how a clan is organized. If a clan description is missing, it shows a lack of leadership, and no clear clan goals. This is a warning sign, but not a clear indication to stay away. A clan could just be updating the description. If there is no description within 15 minutes, that is a better indication to stay away. If the description has many spelling mistakes, this is a caution sign. Bad spelling isn't always a bad sign, some people simply can't spell right. If a clan has clear, concise rules in the description, this shows a very good organization and goals within the clan. This is something to look for ideally.

Member Donations

There are two things to watch out for here: how much the clan donates and how much you can donate. If the clan doesn't donate much, they are either inactive or selfish players. If a clan has over 1000 donations per player, ask yourself "Can I donate as much as they do?". If not, the clan may not tolerate a lack of donations from you. Find a clan that donates roughly as much as you think you can or have donated in the past. Remember, donations cost elixir, 1000 donations can easily cost over 100,000 elixir. Think about what you can afford.

Standard donations

Find out what a clan donates by default, if it is not listed in the description. Most clans I've experienced prefer Archers, as they are versatile for attack and defence. If the clan has a default that you like, and that you can give back regularly, then it is a good fit. Also, see what the clan is willing to offer. Don't join a clan that doesn't have Wizards if you have Dragons and people ask for them, it drains your elixir. Find a clan that has similar troops to you, and roughly the same level if possible. Players with max level troops don't like level 2 troops in return most often.

Clan Activeness

This plays a bigger role than you would think. If a clan is active, then they are generally structured well. Also, they can usually joke around easier, creating a sense of family within the clan. Clans that can talk a lot can generally drop some advice while casually talking, and are more inclined to answer your questions than a clan that doesn't talk much.

Clan "Families"

Clans that have more than one clan headed under the same name or mutual leader are generally very loyal. They have gathered enough people who are like-minded and share the value of growing a great top clan while working to improve themselves in the best way possible. Not to say that single clans are bad, but clan families generally contain most of the good aspects of a clan throughout all the clans they have

In conclusion, there are good clans out there. I myself have been fortunate enough to find an amazing clan family, but I had to look long and hard. Pay attention to what people recruiting in the global chat have to say, you can learn a lot based off of their words. A great clan produces great players.

The most recent patch has left us with Heroes that need 60 minutes to recover after theyve been fully "depleted". Since that makes the Heroes a much larger part of our every day battle strategy, I figured Id go into a little detail on my views of heroes.

Defense

Im not really going to go into a lot of stuff about defense here because its pretty hands off. All Ill say is keep in mind of how easy it is to kill a Hero outside of his base. That being said, if you want to put a hero on defense, you may want to place them towards the middle of your base. That way if someone has the misfortune of getting to your hero then they have to deal with your hero as well as all of your defenses, at the same time. If placed on the outskirts of your base, it will just cost them 5 Archers and 5 Barbariansto keep in check.

Offense

Hero Recovery Time

Heros arent wrecking crews but they are steady damage. Basically, they are an advantage that you cant live without. So optimally we want to ensure that you have both Heroes joining you in every battle. Lets see how we can pull that off.

So lets look specifically at the Barbarian King. He has 1,500 hit points and at level one, a 60 minute recovery time. So for every 375 hit points he loses during a battle, hell need 15 minutes to recover (375 is a fourth of 1,500). Okay, okay, that makes sense. So at level one he can lose one fourth of his hit points before you have to end the battle. 375 hit points is around 6 Archer Tower shots, or a few Mortars. Its not much at all. Im sure the thought of having your Heroes survive till the end of the battle seems outlandish to some players but thats my main goal when I enter a battle, well, other then steal all their riches.

Hero Deployment

So as mentioned, Heroes cant sustain a lot of damage before they are out of the fight so you cant throw them into the fray ahead of the crowd. They should always be the last of your troops deployed. That way the little guys take all the beatings and your Heroes just add damage to your existing path of destruction. In fact, its not a bad idea to give your army a significant head start before tossing your Archer Queen out there because she will have a much better shot of surviving the fight unscathed (since shes ranged).

Now that we know we want to let be patient with our Hero deployment, its time to know when to stop. If youre farming, stopping is the when your heros hit points have become more valuable than the resources that your army has yet to obtain.

I have surrendered battles with over 80 of my troops alive and had only two enemy structures left standing. Why? Because my Archer Queen somehow got in front of my troops when confronting a Tesla Coil. I want my Archer Queen in the next fight more so then I want to three star my opponent and Im always making sure that their survivability is a prominent factor as my finger hovers over that Surrender button. Nowadays I rarely finish a fight out to its full duration. At least a fourth of my troops are alive with every battle surrendered. I get the resources I want, my heroes are alive and I throw in the towel. I always have at least one star but the most important thing is that, at the very least, my Archer Queen will be tagging along into the next battle.

As mentioned the Archer Queen is easier to keep up. Your Barbarian King will inevitably take more damage because he has to get into melee range. To better your chances of his survival, only deploy him when things look rather easy. If your troops have been shattered against the Walls and at the last 50 seconds youve made it into the core of their base, might as well let the King sit that one out. If youre 60 seconds in to the fight and two Mortars are dead and their resources are all but taken, let the King go nuts. Just watch his health and know when to surrender.

In Conclusion

Its not hard to keep your heroes alive, it just takes some practice and adds another paradigm to your battle tactics. Its a great addition to the game and if you can keep your heroes in every battle, youll see a massive shift in your success ratio.