It seems to me that there is a lot of strategy in Clan Wars. Here is my first effort to work through the problem.
If we start with a few basic presumptions, we can get some useful guides...
If the matchmaking system is perfect, clan A and clan B are a perfect match. Let's say they each have 10 players, ranked 1 to 10 and we can ID those players as A1 for the top player in Clan A and B10 for the 10th ranked player in Clan B. We can have the players go to the various base defense guides and offensive army guides and they all have perfect bases and perfect attack plans. How do we deploy them?
Win the war, not the battle.
What matters is getting stars. We need to maximize number of stars. With 10 opposing bases, the maximum score for the clan is 30 stars. This is only possible by getting 3 stars on all the enemy bases. If this is consistently possible, there is no real need for clan strategy. If it is not something that always happens, we need a plan.
Facts we have to work with.
A star is a star whether you earn it from player B3 or player B9.
Getting that third star from B3 could be a lot harder than getting it from B9.
Each player gets two attacks but not against the same opponent.
A base that is 2 starred and then 3 starred only counts as a three star.
Things we should know about our players.
There is some level of opponent they should be able to consistently 1 star, a slightly lower level for 2 star and then lower again for a 3 star. Since the game favors offense, any player should be able to three star his equal and perhaps a little higher. This blanket statement is likely to change at various TH and build levels.
The idea:
What we want to do is set up our "batting order" and "target list" such that we save our biggest hitters for the hardest targets and only attack those hardest targets after the easier targets are taken care of. We start with player A10 who should be able to 3 star Player B10 on his first attack and then move up to hit B9 for (hopefully) 3 more stars. If A10 is successful on both those attacks, A9 is now shooting at B8 and possibly B7. This cascade continues up the line. Even if A9 does not three star B7, he does reveal traps and CC troops. This allows A8 to see the replay before he does his attack. Ideally this allows the top enemy bases to be hit repeatedly by several lower level attackers, revealing all the tricks and traps before the top players from Clan A are hitting the top bases on Clan B
The plan:
Sort your clan by a top to bottom ranking for attacking capability. If your clan is in a trophy push, this might be trophy order. If you have clan members camping or farming, you may need to actually tally up army camp sizes, barracks levels, hero ranks, spells levels and the like to get an accurate ranking.
Sort the enemy clan by defensive strength. The "top to bottom" ranking provided on the War Map will likely handle this for you.
<How are war bases ordered in the war map?
The bases are ordered from highest to lowest strength. The highest strength war bases are at the top of the war map. Trophies have no influence on the order of bases.http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...-Clan-Wars-FAQ>
For now, we will depend on this ranking but it is worth noting this ranking does not look at base layout. A "strong" base may actually have a very bad layout and be easy to take out. Have your players attack in turn, based on rank order from bottom to top. Have them attack the enemy from bottom to top, only skipping an enemy base if it has been three starred.
This gets you the easiest stars the soonest, with the least cost spent. It saves your higher power forces for the higher defending opponents. It allows the smaller forces to act as scouting attacks for the larger forces. It also means that an error by a low ranked (new) player has a chance of being recovered by the immediately higher ranked (slightly more experienced) players before it becomes the missing star that loses the war.
Caveats:
This plan is simple and intended as a first look at the problem. It depends on the presumptions in the first paragraph. To review those:Matchmaking is bringing together perfect matches. We know this won't happen but until we see how much variance there is, we can't really work on this.Each of these areas can be developed more carefully. Determining how to measure matchmaking variance and account for it in your target list is going to be a challenge. The "perfect" War Base (WB) will not look like a trophy base or a farming base. The only value in protecting collectors and storage is in keeping total damage small. The "perfect" army is more likely to be a mixed balance since hitting the "next" button 25 times to find the right target is not an option.
Players have perfect bases. This is highly unlikely. There are a large number of good base guides and a larger number of bad base guides. Even with a good guide, getting a less experienced player to build a solid base could be a challenge.
Players have perfect armies. Even more unlikely. It seems we are cooking our armies BEFORE the war starts. This means having the perfect army for the enemy base you are going to face is either a stroke of luck or an awful lot of scouting and planning.
Ideas to be addressed:
- How to deal with that stubborn two star base. At what point should you skip past it and move on to the next target? Do you have designated "clean sweep" players who will go back and clean up that two star mess?
- Is it worth having some "sleeper" players intentionally low on your trophy list? That third base from the bottom of the list that actually is built a lot stronger than it looks like could be the trap that throws off the entire enemy plan.
- Will the economics of Clan War favor the players who are in clans that participate? An active Clan Wars clan might collectively, intentionally drop trophies to stay clear of farmers and instead go for the loot and fame of being a top Clan Wars clan.
- Does Clan War add political intrigue to the game? Even if clans don't explicitly select each other in matchmaking, at the higher levels the number of clans will get smaller and it becomes likely that clans will eventually meet. Is it worth planting a spy? How about a traitor? Even just having a low level player "accidently" flub an attack or two can throw the whole clan off. Would an offer of Elder in the other clan be enough? How about a clan castle that is always full of dark troops? What is the price of a noob? What about a double agent?
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
