A write up of how I did TH9. Written by NaturalAnthem for me after asking for guidance. Without his help, I would have been lost.
http://www.reddit.com/r/RedditNu/com...cro_th9_guide/
http://imgur.com/a/KLEvu
Instead of listing everything I did in order, I'm basically making a priority list. As a disclaimer, I truly believe TH9 can be played in the widest variety of ways successfully compared to any other TH level.
Upon TH9 completion, The usual suggestions were first up:
Laboratory, 1 X-Bow, AQ to lvl 2, Drill, New Defense and all new walls to lvl 5 (gold).
after the immediate shock of a new TH, an overall plan can be easily implemented. I would first suggest getting all the new defenses (Xbow, WT, AD, AT) to level 1. Every new building needs to be lvl 1 as soon as possible, the benefits far outweigh anything else.
Archer Queen should always be upgrading, this is your highest priority as the lifetime upgrade time of both heroes is much much longer than anything else. I personally waited until AQ was lvl 10 to resume upping BK alongside her.
Like any good romance, I think of it in three phases.
TH9 Phase 1 - re-maxing to TH8 standards: 1 builder on AQ, 1 builder on walls, 2 builders on Elixir buildings (Spellfactory/Drills/DE storage/Camps), 1 Builder on new defenses (WT should be fast tracked). I wanted to get elixir based buildings maxed early because they're either good long-term investments or they increase my ability to raid, which has a ballooning value. Eventually Elixir builders will start completing and you can use the excess builders to speed up the other new defenses to TH8 cap. During Phase 1, I left Xbows at lvl 1. This is a judgment call, you can do them earlier, but I generally think of them as glorified point defenses.
In phase 1, I solely use Barch+WB in 1400-1600 for all farming. If you core dive for DE you should have more than enough while wall farming to keep up with AQ. Early lab upgrades should support this. Barb (since your elixir storages wont be ready) > archer > spells.
TH9 Phase 2 - Woot you're back to TH8 max! that only took two months! haha. All of your barracks/drills/de storage should be maxed now, allowing you to focus on NEW UPGRADE LEVELS for defenses. Fun amirite? This is where standard thought comes back into play: Splash (Mortar/WT) > Unique Defense (AD/Xbow) > Point Defense (Cannon/Tesla/AT). This will probably prove to be the hardest phase to upgrade walls during. I had pushed hard to finish all my level 9 walls before this.
Phase 2 is probably the best time to make use of Balloonion DE farming in an orchestrated manner. Hopefully by now you have lvl 6 Balloons and lvl 5 Minions. The gold you get from it is enough to upgrade defenses (not walls), but timing them so you don't have many things ending at once becomes fairly crucial. You'll only have a maximum of 3/5 of your builders because heroes, so you can imagine this phase goes pretty slowly.
TH9 Phase 3 - Ah the final stretch. This is where I am now. Its pretty much cleanup. Max everything because TH10 is gonna be a pain in the ♥♥♥♥. Get all collectors, barracks/DBs, traps, everything up to max. Your heroes and walls won't be maxed, so keep those going as much as you can. My goal is to have everything maxed except walls and heroes. I hope to have Heroes near lvl 25, I will only have level 10 walls around my core more than likely.
Phase 3 raiding can be whatever you need to do, DE or Gold. Your lab is most likely fairly done. For example, mine is currently finishing golems, leaving only valks at lvl 1 and everything else maxed.
RAIDING STRATEGY
TH8: 100 archer/84barb/8wb - 2 light 1 rage - 1400-1500
TH9: 104 archer/100barb/8wb - 2 light 2 rage - 1500-1700
The wbs are on retainer for core dives exclusively, which I do only when a♥♥♥♥♥ afterward or if the DE is 1k+ with 300k+ gold (or 2k+ and 200k gold, or 3k+ regardless of gold). I tried a Jump Spell in place of WBs... hated it. I've also tried Healing Spell a good amount but always stop using it because my troops move through the circle (even with optimal placement) too quickly to make use of the healing pulses (3 a second at 45 each iirc). Rage lets me take out buildings quicker, reducing the amount of incoming damage on my troops. "Offense is the best defense" pretty much.
DE FARMING
TH9: 16 Balloons/70 Minion - 1 light 3 rage - 2400-2600
a 16/70 split seems to be the most efficient build time (32 minutes for Balloons, 26.25 minutes for Minions (giving you time to build about 10 more to donate). With this you should never expect to reach a core for DE. Because of this you're targeting either full drills, or a DE storage in the 1st or 2nd layer of defenses, or a combination of the two preferably. Since you're up in crystal 1, you'll want to preserve trophies by 50%ing (usually aiming for the TH is inefficient compared). The Balloons should be thought of as enhanced Giants - they take out the important defense covering your target as the minions actually take it out. Rage spells are for particularly strong bases or for a weak base with a lot of DE near the core, while being your fail-safe in all other situations. 70 Minions may seem expensive for a single raid (700de), but my targets are 2500+ de, usually in the 3k range. Also, in crystal 1 the league bonus is 55k/55k/200, so that pays for 20 of the Minions and usually all of your nexting cost.
Hope this helps! It surely helped me along the way.
