Thanks for all the great advice. I am in a war clan (closing in on 100 wins). While I understand the archer first sentiment for raiding purposes, they won't make me stronger in war. They are probably gonna be my second or so research, but my first has to make me stronger in war immediately.
I figure I get the queen, new traps and a few quickly build new defenses and then my first 4 upgrades will be lab, spell factory, and two army camps. My next four the dark barrack (to unlock witches), two more army camps and the CC. And then dark barracks again to unlock hounds. So ideally I have 220 troops, 30CC space, 4 spells and a queen less than two weeks into TH9. Those things are all fast improvements in war strength. At the same time my first troop research will finish. I still think I will go with balloons. But I might do the witches soon thereafter just to get that angle going as well.
