Am I the only one? (low level barching not working for me)

So, I started playing this game a little less than a week ago and so far I'm really hooked. I'm currently upgrading my TH to 5 because my storages are full and everything else is almost maxed and I don't want to get raided more.

That being said, given that I'm a beginner, I'm not the best attacker. Oh, I've seen MUCH worse than my attack tactics (I just need to look at my logs ;)). However, after upgrading my giants tonight (which I know cost quite a lot of elixir, take space and are slowish to train) I noticed something.

Despite reading up on barching and watching videos, no matter the comp of my team (mostly barb or mostly arch or 60/40) it seems like I wasn't able to empty other people's storage or trophy push. As I'm trying to do both, I looked for a solution.

Like, I've seen people take out cannons with a cluster of archers. That just doesn't work for me. However, ever since I added 4-5 giants to the team, things are running much, much more smoothly.

I've even 100%'d a couple of bases that were well defended.

I do have a couple of questions:
- How on earth can people take out cannons or towers with just 12 archers? I've watched the videos, it just doesn't work for me "live". Sure, since I'm better at deploying giants, it usually does work with the giants, but I'm toast if I run out of them.

- Is there anything I should maybe try to change in my comp? Add a 6th giant? Use more archers or barbarians?
Right now I have 80 spots in my camps.

Rn.. assuming ur th4, i would use a barb rush. It's much better at attacking th4 bases since most people can't afford to segregate their base. That said, at th5, i'd suggest barch(32 barbs, 48 arch works well.) or all archers, since it tends to be a good way to get 50%. Giants and archers is also very strong at th5. Hope this helps! And 12 archers works mainly if the mortars and other defenses are distracted for a few seconds.

Thanks a lot for your answer. You're right, barbarians would probably work better, because they're more resilient. That makes a lot of sense. That actually explains why I'm using giants, because I'm mostly attacking highly upgraded TH4 or low TH5 at that point. Most don't have wizard towers yet (and the mortar is actually my biggest issue).

I really look forward to getting to TH5 to test things some more. Hopefully I'll have maxed my barracks in two days.

it just takes practice, but I did not really start barching till I was about to hold about 160 troops. Basically, when you are doing it to trophy push, at such an early level, I would look for the most outside building, and snipe them, then put down some of the barbs as a meat shield, and the archers behind it, after they die, you put more barbs down, this keeps your archers alive. However... mortars, and wizard towers are your worst enemy. Try stuff out at your level. Giants and archers are great, put a few like 3 or so wall breakers in that, maybe 8 giants, and the rest as archers, going in behind the giants, and hole in the wall, keep two or three archers incase you can pick off one more little builders hut to give you the win. There are many strategies, and it is best just to keep reading on what other kinds of things work, and even try your own, with the healers updated, they are much more powerful, if you can take the air defense down, and put down the giants, healers will keep healing them, and you will go through it. though you can only have one in your clan castle till your TH6. Keep that in mind too.

Thank you very much for the advice. So, I should ask for a healer when I hit TH5? I guess I'll need some practice with healers to get better.
Anyway, when I get the chance to farm (not today because I have way too many resources for a TH4 already) I'll try it with more giants, and maybe a couple of wizards at TH5.
Since I'm in a warring clan I'd better get smarter about attacking. My first warring attempts weren't so good.

I had the same observations at TH4 - not enough HP and DPS in Barch to survive scaling walls in properly designed bases and too few buildings outside in order to get 50%.

Trophy hunting 2-3 WB, 6 Giants, 15-20 archers and rest barbarians. Ask Clanmates for Wizards or higher level Giants

Farming 1-2 WB, 3-6 Giants, 10-20 Goblins and 50/50 barch mix.

I am usually just farming resources. Giants distract defenses while WB open core of the base. Goblins help to collect resources in a case that barch is distracted.

At TH5, 980 trophies I have to change this strategy again. Upgraded barch works much better but are open to wizard tower/mortar combo and I need around 8-10 Giants to supress it. Much harder to get 3 stars while collecting resources.

Thank you so much for the army comp suggestions Zonzi. I feel so much better knowing I'm not the only one struggling with barch at a low level. I really thought something was wrong with me, when it's just the situation that makes it hard to win with barch.

I think I'm going to add wall breakers like you said, and maybe a few goblins. I usually only aim for 2 stars, but most of the resources, so I'll probably do something like 4-6 giants, 5 goblins, 1 or 2 WB, rest archers and barbarians.

Should I push to 1250 when I get to TH5 with fully upgraded camps and at least one fully upgraded barracks?

Here's my reasoning: I already have a 3rd builder and I'm aiming for a 4th builder, but I'm well aware I'll never get the 5th. If I push to 1250 at TH5 once I've dumped most of my resources into walls or upgrades, getting raided will not hurt that much. I don't have DE, and gold and elixir isn't worth much to me right now but this will change at later levels obviously.

So the plan would be to push in about a week for a few hours, then be done forever with trophy pushing as I just don't see myself getting to champion.

Now, I'm not saying I'd go lower than 600 or so if I can help it. I do like the gold and elixir bonuses a lot. I can see how that would help with walls.

Use barb rush........its a great attack strat!

feel free to trophy push if you want extra gems, but if you have your third builder, there is not a hurry. pushing to crystal and masters also nets you a lot of gems, enough to get the forth builder, so keep that in mind. And there is no reason you can not make champ, especially if you read strategies and such, and ask things like you just did. So if you do trophy push, feel free to drop after it. you want to be in leagues with town halls that are like your town hall, near the same level. trophy pushing can be cool and fun, but it puts you against super powerful opponents after a bit.

I tried to push for 1250 last night but there was not enough time and gave up at 1150. My thoughts are that, it can be done at TH5 but it is quite hard.

It's TH6, TH7+ habitat and only maxed camps, troops, full CC and higher level lightining spell give us some chances for TH snipe. It's very hard to get 3 stars against 2 mortars, 2 Wizard towers and there are not many TH5 at Silver 1&2.

When troops train you could look for farming bases with exposed TH. I usually found one after +50 nexting. Be aware though of trolling TH9 pretending to farm with TH outside and laughing when our archers gets zapped by hidden teslas (-27 hurts).