A little about me
I am St. Jimmy. I started this game around Jan/Feb 2015 after my dad (of all people) told me about this game he couldn’t put down. I downloaded it and it sat on my phone for about 2 or 3 weeks before one day, sat in a garage waiting for my car to be serviced, I was looking for a distraction.
I was completely hooked. I couldn’t wait for my troops to be ready, I couldn’t wait for things to upgrade, I couldn’t wait to get to my next TH level and unlock allsorts of goodies.
The 2 pieces of advice my dad gave me was ‘DO NOT RUSH ANYTHING!’ and ‘Speeding things up with gems is handy, but it’s more fun to play the game at it’s own speed, there’s more of a sense of achievement.’
I love an RPG, I like the idea of building something over time, so I duly followed his advice and, though many would disagree, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it any other way.
Today, I have 2 accounts:
St. Jimmy – TH9 (mid), level 102
Sandman – TH8 (mid-max), level 79
My previous clans
DeRidder Elites (lv5 during my time)
At TH4 I stopped jumping in and out of ‘Req and Go’ clans and joined a clan called DeRidder Elites. An American clan full of fantastic members, with a couple of very high end players who donated like it was going out of fashion. I got involved in wars and, after a very steep learning curve, started to learn about a number of different attack strategies. That was the point when I learned this little mobile app was so much more in depth than I gave it credit for. This was where I earned my first Elder.
Eventually, the time difference from the U.S. to the U.K was proving frustrating. My active times didn’t match with them and I craved being more involved. Reluctantly I left.
U.K.War 2 (lv5-6 during my time)
I was a fresh TH6 when I joined U.K. War 2. Here I began to help much smaller bases (TH4 and 5) in war and progressed quickly to Elder and, as I was upgrading to TH7 I was made Co-Leader. This was the clan I have been with the longest and I made some good
‘online friends’. Here I learned the finer points of GoWiPe and Hogs. Even though I couldn’t effectively execute them myself just yet. I watched EVERY replay, I loved it. Eventually, another co and I didn’t really see eye to eye and I felt it was time to move on.
Dawn Wolves (lv6-7 during my time)
As a max TH7 this was where I really came into my own. My experiences helped me guide the lower bases and I was quickly made Co-Leader due to my donation rate and activity level. One weekend when the 2 main leaders (who used to alternate taking wars) were both away, they asked for a Co-Leader to give a war a go. I jumped at the chance. I ended up taking control of 4 wars, winning the first 3. I was hooked on this aspect of the game.
Then, disaster, we had a troll join. They annoyed a lot of members and were kicked. No harm done. However, it transpired to me that this person was an old member who still had some friends in the clan. They kept getting invited back and kicked over and over. Until the leader kicked EVERYONE and invited them back 1 by 1. It stopped. But there was always that feeling that the troll was still there, on another account. I began to enjoy the game less. This wasn’t what I was playing it for.
So I decided I would take my second account with me and create a new clan.
My Clan – Vipers (Yellow and green badge, #2CPJC9VL if you want to be nosey…)
I had decided the style of my clan:
- Back to back wars
- I wanted a good 5-8 Co Leaders to eventually help with the running of the clan
- It would be a clan vacant of childish playground behaviour. I wouldn’t say ‘Adult-Only’ as I have known some very good school-age players in previous clans. But it would definitely have an adult attitude
- I wanted active members who took the game seriously (to an extent)
- Members would be promoted after each war, had they earned it
Clan level: 1
The clan was born. Vipers. 2 members, both me. I went on a recruitment drive on global chat. This was DIFFICULT for a new clan with only 2 members.
I had an idea. To stand out and make the clan more attractive, I requested and donated hundreds of giants between my accounts over the course of a couple of days. I wanted people to know this would be an active donating clan. It would be, it wasn’t just to get people in, I wanted to show that I WOULD donate and WOULD help as much as possible.
I tried the desperate ‘Free Co’ approach. I quickly stopped that, it is no way to get quality members.
However, one member DID come out of that, amongst the 100’s of nutters I got...
Jackhammer was his username. He seemed interested in my idea of building a clan from scratch. Like me he had experience. I came from a level 7 war clan, he a level 8 war clan. We started to recruit. The aim was to get 10 members, start a couple of wars and get to level 2 clan status ASAP so that we appeared slightly more attractive to new prospective members. He invited his second account,
Bruce Lee, I made them both Co-Leader. We got our members.
The first 3 wars were 3 wins, fantastic start! However, the members involved in war were different each time. It felt like my 2 accounts and Jackhammers 2 accounts were carrying the clan. We were getting 20-24 stars each war just between our 4 accounts and no new members were looking any good.
Clan level: 2
We had a couple of solid members and felt as though we were starting to grow. However, I could tell that ‘Jack’ was as active as me and getting frustrated by the lack of activity. We were scraping 10 members together for each war. The clan was dull, nobody ever chatted. Nobody but us donated. Early in clan level 2 I logged on to see
‘Jackhammer has left the clan’ and
‘Bruce Lee has left the clan’. Gutted.
Jack had left a message wishing me luck and saying that he missed the banter etc. of an active clan, I couldn’t fault him or argue with that. He was a hell of a war attacker and I got it. Fair play to him.
Things grew slowly but surely from there. A few members joined and, from scraping 10 members per war, we started hovering around 14-15.
Mid way through clan level 2 and we are winning as much as losing. I am feeling jealous of the war clans I can see with 50+wins and 2 losses etc. I have a few members who are solid, though not Co-Leader material quite yet.
And then
Jackhammer and
Bruce Lee re-join! He said he got bored and missed the idea of helping to build a new clan.
Great stuff, he left on very good terms and knows what he is doing, so I make them both Co-Leaders again. When new members join I can see him grilling them (he’s a big softy really!) but the key thing I see him asking members is: ‘Do you want to stay and help this clan grow?’ What a great sign.
We start to hover around 20 members and have a couple who are on the edge of being made Co-Leaders. We hit 3 perfect wars out of 5, full 100% stars. Things are looking up. We are 1 solitary win away from Clan level 3. I go away for the weekend somewhere I won’t get online. Jack takes control of 2 wars, I come back and we are level 3.
Clan level: 3
This has just been achieved. I have made a strong member, ‘
Hick5y’ Co-Leader. He’s keen, he gets involved, he donates and he knows how to put in a decent war attack. 5 Co-Leaders (only being 3 different people). We stay around a solid 20 members now. Although some are still learning, we have a real core of about 6 or 7 that really know what they are doing. This will of course grow over time. I have thrown EVERYONE into this war, to weed out the rubbish.
The tables have turned. We no longer beg for members, we now take requests and decide who joins.
Starting a clan is difficult and once or twice I thought ‘Sod this, I should just join a high end war clan again’. But I stuck with it and it feels like it has now started, properly.
The story continues…
*Special mention*
Jesse James
The leader of
DeRidder Elites, who I recently learned has sadly passed.
