The Shield - TH8 Base Design (Farming & War Formations)

[Gobby]

Having had only moderate success so far, at best, from most popular base designs for TH8, I am going to be trying this now. I'm pleased by your war results, were they skilled attacks or did the attacker seem like a hog newbie?

[KingBrandon]

my suggestions
1) switch the wizard tower with the mortar on the east side.
2) switch the mortar with the dark elixir storage
3) switch the east air defense with the gold storage nearby
4) switch the wizard tower and gold storage on the west side
there would need to be some other changes to make the best coverage on the storages possible with the layout.
i like the layout itself, but not the arrangement of the splash and air defenses

[gamatrix]

The war results are good.

[Eviltwin]

May try this next week when my TH finishes the upgrade to 8. If so, I'll let you know thoughts and critiques.

Good luck! I'm having decent success on a 2nd acct that's using this base. It has 2/3 pink walls and all defenses are at maxed th7 level (AD lvl 5, WT at 4, etc). War didn't go well on him because I got hit by their #1 with 11 lvl 3 dragons and my 3rd AD was only lvl 4 at the time. Not much you can do with lvl 4 WT, lvl 8 AT and 5/5/4 ADs against raged lvl 3 dragons.

Having had only moderate success so far, at best, from most popular base designs for TH8, I am going to be trying this now. I'm pleased by your war results, were they skilled attacks or did the attacker seem like a hog newbie?

The dragon attacker was missing a spell, but only would have added slightly to his % destroyed. The hog rider did a great job luring the CC out, but with all of the spots for potential double Giant Bombs, he had no clear choice for which way to attack. I would personally dropped 2-3 groups of hogs to look for GBs, he instead mostly dropped in one big group (which quickly split into 3).

What bases did you like so far? I really liked Dominion, but had terrible success with Tempest & others.

my suggestions
1) switch the wizard tower with the mortar on the east side.
2) switch the mortar with the dark elixir storage
3) switch the east air defense with the gold storage nearby
4) switch the wizard tower and gold storage on the west side
there would need to be some other changes to make the best coverage on the storages possible with the layout.
i like the layout itself, but not the arrangement of the splash and air defenses

I looked at your suggestions and some take away what goals I had in creating the arrangement. I like that your changes keep WT coverage on all the gold storages (one of my priorities). I conceded the NE AD to be out of the core so I could get one of the gold storages in the core (again, one of my priorities). I also wanted all WT behind 2 levels of walls, which your last change would negate.

EDIT: On 2nd thought, I may try out swapping the SW WT and Gold Storage to mirror the other side. While this takes away the double WT coverage on the SE Gold Storage, it adds a little beefiness to the Western side, protects the SW Gold Storage a bit more, and doesn't sacrifice much for the WT in terms of vulnerability (with the AT/Cannon being further out than it, they'll get hit first. The WT will even protect them now, similar to other side). Thanks for the suggestion!

What I can do is upload an "only wall" picture so players can see the layout and visualize any configuration they'd like, especially the HT/GB/Splash arrangement.

Just like any popular TH8 layout, anyone can use the layout and switch the buildings around to fit your play style, priorities, and trophy range. At Gold 1/2, placement of AD isn't as important as protecting against the ground attack. I noticed when I got up around 1800, air attacks were more common and moving the ADs to match the war layout would probably be more beneficial.

[Eviltwin]

Added a "walls only" view for the Farming Layout. Will do the same for War Layout once next war begins.

Also added what my overall intent/priority was in initial design.

[lastnline]

Not bad. I don't like the improper T junctions you have on the outside on the south end. Only other complaint is I would consider alternating the archer/cannons. A south air attack could cause some problems with most of your def down there being cannons.

[Eviltwin]

Not bad. I don't like the improper T junctions you have on the outside on the south end. Only other complaint is I would consider alternating the archer/cannons. A south air attack could cause some problems with most of your def down there being cannons.

What do you mean by improper T junctions? I tried to avoid any "X" intersections so that multiple compartments could not be broken into with a single wallbreaker.

The northern ADs + WT + East/West ATs provide the coverage for storages that is needed. Sure, an air attack cant wipe out the southern part, but won't advance much further. One of the war attack was just that...a mass lvl 3 dragon, which is usually doom for many TH8 bases. But as soon as the dragons wiped out the southern part, the attack fizzled into a 1 star, and nearly a 47% fail.

I still maintain that attacks from the west and east, directly into the core with raged Giants/wbs/archers are the biggest weakness. Hogs/Air attacks don't have me very worried; time will tell if that's confidence or naivety.

[KingBrandon]

Good luck! I'm having decent success on a 2nd acct that's using this base. It has 2/3 pink walls and all defenses are at maxed th7 level (AD lvl 5, WT at 4, etc). War didn't go well on him because I got hit by their #1 with 11 lvl 3 dragons and my 3rd AD was only lvl 4 at the time. Not much you can do with lvl 4 WT, lvl 8 AT and 5/5/4 ADs against raged lvl 3 dragons.



The dragon attacker was missing a spell, but only would have added slightly to his % destroyed. The hog rider did a great job luring the CC out, but with all of the spots for potential double Giant Bombs, he had no clear choice for which way to attack. I would personally dropped 2-3 groups of hogs to look for GBs, he instead mostly dropped in one big group (which quickly split into 3).

What bases did you like so far? I really liked Dominion, but had terrible success with Tempest & others.



I looked at your suggestions and some take away what goals I had in creating the arrangement. I like that your changes keep WT coverage on all the gold storages (one of my priorities). I conceded the NE AD to be out of the core so I could get one of the gold storages in the core (again, one of my priorities). I also wanted all WT behind 2 levels of walls, which your last change would negate.

EDIT: On 2nd thought, I may try out swapping the SW WT and Gold Storage to mirror the other side. While this takes away the double WT coverage on the SE Gold Storage, it adds a little beefiness to the Western side, protects the SW Gold Storage a bit more, and doesn't sacrifice much for the WT in terms of vulnerability (with the AT/Cannon being further out than it, they'll get hit first. The WT will even protect them now, similar to other side). Thanks for the suggestion!

What I can do is upload an "only wall" picture so players can see the layout and visualize any configuration they'd like, especially the HT/GB/Splash arrangement.

Just like any popular TH8 layout, anyone can use the layout and switch the buildings around to fit your play style, priorities, and trophy range. At Gold 1/2, placement of AD isn't as important as protecting against the ground attack. I noticed when I got up around 1800, air attacks were more common and moving the ADs to match the war layout would probably be more beneficial.

everything you said about the editing makes sense. i just don't see the benefit of having 2 wizard towers covering one gold storage outweighing the cons so the change you stated is later on in the day(if i feel less lazy), i might try to rearrange the base myself to see what I can come up with. maybe i can take out the walls around the de drill and move them around to make better use of them. not sure if i will be able to make a compartment though

[Eviltwin]

everything you said about the editing makes sense. i just don't see the benefit of having 2 wizard towers covering one gold storage outweighing the cons so the change you stated is later on in the day(if i feel less lazy), i might try to rearrange the base myself to see what I can come up with. maybe i can take out the walls around the de drill and move them around to make better use of them. not sure if i will be able to make a compartment though

I thought about keeping the same wall structure as the war layout; that eliminates the weirdness of the DE drill compartment.

I made the war layout first, as Dominion (Orz) suited me fine for farming (Gold/DE protection priority). I had to remake the farming layout from scratch, starting with the core outwards and just ended up with a different wall arrangement. Not sure why I changed it. I'll look at what the farming configuration in the war layout looks like today.

[Elendilstar]

Already listed in the OP under "Cons":

- Asymmetric Farming layout (BK not in walls, but DE Drill is). It may bother some more than others. War layout doesn't have this problem.

Thanks for the input though!

I like an asymmetrical layout. I think it makes it harder for attackers to figure it out in the 30 seconds they have to choose their method. Anything you can do to distract or force a longer evaluation gives you a defensive advantage.