CC goes in the middle, ya dingus

So you don't know what to do with that Clan Castle.  Troops go in there, you use them sometimes when you attack, it has a pretty clan shield with our name on it.  You should probably just chuck that thing off to the side somewhere to make room for the rest of your defenses.

Or...hear me out here...you could take advantage of the strongest defense you have available to you.

Couple of fun facts!

1. Your CC has the 2nd highest hit points (HP) of all your buildings.  It's essentially a defensive meat-shield.
2. The troops that come out can be a meat-shield of sorts, allowing your defenses to do their business while the attacker's troops deal with your CC.
3. 20-25 level 5 archers (which you're likely to have in your CC) deals 400-500 damage per second (DPS).  That's about ooohhh 300+ more DPS than any other defense you have at TH8.  Your CC is by far your strongest defense.

Having said that, it's also a fragile little flower.  Most skilled players can lure your CC troops out and make them disappear with a single lightning spell.  If you're chucking your CC in just any old place, you're essentially throwing away your most valuable defense.  How do you avoid this?  Put that thing in the center of your base, dummy.  This is what's known as an "unlureable" CC.  Most of the good setups you see here and here have the same thing in common - unlureable CC.

This is all just food for thought.  You can have your strongest defense defending a bunch of empty space like this:

 Or you can have your strongest defense defending all of your goodies, like this:

CC goes in the middle, ya dingus!

The importance of donations

So, there's been some discussions about donations lately.  I think some people have a negative view of high request numbers - some of us are taught early on that requesting troops all the time is a bad thing.  Obviously, if you aren't donating it is - but, let's try to shift that mindset a bit.

The first, and most obvious reason is the offensive advantage.  Use the clan castle.  Use it as a supplement to your normal army.  Use it as a distraction for your army.  Find a way to incorporate it into your strategy.  And you know what?  If you can't, dump the clan castle troops anyway.  You'll get more.  This is extremely important during trophy push, as CC troops can sometimes be the difference between 50% and a one-star victory, or going away -25 trophies.

The second, and arguably most important, is the effect it has on your clan mates.  Every time you pass out 5 archers, you're getting 5 XP.  Just 5?  Doesn't seem like much, does it?

Let's take a closer look:
Level 71 needs 3,550 XP to reach level 72.
5 XP x 710 donations = 3,550 - that's a whole level gain from donations alone.  Tack on the upgrades you finish in that 2 week span, and a 2-level gain is not much to ask.

Another thing to focus on (and I'm really bad at this) is keeping the donated/received ratios as even as possible.  Nobody's going to complain if you have 5,000 donations in a season - that's actually quite a feat.  But having a sweet 5000/400 donate/receive ratio isn't really helping the clan as a whole.  Request 5k - give opportunities for others to donate.  If you can't, then scale back on your own donations, and provide opportunity for others that way.

So, we're talking XP for our clan mates, and some extra offense?  Nope.  Imagine you're a high level player looking for a clan.  Donations/requests are a dead-giveaway as to the activeness of a clan.  It's one of the first things you need to look at if you're clan-shopping.  If you're recruiting in global, what do people see?  You first, then the clan - description, donations, levels, etc.  If we want to grow, and acquire high level, active players then we need to be high level and active.  Simple :)