*Updated* How to Prepare for a Trophy Push

Note:  This was written by a former member. Everything here has worked for us in the past so please use the information provided!

Every 8-12 weeks, our clan does a trophy push for 1-2 weeks. The purpose is to obtain as many trophies as possible during that period of time. We want to see how high the clan can get in the "Top Clans" list and improve our rank during each push.  

It’s also the best way to gauge how far your base/skills have progressed. Like a self-evaluation, but with a video game you play while pooping vs. grades or work performance.  

It’s also the CoC equivalent of the clan putting on a slinky black (or Red) dress and going to a bar (Global) to hunt for some new meat.  When the clan looks strong, strong players will be attracted to our trophy-pheromones.

Here are a few things you can do to prepare for the push:

2 weeks before the trophy push

• Start any major defensive upgrades you would like completed by the 1st day of the push
• Start any spell or troop upgrades at this time too, especially if they take 14 days. (Max our your lightning spell so that you can lure cc troops and lightning them to smithereens)
• If possible, have all army camps and barracks maxed out so that you can hold more troops
• If you're out of defenses to upgrade, consider upgrading your CC so you'll have more troops available, if needed.  Maybe even get on those walls you’ve been neglecting.

 1 week before the trophy push

• Begin saving gold, elixir, and dark elixir since trophy hunting uses a significant amount of resources! While you will need more gold than you expect, you can't have too much elixir (and dark elixir if you plan to use dark troops). 
• Get an idea of what trophy push base you would like to use. We have some ideas here at the top left of the homepage.  If none of those are to your liking, try Clash of Clans Builder or Clash of Clans Tools
• Begin a slow push this week to get a jump on your push for day 1 of the main push. You should strive to be at a minimum of Crystal 3 - Gold 1 to start off the main push.

During the push

• Get as many trophies as you can, however you can. Resources are not a concern if you prepared properly beforehand. Snipe town halls, go for bases with enough buildings outside of walls to 1 star. Whatever it takes to get those trophies! Remember to use your cc if it will make the difference of getting a star or not! There will be plenty of requests and donations during this time so keep your donations up and request, request, request!
• Don't use builders on any defenses this week as you need them all working right now. If you need to burn resources, do it minimally as you'll need more than you expect. You can spend gold on walls, collectors, storages, and anything else not defense related.
• Once you reach your max trophy count on the last day of the push, don't forget to take a screenshot of your progress!

 Things to avoid

• Upgrading barracks.  Yes, your builders aren’t doing anything.  No, it’s not a good idea to decrease your ability to produce troops while attempting to raid as much as possible and increase trophies.
• Picking a fight you can’t win.  Not only will you bring shame to your ancestors, you run the risk of getting revenged cause you thought you’d put on your big boy pants.  Choose your opponent wisely.  This is where stocking up on gold beforehand comes into play – you’ll want to use that “Next” button liberally.
• Donating whatever you feel like.  During push, most people employ a specific strategy, and clan castle troops can be the difference between 2 star victory, or -30 cups. Giving a single level 2 hog rider is pointless. Try to stick to what’s requested, otherwise archer them up.
• RATE MY BASE.  On a scale of 6-14, how good is my base plz thx.  What’s your defense log say?  There ya go, champ!  We’re all for helping and making suggestions, but your best bet is reviewing defensive replays to see where you’re being attacked, and make adjustments accordingly.
• Loot grabbing!!! If you see an abandoned base it is ok to go after it but make sure you at least get the 50% 1 star. Don't just grab the loot and go. Get those trophies!

NEW Defensive Layouts for TH9 & TH10

War 101

I said, war, huh - Good God, y'all - What is it good for...

Our clan has been pretty successful so far in wars, in some cases despite ourselves.  I thought a blog post capturing the schedule and lessons learned would be helpful and save us from repeating ourselves a lot in chat.

First off, no need to ask "When are we going to start a war?"  We will kick off a war once a week.  Each week we will follow this schedule (US East Coast timeframes):
- Start war midday Friday each week
- War preparations until midday Saturday
- War concludes midday Sunday
- Rinse and repeat
- If you cannot participate in war, step out of the clan and go to our Vacation Clan "Your Dad's Clan" same shield

Here are some clan rules for wars:

Preparation Day

1) Relax we have 24 hours to fill those war clan castles
2) Make sure your war donation requests are up to date
3) Give people a chance to update their requests
4) Level 5+ Wizards are typically the best defense
5) I know everyone wants to help but players with troops lower than level 5 wizards/archers or lower than level 3 dragons should sit out war donations
6) Ensure your base is in a "Trophy Hunting" setup with you Town Hall inside the walls

Battle Day

1) Relax we have 24 hours to each attack twice
2) Attack your suggested target within 1 or 2
3) Attack only once initially until a leader gives the go ahead for the second attacks
4) Always go for more stars! Never attack an enemy who has already been "2 starred" (unless that is all that is left). Preferably only attack enemies with no stars. War looters will be strictly prosecuted!
5) Remember to draw out those enemy clan castle troops. And Heroes if possible.
6) We will hold back a few of the clans heavy hitters to clean up bases other clan mates haven't been able to crack near the end of the war
7) When requesting troops for a war attack be specific and when donating during a war honor the requests

Have fun and kick ass!

Daddeo2u

Anti-Hog/Giant design

A quick blurb and design ideas for TH9 anti-giant/hog bases.  I'll add this to the links list as soon as I feel like it :p

TH9 Anti-Giant/Hog designs

*Updated with some new ones that we couldn't touch :p

Clan Wars update!

Well, I'm fairly certain the entire CoC world has heard about it already, but Clan Wars is finally here.

This blog and the facebook page will be a great help, since I can't post an entire synopsis in clan chat. 

Nearly every question you may have can be answered from the following links.  Read, watch, get informed.  Far more quality info than what I could ever encapsulate in a post here:

Clan Wars FAQ 

Daddy's videos

Chief Pat's videos

Godson's videos

Simon Tay's videos

Kudos to the YouTubers especially for compiling easy-to-digest videos.  I'm more of a visual person, so being able to see it in action helps a great deal.

So, the big question - how are we implementing it in our clan?  

As of this moment, the plan is to participate weekly.  We'll get our matchup Friday evening (EST), war prep on Saturday, and tear shit up Sunday.  This is just a projection, however.  As we go through these clan wars, we'll see how participation and availability go and make adjustments if necessary.

We'll be doing a "practice run" as soon as the update hits.  This first clan war is just to get everyone exposed to the new system, and work out any kinks in our planning/strategy.  

To address some of the frequent questions:

Q.  Who will I be attacking?

A.   The Clan Wars map will give you a "recommended" base to attack.  This is likely going to be your Huckleberry.  There will inevitably be some conflicts on who attacks who - this is where coordination in clan chat will be a necessity.  We need to make sure we don't have 3 people trying to attack the same opponent.

*** Only 3 stars can be taken from any given base ***.  If a base has already been 2-starred, it's likely not in our best interest to attack it again.  

Q.  What about troop requests?  I want something specific on defense.

A.   Donations in clan wars are completely separate from normal donations.  Your clan wars clan castle is only for defense.  Please, PLEASE do not give anything other than what is requested.  Donations do not add to your clan donation numbers, and you receive no XP for donations, so there are no excuses for spamming in your archers.  We have 24 hours to fill these requests, so there's really no excuse for giving anything other than what's requested.  On the flip side, if you want something specific, ensure your troop request message is explicit.  It would also benefit you to request early, so your clanmates have time to cook/fulfill requests.  Let's hope we don't have 40 people requesting "only lvl 2 witches", cause that's gonna be an issue.

...more to follow as we sort through everything in the new update.  

Quick Loot Guide

Well, I typed some stuff, then they changed it a day later!  For the new loot system details, go here.

Loot Penalty/Loot Bonus

• 5% of available loot for attacking a TH level 4+ lower (TH8 vs TH4 or lower)
• 25% of available loot for attacking a TH level 3 lower (TH8 vs TH5)
• 50% of available loot for attacking a TH level 2 lower (TH8 vs TH6)
• 90% of available loot for attacking a TH level 1 lower (TH8 vs TH7)
• 100% of available loot for attacking a TH level equal (TH8 vs TH8)
• 110% of available loot for attacking a TH level 1 higher (TH8 vs TH9)
• 150% of available loot for attacking a TH level 2 higher (TH8 vs TH10)

Essentially, attacking any town hall 2 levels lower is not profitable.  When someone with a th9 or th10 talks about loot penalty killing their ability to farm resources, this is what they're talking about.  Inversely, a th7 or th8 can find a great deal of loot from a th9 or th10.

Farming for Dummies

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about what "farming" is. I see a lot of people who claim to be "farming", but the dragons in your camp and half-full elixir collectors tell me otherwise.  Farming is profit.  High-speed, low cost, profitable attacking.  Plain and simple.

Rule #1 - Kick the town hall outside the walls.

Way out.  Some people like to stick teslas and traps around the town hall to toy with attackers.  That's fine - whatever floats your boat.  I'd rather keep all my teslas and traps protecting my money.  Personal preference.

We have some links (to your left) for various farming setups.  There are a million others - google is your friend.  The core principle of a good farming setup is protecting resources - not trophies.  You want the attacker to destroy your town hall, take the trophies, and run.  Leave the money alone.  You want your defense log to look like this:

Losing trophies?  Don't care.  The money is safe, therefore you can get my upgrades done, therefore you win.  Keeping the town hall inside your walls is a challenge to come get it - and any of that loot in the way.

"Free Shield"???  What's that?  Every time your town hall gets destroyed, it's an automatic 12-hour shield.  Go play outside.  Make some Play-Doh animals.  Take a bubble bath.  Let your collectors do their thing, and come back to even more money.

Rule #2 - Army Composition

There are a million different army compositions to use.  To name a few:

Barch - Barbarians and archers.  Maybe a few wallbreakers.  Cheap, fast to train.  Great for collector raids, not so much if you're trying to get into the storages.  Some folks like to sprinkle in giants as well, but I personally don't find them necessary.
BAM - Barbarians, archers, and minions.  Same as Barch, but with a faster training time - building minions in dark barracks offsets some of the regular barracks training time.  Also has the added benefit of an air troop in the mix.  Downside - you're spending dark elixir.  Not much, granted, but some.
Giant/Healer - The ever popular mix of giants, healers, archers, and goblins.  Slow training time, but very effective at getting into the storages.  Excellent army for farming dark elixir.  Downside - takes forever to train, nearly triple the cost of Barch of BAM.

I'm not going to break down the ins and outs of each of these strategies - YouTube has millions of videos with examples of each.  At the end of the day, just use whatever combination you're comfortable with, as long as it's profitable.  Dragons and PEKKAs are not profitable, and take forever to train.  Stop.  You're wasting time and money.

Rule #3 - Picking the Right Target

So, you've found a base with a ton of loot - those storages are full and juicy looking.  If you want to try to bust through into each compartment and get all that tasty loot, that's great.  And if you're farming for dark elixir, chances are you need to this.  But, if you're farming for gold and/or elixir, why are you wasting your time?  There's an even tastier treat (and easier to get) 5 skips ahead.  This is what you're looking for:

There are 4 things you want to look for when farming.  These 4 things make up what is commonly referred to as a "dead base".
1.  No shield - They haven't been online to attack yet.
2.  Full collectors - so juicy!  You're going to take every penny from this guy, and won't have to use a single wallbreaker.  If you see full collectors, you're looking at easy money.
3.  No clan - the probability of there being troops in the clan castle is slim to none.
4.  Gravestones - this base has likely been repeatedly worked over.  This means bombs/traps have already been used up, and no clan castle troops.

You need to exercise the "Next" button to find these.  Don't be scared to skip 30-40 bases before you find the right one.  In the image above, you could grab all the loot with around 40 archers.  Low cost, easy, profitable.

Rule #4 - Trophy Range

Typically, you drop to a lower trophy range when farming.  This is completely up to you - wherever you're finding loot is where you should be.

You're probably going to "lose" 50% or more of your attacks.  It doesn't matter.  With farming, profit is winning.  All you're concerned with is staying in a trophy range where you are finding profitable attacks.  That's it.  Profit pays for upgrades, which increases your chances of success during a trophy push.