Clash of Clans Journey - Weekly Update (Jan 27th) Lab Upgrade

 

Town Hall Level 12 - Week 2

Here's the latest update from the second week following the TH12 upgrade.  There have been several upgrades, a lot of battles and the start of the Clan Games this week so lot's to cover.  Here's a view of how the base looks now.

The Laboratory, Workshop, 1 Elixir Collector and 1 Gold Mine have all been upgraded.  The X-Bow is nearly a 10 day upgrade so that needs a couple for days to finish. In addition, I used the Book of Heroes from the Season Challenge to upgrade the Barbarian King to level 44.  Then, I added the new traps for TH12 as these do not take a lot of resources and they complete instantly.  Finally, I upgraded the bat spell to level 3.  

I also started the wall upgrades.  These are also going to take a long time so it's best to start it straight after the TH upgrade.  After completing the wall upgrades at TH11, I then started collecting wall rings to help at TH12.  I managed to collect 26 of them but at TH12, you need two wall rings to upgrade 1 brick.  So, 13 bricks down, 287 to go!

The troop and spell upgrades at TH12 are getting very expensive given my planned switch to PEKKA, Bowler, Bat attacks.  For example, to get the PEKKA to level 7 will take 7.7M elixir and 10 days.  I'll need to factor those into the upgrade plan moving forward.

Current Upgrades in Progress

X-Bow to level 6

Gold Storage to level 13

Army Camp to level 10

Clan Castle to level 8

Inferno Tower to level 6

There are a mix of resources, defensive and offensive upgrades here.  In addition, I'm trying to phase the upgrades so that I have 1.5 to 2 days between each one completing.  That way, I don't have three finishing at the same time and then need to find a ton of resources to start three new upgrades.

Clan Games

The clan games started this week and it's a great opportunity to pick up some fantastic rewards.  Of course, it helps if your clan members participate so you can maximize to prizes.  Always make sure that you hit the max total points for the games (5,000 this month) as you get to pick an extra reward at the end.

If it looks like your clan is going to struggle to get all the rewards, sound the alarm nice and early.  Give the clan leaders a chance to rally your clan (or threaten to kick them out).

Some advanced planning is worthwhile here as well.  The runes of gold, elixir and dark elixir are worth grabbing,  However, at my TH level, you can only store one.  Therefore, if you're planning to claim one of these at the end of the games, make sure you maximize your existing runes by running the relevant storages down ahead of time. 

For the games themselves, focus on the challenges that involve Versus Battles to start with.  These are generally quite quick to complete and you can get them done while completing the daily 3 Win bonus attacks.  Otherwise, look for challenges using troops that you are already using so you don't need to re-train a specific army.  Loot challenges are also pretty straightforward so I like to take these on when I'm attacking in Multiplayer.

It's not a bad idea to set yourself a target for points per day in the clan games.  If you aim for around 1,000 points for day you'll find it better than having to cram 5,000 points into the final day.  

Builder Base

The quest for the sixth builder continues!  The Mega Tesla is now at level 7 so only two more upgrades to go.  Level 8 will take 4M Elixir and will take 5 days.  Until then, work on the Battle Machine is ongoing.  That is currently at level 23 and being upgraded to 24 (so 6 more to go after that).  I have a couple of runes for the builder village but I'm saving those until I need them.  

For the record, the requirements for the sixth builder are:

- Builder Hall to level 9 (Done)

- Gear up 3 defenses in the Home Base (Done)

- Upgrade Cannon Carts to level 18 (Done)

- Upgrade Mega Tesla to level 9 (In Progress)

- Upgrade Battle Machine to level 30 (Currently working on 24)

Tip Of The Week

I plan to add at least one tip in each blog post moving forward.  Let me know in the comments if you find it useful or if you have questions about the game.  

This week's tip relates to base layout.  There are tons of videos and websites out there that will give you designs for anti 3* bases, trophy chasing bases and everything in-between.  However, in the last few weeks, I have been watching back the replays of attacks on my base.  

I pay particular attention to anywhere I am getting 3* (especially where the troops are not that strong).  By watching these replays I have been able to find small weaknesses in the layout.  For example, I've moved some defenses that were too close to the air defenses.  These were being taken out by the zap / drag attacks.  

I've also moved traps to make them more effective.   To see your replays, go to the Attack Log (click on the envelope at the top left of the home village).  Then click on the replay button and pause the attack when you need to so you can see what's happening.  

By making these minor tweaks every week, you'll see what's working and builder a better, stronger base.

Clash On! 

Clash of Clans Journey - Weekly Update (Jan 20th) TH12 Upgrade

Town Hall Level 12 - Week 1

The big news this week is that the TH12 upgrade is complete.  I'll keep a track in this blog going forward so that you can see how many weeks I've been at the current TH level.  This way, you can get a sense of how quickly (or slowly) it takes a 'free to play' player to max TH12.  

What Should I Upgrade First at TH12?

This is a common question in the Clash of Clan forums and not just for this Town Hall level.  Below are my thoughts on where to start and why.  Note that at the time the upgrade completed, I had three builders available.  I had been upgrading a few traps while waiting for the TH to complete but not kicked anything else off to ensure that I had some spare builders to get started with.

1.) Upgrade the Lab

While progressing from TH11 to TH12, it was the troop and spell upgrades that took me the longest time.  Therefore, I plan to make an early start on these at the TH12 level.  I've already noticed that the attacks that I've been using at TH11 do not work as well on TH12 bases.  Therefore, I suspect that I need some troop upgrades fairly soon to be more competitive.

2.) Workshop

One of the new options available at TH12 is the workshop where you can build your own siege machines.  Throughout TH11, I have been using Raid Medals to reinforce the Clan Castle with troops and siege machines.  While this has worked well, the ability to make my own would result in significant savings in Raid Medals over time.

3.) Resource Collectors

It looks like TH12 is the level where you can finally max out the resource collectors.  The gold mines and elixir collectors max out at level 15 and the dark elixir drills max out at level 9.  Given that these collectors run 24x7, it makes sense to get them to the highest level as soon as possible.

From here, the focus will turn to the heroes.  The Archer Queen and Barbarian King can go to level 65 and the Grand Warden can go to level 40.  These are long term grinds so the sooner we start the better,  More on hero strategy as I get into it.

List of Current Upgrades

Therefore, at the time of writing, the following upgrades are in progress.

- Laboratory

- Workshop

- Elixir Collector

- Gold Mine

- X-Bow

I added the X-Bow for a few reasons.  Firstly, following the TH upgrade, you are given a few time limited perks that help fill the storages.  For example, you get a 4x Star Bonus award so if you collect 5*s from multiplayer battles, the bonus is 3M gold.  Therefore, I need to add an expensive upgrade to the list so that the output from the mines has somewhere to go.

Secondly, the timing of the upgrades needs to be considered.  If all the upgrades complete around the same time, it's hard to find the resources to kick off another 5 upgrades at once.  The X-bow upgrade is over 7M and takes over 9 days so fits the bill nicely.

What Spells To Upgrade at TH12?

While the lab is upgrading, I am still able to research troops and spells.  At TH12 I plan to start testing the PEKKA Bo Bat attack strategy to see how effective it is.  Most of the attack strategies assume max level troops so I'll be prioritizing these troops and spells over the next few weeks.  

My bat spell is currently at Level 2 so upgrading to Level 3 is the current job.  This will be completed by the next weekly update.

Builder Base Progress

Work continues in the builder base as I work towards the 6th builder.  Another Mega Telsa upgrade has been completed (now at level 6) and I kicked off another Battle Machine upgrade (to level 22).

Attacks will be on hold for the 3 days of the battle machine upgrade.  However, I did purchase 3 Clock Tower boosts with my Raid Medals to help speed up the process.

I've tweaked the attack strategy slightly in terms of how I deploy the Cannon Carts.  Instead of deploying a wide line of cannon carts, I deploy four of them.  Then I set the battle machine behind the carts and wait for a few seconds.  Then I deploy the remaining carts behind the battle machine.  This seems to lessen the impact of the splash damage and gives the battle machine the chance to take out some major defensive units.

Currently, all troops are 5 levels above normal (unless maxed at level 18) due to the TH upgrade.  This is helping complete the three daily attacks more easily.

Clash of Clans Events

I completed the lizard blizzard event with its related Research Potion (already used).  This week the focus is on The Wizard of Awes event.  It has a builder potion available on completion so that's worth working for.  I adjusted my attack strategy that I mentioned last week (here) by reducing the miners and including the necessary 7 wizards for the event.  

I deploy these wizards with the King and Warden as part of the funnel setting.  This has worked ok with 3 2* attacks, 1 3* attack and a single 1* attack so far.  5 more to go to complete the event.

Top 3 Ideas For Your Clash of Clans Base This Week.

 It's a New Year so now's a great time for a little Clash of Clans maintenance check on your base to ensure it's all ship shape.  Here are 3 great ideas to consider for your own base that could make a big difference this year.

1.  Check those magic items.

Tap on your Town Hall and then tap on Magic Items.  The chances are that you have collected several of these either through events or other challenges.  It's not always possible to use these straight away and it's easy to forget that you have them.  

Perhaps there is a a spare Hero Potion that you can use in the next Clan War?  Maybe you have a Research Potion that you forgot about that can speed up that upgrade that you just kicked off.  Check to see if you have any runes that weren't used because those storages were already full.  

Make a plan to use them once these storages are empty.  Just remember to time this right so that you can spend it before you get raided.

2.) Check Those Single Player and Practice Challenges.

Ok, so when you started out playing Clash of Clans, you diligently did the practice sessions for your TH level and worked on the Goblin Trail to grab that loot.  However, then you hit a wall and needed some serious troop development before you could make any more progress.  Before you know it, you're only doing multiplayer attacks and the other options are forgotten.

The loot available in these challenges is not bad.  For my TH level, 400K gold and elixir plus 3.5K dark elixir is on offer on the Goblin Trail.  Once my TH12 upgrade is complete, there are three practice challenges that will net 1.8 Million Gold and elixir and 18K dark elixir!  

Don't forget that there is a home village achievement award if you get 150 stars on the Campaign Map.  That's worth an extra 20 Gems as well.

3.) Review your Raid Medals, Gems and Clan War League medals.  

Have you built up a backlog of medals and gems and forgotten to use them?  Check the League shop especially for the Hammer of Heroes.  Then check out the weekly deals and make sure you've collected the most recent free offer.  Also, see if you have the 500 Gems for the Book of Heroes. 

Finally, see how many Raid Medals you have.  Good options here could be the Wall Rings (if your walls are at the higher levels).  The Research Potion could be another good option to assist with the more lengthy troop and spell upgrades.

I hope these ideas are useful for your base.  Let me know in the comments below if you have any other housekeeping items that you find useful to review from time to time.

Clash On.

Clash of Clans Journey - Weekly Update

Archer Towers & Cannons - Level 15.

The final updates to the archer towers and cannons are near completion and the upgrade to TH12 is getting closer.  Here is how the main village is looking right now.  To see the progress since last time. check out my last post here.

As you can see, both the elixir and dark elixir storages are full at this stage.  I don't normally run them this full as excess elixir goes to wall upgrades.  However, as these are now complete I am ok to carry a surplus for a little while and spend it once the new TH is in place.

As the clan war league is currently running, I am not upgrading any of the heroes at this time.  In addition, both the Queen and Warden are maxed out for this TH level so only the King requires upgrades,  Finally, all the dark elixir troops are upgraded to the maximum level (once the hog riders are complete) so again, I'm happy to carry the surplus for now.

Clash of Clans - Free to play

My approach to the game is totally 'free to play' and has been from the very start.  I do not purchase any gems and do not buy the season pass.  While this no doubt slows down the speed of development, I have not found that it has impacted my enjoyment of the game.  

It does mean that I am always looking to take advantage of any additional challenges running in the Events section.  For now, the only event available is the 2023 New Year Challenge which I have completed with some help from You Tube - more on the approach to Events as new ones appear.

Attack Strategy - Town Hall 11

Currently I am using a Queen Walk with mass Miners as my main attack strategy.  I also use my Raid Medals to reinforce the troops on each attack with the Log Launcher raid machine.  Inside the siege machine I take a Pekka, a Baby Dragon, a freeze and a poison spell.

I tend to deploy the Queen with the five Healers in the same place where I plan to deploy the siege machine.  This reduces the initial damage to the siege machine and ensures that it can get further into the base.  The placement of the siege machine is always so it's on a direct line to the Eagle Artillery and then the Town Hall.  

I deploy a Wizard, the King and the Warden at a point where it will create a good funnel for the Miners.  This depends on how the Queen progresses so I wait for 20-30 seconds before deciding on the best location.  I use freeze spells to protect the Queen and the Healers as required.  Once the heroes have been deployed, I then use the siege machine.  Once it gets destroyed, I use a Heal and Rage spell so that the Pekka and Baby Dragon finish off the TH if the siege machine doesn't make it that far.

At this point, I deploy the Miners into the funnel that I created with the heroes and use a remaining Heal and Rage spell to help them take out major defenses.  This attack has worked well for me on most TH11 setups.  It does not guarantee three stars but it usually gets two and often two.  In the last ten attacks it has resulted in 3 *** wins,  6** victories and only 1*.  

As the major need is gold at this point of the game, I select TH11 targets that have at least 500K available.  I will occasionally try a TH12 if there is 1M gold available but I don't see that too often.  This criteria changes a little depending on the resources required and I tend to be less fussy if I only need a 1* victory to get the 5* bonus.

Builder Base Progress

I finally made it to 3,000 trophies this week in the builder base.  This achievement unlocks 1,000 gems which I plan to use on two Book of Heroes for the Barbarian King upgrades in the home village.  I had been close to the 3,000 target earlier in the week but it took a further upgrade to the Battle Machine (to level 21) to get over the line.

For the record, I have been using 6 level 16 Baby Dragons, 4 level 12 Wall Breakers and 9 level 18 Cannon Carts with the level 20 Battle Machine.  The attack strategy has been to target the side of the base with the least air defenses.  I always use 2 Baby Dragons at a time,  so that if one is targeted by an air defense, the other is left undamaged during the attack.  You have to be careful to space them correctly otherwise their rage ability is disabled when they get too close together.

Once the Baby Dragons have been used up, I deploy the wall breakers to get access to the Town Hall.  Then I deploy the Cannon Carts in a row with the Battle Machine just behind.  Again, I try to keep the Cannon Carts spaced out otherwise they are susceptible to splash damage.  This attack has served me well for the last couple of months and I plan to keep using it for now.

I purchased some additional Clock Tower boost potions to use while the Battle Machine was upgrading.  I tend not to attack while this is in progress as the trophy level drops too much and I was very close to the 3,000 target as mentioned above.

Now that the Battle Machine is at Level 21, I am upgrading the Mega Tesla to level 5.  The plan for the next while is to get the Battle Machine to level 30 and the Mega Tesla to level 9.  Completing these final two tasks will unlock the 6th Builder which will be useful in the main village now that I am close to the TH 12 upgrade.

Clan War Leagues 

This week we have been participating in the Clan War League.  The clan is making great progress and as I write, we are top of the league with only one battle remaining.  We are almost certain of promotion at this stage.  

This was not a great League for my village.  I have only managed to 2 * on one occasion with all the other attacks being 1*.  I have a feeling that I am taking on opponents at too high a level.  For this last battle, I plan to leave the attack until close to the deadline and then pick an opponent lower in the ranking.   

I have been sticking with the attack strategy as laid out above as that works pretty well in most multi-player battles.  However, for the next clan war league I may switch to the Lightening Spell / Electro Dragon approach as that is the one I see most often in my defense log. 

Intro

Welcome to my Clash of Clans blog.  Hopefully you will find this content interesting as you join me on my journey with the game.  My aim here is to share the key tips and lessons learnt along the way as well as highlighting any particular strategies that I am using as part of the game.

I will try to focus this blog on interesting, entertaining and relevant content for Clash of Clans fans.  Therefore, rather than relying on the standard You Tube strategies, I plan to share my real time progress with all the successes and failures along the way.  This will hopefully be different from the normal CoC content that seems to show nothing but 3 star wins in every attack.

As background, I have been playing for about a year and am currently at Town Hall 11 in the Main Village.  The Builder Village is at TH9 and I am working towards the infamous sixth builder.  To that end, I have already geared up three defenses in the Main Village and am now upgrading the cannon carts to level 18.

In the Main Village, I am close to maxing out all the defenses.  The plan is to complete these before upgrading to TH12.  I will leave the traps for now and come back to those after the Town Hall is upgraded.  My Archer Queen is currently at level 50, the Barbarian King is level 39 and the Grand Warden is at level 20.  As the Queen and Grand Warden are maxed out for this TH level, the focus is now on the Barbarian King.  I'll address hero upgrade strategy in a later post.

I have 5 active builders in the Main Village although the strategy for these varies as the TH upgrades progress for each level, more on that later.  For now, I have 5 active builders.  Two are upgrading cannons from level 14 to 15, one is upgrading the last wizard tower from level 9 to 10 and two are upgrading archer towers from level 14 to 15.  In the lab, I am upgrading hog riders from level 6 to 7.

In the builder village, I am upgrading the mega tesla from level 3 to 4.  This is part of the steps to acquire the sixth builder (mega tesla to level 9).  In the Builder Base lab I am upgrading the cannon carts to level 18 as mentioned above.  The next upgrades planned for this village will be focused on getting both elixir collectors to level 9 (currently level 8).  These upgrades will be vital in order to get the battle machine to level 30 (the last step for the sixth builder) as it's currently at level 20.  

That about covers it for this first post.  More to come soon as the upgrades complete and the raid weekend starts.