(Text by Delpez, and I agree with all thoughts/suggestions other than to attack down 1-2, I think if we generally improve we should still be able to hit our matching number, plus it causes less confusion overall)
As you guys have probably noticed, our war performance have declined over the last three or four weeks. In the past we used to smash rushed clans (we still do), beat clans of equal strength (it’s becoming 50/50) and put up a decent fight if the matchmaker screws us over (not the case anymore). I have some comments and suggestions on this, and would appreciate the clan’s views on the issue.
In my mind the problem is one of activity, both in wars and in general. Our war activity has been poor lately – in the last five wars we’ve missed 15% of our attacks. If I only count players who has opted in, that number is still very high at 10%. This means we are missing 10% of attacks by players who have actually opted into a war! I’m convinced that we’ll go a long way towards improving our war performance if we just sort out this activity, as there is no way we can compete against strong clans while missing 15% attacks.
I also see people waiting longer and longer to execute their attacks – sometimes with less than four hours to go we still haven’t executed half our attacks. A lot of players then squeeze both attacks into a small period of time. Although technically those attacks were made, they are often rushed and not planned out carefully. It becomes a bigger issue if you are a TH8, because as the war winds down there are less viable bases to attack, so you are forced to attack up. That won’t happen if you’ve used the twelve hour window to attack a base that is of similar strength. It also becomes really hard for TH9’s to plan a second attack if TH8 activity was low. TH9’s are supposed to clean up TH8 bases, but it’s difficult to decide which base to attack if a lot of TH8’s still have to attack (because you don’t want to waste an attack on an easy base). I know that sometimes you don’t have a choice – you might feel that your opposite base is too strong, or your heroes might be on upgrade, or sometimes real life happens. However, making your first attack within the first twelve hours should be the norm, rather than the exception.
As I’ve said, improving our war activity (overall and during the first twelve hours) will go a long way towards improving our war performance. There is also a second type of activity that is hurting us, and that’s general raiding activity. More and more players are not raiding anymore – doing only war attacks. There is nothing wrong with that, just understand that it will affect our war performance. I can see this in my own war attacks. When I just reached TH9 I was very active, and my 3-star percentage in wars was over 60%. Nowadays I raid a lot less, and that percentage has dropped to below 30%! I’ve not really moved up the war ladder – I’m still sitting around #10, and the bases I hit do not appear to be any stronger than before. It’s telling that my 3-star percentage started dropping when I began playing FFXIV – so blame Syncaine!
War attacks are hard; this is true at all levels but especially at TH9 and TH10. Not only do you have to execute a lot of actions very accurately in a short period of time, you also have to make decisions on the fly when the unexpected happens. Most of these skills are honed by raiding, so if you only execute four war attacks a week your skills will suffer. I can see three solutions to this problem. The first is to force people to raid – this can be measured in their experience level. I’m not a fan of this, mostly because I myself are not raiding much these days, but also because that would push us firmly into the territory of a hardcore clan. Just understand that as general activity decreases, we will basically become a social clan that will struggle in any tough war. Secondly, we can execute easier attacks first up. At TH9 GoWiPe and GoWiWi attacks are easier to execute than LaLoon or Hogs, but the 3-star percentages are also lower. However, from where we are now I will take solid 2-stars all day over the failed attacks with an occasional 3-star we are getting with Hogs and LaLoon. Finally we can attack down. The decision to attack our opposite number was made at a time when most players were active and we were all improving. If we settle for a more social setup it might make sense to start attacking down.
To summarize, I believe we can do the following to improve our war performance (I have included some points that was not discussed in detail, but are also quite important):
Get your first attack in as early as possible, and if you don’t plan to attack early state so in clan chat so someone else can take your base.
All TH8’s should try to complete both attacks two hours before the war ends. I know this is not always possible, but it would assist TH9’s a great deal when deciding which bases to clean up.
At TH8, get access to GoWiPe, Dragons and Hogs. The days are long gone where dragons were enough to be effective in a war. These days we struggle against any clan which prepares for dragons, and to a lesser extent GoWiPe. That’s why you need all three attacking options, as it’s very difficult for a TH8 to build a base that defends against all three.
Know how to execute your attacks! There is no point in having access to Hogs but not knowing how to execute a Hog attack. There are exceptions to every rule, but most LaLoon and Hog attacks should follow a similar pattern. You’ve GOT to deal with the CC and Queen before you release your Hogs or LaLoons. Nine times out of ten the CC and especially the Queen will ruin those attacks, so your first order of business is to take them out. Most players try to deal with the CC, but not everybody realizes how key the enemy Queen is for Hog and LaLoon attacks. So bring a golem or two, some wizards and both your heroes to take out the Queen and CC BEFORE the main attack starts. Btw, this step is not as critical with GoWiPe(Wi), which is part of the reason why those attacks are easier.
If you are struggling with LaLoon and Hogs (or are facing a tough base) don’t be ashamed to Town Hall dive you opposite for a 2-star. GoWiPe(Wi) is preferable to dragons, because it’s more powerful and reveals more traps.
Maybe we should attack one or two down first up? That would mean sacrificing some stars at the top, but those bases are usually very hard in any case. Also, our last couple of players would have to wait for others to attack before they can join in.
And finally, the only hard rule I would have. If you opt into a war you must use both attacks. As before, life happens and sometimes you miss an attack due to unforeseen circumstances. However, this should not become a trend. There’s nothing more demoralizing than being invested in a war, following the attacks and donating a ton of troops, only to lose because our activity was poor.
Any idea, thoughts, suggestions?
Hardcore Casual 
Can’t speak for group dynamics, mostly because I haven’t been paying enough attention, but for my own part: summer is a messed up time of year. I work in education, so I have summers off. That sounds like it should be good for gaming, but it’s not good for planning. It means I can be sitting at my home office thinking I have nothing to do for three days, then my phone rings, my friend who owns a farm says he could use some help, and I drive to central Maine to pick organic veggies and crash in my buddy’s living room.
Even after we talked a few weeks ago, it’s continued to be a comedy of errors. I’ve learned that my phone battery needs to be replaced: even starting with a full charge, I can’t finish an attack without the phone dying unless I’m plugged in. I missed a war toward the end of last week because just before I went to attack, I learned my doctor is retiring, and as a diabetic, I went into full HOLY SHIT MUST FIX PROBLEM mode, and didn’t come out of it until the war was over.
So I’ve definitely been mucking up the group stats. All of these things have been ridiculously timed and inconvenient: for none of these wars was there any reason to think I should opt out until we were well into battle day.
So for me it’s a summer thing. Summer means I have so much more time for gaming. Sitting here, right now, I know I have an errand to run this afternoon and then nowhere to be until Saturday. But I could use the money, so tomorrow afternoon I’d drive to Maine in a heartbeat.
If it would be better, I can opt out until September 1st. My district starts back then, and my life goes back to a regular schedule. I’ve stayed in because I really did not expect to miss as much as I have, but we’re down to exactly two weeks.
I think it being summer is a good point, as I’m sure it messes with a lot of people in terms of vacation and such.
My opinion is that we finally raised our Elo high enough that we’re getting harder match ups on average, or supercell changed their algorithm. The problem of how to continue improving is the same in my view or yours, so most of your post still works even if I’m right.
One thought I have is we might drop 3 instead of adding 2, etc, if to get to a multiple of 5. Maybe a little more drama, but that might help with activity levels.
Interesting that we are all TH8 or above now.
The main reason I add over removing is just to more people have a chance to play, at the expense of perhaps lower activity. I generally opt-in low level people, but as you mentioned, the fact that we are all TH8 now means even a ‘lower lvl’ inactive still hurts us.
First of all a hat tip to Delpez for keeping up the good work posting regularly about CoC here.
My main struggle during wars is to get my first attack in within 12 hours. Many wars have started around or after 11 p.m. in my timezone (GMT +1, Berlin/Amsterdam) when I am about to go to sleep. In the following morning I have to prepare for work and even if I could manage to squeeze in an attack before leaving for work usually during the night my shield has run out and any cc troops have been lost during some dude’s night raid on my village (requesting new clan troops quickly doesn’t work because there are not many people logged in at that time, if any).
So in those cases I am restricted to perform both attacks within the last 3-5 hours of the war. That doesn’t mean that I vote to change the wartimes but maybe it explains why some people are struggling to keep up with the given schedule.
Thanks for keeping up with this Delpez.
Personally I have been raiding a lot less, same reason as Delpez as well I re-subbed to FF XIV and have been hammering that. I am quite happy with where I sit at the moment though I can contribute most things to everyone else and I am usually able to pull my own weight in wars. I have built my base to try and only give up 2 stars which I think is the best I am going to do with almost no TH9 defences.
A lot of the TH8 attacks seem quite apathetic with little in the way of preparation, some people are now trying new things however and some of those people who didn’t seem to be that bothered by it have left so things may change. Some keep doing the same silly things over and over.
I think we should put the last war to the side as a statistical outlier as the match up was ridiculous (although we have had more of these in our favour imo), if that is the case the total performance hasn’t been terrible.
One thing I do notice is the TH8’s we have now don’t ask questions, I can log into a war 8 hours later and nothing has been said other than by the regular people who utilise chat. Ask for opinions if you aren’t sure how to approach something.
I like the idea of attacking your opposite still but I am one of the people who is prepared to look for weaknesses and talk about it if I feel I need help. Also I will actual let the clan know if I won’t be attacking to give someone else the opportunity.
I don’t mind if we go for a more casual approach over the summer months, I’ll still do what I normally do in wars.
Nice post again Del, I agree with most of it, still prefer attacking your opposite though. The last war was disappointing in that we seemed to just give up after a slow start, we got closer against the ClashHeads! If it looks like we are going to lose it’s a chance to try something new, but you don’t learn anything from an unused attack.
The only other thing I would like is that you can call out a base for your second attack and get dibs for maybe 2 hours. I often size up a base, train troops for it only to have someone else hit it and end up with troops and spells unsuitable for another base.
Of course that would require people to read clan chat, which a number of people don’t seem to do. I would love to see more people talking strats in clan chat and learning/trying new attacks, especially at TH8 where dragons don’t seem to cut it any more.
I definitely want us to keep the attack-your-opposite in place for first attacks. Can we add it to the guild message too? Noticed a few times that we miss covering that with newbies which causes issues. As I got closer and closer to maxed TH8 I really dreaded the times I got matched with TH9 bases, but it forced me to think strategically which is essential for growth. It also helped reduce the dread I had in upgrading to TH9 – since I was already getting matched with TH9’s I realised it was only going to help me handle them.
I think an opportunity we’ve been missing, which is hurting us, is a bit of housekeeping. Amongst our core we’ve had a few players who havent participated in guild chat and consistently delivered poor war attacks. One prime example that comes to mind (he’s recently left) was a TH8 that for months didnt update his TH7 war base, then only after prompting dumped the new stuff randomly in. His war attacks were generally no-funnel spray and pray dragon affairs, right into an air sweeper if possible. Needing to develop skills is fine, but being closed to feedback means a dead end for us as a clan.
I’d like to see some more tracking of individual results and economy (stars/attacks taken) which would help us identify points for improvement and, most importantly, create points for discussion and future posts. Thats the single most important thing – that we’re talking, reviewing, learning, growing. I’ll happily self nominate to start tracking this stuff too.
Lastly, I’m wondering what routines people have for learning? Might be worth sharing our processes to see what we can learn from each other. I watch onehive vids a fair bit and listen to their podcast each week, but my real support are Mikrakov and Siouxsie (brother-in-law and my wife) who I see throughout the week and we always trade notes on war attacks and share advice on best ways to go about things. If I get stuck I can message them anytime too for advice, and when I was learning dragon attacks and GoWiPes it was awesome to have them at my shoulder talking me through it. What support networks do you guys have?
I think attacking your opposite number is okay unless you have to attack up a level. A th9 attacking a half decent th10 will usually get chewed up by infernos without the freeze, similar for a th8 attacking a th9. I really think attacking down two is the way to go. We are only generally getting 1-2 stars off the top base anyway and attacking down slightly should make that first round of attacks a bit smoother and hopefully increase initial 3 stars.
Well written piece by Delp, and some good comments.
I am fine with attacking my opposite, except for when they have infernos :P.
In wars, I sometimes struggle with the timing. Wars that end around 5pm EST mean I have to get my attack last attack around lunch as I rarely get home before 5pm. I flat out don’t like wars that end at lunch time., but I understand the need for different times as we are spread over timezones.
I agree with Del, that if a lot of attacks are left, it’s get hard to know what to hit, and if I do make up a comp, it’s likely that base will get hit, and I don’t have time to build a new comp.
I am fine using gowiwi/wipe if I have to. Using those does not help you improve though. Experimenting with attacks is the only way to improve.
The topic of raiding I find interesting. I would be interested to hear how each of us does their raiding. I am comfortable around Crystal 1 purely because of my raiding style, which is not optimal for prepping for war.
All my (current) raiding is done in two hour blocks – boosted barracks, boosted heros, and maybe boosted spell factory. I usually run with 16-20 giants, 6-8 WB, 20 goblins, 70-80 archers, and rest barbs. That comp is able to take out low th9’s, and th8’s and is good for getting all resources from various bases. I don’t hit bases for less than 200k unless I only care about DE. I am not far from the point DE being the only useful resource for non-wall upgrades (3 – 6 months).
I can see the value here in prepping various comps and just waiting for them to be built, so I’d be attacking more sporadically.. Anyone have advice here?
Looking at our order, we have some guys much higher up than crystal. I’d like to know what you guys farm with, and how effective it is against tough bases..
One thing that would be helpful is a set days and times when wars will be started, even if you have a time for each day, but don’t always use that slot. at least we know when to expect them.
EDIT: We could really do with having a forum to discuss things. Maybe on the inq site?
Saucelah: Missing war attacks due to real life issues is understandable. I just feel that a comment in chat is appropriate. For instance, Nato missed both attacks in the previous war, and afterwards he apologized because he had to work double shift. That creates a lot of goodwill and understanding – if people just miss war attacks without a comment, it’s really looks like they are not active and/or not invested in wars at all.
Trego: Elo might have something to do with it, but we still get real derpy clans as well. Regardless, we used make a decent fist of wars against some serious clans (JTJU and Clashheads). This last war our attacks were poor and we basically gave up with hours to go.
Sleepy: I agree that we should rather drop players than add in. If you’re constantly getting dropped, maybe it’s time to pick up those trophies and/or experience? I would suggest that we use experience level to drop players, rather than trophies.
Ellroy: I’m in the same time zone (South Africa), and I also sometimes struggle to get my first attack in within 12 hours. I just think we should be aware of the issue, and do the first attack as soon as possible. That goes for the second attack as well if you’re TH8. If you can’t, drop a comment in clan chat stating that you’ll only attack towards the end of the war (as you’ve been doing, I believe!).
Jonneh: I agree that some of our TH8 (and TH9) attacks seem to make the same mistakes over and over again. I guess it’s also up to the more active players to constructively criticize attacks in chat – hopefully people read chat, even if they don’t actually type! I used to do a lot of that, but these days my own attacks are not as good as they used to be, so I’m hesitant to criticize other people.
Mikra: I tried calling a base, but unfortunately that does not work – people attack without reading clan chat. It’s especially frustrating with Hogs, since a base needs some very specific requirements to be Hoggable (is that a word?). Lately I’ve been stranded a few times with a Hog army and nothing to hit!
Saate: TH8’s can usually 2-star a TH9 base with a GoWiPe dive, and it’s also good practice. Currently I’m only tracking activity, not stars or anything performance related. There are a couple of complications – if you only track stars you won’t get a handle on tactics used, hitting down or up, base strength and any number of factors that you’d actually want to discuss, rather than the number of stars someone gets. Also, it is quite possible to be getting better while getting fewer stars – a new TH9 might be getting less stars as he progresses, although his attacks are getting better (harder bases). Finally, if you’re interested in tracking performance have a look at JTJ’s clan site – under Clan Wars/Stats on how they track performance. As for learning, I watch OneHive and JTJU.
JHO: I would also prefer us hitting slightly down, but we’re in the minority here!
Torn: I think GoWiWi is actually an accepted attack at high levels, so it should be part of one’s armoury and practised if possible. I raid with Giants (12) , wallbreakers (8) and barcher (72 each). I find raids useful practise for dealing with clan troops and heroes, and how to funnel my own heroes into the core. Also, I misclick a lot less in wars if I raid more. Most of the players in Champs and beyond snipe, or do a TH dive if it can be reached. It would be great if we can find a forum to discuss these things, especially if we track performance s well. It would be a lot easier for me to just upload activity/performance files than to write an essay each time!
We could use the INQ forums, I’m just not sure how active it would be. I also like the longer stuff as posts here since it lets people easily go back and look for CoC-tagged posts.
Is it possible to add a spreadsheet to the blog – say we track performance or the activity sheet? How do you feel about a performance tracker, keeping in mind the reservations I had in the previous comment? I think making the activity sheet available for everyone might also keep our activity relevant and on people’s minds
Google drive?