Hardcore Casual

(Stats and writeup provided by Delpez)

Supreme Cream! vs Kaskus Cavalry

Another close war and another close win. In fact, this was the smallest victory margin (4) since I started reporting on the wars. If you analyse this margin, two of the stars came from 3-star attacks, and another two from stars against top level bases.

We have only three TH6 bases left, so their performance doesn’t really influence the wars. However, pulling clan troops is still a problem preventing some low level 3-stars. At TH7 the percentages were similar, but it’s worth noting that half our TH7’s were smashed by higher levels. At TH8 we did well, smashing their TH8’s half the time while they could only manage one in four – our recent focus on defense is still paying dividends. This forced their top bases to attack down – six of our TH8’s were smashed by higher levels. However, this meant less attacks against our TH9&10’s, and we beat them by two crucial stars at the top.

This war shows the inherent redundancy in war attacks. You can be quite inefficient and still get close, because each clan gets 90 attacks but only 45 targets. The war also showed the difference between attacking lower versus same level bases. Many wars can be won with a downward attacking policy, but you are sacrificing stars at the top. In a close war it’s better to have a predominant sideways attacking policy – if your TH7 and TH8’s manage to clear most of the opposing bases, it leaves more same level attacks for top bases. Having said that, it’s usually better for rushed or newly promoted bases to attack down until they acquire the necessary attacking power.

Some observations:

Livercat’s anti-dragon base weathered eight (!) attacks before being smashed. However, these bases can be unlocked, as a TH7 showed against my own anti dragon base. The advantage of these bases is that they really punish careless dragon attacks and forces the opponent to be more precise.

Lightning is still working well for me, even against anti-dragon bases. In fact, the TH7 who smashed my base used triple Lightning. My gut feel is that Rage and/or Heal spells are more powerful against most TH8’s, but Lightning spells are easier to use and more consistent against flawed bases (with an AD close to the edge). Against TH7’s there is no contest – triple Lightning is the best and cheapest.

Rushed TH9 bases with crappy air defenses are surprisingly hard to 3-star. Their #16 looked like a juicy target, yet he defended seven of our dragon attacks with his low level air defenses. The problem is that he had four AD’s, and even at a low level they deal a ton of damage. So even if you deal with two or three AD’s, the fourth usually got the remaining dragons.

(Stats and writeup provided by Delpez)

Supreme Cream! vs Kakakoko Team

When you open the war screen you’ll see the following:

That’s right, not only did we manage fourteen zero stars across all TH levels, our opponents easily bested us in number of attacks won. The reason I show this is to once again emphasize the importance of 3-stars. Unless you’re fighting against the top bases, a one or two star victory just does not mean that much; wars are won and lost on 3-stars. It’s no coincidence that our victory margin and the number of 3-stars margin is exactly the same.

Having said all that, this was a fantastic war. It’s hard to believe that such a simple system could provide such tension. It also illustrates how the game allows players with vastly different levels of participation to play together. People with other interests or little time can log in, do their war attacks and collect the loot at the end. Others are literally logged in for the duration of the war, following each battle and planning their own attacks in minute detail. Both these groups can contribute equally, although I would argue that the latter gets a whole additional level of entertainment.

As for the war stats, the numbers are slightly deceiving. With two hours to go we were actually behind by four stars, and the 3-star percentages were too close to call. We then embarked on an incredible run of ten 3-star attacks that sealed the victory. Exciting stuff! By town hall level we only did two TH6 attacks, and both failed because CC troops were not dealt with. The TH7’s from both clans did very well against each other, but our TH8’s beat theirs convincingly as far as 3-stars were concerned. We edged the top bases as well, which proved to be quite important in a close war such as this.

Some general comments and points for discussion:

With lower level giant attacks, it’s imperative to deal with clan castle troops first. No matter how good the rest of the attack is, it will fail if the CC troops are not pulled and killed before giants are deployed.

Mass dragon attacks are the best way to smash same level bases at TH7 and most of TH8. So getting access to dragons and levelling them should be a high priority for all TH7&8’s. At high TH8 and above other tactics become viable, although barcher is most certainly NOT one of them!

Our superior TH8 stats were influenced to a large degree by 19 attacks our opponents launched against four bases (Nickio, JHO, Livercat and Draconis). Of those the first three bases were definitely anti-dragon, while Draconis’ base also had elements of anti-dragon. This contributed significantly to their low 3-star percentage against our TH8 bases (42%). For reference, during the wars we lost our opponents consistently scored above 50% against our TH8’s. I know it’s not as glamorous, but this war was won on solid defence as much as good attacks. Just remember that good players can still 3-star an anti-dragon base, but their margin for error is smaller.

As far as spells and clan troops go for dragon attacks, we had success with various combinations. Some bases are definitely more susceptible to certain tactics, but I’d like to point out that 3 x Lightning seems to be the real thing at TH8 (see Jonneh’s attacks). It might not work on all bases, but keep it in mind if the opponent has an air defence or two that can be taken out relatively easily by the dragons (Lightning the other AD). However, I’m not sure how well it will work if all the AD’s are deep within the base.