Tactics for Clan Wars

Clan Wars is a feature on Clash of Clans that allows the match up between clans. It can be fun as it builds cammadarie between your clan members. I'll be going into some of the tactics and will not bore you all with the features since there is a lot of information on the features out there.

Planning is the key to winning wars. If possible, use the 24 hour prep period to build your troops and donate to members. Relay any intelligence about the opposing clan by letting your clan members know. If your clan is new, you may want to talk to each other more about who is going to attack who. Let new members what the expectations and plans are. The feature also 'recommends' a target for you so that you don't attack someone too easy or hard but I seldom use it. It just depends on what your goals are and what you have in your arsenal.

Personnel management is key to a successful war and knowing how the size of the clan affects your strategy. 15 vs 15, 20 vs 20, 25 vs 25, 30 vs 30, 35 vs 35, 40 vs 40, 45 vs 45 and 50 vs 50 are the numbers for matches. If a clan has 30 members and another clan has 33, the match will be set for 30 vs 30. The clan with 33 players will have 3 players with the lowest trophy count and/or new members (from previous warring clans) as spectators. Spectators cannot donate to war castles or partake in attacks for clan war. Bigger clans are not always better. It is best to experiment with the size and combinations of your clan and see what works for you.

Attack Tips:

There are several tactics each suited for different players and situation. A common tactic is trying to attack the opposing clan member of your level (the recommended target feature). However this may not be efficient in terms of getting the maximum amount of stars. To maximize stars, have some members work from the bottom up and 3 starring the opponents. We use the -1 rule for our clan. For example, some of our TH6 guys will attack TH5 opponents, etc. More advanced players can target other advanced players. Everyone in the clan must be involved in attacking. Generally, the clan that has more attacks will likely win given most are won.

Though opposing members can be attacked more than once given they haven't been 3 starred, it is often a bad idea to try to one up a teammate who has at least 1 starred the opposing member. The system in place does not calculate the cumulative stars for both attacks. For example, if you 1 star an opposing clan member and your clan mate 2 stars the same member, your clan earns 1 star. By doing this, he/she wasted an attack. The only exceptions is if you clan is winning by a lot (like by 40 stars), you just want to gain more loot or the remaining players on the opposing clan is too advanced for you to attack.

Stars are earned by the amount of damage caused so attack accordingly. I attack as if I'm trying to earn the max trophies possible. Tactics that are used for farming sometimes don't work against well defended bases. For me, I don't use goblins in Clan Wars.

Lastly, when attacking, be aware of the opposing clan troops. In Clan Wars, clan troops that are use for defenses replenish automatically after each attack (if you plan on using clan troops in an attack, you have to request them via your clan castle). I have seen several attacks fail because of this. They can easily turn the tide of an attack so if possible, lure them out and kill them before dealing with the base's defenses.

Here giants keep the defenses busy while the archers and dragons quickly neutralizes the clan troops.

As of summer of 2015, there is a tie breaker in wars. Which ever team that has the most damage percentage in a tied war will win. It is vital that if you star, you continue to attack and not end the battle early.

Defense Tactics:

This base could have easily repelled this attack had the town hall been properly
defended. Instead, it was 1 starred despite being only 41% damaged.

Most bases that works in trophy hunting will be effective for Clan Wars. You don't want to use a farming base where the town hall is out side. The clan troops requested/given via Clan Wars menu, infernos, x-bows and traps are all replenished after each attack on Clan Wars. For farmers, resources on the base for Clan Wars don't have to be protected as much since the amount of loot earned is fixed and doesn't not come from your base. A new feature on Clan Wars now allows you to set up a permanent and separate base for Clan Wars so you don't have to change your base for each war. Use this new feature to your advantage. Several defenses also have 1-3 buildings on the corners of the map to prevent players from 3 starring the base.

This base is a good base for both Clan Wars and game play. This town hall 7 base is close to maxed out.

Getting Rich. In Clan Wars:

Well, it may seem like an oxymoron to get rich from Clan Wars but it can happen. Being able to plan and choose a target can get you lots of loot if your clan wins. Especially if you clan is winning by a lot, you don't have to worry about getting 3 stars for the attack. Just use enough troops to get 1-2 stars and you're golden. I have gained a number of resources- particularly dark elixer this way just using archers, giants, barbarians and few wall breakers. This usually involves attacking harder opponents. However, be aware that you will only get the maximum amount of loot your clan castle allows!

Other Tips:

1. Be wary of those who joined your clan at the start of the war. When war is declared, the Clan Leader or Co-leader should switch to 'invite only.' This is to prevent the opposition from 'studying' your clan during prep phase and battle phases of the war. If they are members, they can read chat logs, messages, look at and take a screen capture of all your clan's bases. Then they can relay information to your opposing clan. 

2. If you have to kick someone out of the clan, do it after the war period and before declaring war. Once you declare war and the opposing clan is match with yours, the servers will take a screen shot of all the clans and it's members. If you kick out the member(s) during this period, they cannot participate but are still targets for the opposing clan members. In addition, your clan is guaranteed to have less attacks than the opposing clan, putting your clan at a disadvantage.

3. It is easy to get carried away with using expensive troops and spells. Again, this goes back to planning and takes experience to maximize efficiency while reducing cost. A challenging but fun aspect of the game.

4. From time to time, look at attack replays and learn from them. It could be a difference between success and failure! This is true when you are trying to attack an adversary that successfully defended your clan mate's attack.

5. If you are a spectator, you can still donate troops the regular way via clan castle to your clan mates and relay relevant information. However, you cannot participate in Clan Wars.

6. Be aware of clan members who quit during the wars. If they do, you lose the number of attacks for your clan but they are still targets for the opposing clans. If a member quits the clan after the war is declared then rejoins the same clan (without being a member of another clan) they can still participate in the same clan war. Spectators and new members will not be added until the next war.

7. You can possibly avoid participating in Clan Wars by lowering your trophy count to the bottom 4 or lower). If your clan is matched with a smaller clan, Supercell will try to make the numbers even by eliminating the new members or the members with the lowest trophy count in the bigger clan (usually the bottom 4).

8. In an event of a loss, the members of the losing clan get 25% of their total war loot. To gain war loot one must gain at least one star in each attack. In an even of a tie, both clans are treated as losers and the total war loot is 25% of the original gained.