Journal of a Rusher - Entry #1

Several weeks ago, I started a brand new game with the intent of journaling the process of strategically rushing the game through the lower town hall (TH) levels.  I documented this on the forums; I'm bringing that content here starting with this post.  -JNJ

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Rushing a CoC game is the best way to get playing quickly. It does require a bit of a financial and time commitment to be successful, but we’re not talking a great deal of either. (We all have lives, after all.) Things will slow down at TH7, but the first 6 levels of the game can be progressed through very quickly.

Seeing how long this thread has become, I've added an index to the bottom of this message. There's lots of great discussion and debate in between, but for someone who wants the highlights, jump to the end for the links.

Getting Started - Offense & Army

The first step is to get the game “playable” as quickly as possible. For those who are brand new to the game, the first 4 town halls (THs) serve a purpose in teaching you how to play. For those with experience or who are particularly game savvy (maybe watching YouTube videos)…they’re pretty dull. So, I gem the levels and buy the remaining three builders for about $30, then add another $20 in gems for rushing timers on upgrades and resources.

To do this, you’ll need to buy all the resource structures and upgrade them quickly. Storages are first on the list simply because you need to put the gold into gold storage to upgrade the TH, and elixir into the elixir storages to upgrade the gold storages so you can store enough gold for the TH upgrades!

Once this is done, you’ll want to get the remaining resource and army structures so you can maximize gold/elixir production and be ready to start raiding. 

DO NOT BUY ANY DEFENSE YET.

This might surprise you BUT, to a rusher, defense is really not that important yet. You won’t be “saving up” for upgrades for a while and your initial focus should be on strictly offense and resource structures. Once you have all of these to TH5 max levels, THEN you’ll start working on the defensive structures.

By rights, you’ll be able to get all of the above done before the initial, 3 day shield runs out. (5 builders can get a lot done in a short amount of time.) Keep track of when upgrades will finish so you can hop back in and get the builders going again. Worst case scenario - this may take 5 or 6 days.

Defense

The next step, as mentioned, is defense. The assumption is that you’ve made all offensive and resource purchases, and upgraded them along the way. Before I add defenses, I try to get army camps to at least level 3 and resource collectors to level 5 (where they can be boosted). Ideally, barracks will be at least level 3 so you have barbarians, archers, and giants.

You’ll want to start off by buying everything there is to buy. You can either gem initial build timers or let them run their course; it’s up to you and really doesn’t make that much of a difference in the initial buy. 

At this point, you should have Archer Towers (AT), Cannons, Wizard Towers (WT), Mortars, Air Defenses (AD), Air Bombs, Bombs, Spring Traps, and Walls. Once you have them all purchased. Build your first, fully ripped, village base. You can use an Internet base or just come up with one of your own; we’re expecting to get raided regularly still so defense isn’t really a prime focus yet.

Next, start running through the upgrade cycle.

Walls to level 3

Archer Towers

Cannons

Wizard Towers

Mortars

Bombs

Air Defenses

Walls to levels 4 and 5

You’ll note I broke walls up into two lines. This is to provide at first a basic line of defense against barch attacks (Barbarians and Archers), then to allow you to focus on better, general defenses.

Gems

On the topic of buying gems…this is really a totally optional thing. I recommend anyone who wants to rush buy at least $30 in gems so they can get the other 3 builders and gem some upgrades. Me, I figure on putting about $50 into a game to kick it off - that covers the builders and resources to boost my way to TH5 before the first three days of shield are up. YMMV…what works for me may or may not work for you. I’ve done this a few times now and it’s just my preferred way of playing.

I’ll post my progress periodically into this thread so anyone who is interested in following can do so.

One thing I want to be clear about - rushing your game is not for everyone. Rushing smart will get you access to resources more quickly and higher level troops to use in both raiding and war. It requires a little $$$ up front and a commitment to regular raiding. There are some clans out there that do not see the value in a rushed base so you might find it difficult to get into certain war clans. Likewise, if you want to play a very casual game, you can get away with rushing up through TH7 but after that there's no real casual play for anyone, let alone a rusher. Keep these things in mind as you play your game.

End of day 1

Day 1 - Created account and gemmed resource structures to advance to TH3. Ran into Google’s in-app purchase security issue; sent e-mail to Google to get security hold on account cleared so I can buy gems. Started TH4 upgrade in the meantime.

(Note: Google does this sometimes; a new account that immediately begins making in-app purchases looks to be a red flag for them, even if the purchases are made using a gift card. A simple call or e-mail is usually all it takes to get this fixed but it does kill 4 or so hours.)

Spent $50 on gems. Purchased additional three builders and gemmed TH to level 5. Bought all additional resource buildings available through TH5 and started upgrading them. Bought all available army buildings as well as rebuilding the clan castle. 

This required buying some resources along the way as well; when all was said and done, I spent about 6000 gems altogether. This is the only time you’ll need to spend the gems to jumpstart the game. If you prefer, you can spread the first day across three days and save $20 ($30 is needed to buy the three builders).

End of Day 1:

Town Hall X 1 - Level 5

Builder’s Hut X 5

Walls X 100 - Level 1

Gold Storage X 2 - Level 7

Elixir Storage X 2 - Level 7

Gold Mines X 5 - Level 5

Elixir Collectors X 5 - Level 5

Clan Castle X 1 - Level 1

Army Camps X 3 - Level 1

Barracks X 3 - Level 3

Laboratory X 1 -Level 2

Barbarians - Level 2

Archers - Level 2

Goblins - Level 1

Giants - Level 1

Spell Factory - Level 1 (Building)

Cannon X 1 - Level 1

Before you call it a night, set up some 12 hour upgrades; the short ones you’ll want to do during the daytime when you’re around to keep things moving.

End of Day 2

Day 2 - Buy all defensive structures (level 1), then continue upgrading both defensive and offensive structures. This is a good time to boost your collectors (especially if you’re lucky enough to be doing this during a one-gem-boost sale). Upgraded the CC to level 2.

End of Day 2:

Town Hall X 1 - Level 5

Builder’s Hut X 5

Gold Storage X 2 - Level 8

Elixir Storage X 2 - Level 8

Gold Mines X 5 - Level 5

Elixir Collectors X 5 - Level 5

Clan Castle X 1 - Level 2

Army Camps X 3 - Level 3

Barracks X 3 - Level 4

Laboratory X 1 -Level 2

Barbarians - Level 2 

Archers - Level 2

Giants - Level 2

Goblins - Level 1

Spell Factory - Level 1

Cannon X 3 - Level 1

Archer Tower X 3 - Level 1

Wizard Tower X 1 - Level 1 (Building)

Mortar X 1 - Level 1

Air Defense X 1 - Level 1

Air Bomb X 2 - Level 1

Spring Trap X 2 - Level 1

Bomb X 4 - Level 2

End of Day 3

Day 3 - Continued upgrading defenses and built new base. 

End of Day 3:

Town Hall X 1 - Level 5

Builder’s Hut X 5

Gold Storage X 2 - Level 8

Elixir Storage X 2 - Level 8

Gold Mines X 5 - Level 5

Elixir Collectors X 5 - Level 5

Clan Castle X 1 - Level 2

Army Camps X 3 - Level 3

Barracks X 3 - Level 5

Laboratory X 1 -Level 3

Barbarians - Level 2

Archers - Level 2

Giants - Level 2

Goblins - Level 1

Wallbreakers - Level 1

Spell Factory - Level 1

Cannon X 3 - Level 4

Archer Tower X 3 - Level 4

Wizard Tower X 1 - Level 1

Mortar X 1 - Level 2

Air Defense X 1 - Level 1 (Upgrading)

Air Bomb X 2 - Level 1

Spring Trap X 2 - Level 1

Bomb X 4 - Level 2

End of Day 5

Days 4 & 5 - I continued to work on general upgrades, specifically focused on the collectors. The base was raided over 30 times in 5 hours for a net gain of over 625 trophies. When the shield again dropped, it was raided to 768 trophies. Of course, most are trophy droppers. Walls are now level 2 and all resource collectors will be level 7 in the morning. 

Resource collectors will continue to be the focus this week. (Level 8 is a 1 day upgrade.). Build times are now a primary determinant in how quickly things progress

End of Day 5:

Town Hall X 1 - Level 5

Builder’s Hut X 5

Gold Storage X 2 - Level 8

Elixir Storage X 2 - Level 8

Gold Mines X 5 - Level 7

Elixir Collectors X 5 - Level 7

Clan Castle X 1 - Level 2

Army Camps X 3 - Level 3

Barracks X 3 - Level 5

Laboratory X 1 -Level 3

Barbarians - Level 3

Archers - Level 2

Giants - Level 2

Goblins - Level 2

Wallbreakers - Level 1

Lightning spell - Level 1

Spell Factory - Level 1

Cannon X 3 - Level 4

Archer Tower X 3 - Level 4

Wizard Tower X 1 - Level 1

Mortar X 1 - Level 2

Air Defense X 1 - Level 2

Air Bomb X 2 - Level 1

Spring Trap X 2 - Level 1

Bomb X 4 - Level 3