Strategy Series #3 - How NOT to rush to TH11....

We've talked about engineering and strategic rushing.  I've presented some notes on how to effectively and smartly rush your game to maximum effect.

Now I'm going to tell a story of how NOT to rush well.

Back in January, I took a brand spankin' new TH7 game and gemmed it up to TH11 shortly after the update came out. It was one of my umpteen games, so not my main and therefore just something to play around with. My intentions were to simply use it as a feeder base for the other games in the clan and, in all honesty, I just wanted to play around with the new stuff in TH11.

Even though I went into this with eyes wide open, it serves as a cautionary tale of what not to do.  Keep in mind - I had JUST upgraded this game to TH7 so it was running with TH6 troops and TH6 defenses.  What I found....

Raiding - Impossible. I made entirely too big of a jump.  My TH6 troops even struggled with collector raids.

Defending - Surprisingly...not a problem. The base I have up now is the same one I've run for 9 months or more and it has only been three starred exactly TWICE in all that time. It has fended of 40/40 hero combinations and maxed troops on a regular basis. Now that the defenses are stronger, it typically gets one starred, occasionally two starred, and only on one side of the base. It defended all the way up to Masters I, just shy of Champs III, before I dropped it down to Silver to see if there were any better bases to raid in the lower leagues (there weren't). It largely defended back up to where it sits today in Masters I.

War - Nah...I took it out of the war rotation the moment I upgraded it to TH11. Anyone with time to scout the game could easily three star it.  Now, 9 months later, I finally re-introduced it to the regular war rotation and even though it is primarily TH8/TH9 defenses, it has only been three starred once, even when up against players with fully maxed TH11s.

Right now, the game has a minimum of max-TH8 defenses with level 6 walls (pinks).  A number of structures have been upgraded to TH9 max levels, and key defenses are TH11 max (EA, infernos).  I got it there by regularly using shields and boosting my resource collectors a LOT. The reason this worked is simple - max collectors turn out a lot of resources when you're upgrading lower level structures that are far less expensive than the high level stuff. I have 7 level 12 elixir collectors and 7 level 12 gold mines chugging away; when boosted, that's 49K units of resource per hour. If I throw up 14 days of shields, I'll pull in just over 16M units of each. You can upgrade a LOT of stuff, very quickly, doing that.

Of course, I'm not one to spend my hard earned cash for long, even the $25/month it takes to run 14 days of shielded, boosted, resource collectors. I made it a priority to get my farming troops maxed out and now I can raid as well. I have level 7 barbarians, archers, giants, goblins, wallbreakers; as well as maxed wizards and healers. This allows all manner of barch, gibarch, giwiz, giant-healer, goblin knife (which I still haven't gotten the hang of), and other farming strategies. I also have fully maxed dragons, miners, and bowlers that I use in clan wars.  (Yes, I gemmed a little of it along the way, but far less than you might think; the vast majority of upgrades came from raids and boosted barracks.)

Although the base was originally designed to be a feeder to the clan and just for fun, I've started upgrading it more regularly with an eye toward eventually maxing TH11. My main game, currently at TH10, will soon be making the jump to TH11 as well. That one is much further along on most defenses as I maxed everything at TH9 but walls and heroes. As soon as the heroes are 25/25, all the walls legos, and all the new TH10 items upgraded to max TH9 levels, I'll be jumping to TH11 on that one as well.

A lot of players did something like this then quit because it was too hard.  To a more established player, that's just a gauntlet being thrown down.  By focusing on farming troops, then charting an efficient upgrade path for game structures, I've turned this game into something very playable.  That was the whole of the plan though - get farming troops up to snuff so I could raid, then get offense upgraded, then focus on defense.  This is the standard rushing mantra and it can be used to get out of a premie pickle too.

This is one of the reasons we say that rushing is a more efficient path to the maxed end-game. As always, it really depends on the skill of the player and the goals he/she sets. On this game, I had no intentions of using it in war - I was of a mind to play Sim City, Clash style. It was for fun, filling CCs, and something to tinker with alongside my other games. I'm a fairly skilled player; I have entirely too many hours in on CoC. As always...YMMV. it's important to evaluate your game to determine if the playing strategy fits your requirements.

One of the things I want to be clear on in this article - I give an example of how NOT to rush strategically (brand new TH7 to TH11 was insane, but still fun) AND how to recover, strategically, from a bad rush (i.e., premie). As everyone knows - I'm a diehard strategic rusher and do this all the time on my games, so I’m not trying to discourage anyone from rushing. I'll be rushing my TH10 main game to TH11 in the next month or two; this will be done smartly, once things meet TH9 max levels, heroes are 25/25, walls are legos, and farming troops are upgraded. My premie TH11 is almost to a reasonable, rushing start-point as I am now working on TH9 upgrades to defensive structures and key offenses are upgraded. (In other words...it's recovered from its premie rush and is decent shape now.)  In a lot of ways, this supports the benefits of strategic rushing; even though many things are a level lower than where I’d like to start TH11, the simple fact is that the game is WELL on its way, very defensible, and I have access to much higher troop levels in less than a year than I would have had in 2-3 years’ time.

If you'd like to visit this game, hop over to our clan, Divergent Void (#P8CGRG0C) and give the Kuss von Nacht game a look.