Sunday Morning Chat with Noc - 03/11/2018

Builder Hall 8 was released to the masses this past week and it’s been a doozy of a week.  We JUST finished Clan Games when it was released and they launched a whole new run of Battlefest, followed shortly thereafter by another Clan Games that was all Builder Base tasks.  

I really enjoy the Clan Games, but this last month has been just brutal with the near non-stop Clan Games.  SuperCell has told us it was just for the month of February, intended to mirror the Olympics and such, but we’re fast approaching mid-March and still getting hammered.  I know a lot of players here, on the forums, and elsewhere have reached the burnout zone so hopefully this one will be it for a while.  That said, the spring update included a new potion (the Builder Potion) and Runes that fill your gold and elixir storages.  The Clan Games currently underway has all three, with the Runes focused on the Builder Base storages.  At the time I am recording this, we have about 14 hours left to this latest bout of Clan Games and both of the clans I’m in have hit 50K but I’ve heard there are lots of clans that have really struggled with the all Builder Base nature of this Clan Games.  

Battlefest has been a wild run, same as when BH7 was released.  I decided to use Battlefest as an excuse to really surge my base development ahead and work on the Super PEKKA.  I’ve been gemming timers - both builder time on structures and research time on troops - to keep things upgrading.  To generate the loot for the Super PEKKA upgrades (rather than buying it outright with gems, which is super expensive) I’ve also been resetting the loot timer periodically while boosting troops with the Power Potion.  It’s worked out well - I have everything up to at least L7 now with the Star Lab, Barracks, and all 4 storages maxed.  I just keep following the path I laid out in my upgrade guide, albeit at an accelerated rate.

Speaking of the upgrade guide, there’s been some suggestions that my recommended order for ground troop upgrades is off for #1 and #2, and that Raged Barbarians should be higher in the upgrade order.  I honestly go back and forth on the #1 and #2 slots.  Currently, I have Boxer Giants then Cannon Carts, followed by Bombers, Raged Barbarians, and ending with Sneaky Archers.  I firmly believe that the Raged Barbarian upgrade is correct in the 4th slot - there’s just not that much bang for the buck there, but the additional units you get with Boxer Giants, Cannon Carts, and Bombers makes all the difference to the ground meta.  The question centers on which to upgrade first - Boxer Giants or Cannon Carts.

I tend to lean more towards HP in this case but, I have to admit, I’m waffling here.  Getting that third Cannon Cart is a huge deal to your GiBoCC attack as well as Bombarian Carts.  As such, it may well make sense to run with Cannon Carts first.  When I finally start working on my ground attack, I might switch it up.  Either way, I’ll definitely run it both ways across my alts and I encourage you to run it the way that works best for your own attacks.

Talking about the Super PEKKA….

At L10, you get get a bit more damage and hit points, the Overcharge has hit 800 and finally starts causing some real damage to defensive structures.  However…it’s still too weak to be used effectively in the MSP attack strat and she seems to go down awfully quick, so even as an improved tank…it’s just not enough.  Long made short - L10 Super PEKKA still just does not cut it against L7 BH8s.  This might work way down in the 3500 trophy range against heavily rushed bases with mostly L4/L5 defenses, but in the 4000s….  

The L10 Super PEKKA has DPS at 447, HP of 4392, and OC damage at 800.  Her movement speed is 16 and attack speed is 1.8s.  By comparison, a L14 Boxer Giant has a DPS of only 64, Power Punch yields 640 points of damage, and his HP s 2576.  His movement speed is 12 and his attack speed is 2s.  Considering this, there should be no doubt that a L10 Super PEKKA can replace a L14 Boxer Giant as a tank.  But…you get 3 Boxer Giants in a camp and only ONE Super PEKKA.  The Boxer Giant’s ability to draw off more defensive salvos while your other troops bring the pain is superior just based on his numbers.  At L16, when you get the 4th unit in the Army Camp, he’ll continue to be worthwhile for your attacks.

At L12, she has the power to break through the outer junk building layer, but not the first defensive layer.  I was unable to push the L12 Super PEKKA into the core no matter how many times I tried. I got close once but she still went down.

Moving into hybrid attacks with the L12 Super PEKKA, I first tried using one as a support troop alongside the Battle Machine at the end of a Minion Drops attack with 3 camps Beta Minions, 2 camps Drop Ships.  First up was a standard diamond base.  The initial attack cleared a path to the second layer of  of defenses, but left both the  Guard Post Troops and Giant Cannon up - arch nemesis of both the Super PEKKA and Battle Machine.  End result - zero stars.  Next was a box and the results were essentially the same, although I was able to get to the Builder Hall with the Beta Minions to score one star.  So…I tried it with Bombarian.  Same as every other attack - dead within two layers.  I tried again using the Raged Barbarians to attract the Guard Post troops and she survived a little bit longer, but not much.  Every hybrid attack thereafter…exact same results, every time.

And, finally...L14 Super PEKKA.  No 3-Star wins here, but I did score a few 2-Star wins, most notably against a square base that has a box at the top of the base and open corners at the bottom (walls only outside, all structures within).  This base easily 3-stars with L16 MSP but was a 90% 2-Star with L14 MSP.  Most attacks, though, were still losses whether I ran MSP or any of a number of hybrid attacks.

As crazy as this may sound, the biggest threat I’m seeing to my Super PEKKAs is the Guard Post troops.  They draw them right into the middle where there are a ton of defenses that can target them and it takes an eternity for the Super PEKKAs to chew through the Guard Post troops.  This is compounded by the SAs that sit back and exact damage while the Super PEKKAs are busy dealing with the Raged Barbarians.  I’ve started pulling them to the edge of the base and hitting them with 2 Super PEKKAs.

In the area of base design - the Super PEKKA seems to have the greatest trouble against true diamond bases and their associated layouts.  I’m still working out why this is the case but I think it’s because these bases typically deploy a strong hub with layer after layer of defense surrounded by layers of non-defensive buildings allowing defenses to pummel the Super PEKKA while she’s breaking through the high HP layer surrounding the hub.  (This is why Guard Post troops become so lethal.)  By contrast, the square bases typically rely on walls to slow troops down and will have a greater spread of their defenses, under the assumption higher HP buildings will slow the Super PEKKA down enough to be beaten.  If you can come in at a point where defenses are accessible early in the attack run, you’ll decimate the base with the MSP strategy.  If you can take down the Crushers and Giant Cannon, a level 20 Battle Machine will typically mop up the rest.

I’m seeing lots of square bases at the start but they are quickly falling victim to ground attacks and even air attacks.  We’re moving back to the diamond at BH8, so you might as well start out there.  Players are loading up a mine field on the common attack side of their base against Minion Drops.  This is REALLY common with the square bases, but some of the pseudo-diamond base are doing it as well.  Be sure to deploy Drop Ships first or at least couple of sacrificial Beta Minions to see if there is an air-minefield on your deployment side.

Minion Drops at L14 still seems to reign supreme as the best, meta attack for air in the game.  There will be a Mitch or Drop Mitch sometimes, but almost always when an attack comes in via air it will be Minion Drops.  Most of the ground attacks I’m seeing in my Battle Log at the upper 4K range, though, are L14 Bombarian of all things.  Every so often, something else pops up like the occasional Bombarian Carts or GiBomBarCC, but ground attackers really seem tied to their tried and true Bombarian.  That said…I’m not really seeing a whole lot of upgraded troops at all, and I’ve been hovering around 5K for a couple days now.  This surprises me as I really expected to see some L16 troops by now, what with Battlefest almost over.  I saw my first L25 Battle Machine today though…it was just ok.

That’s about it for this Sunday Chat with Noc.  Be sure to catch the video companion to this article at: