Are your troops not behaving as you want them to during attacks? The first thing you need to look at critically, is your funneling. Most of us should know by now what funneling is and have seen many examples of both good and bad funneling. It is important to remember, however, that no matter how long we've been playing we should always try to improve our game and funneling is one of the first and most critical steps in a 3 star attack yet often one of the most mistake-prone.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
You're a TH9 and your first objective is to take out the enemy AQ by sending in your royals, 2 golems and 7 wiz with a jump spell. So, you drop your golems and wiz in a line behind them, wait a few seconds and drop your jump spell then release your royals. "Oh no! They're not going for the jump spell- they're going to the g-d elixir collector/builder's hut/gold mine, etc!" "WTF is my king doing now?!" Post in chat, "Stupid king"....or "stupid queen".
Or, maybe you've been around enough to see the opposite happen in battles: Golems go down with wiz behind, jump, royals, then all of a sudden all the troops start magically going to the core to wreck the enemy base. 3 stars ensues (usually) and the post in chat is, "awesome attack!"
What was the difference between the two attacks? You know how the alphabet begins with "A"? Well, a 3 star attack in clash begins with funneling. In order to direct your non-defensive targeting troops to go where you want them to go, you have to funnel or drop your troops so that those troops will move in the direction you want them to go (usually into the core, as opposed to walking around the perimeter).
Let's define and consider a few key concepts with funneling:
The next thing you need to be aware of are mistakes when it comes to funneling. These are my top 6 biggest funneling mistakes to avoid:
With these points in mind, in order to successfully funnel your troops you must first, establish your breaks, drop your key troops while there is still a trail to follow to lead them to the entry point, then enter or breach the base at your desired location. Implementing this will be a multi-step process but it will get easier as you practice it.
Let's look step-by-step:
Don't take for granted that if you drop your troops they'll do what you want them to. They only have AI to rely on. It's your job as the driver to tell them where you want and need them to go and shape the base in such a way that they will have no choice but to go where you want them to. Examine the base you're attacking and plan out your attack accordingly and you should see much greater success.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
You're a TH9 and your first objective is to take out the enemy AQ by sending in your royals, 2 golems and 7 wiz with a jump spell. So, you drop your golems and wiz in a line behind them, wait a few seconds and drop your jump spell then release your royals. "Oh no! They're not going for the jump spell- they're going to the g-d elixir collector/builder's hut/gold mine, etc!" "WTF is my king doing now?!" Post in chat, "Stupid king"....or "stupid queen".
Or, maybe you've been around enough to see the opposite happen in battles: Golems go down with wiz behind, jump, royals, then all of a sudden all the troops start magically going to the core to wreck the enemy base. 3 stars ensues (usually) and the post in chat is, "awesome attack!"
What was the difference between the two attacks? You know how the alphabet begins with "A"? Well, a 3 star attack in clash begins with funneling. In order to direct your non-defensive targeting troops to go where you want them to go, you have to funnel or drop your troops so that those troops will move in the direction you want them to go (usually into the core, as opposed to walking around the perimeter).
Let's define and consider a few key concepts with funneling:
- Breaks- you need to have breaks in your funnel, which are the buildings you destroy on either side of your drop point for your main group of attack troops that will prevent them from traveling to a building in an undesired location.
- Breach/entry point- you have to identify your entry point into the base so that you can direct your troops to go towards that broken wall or jump spell.
- Leave a trail- you need to leave a few buildings intact between your break points that will lead your main group of troops towards and into your entry point.
- Trash ring/outer ring- you need to remember that for most well-designed bases, you will be left with a trash ring of buildings surrounding the core that will lure non-defensive targeting troops away from the core, around the perimeter.
The next thing you need to be aware of are mistakes when it comes to funneling. These are my top 6 biggest funneling mistakes to avoid:
- Not funneling- just dropping all your troops and expecting them to go where you want them to go is like going for a drive and getting mad at your car because you didn't follow directions and got lost. It's not the cars'/troops' fault they went wandering. You're the driver, take responsibility.
- Poor funnel break- clearing one building on either side of your attack point then dropping your royals. Inevitably they work through some buildings in the center but then go for the perimeter walk.
- Funnel overkill- dropping a single golem, royals, then all the wiz across a whole side of the base you're attacking. Yeah, you'll break the funnel but then there's hardly any troops left for the rest of the attack.
- Poor spell support- if you're using a golem plus royals and wiz as a kill squad to dispatch the enemy AQ and CC, jump or earthquake are almost always going to be more reliable than bringing along wallbreakers. If your wallbreakers get flung by a spring trap or shot by a tesla/cannon/archer tower, your kill squad won't get in and will fail and then so will the rest of your attack.
- Dropping BK too early- DON'T drop him until you know that the target he will go after is in the direction of the enemy AQ or whatever other target you have designated him to attack.
- Failing to use hero abilities- Watch these levels closely and don't miss out on using them. You're basically gaining a spell plus additional archers and barbs for your attack, so pay close attention as you're attacking.
With these points in mind, in order to successfully funnel your troops you must first, establish your breaks, drop your key troops while there is still a trail to follow to lead them to the entry point, then enter or breach the base at your desired location. Implementing this will be a multi-step process but it will get easier as you practice it.
Let's look step-by-step:
- You must choose your attack point. At this point during the scout, you won't know yet what troops you will need because every base is different. I DO NOT recommend building a pre-set or default war army. ALWAYS build your army for the base you're hitting, not make the base work for the army you have built. When you're scouting and trying to figure out your attack point, you need to identify the buildings that would give you trouble with funneling and avoid choosing an attack point that will have you dealing with those buildings. Examples of buildings to avoid are high hit-point buildings such as storages because those will take a lot of time and troops to take out. Army camps are very helpful in funneling especially if you can find an attack point that has them on either side. They're easily destroyed and being 5 tiles wide are a natural break point. The best location for an attack point will have low hit-point buildings with army camps on either side and a few low hit-point buildings in between that can lead us right up to our entry point.Now, of course our enemies aren't going to design their bases so that we can easily 3 star them so you'll often have to work to create an ideal attack point.
- Coming back to the army point, your best bet is to keep an open mind and don't get set on a pre-built army composition and pray it works. Is there an open defense that is going to draw your defensive targeting troops towards it early? Maybe you need to add a giant or two in as a tank for your wiz so that they can last longer to get the funnel breaks done. Maybe you use valks or a witch to break the funnel instead of wiz. Just examples, but you need to think outside the box and pay attention to these details when you're planning out your attack.
- When you're scouting out the base, you should look at what defenses are covering the trash ring of buildings. Is it a mortar or cannon? Use a minion or two to take out those buildings. Can you drop your arch/barb/wiz so that they're just out of range of the defenses as they're taking out the trash ring? Have a backup plan in case your troops meet a trap or get toasted by a tesla that pops up.
- You've scouted, chosen your attack point and you can start to see how your troops are going to head into the base, you need to count out the distance between your drop point and entry point and the trail you need to leave. For example, if you drop your troops 4 tiles from an army camp and from there it's 8 tiles to an archer tower at your entry point, you'll want your funnel breaks to extend out at least 13-14 tiles from your drop point (8+4=12 plus 2 or 3 for good measure).
- Now, you can build your army. Ask yourself this question, I want to get into the enemy base and kill the AQ, what troops do I need to make that happen? Build those troops. It often ends up being your royals, 2 golems and 3-4 wiz. Now go look at where you'll funnel them. Obviously, if your breaks are far enough away from your attack point, logic tells us that the troops you use to break your funnel probably aren't going to sense the breach, walk all the way back and enter with the rest of the team, so plan a few extra troops (depending on the base) to get the breaks done.
- Now that the army is built, it's go time for the attack. Draw out the clan castle, kill it and start your kill squad. First, drop your golems. Spread them far enough apart to where they can cover for your funnel breaking wiz/troops but not so far that they'll ignore the defense inside the walls once the breach is made. Now drop your funnel breakers. Give them a second or two to get things started. If you've got a good trail up the middle, drop your royals so they can start going in. If you use wallbreakers, make sure that any defenses that could shoot them are targeting other troops before releasing them. If you've brought a jump or earthquake, you've got less to worry about. The golems will sense the opening and dive right in with royals following behind.
- Be careful not to trickle in your troops. If you do this, they'll destroy not only the trail you left for them but also the buildings inside the entry point. By the time you get your royals down there will be nothing to draw them inside so they'll target a building way off on the perimeter past the original funnel breaks. Key troops such as the royals MUST go down while there is still a building left inside to draw them in!
Don't take for granted that if you drop your troops they'll do what you want them to. They only have AI to rely on. It's your job as the driver to tell them where you want and need them to go and shape the base in such a way that they will have no choice but to go where you want them to. Examine the base you're attacking and plan out your attack accordingly and you should see much greater success.