Town Hall 9 Current and Future Thoughts for Development

First Edition - September 2015

Welcome to my Town Hall 9 Current and Future Thoughts for Development page, where I'll be talking about the current meta, concepts, as well as explain some thoughts which I believe is helpful in describing and helping out other understand what the current structure of the meta-games are, as well as be able to teach people more about War Base Development.
When it comes to Base building, to be honest, looking at Arrowtip, Ovaki and my two experimental concept bases, I am really not that good of a base builder (let me finish :P).  when it comes to base designing, I have multiple concepts which I love to explore and share with the world, but when it comes to translating it through base design, I don't create the best base to express it in a functionally working way.  After I show it off, I usually just think of more new concepts and forget about the old bases. But this is a good thing, because when it comes to base builders/building, people get too attach towards the base itself which is the reason why any base building knowledge is usually only shared with clan mates, or just to themselves in order to prolong their base freshness.  The problem with this is that base building concepts aren't going to be able to be shared unless spoken through word of mouth, and this allows attacks to always be two steps ahead of base builders.  You can't really explain a concept that defends well against attack without being able to show your base, but if you show your base, then your base's weakness and the usefulness of it turns public property and you lose the base.
ALOT of what I have to say is located in the Town Hall 9 War Base Concept page that I have released along side this thought page.  Please check it out along side this page

Small Theory Talk: Two Double Giant Bombs or One Giant Bomb + 2 Single Giant bomb? Compact Base vs Spread Base?

Convo with Eric:

The difficult with singles is that they don't kill hogs, when there is a compact base with singles, means they'll likely be pre-healed
on a spread out base, there's less overall protection from defenses, so heals aren't as necessary.
Compact bases work better against surgical because the defenses are closer together and the springs and DGBs can kill 10-15 on their own
meaning 1 heal and 6 or 7 hogs isn't enough to negate the DGB. If the DGB is too deep inside the base, if the hogs kill all the defenses before hitting the DGB, then the hogs dying isn't that bad because they've already destroyed all of the defenses.

When it comes to spread/expanded bases, you can destroy the base with one heal due to the fact that the DPS are so spread apart.  Allowing there to be bigger compartments is also not beneficial due to allowing ground troops to have more room to walk.  The DPS is spread so the Kill Squad stays alive forever.  The more compact a base is, the more better it is against surgical hogs.  In the past compact base get hit hard by two big packs of base which rush harder, but now traps and better techniques such as double Teslas, allow more compact bases to work better.spread bases are just harder on the first attack because it's harder to predict traps. The hardest part in a base is isolating the queen, but using little defense to protect, yet still having it effective because if a base is compact, then the AQ really needs to be offset otherwise it makes 3 or 4 golems from opposite side more managable.

Future Prediction For Base Designing

Here are some information, thoughts, and ramble on what could be done, and my prediction when it comes to future base designing in the elite level.

Inflate Base Problem > Expansion to Deflation

Expanded Base examples
Alot explained within the [TH9 War Base Building Concept] page in "Breaking the Mold", "Queen Island" as well as "More than 10+ Section" context, basically how bases are building now are getting too big and expanding too widely as they now try to incorporate the "Queen off-side" concept.  If you look at both images you can see that there are still hints of defenses breaking out of the shell, but most of the time it's not.  I dub it the Inflate-Base ​Problem where these bases think too hard when it comes to making bases anti-surgical/pathing correctly, that they push the limits of how far the compartments and sections can stretch to the point where now there are just too many big and wide sections and not enough concentrated DPS. The basics of Golems + back end loons/hogs can still be used now against these bases, but the only difference is that the Queen is around that back end part.  Although that might stop back end troops that takes the 35% of the base, the remaining 65% of the base can be easily Queen Walked/Kill Squad full HPed through with just one jump spell.

While talking with Eric, looking at my concept base that I've designed a few months ago, and as well as looking at Eric's new base, the next TRUE development of the next generation of TH9 War base design is to 'deflate' the compartments.Looking at these bases and comparing them to the previous Anti-3 Star bases examples, you can see that it went from compact design, to now expanded, and the next trend WILL be to deflate itself and go back to compacted design, where defenses are more tightly knit. Tightly knit compact bases will allow more DPS, and with the new spring traps placement as well as duo Teslas, they should be able to eat away the smaller pack of hogs.  The reason why surgical hogs works is basic of the expansion of the base designs which feeds a loop of making pathings better, which expands the base more.​  This is a bad loop and is not the correct path.

So what is the correct base building path for the future?

The correct base building path is now stop the expanded base design. There are 3 main points which the newer base needs (you can guess some of the concept in the Concept page)
1)Higher DPS Cannon/King/Teslas on the inside [The Inner Tesla/Cannon/KingDPS]
2) There are outside 'distraction' building serves as the first target of hogs and loons [Breaking the Mold]
​3)Traps between outer and secondary defenses/ Queen Island

Alot of these concepts are explained with the [Town Hall 9 Base Building Concepts] page, but the main points are the fact that higher DPS on the inside, Queen Island with traps on the other side, as well as breaking the mold of wall restrictions is the three keys I find of advancing the next base designs. As of now, alot of bases are expanding too wide just to mess with pathing and this I believe is not a correct path, and won't really lead to anywhere, anymore.

Extra Thoughts

Here are some extra rambling, and thoughts when it comes to the current meta.

Poison Spell and Clan Castle Relationship

 When it comes to the poison spell, even after the change/update to it, it still is overpowered as well as the fact it ruins Clan Castle's meaning.

With poison and how it is, it kills skeletons, any low HP troops, basically crippling 80% of the clan castle population.  When it comes to the Clan Castle, the majestic point of why it exist is because it adds the element of unpredictability IF not managed or thought of ahead of time.  Clan castle was good and balanced due to the fact that it puts the attacker into considering factors such as "do I need to lure? should I be forced to bring a lightning?  Is the clan castle lurable?  What troops are in the clan castle?"  Allowing growth of the attacker to consider the consequences for not considering the Clan Castle.  

But with the introduction of the poison spell, WITH the additional 1 extra space to use the spell, it basically cripples all lower tier clan castles, as well as the fact it makes it 'easy mode' against any clan castle troops that aren't high hp.

For example in lower Town Hall levels, where gowipe is prominent, a single loose witch can result in a complete distraction and devastation of the Pekka's ability to move forward.  But with the Poison spell, it literally allows for even more 'no brainer' drop against the clan castle.  The valuable lesson of "learning to lure, learning to counter lure, should I lure" has mostly been replaced by "bring a poison spell on it."

To balance it more in my opinion is a few options:
1) Up the slow attack speed, but decrease the damage to % of a troop. For example, a skeleton or a dragon will lose only up to 50% of their HP.
2) Increase the poison up 2 spell spots.  This would probably change alot, so feel free to debate, but increasing this up to 2 spell spots, allows more room for the haste/quake spell, as well as a balance between using a lightning or using a poison.

These are just the top of the head ideas, but there could be more thoughts later on.

The Queen Walk + Healer

As of now, The Queen Walk is really hard to stop due to the range which an Archer Queen + Healer heal range can out push the Air Defense.  By the time the Air Defense starts hitting the Healers, most likely the Queen would already be shooting away at the Air Defense.  It is over powered in a way (if the Queen lv20+), and it's just really hard to stop with the poison against CC troops, as well as the fact that a Queen can take out a huge % of the base.

In my honest opinion, I feel like the seeking not effecting Healers did revive the use of Healers more prominently in the game so I cannot say "Seekings back to hitting Healers" when that only effects a minority population of those that use Healers (TH8s for example).

Can't really think of a solution right now, but a possible idea could be for example "If Healer is Lv4+, it is then targettable by Seeking".  Feel free to disagree though. 

Somethings that I have not Included

There are some topics and concepts right now that I wish I could share, but either I haven't gathered enough information, or it's currently not the right time to share it due to other factors. I speak with other base builders, observe what I can and mostly I just bug Eric (from Reddit Raider :D), which he shares his up to date base with me.  He's base shows more of what I believe the future base designs WILL become and it comes with extra concepts which help counter the current trends (like something to counter Queen Walk).  But sadly, this is information is between us, his clan, and his choice whether or not he's going to share.
Maybe more in the future I'll be able to share more as the meta-games progresses.

Some topics that maybe will come up in the future:
Anti-loon concepts: abit old, but combines well with the current Tesla arrangement
Straight Path vs Diagonal Pathing: As I see current base, buildings where hogs/loons have to go diagonal are more well defended against surgical compared to those that only have right angle straight paths.
Anti-Queen Walk: still in development and peer chatting