Town Hall 9 War Base Building Concepts

Conceptual ideas are ideas that have been thought up either by me, peers that I've spoken to, or something that I've picked up but haven't confirmed to be true by the experts. There are many concepts which some base builders would pave the road to read, while some concepts other base builders don't realize that could be helpful towards bettering their base. Some concepts have been explained in OneHive's TH9 Base Building Guide for example, but I'm going to restate it in my own terms/have more concepts to show. These concepts are for the advanced stages of base builder in order for them to understand. The concepts and theories on this page are all CONFIRMED to be actually used within the Elites/Top Tier base builders.

Second Edition - October/November 2015

First Attack Defending and Second Attack Clean up Base

Although this might seem abit obvious, this information is still relevant in the top war games as first attacks and clean up attacks. When it comes to top elite war clans, they have a certain chance of first attack 3 starring a base due to how well planned they have thought out against the base. Majority of the time, they already including in their equation some approximate location of where the teslas, and giant bomb are located so they still can technically 3 star your base. For when it comes to Elite War clans, every attack counts, for every first attack three star that happens, that means there is one extra attack for clean up. If you consider 3 star is the goal, and a person gets two star on first attack, that first attack would only be considered a scout, and another person needs to re-attack it for sure. That means 3 star on first attack is important because it gives a +2 attack advantage for the clan, while failing and getting 2 star means an attack wasted (but still able to scout), but then another attack MUST target this.

Although I always go by the logic of "build your base as if your enemies knows where your traps are" and this is the case.

Springs Against First Drop

This one is very situational, and really depends on the skill of the builder/style in order to pull it off. Knowing the fact that there are many exposed defenses in the front which could seem to be targetable by Surgical Hogs, using that fact against them with spring traps intentionally put to separate the defense on the initial drop, could potential defeat a first attacker. Keep in mind, using this technique SEVERELY deminishes the internal defense, and if the hogs for example come in from the opposite side, it will result in a super easy kill since the defenses aren't protected by springs.

Tesla Farm: Quad/Triple Tesla Zone

This is a surprise factor of which 4 Teslas are located at the same location (most times are far away from AD). For the advanced base builders, there are certain areas which are deemed 'kill zones' (check out my Groups, Sections, and Territory), and about 90% of the time, teslas are in doubles or singles. They don't do as much damage to hogs which heals them back up. With the Quad Teslas, it abandons the logic of protecting certain location of a base overall, into complete overpowering the hogs/loons in one go, ruining a first attack since they don't know where the location of the teslas are. But doing this set up also reduces the amount of protecting the base has, and same problem as above, once they know where the teslas are they can easily plan for it, and making the rest of the base alot easier.

Air Sweeper/Seeking/AD against Dragon that Targets Queen

Perfectly Explained in Onehive's Video: [Suicide Dragon], the attack strategy to kill Queen in the Queen Island.

In order to combat against this type of attack, a base needs to have protect against the Dragons. Seeking, Air Sweeper as the bluff, or an AD behind the Queen in order to protect her is important. Dragons have now been upgraded to Lv4 for TH9, making them more stronger than before, so keeping your queen alive is important. And also look, a ground Xbow :D.

Read more information on AD/AS placement in my Offset Queen Guide.

First Edition - September 2015

Defense Outside the Walls

As of now, when it comes to designing bases, compartments that used to be really tight together with 1x3 space apart (with spring traps inbetween), to 2x4 space to accommodate double giant bombs, to now where compartments have big sections and the 'Queen island', the base designs now have expanded their territory for as much 'filler' space on the inside. With this in mind, the expansion is already I feel like it's reaching it's limitations, so defenses will start to appear on the outside of the walls.

The purpose for this is the KEY for the next phase, which is providing initial targets for the surgical/loon troops.

X-Bow Set to Ground/Hero Coverage

In the past, when there was only just one Air Sweeper, I was alittle hesitating to set both X-bows to ground, but now with the additional extra Air Sweeper, and the prevalence of Surgical hog/Queen Walk, setting a Xbow to Air might not be a bad idea. When it comes to top tier base designing now, the Queen Walk, and the surgical hogs is a big threat, as well as the fact that Healers have been buffed.

The idea of setting Xbows to ground MUST be supported with a base that is Anti-Loon (not anti-lava, I mean LOON), which means teslas and wizardT combo that is not within range of ADs. Back to the subject, Xbows set to ground can target hogs earlier, combine with the other uses of Xbows described within this page, be an extra dps against the Queen Walk and I feel like the pros of ground Xbows out way the pros of air xbows. Of course if your base isn't anti-loon, having ground Xbow is a big mistake, but once you get to the level of base building (there are two types which I feel like exists, an Absorb type, and a brute force type) that can handle Loons without even needing the assistance of Air Defense (since they are busy hanging out with Lavas), that's where the level where Xbows are able to be set to ground. I'm not claiming both XBows will be set to ground, but at LEAST one xbow will be set to ground.

Single Bomb Usage

Concept explained by Eric in the page [Single Bomb Usage]. How positioning small bombs two space in front of a wall, (usually in front of queen kill location) to disturb or kill the Wall Breaker that's targetting the wall. Click on the link to read more.

Spring Traps Between Outer and Secondary Defenses

With the invention/wide spread use of Surgical Hogs, the movement pattern of hog pathing has ultimately changed. the Once two-pack of 14-16 hogs now turned into pin needle sized 2-4 hog packs that surgically target defenses. With this in mind, spring traps between two defenses that are parallel is no longer a via option since they both get taken out at the same time, the hogs will 'skip' the spring trap between the defense.

The way the spring traps are lay-out now is between the defense between the first layer defense and the second layer of defense. The front defenses will be hit by surgical hogs at the same time, but no matter what the case, the spring traps between the Tesla and the defenses will still be triggered by the hogs.

Outer Second-layer X-Bow

Through discussion with some other base builders, and looking at some different designs, I can confirm that xbows that used to be near the mid area (around the 5-9th tile) has been moved outwards to the outer sections in order to shoot further outwards. Most people just say that X-bows are just longer range Archer Towers, if you consider the damage they put.

The X-bows are placed at further locations, in order to cover a wider range as it being within the base isn't of any use since it would be too late by then.

The Queen Island/Offset Queen

With the Queen Island, it's basically a location which the Queen can move about in, still can shoot into other compartments, but won't walk out of the compartment. The main features of this island is the fact that
1) it's placed at off-side of the base, making it the only side available to attack it
2) If you are going to Queen Kill, you will need to at least invest a jump spell or it will be risky

This is a sort-a common theme that the bases are building around when it comes to the defense Queen. This allows the Queen to be a threat, but also limits the enemy's mobility to Queen Kill since you know it's coming so you remove their resources.

In my opinion thought, right now this is a good solution towards how to protect and threaten the enemy when it comes to your Queen, but I do feel like there is more potential towards other ways of protecting and utilizing the Queen.

Link to Onehive base (Image One): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUkpoOYCaf8

Offset Queen Guide

The Inner Tesla/Cannon/King DPS

With the deployment Surgical hogs, double giant bombs that run parallel to defenses can now be easily off set by just a smaller pack of hogs, which leaves two set of double giant bomb not as dependable. Some interesting ideas of course is first to have Teslas on the inside, second, more cannons as well, and also the B. King to be positioned beside Giant bomb/ other DPS defenses instead of protecting the Queen.

The King is optional, but with this set up, the Tesla + cannon can out DPS the heal spell as well as the fact that since giant bombs are near, even if the hogs don't die, the near by high DPS defenses will be able to pick it off.

Looking at both examples though, you can see that the first image has a centralized double giant bomb, which is opposite of the Queen location (which is south) and also the two sets of double giant bombs in the second image is also on the opposite side of the Queen. When it comes to this set up, the type of base which benefits from the Inner Teslas/Cannon/Single/Double Giant Bomb is when the Queen only occupies about less than 30% of the base while the remaining 45% is for the inner core DPS and 25% is the outer section as the front. Doubling the Teslas, making them AWAY from Air Defense also is beneficial towards attacking bloons, and hogs.