COC WAR RULES

Rule #1 : Most Important Rule: The goal for war is to WIN THE WAR. To win your team must get more stars than your opponents.

Rule #2: If you are currently unable, due to upgrades being uncompleted, or for any other reason, to do what it takes to consistently win against those at your town hall level(2-3 star) RIGHT NOW, opt out until you can. Better to not have enough players to go to war than have 8 players who cannot win any of their battles. The "Details" on this one are pretty important. If you are questioning any of this, the reason for rules, why you have to follow instructions ... then please read the details below. Thanks.

Rule #3: Do what it takes to be able to CONSISTENTLY 2-3 star any base at your current Town Hall Level. Using "You Tube", Internet, Other winning teams …)

A.)          Study, Learn, Practice what all the winners do, what troops they use, layouts, timing, strategies ... (Hint: TO avoid having to fight all the anti-air AND all of te land defenses as well, most successful 2-3 star war strategies are either ALL air attacks or ALL land attacks.)

B.)           Max Out the Levels of the Troops the Winners  use for war attacks

C.)           Practice your attacks with the EXACT troops you will use for war. Make sure that you can consistently 2-3 star every single base at your town hall level BEFORE you mark yourself eligible for war.

Rule #4: You must be willing to get the "Most Important" village upgrades done ASAP after upgrading your town hall level. You must "Fully" Upgrade, in this order, ALL:

A.)  Army camps

B.)  Clan Castles

C.)   Troops that are consistently proven to WIN(2-3 Stars) against All town halls at your level. (Even those with maxed out defenses.) 

D.)  Troops that are needed for War donations to other players (Clan Castle Attack and Defense Troops).

E.)   Town war defensive buildings/structures and properly position them (Again, in order of best defenses to worst. See "Details" below.)

Rule #7: War Leader Determines “WHO” is to fill war clan castles with defensive troops and “WHAT” troops to put in. (If you are one of the top players, and you are unwilling to personally fill ALL the clan castles yourself if you have the best troops, opt out of war until you are willing to comply.)

Rule #8: Your First War Attack: EVERYONE: Find what "number" you have next to your village  on the war “Home” screen. Find the "Exact Same Number" on the war “Enemy” screen. That’s village is your first attack. NO EXCEPTIONS! (Example: If you are #2 on the "War Home Screen" then you attack their #2 on the "War Enemy Screen".

Rule #10: Get all of your Attacking Clan Castle Troop Requests in 1 hour BEFORE WAR START. That's EVERYONE! This will give the top 3 players, who will be filling all of these requests, time to fill all of them and have time to make their own troops for their first attack. (Again, if you are unwilling or unable to comply, opt out of war.)

RULE #11: Everyone, no exceptions, should do their first attack within 15 minutes of war "start" time. (This will give you some time to re=scout their bases, note any changes, how their air sweepers have moved, changes in defense ...  and do your first attack. As always, if you a unwilling, or unable to comply with this rule, OPT OUT OFWAR!) 

Rule #12: All players "below the top 3" should immediately brew, restock, get clan castle war requests in … RIGHT AFTER FINISHING THEIR FIRST ATTACK. (See format for requests in "Rule #8" above) (Note: Top 3 players are required to fill those requests immediately, and exactly as requested, as all the lower people will be assigned, and expected to complete, their second attacks immediately after the 15 minute time period for the 1st attack is over.) (Again, unwilling or unable to comply, OPT OUT!)

Rule #14: All Second Attacks (With the exception of the top 3 players) should be completed as soon as assigned by War Leader, so that all 2^nd attacks are completed in the first hour.  (The top 3 players will complete their 2^nd attack in the LAST hour of war, as per War Leader's instructions.)

Finally, read the war defense upgrade and layout strategy, along with the things not to do, at the very bottom of this web page.

Rule Details:

Rule #1 : Most Important Rule: The goal for war is to WIN THE WAR. Get more stars than your opponents. That’s it. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS UNTIL THE WAR “WIN” IS GUARANTEED! To Win the War WE MUST GET THE MOST STARS, PERIOD! All the strategies employed must improve the odds of getting more stars, and limiting the stars the other team can get. If you think that a rule should be changed, modified, or simply removed and that we will get more stars, and prevent the opposing team from getting more stars, let me know the details and I will seriously consider it and consult with our other top players who consistently get 2-3 stars and have been in the clan for a while. My only goal is more war wins. 

Rule #2: If you are unwilling to do whatever it takes to win a war you have no business going to war. Read all of the “Rules” if you are unwilling to comply with them and follow the instructions, go to your profiles page and make sure the go to war button is red for No. Understanding why we have this rule "should" be real easy to understand. Anarchy, doing what we want, when we want, giving what we want, donating what we want, when we want, attacking what we want when we want ... GUARANTEES WE LOSE EVERY WAR! Never winning means lots of frustration and lot's of wasted time, elixir ... if we are not going to win, and thus we are not going to get ay benefits at all because we always lose, there is no reason to ever go to war, and thus no reason to be in a clan, unless you are just looking for the freebies while you farm. In either case, that's fine. just opt out for war. The rules are thee to guarantee the most wins. If you are unwilling to, or cannot comply, opt out. I do when I can't comply. It isn't fair to the rest of the team if you cannot do your part.

Rule #3: Do what it takes to CONSISTENTLY 2-3 star any base at your Town Hall Level.

A.)          Study, Learn, Practice what winners do. (You Tube, Internet, Other teams …)

B.)   Practice your attacks with your new / newly upgraded troops, and get your attacks down BEFORE you mark yourself eligible for war. (Yes, this means getting all top level troops and raiding at your TH level until you can exercise your attacks flawlessly and 3 star  7 out of 10 villages and 2 star the remaining 3anyone. The time to upgrade and figure out how to use your new troops, how and when to deploy them ... is not when you are already at war. )           

Rule #4: Get your Most Important Town Upgrades done ASAP: Some first upgrades at every town hall level include:

F.)  Fully Upgrade Army camps (Why? It gives you more troops or higher level troops to attack with. Thus the likelihood of more stars.)

G.) Fully Upgrade Clan Castles (Gives you more troops to attack with, and more / better troops to defend with.)

H.) Fully Upgrade troops that WIN against same level maxed out town halls. (Sorry, that’s not goblins, archers, and barbarians.)

I.)    Fully Upgrade troops that are needed for War donations to other clan castles during war, i.e. Dragons, Wizards, Valkyries, Archers … so one person doesn’t have to do all the donating.

J.)    Fully Upgrade town war defenses upgraded and positioned properly and in order of best defenses to worst … (See details at the bottom of this paper.)

*Some of this requires searching for, and watching You Tube videos, and/or reading up on strategies at your level online, studying, and practicing these strategies when not in war. Every war participant needs to examine understand and use all the “2-3 star” strategies employed by those at your town hall level and have practiced them when not in war, until they know they can execute them flawlessly. (How can you tell, look at the war results. Anyone not “consistently” 2-3 staring town halls at their level needs to figure out where they are falling short. Ask for help if you need it.)

Note: Rushed bases have a harder time winning at war. That’s why we do not recommend rushing into the next town hall level before defenses, troops and walls are maxed out. (I understand if all of the troop upgrades, barracks upgrades, gold storages … are all upgraded to max and you are going to waste elixir if you don’t upgrade your town hall. But that means that all of those things are maxed out, right?)

But what if I didn’t know … my base is rushed … then max out the troops, spells required to 2-3 star at the town hall level you are at FIRST before you touch anything else, and before you select ready for war. Stay out until you can do some good. Nothing worse than an upper level player in a war unable to get any stars or only one star consistently. Fix it. Practice outside of war, THEN sign up for war. 

IF YOU ARE UNWILLING TO DO ANY OF THESE THINGS IN THIS SITE, DO NOT MARK YOURSELF ELIGIBLE FOR WAR!

Rule #5: War Leader has FULL AUTHORITY. Follow His / Her Instructions:

War leader is in charge. HE OR SHE CAN CHANGE THE OTHER RULES IF THEY DECIDE TO DO SO. (Note: Hopefully they will only do so with good reason, i.e. someone does not have the proper troop upgrades to 2-3 star the person at the level they are on, and another person does.) The war leader has final say as to who attacks who and when. If you do not like the rule, join a different clan or don’t sign up for war. While the war leader has the 100% of the authority, the war leader also has 100% of responsibility for the success or failure of a war. If the “clan leader” does not like the performance, attitude, techniques … of the “war leader” they do not have to appoint them ever again, but for that war, until the end of that war, THEY HAVE FULL CONTROL AND AUTHORITY EVEN OVER THE CLAN LEADER!

If anyone doesn’t follow the “War Leaders” instructions, give them 1 warning. After that, if they do not follow your clan war leader’s instructions, either exclude them from war or remove them from the clan.

Keep in mind that if ANYONE is unwilling to do what it takes to guarantee the win for the clan, they have no business being in any wars. They will end up costing the clan wins, if only because they incite rebellion, and if one person doesn’t have to follow instructions, why does anyone else have to do so? One person not following instructions will cost the entire team wars.

Rule #6: War Leader Determines “WHO” is to fill war clan castles with defensive troops and “WHAT” troops to put in.

Recommendation: Fill all defensive clan castles with the Highest level dragons FIRST. Then, in the space that is left, put in as many of the Highest level wizards or Valkyries each clan castle can hold. Lastly, if there is space left and you can’t cram in another wizard or Valkyrie, put in the Highest level archers. (Note: In the Lowest Level Clan Castles, (1) Valkyrie & (1) Minion is also very effective against ground attacks from the opponents low level players, and Valkyries are immune to poison.)

THE ONLY PEOPLE DONATING TROOPS INTO WAR DEFENSE CLAN CASTLES SHOULD HAVE THE HIGHEST AVAILABLE LEVELS OF THESE TROOPS.

That said, if you are the only one with maxed level dragons, you need to supply ALL of the dragons to every clan castle that will hold one.

Again, if you are upper level and you are unwilling to do this, don’t sign up for war.

Note: If they pull the troops out of the clan castle first it doesn’t matter much what you have. A Valkyrie is best against archers, so lowest level clan castles might want to put those in with a wizard or some archers. What we are looking to do is maximize the chances of having the most effective troops in the clan castles at each level.

IF YOU ARE AT THE TOP LEVELS AND ARE NOT WILLING TO SUPPLY EVERYONE, YES, EVERYONE WITH ALL OF THE TOP LEVEL TROOPS, DO NOT OPT IN FOR WAR!!!

Rule #7: Your First Attack: Find what number you are on the war “Home” screen. Find the same number on the war “Enemy” screen. That’s your first attack. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Everyone in war should be doing the things above, upgrades, study of attacks, practicing attacks … and everyone in your wars should be able to get 2-3 stars at their town hall level. Therefore, to allow EVERYONE from your top player to your bottom player the chance to get 2-3 stars, and to also maximize the number of stars your team gets in the first attack, you MUST have EVERYONE attack their own level for their first attack.

The only exception to the rule is when a base needs a specialty troop to defeat it that the person at their level does not have yet, or have upgraded yet. In which case the “war leader” may reassign who attacks what. He / She can change any rules based on his/her assessment.(See the Authority RULES above.)

Rule #8: Request the “Attacking Troops” for your clan castle using this format: “WAR TROOPS ONLY! (1) Level 3 Dragon, (1) Level 5 Wizard & (1) Level 5 Archer. ONLY GIVE EXACTLY THOSE TROOPS! (Note: Visit and check their clan castles information screen if necessary.)

Rule #9: Get all of your Attacking Clan Castle Troops approximately 1 hour BEFORE WAR START.

RULE #10: Everyone should do their first attack within 15 minutes of the start of any war.

Why? Let’s assume you have a 10 person war started and you all have followed all of the other guidelines listed above. If you all do your first attacks within the first 15 minutes and you all can 2-3 star every base at your level, let’s assume you get ½ 2 star attacks and ½ 3 star attacks. In the first 15 minutes your team is now ahead 25 to nothing with each of you having one attack left.

Any 2 stared base below the top 3 should be capable of being 3 stared by your teams top third players second attacks. That’s another 2-3 stars for sure.

Think about it, you are 15 minutes into a war and the opposing team has 25 stars, and you KNOW they can get 2-3 more without trying. What does that do to your teams moral?

If you do this, many people on the opposing team will flat out refuse to waste the elixir to attack at all at that point. Guess what? You win without a fight. Get the same 25 points over the first 20 hours and the opposing team will stay neck and neck with you the whole way.

THE GOAL OF WAR IS TO WIN THE WAR. Win the Mental Battle and You’ll usually win the real battle as well: The best teams in all of COC attack their own number within 2 hours of war start, EVERY WAR.

Rule #11: All players below the top 3 should immediately brew, restock, get clan castle war requests in … RIGHT AFTER FINISHING THEIR FIRST ATTACK. (See format above) (Note: Top 3 players are required to fill those requests exactly as requested.)

 Rule #12: Second War Attacks are ALWAYS Assigned by War Clan Leader, immediately following the completion of first attacks and are expected to be carried out immediately, and in order.

Why? The goal of war is to win the war. You only win if you have more stars. The clan war leader had best be able to figure out who should attack who to get the most stars for the clan. General Guidelines that work:

1. All lower level war participants (#’s 4-10 in a 10 person war) Should be ready to do their second attack as soon as possible after their first attack. (And everyone else should be ready soon after that.)

2. Your lowest level person (#10) attacks the lowest non 3 starred person they can, followed IMMEDIATELY by the #9 person attacking the lowest non-3 starred base, followed IMMEDIATELY by the #8, all the way up to #5.

1. Note: THIS MAY MEAN THAT YOUR NUMBERS 7-10 MAY ALL BE ATTACKING THE SAME NUMBER IF IT IS NOT 3 STARRED YET. This strategy maximizes the number of stars your team can get.
1. If you are #6 and know you can take #3, I don’t care. This is war. This is about “winning” the war. If the opponents #10 isn’t 3 starred yet and your teams #’s 7-10 have already used up their second battle, #10 is yours to 3 star with your second attack.
2. Violate this rule and you will lose the war for your team and tick off everyone above you who is forced to pick up your slack.
3. To me, willful violation of this rule results in IMMEDIATE dismissal from the team with no hope for reinstatement.
4. Go with the best odds, finish off the lower numbers of the enemies team first… And put the nails in the coffin early. (You should have 27-28 stars, in most cases, by this point, and maybe be an hour into the war. Talk about demoralizing for your opponents team …)
2. Your top players should be assigned their battles and battle order, by the war leader based on their available troops, what the opponents (Non-3 starred) have for defenses and in their clan castles.

Rule #13: All Second Attacks (with the exception of the top 3 players) should be completed as soon as assigned by War Leader, so that all 2^nd attacks are completed in the first hour.  (The top 3 players will complete their 2^nd attack in the LAST hour of war.) For details as to why, see Rule #12 just previous.

WAR DEFENSIVE UPGRADE STRAGTEGY

1. Upgrade the most powerful defensive structures that you have 1^st and MAX THEM OUT.
2. Know the best attack troops and strategies for town halls of your level (You already studied these if you followed the instructions above.) And MAX OUT the defensive structures for those attacks FIRST. For example: If you are Town Hall levels 6-8, and possibly 9, most people who attack you will have highest level dragons. THAT’S AIR DEFENSES YOU MAX OUT FIRST. The order is max out your:
1. Anti-Air Rockets.
2. Teslas* (Highest individual attacks per second of all defensive structures)
3. Wizard Towers
4. Archer Towers
5. Air Bombs* and Seeking Air Bombs*.
3. At lower TH levels(1-4) attacks will be primarily ground(Giants, Archers, Barbarians …) Max out:
1.  Mortars
2. Teslas* (See Above)
3. Wizard Towers
4. Archer towers
5. Bombs*
6. Cannon

*One of the big reasons for maxing out teslas and bombs is that they are hidden attack land and air and cannot be scouted making your base much harder to defeat. This causes the enemy to be over confident and underestimate what it takes to win resulting in far less 2 or 3 star attacks against your town, and more wins for the team.

WAR BASE DEFENSIVE LAYOUT STRATEGY:

1. All Successful Defensive War Strategy is based on providing the enemy the fewest stars per attack.

2. All Defensive Structures, regardless of level, should be “Evenly Spaced” out and as compact as is possible for greatest effectiveness / overlapping destructive coverage.

1. Every non-defensive building has a specific number of hit points. The higher the hit points, the longer it will take opponents troops to kill them. Put these in the positions that will result in your highest damage defensive structures getting the longest time to pound on their troops. What does this mean?

1. This means that your storage structures, (i.e. gold storage, dark elixir storage, elixir storage) will always go in the very next ring outside of your best defensive structures (Mortars and Anti-Air)

2. This maximizes your best defensive structures life span and the amount of damage you do to them before they die.

Don’t Space things out! Every structure takes the same time to destroy when as tightly compacted as when extra space is included. If it doesn’t shoot at an enemy it serves only one purpose in war. All non-attacking structures exist to KEEP THE OPPONENTS TROOPS OCCUPIED WHILE YOUR DEFENSES POUND THE _ _ _ _ OUT OF THEM. The higher the defensive hit points a non-attacking structure has the closest it should be to the structures designed to dish out the highest pounding.

1. Evenly overlapping fields of destruction are best so space each type of defensive structure out evenly in a ring. i.e. you should have almost an equal space between all archer towers. You should have almost an equal space between all cannons … Again, open spaces are not your friend.

1. Clan Castle and Town Hall always go in very center. Why?:
1. The Town Hall Is a star for the opposing team. For this reason, should always be in the center of your layers of protection.  

2. The Clan Castle has a triggering range (To see when the troops will be released, check out the ring that forms when you click on your clan castle.) You want to try and keep your clan castle troops INSIDE for as long as possible to prevent your opponents from luring your troops out and killing them with poison, lightning, or a ring of archers. (I understand that at lower town hall levels this may not be possible.)

Note: This is the only “possible” reason to move “some” buildings slightly away from the outside walls. If moving 1-2 buildings one space out prevents early triggering and releasing of clan castle troops, you MAY want to do this for “a couple” of buildings.

1. Next Layer Out: This is where your “Best” defensive units, i.e. Maxed out Anti-Air and Mortars, go.

2. Next Layer Out: Storage Units, Air Sweepers and Upper Level Teslas and Wizard Towers
1. Storage Units: These have the highest hit points. Therefore, they will keep opponents troops occupied for the longest time and keep them in range of these most destructive structures doing the most damage. Therefore they should go just outside of the ring of Mortars and Anti Air, whenever possible. IN WAR, STORAGES SERVE ONLY ONE PURPOSE, TO HOLD UP ENEMIES TROOPS WHILE YOUR BEST DEFENSES POUND ON THEM. If you do not put them where this will occur they are a wasted resource.  Only in this position, with your Mortars and Anti Air in the next inside layer, will your best defenses live the longest while doing the most possible damage to your opponents troops.

2. Air Sweepers: and air bombs should be placed at this time as well, to protect as many of the anti-air defenses as is possible.
3. Teslas:  A lesser known fact is that Teslas are the best defensive “single unit” defensive damage structure “per second” at every town hall. Better than maxed out Archer Towers AND, they are hidden and no one will know they are maxed out until they start pounding on their troops. With teslas “maxed” and properly placed, your opponents should average 1 star less when they attack you than what they would get with the lowest level teslas.)
4. Wizard Towers: Wizard towers are only better “IF” the troops that normally attack you in a war have a tendency to all be clumped up within a square or two of each other. (Area damage I stead of single target), which rarely happens after Teslas are available. So, in most cases, Teslas are better and should be upgraded first.
5. Archer Towers: If you still have space in that next ring, evenly space out your archer towers.
6. Lastly … Cannons, Bombs & Traps: The last defensive structure to upgrade and place is cannons as they are only useful against land troops.
1. Ideally bombs and traps are placed just inside the outermost layer of walls to break up the flow of troops jumping from attacking one defensive structure to another, and to kill most of them early before they can do damage. In other words they should be placed to keep opponents from destroying a lot of defenses one after another with “masses” of a single type of troops. (A mass of Hog riders, a mass of Giants, …) Look for the normal flow of attackers and put evenly space these to prevent them from taking out too much at once.  Dead sooner is better than dead later. Just inside the outer ring of walls is best.

AGAIN, IN ALL CASES, EVENLY SPACE OUT EACH AND EVERY TYPE OF DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE. (Example: All archer towers should form an evenly spaced ring around your town hall and clan castle. Same with every other individual TYPE of defensive structure. DO NOT lump same type defensive structures together.)

1. Everything Else, every other building (Except maybe a couple of builders cabins in the outside corners, should be as close to the attacking structures as is possible, and with as many overlapping defenses shooting at that range as you can. Why? So that the time your opponents waste trying to destroy them is time your defenses are bombarding them and killing them. Yes, they will have to waste the time anyway, but if you can kill off some of them while they are using the same time, you are going to have fewer stars scored against you. Consider those buildings to be extra walls.

2. In most cases, you will not be able to fully follow every part of this paper. That said, from what I see, these are the principles you need to think about when considering base design.

3. Some things to always remember:

A.      Dummy war bases are usually a waste of time. People scout before attacking anyway once they are past the beginner stages. Don't risk going to war with a dummy base, put your real base up and be done with it.

B.      Upgrade your dark barracks, and other barracks evenly. Nothing worse than getting into a war and remembering that your "main" dark barracks, or your only upper level barracks is still upgrading and you can't make the troops you need.

C.      Yes, this is just a game, but if you just invested 400,000 in elixir it took you 4 hours of time raiding to get the elixir to put dragons into everyone's clan castles and for their attacks, that you are never getting back because a couple of people just want to mess around, you take it seriously. If you don't take war seriously, please stay out of the war. Waste your own  time and elixir and just do raids. Please don't waste everyone else's time, their elixir and their efforts when you really couldn't care less. If you aren't willing to bring your "A" game, stay out of the war, or let us know and we won't put you in.

D.     Don't let friends do your attacks for you. Again, if you do not take war seriously, opt out or go play by yourself without a clan. People are counting on you t do your part. Set an example for the team.

E.      War is not a place to "Try out" new attacks, new methods ... practice those things in raids against people of similar size and strength as yourself.

F.       DO NOT start upgrades on your barbarian king or archer queen that will not finish before war begins, and CERTAINLY  DON'T START UPGRADING THEM DURING THE WAR unless both of your attacks are finished.