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The Golden Rule of Clan War Strategy

Clan wars have strategy: big-picture plans, who attacks whom, which attack styles to use.

Clan wars also have tactics: small-picture plans, which troops to use, where and when to deploy the troops.

This essay is about strategy.

It is often difficult for a player to do a three-star attack against his or her "mirror" that has the same number in the war lineups.

Normally, when a war is done the best attacks end up looking something like this:

actual example from the war Knights Templar vs. Mezon.

In some wars, the bottom of our lineup (the clan members at #9 and #10) will not get any three-star attacks.  That is okay!  Those clan members contribute to a team's war victory simply by participating and thus creating "mirrors" on the other team who are easy targets for our team members with slightly more advanced offense.

Remember, as long as the clan members at the bottom of our lineup get even one star, their attack is a "win" and they get not only valuable practice but also more yummy bonus war loot when the war is complete.

(Always use both your attacks to get more bonus war loot.  If you cannot help the team gain new stars, feel free to save elixir by using a weaker army to go for a one-star attack.)



So if we draw a chart like the above for a war, there will always be some downward red arrows.  The goal is to minimize how far down the arrows drop.

The golden rule of clan war strategy is Attack the highest war bases in the opposing lineup that you are absolutely sure you can three-star.

If you attack a target that is needlessly low in the opponents' lineup, you might be stealing a lower-ranked teammate's only chance to make a satisfying three-star attack. 

If you attack a target that is too high in the opponents' lineup, you will not get three stars.  You will also not learn as much.  The saying "perfect practice makes perfect" is true for many things, including war attacks.  Better to succeed at something a little too easy one more time with elegance, than to try something for which a too-difficult task provides you with less feedback about the good habits you are trying to build.

At the end of the day, as far as helping the team, a two-star attack is just a valiant yet failed attempt that qualifies for bonus war loot but needs a clean-up.  There is no shame in that -- everyone has bad days, and it is always better to try and to learn something than to not try!  Two-star attacks happen all the time.  But they should never be the strategic "plan A" we first desire.

Since we are a trainer clan we focus on boldness, trying, learning, and positive constructive critique.  Do not feel bad about failing the golden rule.  Sometimes you will attack too low.  Sometimes you will attack too high.  We can only ask that you try your best and keep learning.

(There are two exceptions to the golden rule.  Clean-up attacks happen when needed, not against the highest good target.  Also, the highest war participants in our lineup should aim for two stars when the highest war bases in the enemy lineup are too tough for a certain three-star attack.)
 


So in theory most three-star attacks happen when people drop instead of attacking their mirror.  But has this actually held true for our clan?

This chat shows our three-star attacks during our first five wars.


Our clan is doing great.

Yes, most of our three-star attacks are drops instead of mirrors.  Specifically, 23 of our 38 three-star attacks (60 percent of them) have been drops.

But almost all of our clan members have also three-starred a mirror one or more times.