Townhall 13 base building guide
Made by- Aristotle#4431
Value Distribution
The major defenses are the town hall, infernos, eagle artillery, scatter shots, royal champion, and the queen. These are classified as "major defenses" because they are the most important defenses when designing your base.
So when I say reachable I mean that the queen can grab it. The queen is unique because of her long-range, this is her full range-
This means that if the queen is outside of the walls, she cannot reach the inferno. Here are examples for a 3x3 and 4x4 building-
Try and think of your major defenses as reds and blues. The infernos are blue, while the eagle artillery, scatter shots, queen, and royal champ are red. The town hall falls into a grey area, meaning depending on the base it can be acceptable to call it a blue or red.
So generally the rules are
- No two blues can be reachable from the same compartment.
- A blue and red can be reachable if it isn't easy to queen charge them.
- 3 reds can be reachable as long as a sui can't get them and it isn't easy for a queen charge to grab them.
- Neither blues or reds should be walkable or easily suitable.
- A jump spell shouldn't open up the whole base. If it gives access to 3 blues, or 2 blues and 4 reds, then your base will likely be easily 3 stared.
Here is an example good of value distribution
Notice how this base follows the rules
Two blues can not be reached from the same compartment, there are reds and blues reachable from the same comp, but a QC is very difficult, and that nothing is easily grabbed with sui heros.
Here is an example of bad value distribution
Notice how this base doesn't follow the rules
Two infernos, an eagle, and the queen can be grabbed from the channel compartment, also the eagle artillery, town hall, the other inferno, and queen are all reachable from the middle comp.
Regular defense comps
Ok, so contrary to th12 there aren't 'normal comps' at th13. While the standard 9x9 and 9x10 are sometimes usable, in the th13 meta these aren't as effective.
At th13 wacky wall conserving comps are meta. Let me explain-
Ok, so basically this is the third town hall in a row that has the same number of walls! Crazy right? This means that we must conserve walls at all costs, one way to do this is to utilize larger compartments, and since bowler/Pekka spam isn't meta atm this isn't a problem.
Here are some examples-
Ok, so I highlighted the comps that are more th13 style. Take notice how I don't have a standard length, Such as th12 when 9x9 were almost mandatory. At th13 you get to play around with larger comps, don't be afraid to have fun with it!
P.s. L or U shaped comps are amazing at defending yeti spam as funneling and troop pathing is hell. ( I have some highlighted above)
Inferno comps
The goal with inferno compartments is to path the troops away from your infernos towards other defenses.
Take notice of how I make compartments for infernos in these bases-
Here are the compartments close up-
( I know they are small, I have no idea how to fix)
A few things to consider when building inferno compartments are troop pathing, stone slammer, queen range, and value distribution.
Troop pathing
You always want to think about where the troops will go, and how to path them the way you want. For loons, hogs, and the slammer you need to have defenses going around the inferno such as this-
Notice how there is no way a slammer, RC or defense targeting troop would easily path to the inferno tower because of the defenses around it. Because troops will path around it the inferno will be able to deal with damage longer.
This is the walkability range of an inferno tower-
Value distribution
Because these comps will often be large, you need to take extra care in making sure these follow the value distribution rules said above.
Deadzones
Utilized correctly, dead zones can vastly improve your base. You have three main things to think about when creating dead zones, value distribution, pathing, and location.
Value distribution
A deadzone should not give away half of the base. When building dead zones try and think about what would happen if a queen got in there, if half of your base would be gone then it's probably too big.
Pathing
Dead Zones are an effective way to split up troops or path them away from major defenses.
Location
Dead Zones are probably the best way to prevent massive overkills by attacks such as yeti smash. Keep in mind your town hall location and value spread when placing dead zones, as these are the main factors that determine where an attacker will start.
Also, don't forget that a queen can reach things over two tile deadzone! Here is an example of how to place a defense so it will not be targetable over a deadline-
Don't forget, three tile dead zones are an option, you just have to put walls or trash buildings in them!
For example-
Take note how on this base the inferno at 6 is separated from the rest. This means that if an attacker comes from 9-12 it will be difficult to take down the inferno. But the more important thing is that the DZ follows the value distribution rules.
Channels
Channels can be a very effective way of splitting up troops and are very infamous for ruining ground attacks. There are three things to consider when making a channel, value distribution, location, and accessibility.
Here are 3 different styles of channels-
Accessibility
Take notice how it would be a literal nightmare to try and force a queen into the channel and keep her alive. This is important because often channels will have good value in them.
Location
Personally, I think it's much easier to build channels in the middle, but this isn't mandatory. Many people like to have a small channel separating an inferno comp, which can be just as effective.
Value distribution
Ok, channels are your one exception to your value distribution rules. Often multiple major defenses will be available, but as long as it's almost impossible to abuse it's fine. For example, in the second base the th, EA, sc, and RC are available from the channel, but abusing that is very difficult.
Pathing
When placing your compartments try and think about pathing. When placing them try and think about how ground troops will path, as you want it to go through as many walls as possible.
For example-
Notice how in the top example the wrecker/troops will have to go through an extra set of walls. Always make sure to use your compartments effectively!
Pathing-continued
You can use non-defense buildings to make defense targeting troops the way you want. Here is an example-
Notice how in the 1st example a mass of hogs/loons could just plow through that with no worries. In the second example, the non-defense building will split up the group and make pathing less predictable. Having difficult pathing is what transforms a good base to a great base.
Defenses
Townhall
The town hall is the most important defense at th13, as its Giga bomb and freeze effect can demolish anything that goes near it. There are a few things to think about when designing a town hall comp, mainly suitability, stone slammer pathing, value distribution, and location.
In the current meta I like to have my town hall inside the base but not in the middle. I find that if done properly it is more effective than having your town hall outside, simply because of the sui/queen charge hog/lalo/yetibomb meta. Because of the town halls high dps and warden forcing ability, this should normally be on the backend.
Here are some examples of good town hall compartments-
Notice how the walls prevent a sui, and that a stone slammer or RC can not easily get to the town hall.
Inferno Tower
In the current meta, it's best to have both singles and multi infernos. Try and have single infernos in likely QC areas ( town hall ).
Generally, these should be in a triangle shape, being evenly distributed throughout the base. But you could opt to have an inferno farm, which is where you have two/three infernos in back to back compartments, such as this-
A setup like this gives very high dps in one area, often making a backend lalo/hog attack very difficult and expensive.
Here is a good example of a single inferno setup-
If an attacker tried to sui or QC the town hall that single would be very expensive and risky to deal with, often leaving the backend weak.
Scatter shot
Ok, so the number 1 thing to think about when placing scatter shots is to make sure they are on the backend. They are arguably the biggest dps dealer to hogs/loons/miners.
While ss islands can be effective, I don't recommend making them big. At th13 walls are just so tight you cant spend so much on one defence.
Eagle artillery
The eagle artillery is one of your most valuable defenses, and value distribution should be kept in mind when placing it.
Xbows
In the current meta, I like to have 2 ground and 2 air xbows.
Personally, I like to have my xbows in a farm, meaning that they are clustered together like this-
Having your bows like this makes the queen walks very expensive ( spell wise ) and risky to attempt. Generally, the town hall is a good place to have an xbow farm next to.
Air Defence
Air defenses are mainly ment to defend 2 things, hounds and drags.
Hounds
For optimal hound pathing, your ads should be in a rectangle shape, having them evenly distributed throughout the base. Here is an example-
Take note that it doesn't have to be a perfect rectangle, just kind of in that shape.
Drags
I like to have one or two of my air defenses in the second lair of walls to defend against drags. Having them in the second lair of walls means that drags get targeted for longer, thus killing them more effectively.
Wizard Towers
Ok, so when having single infernos wizard tower placment is important. Try to have 1 or 2 wizard towers by a single.
Another thought when placing these is try to have them on a backend, they may not be a inferno but they still do nice damage to hogs/miners and loons.
Air Sweepers
Air sweepers are very important as with poor placement, queen charges, electrones, and lalo will dominate.
Generally, you want these facing in opposite or semi opposite directions, as the coverage needs to be fairly even for optimal efficiency.
If you think an electrone attack is likely on your base, it's a good idea to have one facing the queen as that is what most attackers are looking to get. The other sweeper should be facing either the town hall or inferno tower in a place where lalo is likely to start.
Generally, you want the sweeper range to end just outside the base, here is an example-
Having the range end outside the base makes sure that the sweeper doesn't come in too late.
Bomb Tower
A bomb tower has two main uses, to cover the queen/RC from skeletons, and to act as an extra giant bomb.
In the current meta mass hog is a popular attack. What the attacker will do is bring 40+ hogs and basically spam your base, they will normally take out your queen with a skeleton spell. To prevent this your queen needs to have some kind of splash close to her, and since the bomb tower only targets ground it is perfect for the job.
Keep in mind that the bomb tower is also a giant bomb, and should be treated as such. Space these away from each other and other giant bombs, as having them clustered will give the attacker a lot of healing value.
Archer Tower
The archer tower is one of your not as important defenses. I mean, they are important and placement should be thought through, but these aren't a top priority when building.
At th13 many of your archer towers will be in the outer ring of defenses, as this frees up walls for things such as dead zones and more elaborate major defense comps. Try and keep these fairly even throughout the base, as they are good at taking down drags.
Your geared archer tower is like an xbow, with a smaller range. You can use this to help prevent a sui, or just increase the damage in a valuable spot.
Here is an example-
Notice How a sui is more difficult because of the placement of the geared defense.
Because many of these should be outside of the base, you have an opportunity to disrupt pathing. For example-
Notice how you can use outer defenses to path troops the way you want. In this case, I used them to path things away from the inferno, but you can use them to path away/towards anything.
Cannons
These are basically a ground archer tower, and everything I said above applies ( besides being air targeting )
The only difference is that the geared cannon is very good at killing a wall wrecker. Simply have this in a likely starting place of a Pekka smash and likely the wrecker will not get as far as you would expect. These are also effective at killing tank troops such as the golem and ice golem.
Mortar
Mortars aren't really that useful unless you're defending goblins, always have these in the outer layer of defenses.
The only thing to really consider with mortars is to not have them bounceable, see the trash section for details.
Defensive clan castle
Your defensive clan castle is one of the most versatile defenses in the game. You can use different combinations of troops to prepare for different attacks.
There are two main types of fills. A damage cc is meant to be a nasty surprise for the attacker and can ruin a backend. A time cc is meant to slow down a sui or queen walk/charge, this can lead to time failure.
Here are some good th13 clan castle fills-
Hound-loon-5 arch
This time fill is mainly targeted towards a queen charge, as she will get stuck on the hound and loons, which could cause a time to fail.
Double drag loon
This damage cc is meant to be a nasty surprise for attacks such as a backend hog/loon. The reason for this is that in the current meta many attackers will expect a hound, and plan their whole attack around that.
Triple ice g
This is a great time cc that can take a QC over 40 seconds to kill, that's like a quarter of the attack!
Other cc combos can work, but in the current meta, these are very effective.
King, Queen, and Royal Champ placement
Your king, queen, and RC are very useful when defending, as they have unique aspects. The king has so much health that it's impossible for most troops to take him down by themselves. The RC and queen's high dps is notorious for ruining attacks.
King
Because of the king's vast health, he is very useful to stop queen charges, suis, and the RC. I would recommend that you place your king by the town hall, just because that's what many attackers are looking to get from a sui/queen charge.
Here is a good example of king placement-
Queen/RC
Because of the queen and RC's decimation on the backend, they should be fairly separated so a ks doesn't get both.
Here is an example of good queen/RC placement-
Traps
Giant Bomb
These should always be between 2 defenses. In addition to having these inside the base, a great place to have them is in the outer layer of defenses, as often the attacker expects to heal inside the base, and it can be a surprise to have to use a heal on the outer layer of defenses.
Here are some examples of good giant bomb placement-
Also, these generally shouldn't be by multi infernos because those are your biggest DPS dealers and will be healed over in most cases, basically in the current meta, you want to out heal your opponent, making it to where you have spaced your GBS so they don't have enough heals to cover them all.
Spring Traps
Spring traps are your main defense against hogs, because of this, you want these to be primarily on the backend or opposite side from a kill squad entry( which at th13 will normally be away from the th)
These should always be between 2 defenses and generally, these defenses should have a 1 tile gap between them, as having them like this means that no matter what way the hogs are coming from, it will be just as effective.
Here are some good and bad ways to place spring traps-
Tornado Trap
The tornado trap can devastate attacks if used properly.
Personally, I believe you should always have this between two major damage dealers ( inferno and town hall ). The reason for this is it creates a situation where no matter where the attack comes from, the troops will be stuck within the range of a high DPS defense. The trap should be at least 3 tiles away from any major defense, as you don't want troops to continue attacking while it's activated.
Here are two examples of good tornado trap placement-
It's always important to try and have this on the backend, as it's way more effective on the backend versus a kill squad or queen charge. Also keep these away from air defenses, as you don't want hound pups to waste it.
And don't forget to make sure that hogs/loons will path to it!
Air Bomb ( red )
Red air mines, or RABs, are considered the most important trap when defending loons.
So when placing these there are two main rules.
Always have these by defenses, as loons are defense targeting troops. And keep these away from air defenses because you don't want hound pups wasting them. For reference: a hound's pup diameter is about 4 tiles in each direction.
Also, try and keep these evenly distributed throughout the base. And you can double up on these to force a heal.
RABs go great with infernos and wizard towers because those three elements of splash demolish loons.
Seeking air mines ( black )
Seeking air mines, or SAMs primarily are used to defend three things, hounds, queen charges, yeti bombs, and the stone slammer.
Hounds
For hounds it's quite simple, just have them by the air defenses so when hounds path to them they get popped.
Queen charges
So defending these is a little more complicated, as you have to predict where the opponent will start. Generally, a safe bet is to find where your highest concentration of value is, then place the SAMs inside or by the first layer of walls. I don't place them in the trash because they will easily get triggered by a coco loon.
Yeti bombs
Ok, so if you think that it's likely someone will try a yeti bomb place some Sam's there.
For example-
Stone slammer
So this is quite similar to the yeti bomb paragraph above, you need to be able to predict where the attacker will choose to drop a slammer. Generally, if you have an exposed inferno or town hall those are likely locations for a slammer to be dropped.
Small Bombs
Small bombs should be used to kill wallbreakers. To do this you should have them on the third tile away from the wall on a linear line, and on the second tile on a diagonal line.
Here is an example-
Do not use witch bombs as these are not meta anymore!!
Teslas
Good tesla placement can ruin attacks. You have three options when placing teslas, you can make funneling difficult, have a tesla farm, or have a troll tesla.
Anti funnel teslas
There is nothing better than watching an attacker funnel fail on your base, especially after you meticulously arranged the trash. Funnel teslas are there to distract defense targeting troops, and to pick off a funnel bbd/wizards.
Here is an example of a good funnel tesla-
Tesla farm
A tesla farm is a group of teslas ( 3 or more ) all in a single place. These normally should be on the backend of the base, and shouldn't be easy to pick out in scout mode.
Here is an example of a tesla farm-
Troll tesla
These can be useful in creating time failures. A troll tesla is a tesla placed in a corner of the base, away from everything else. These are only useful for the first attack on your base, as an attacker can take it out with two loons if he knows the location.
Trash buildings
Trash buildings are one of the most critical (and most overlooked) aspects of a base. To have good trash placement there are three main things to think about, making funnels expensive, bounceability, and funnel by key defenses.
Making funnels expensive
The last thing you want is to have an amazing base with poor trash. If an attacker can clear a whole corner with a single baby dragon or a few wizards then he can have more good troops ( hogs, loons, etc..) in his army.
To prevent a cheap funnel try and have your corners more complex. Here is an example-
Notice how in the bottom example a single bbd or wizard wouldn't be able to take out all the collectors before the archer tower killed it. In the top example notice how a single bbd would easily clear the whole corner.
Bounceability
The most difficult part of placing trash is making sure people can't get an easy funnel with a bowler bounce. To make sure they can't, you have to place higher hp buildings ( storages, dark drills, outside defenses) in the inner layer of trash and lower hp buildings ( collectors, mines, barracks, spell factories, camps ) in the outer ring of trash.
Here is an example-
Take note of how in the bottom section nothing is bounceable, while in the top section the arrows represent everything that is bounceable.
Pro-tip- you can use defenses to make sure a building isn't bounceable. You just need to make it to where a defense kills the troop before it destroys the building.
Large Buildings
So large buildings such as camps, the siege factory, and laboratories have some special rules.
These buildings are large and have low hit points. Because of that, there are a few rules you should follow.
- Always have these on the outer trash ring
- Never have these bounceable
- And use these to your advantage, used right these make funneling very difficult.
Here is an example-
Notice how after the camps are destroyed, the troops will path to the left or right, not going straight.
Mortars
Mortars are the one defense that can be bounced from collectors and mines. To prevent this you can place them behind your large buildings, or place them in a single lair trash line.
Here are examples-
Funnel by key defenses
If you choose to have an inferno or town hall slightly exposed, make sure funneling there is a nightmare. As if it isn't, attackers will take advantage of it.
In these examples take notice of how it would be very, very expensive to funnel in these areas-
Edrags
Because of the dragon's chain lightning, your trash should have proper spacing.
Here is an example-
Notice how on the bottom example the two tile space makes the edrag's chain lighting ineffective, but on the top, the edrag would be able to clear the whole area with ease.
Skeleton Building Method
You will generally start out with a certain major building comp in mind ( the, it, ea ), this comp is usually inspiration from other builds.
After you've finished your 1st major building comp you start making regular comps around it ( keeping in mind the value distribution rules )
After all, comps are done and you're happy with the general design, start with the other defenses, then trash, then the traps.
After everything is done and you're happy with it get a review from an experienced player, As we all miss things.
Here is a very helpful video of a guy making a base live- https://youtu.be/27GT3YXXI5I
THE END
P.s. if I missed something you guys felt I should cover feel free to tag/dm me.