TH Rush and Brute Force

I encountered two persons (Rudof 9 and Pilmoor of KuKAW) that make me want to write this article. This topic has been discussed inside CS before. I also did touch this matter in article WitchDoctor910: Day 1 (Beforeyou begin). So, this article is extended version of both materials. What is the best strategy to play Clash of Clans? What is TH rush? Why TH Rush is so powerful?

Round 1: Best Strategy

Rudof 9 telling us about best strategy to attack and so on. What he said is so true except he can’t execute that strategy well or the outcome itself is not satisfactory. For example, he said Dragon in general should not be used on TH9. Only certain TH9 we can use Dragon. This is true too. Maybe he talking about max TH9 which Dragon (I should assume Level 4) can’t defeat. This is not wrong either. However, CS is producing so many Dragon attackers that attack TH9 like EMPEROR, Ikanduri, Mar Andoc and Mr_Patola. All of them did manage to get 3 stars on low to mid TH9. 

EMPEROR itself use Dragon Level 4 (not Level 5 what he had now) and easily defeated mid TH9. This statement does not violate Rudof 9’s statement as he talking about max TH9. No Dragon attack can defeat max TH9. So what is the best strategy? Gowipe or Gohog? Of course max Gowipe and max Gohog can defeat max TH9 like SOFEYA demonstrated when she was TH9. But, it never produces solid result. Only the best Gowipe or Gohog strategist can defeat max TH9. Best players also happen to have very strong heroes. These heroes do help a lot in Gowipe and Gohog. If you watch YouTube, good players able to 3 stars TH9 with good level heroes. Our SOFEYA did not even have level 10 heroes when she defeated max TH9. This is to show you that Gowipe and Gohog are better strategy for TH9 but we can’t simply rule out Dragon strategy. The main concern here is what sort of army you have and the outcome. If your Golem, P.E.K.K.A and Wizard are weak, how it is possible to say this is better than Dragon with good level. If your Gowipe and Gohog obtained 2 stars defeating low/mid TH9, how it is possible to say Dragon is not good strategy when it can 2 stars the same low/mid TH9.

Probably we should discuss about infamous air based strategy like Goloon, Govaloon, Pentaloon or Pentalaloon. These strategies are proving to be much more powerful and have higher success rate compare to Gowipe at least (Gowipe is probably the weakest strategy among the strongest strategy). Unlike Dragon, it can 3 stars max TH9. But compare to Dragon, these strategies (Dark troops based strategy) need more time and resource to be at full power particularly Lava Hound that need Dark Elixir to upgrade and to train. Point here, player with this strategy is usually experienced or have highly developed village. In contrast, Dragon strategy does not require much experience as you can unlock Dragon Level 4 pretty easily as soon you get TH9. In this case, player with Dragon is early TH9 thus mirroring low TH9 in war. In contrast, experienced player with highly developed village will mirroring max TH9. Can you see it? It is fair to say Dragon attack should attack low or mid TH9 as it should be while powerful strategies like Gowipe, Gohog, Govaloon, Goloon, Pentalaloon or Pentaloon should handle max TH9. The outcome will determine which strategy is the best. If Dragon attack can 3 stars his opponent, we should acknowledge this strategy is the best for him. Although it is true Dragon can’t defeat max TH9, it is not complete to say it is not a good strategy overall. It depends on many factors like heroes, opponent bases, mirror ranking and techniques application to judge whether that is good strategy or not.

In short, of course there are many other strategies better than Dragon attack for TH9 but we can’t simply discredit players who use that strategy. In most cases, THE BEST will be determined primarily by the outcome.

Round 2: TH RUSH

Brute Force

Our players didn’t simply focus on himself. We look at clan in general and trying to cover other disadvantages or weaknesses. This is when TH Rush become a common phenomenon in CS. Using TH Rush, some of us develop new strategy that we can called "Brute Force." Brute Force is a strategy where you depend on quantity rather than quality. You can have up to 5 spells and up to 240 army camp spaces. Brute Force manipulates this by using TH Rush and unlocking this maximum capacity. As a result, you will be at greater advantages compare to your mirror. In most cases, you can defeat opponent far greater rank that you. There are certain situation where quality is better so do quantity. In Clash of Clans, quantity is certainly are better. CS have prove this up until now. Combining Brute Force with basic strategy give desirable outcomes. In strategy games like Clash of Clans, outcomes is what we aim for. At the end of the day, you just want to be the best COC player. The best usually is much powerful. One way to evaluate powerlessness is by looking at the outcomes. The outcome for war attack is 3 stars.

What is TH Rush?

Simple definition is you rushing your TH upgrade. You continuously upgrade your TH despite the progress of other buildings. The aim of TH is to unlock offensive power like troops level, spells level or heroes level. With this extra power, you can attack better during normal or war. In war, this will give advantage not just to you but your clan as well as you mirror opponent is someone you can defeat.

What is TH.5?

TH.5 is the term used to define base that have offensive power at par with TH but defensive power at 1 level below. For example TH8.5 means you have TH9 with defenses stay as TH8. You upgrade TH9 to unlock troops, spells or heroes level available to TH9. As a result, you will mirror TH8 in war but with great advantage of offensive power.

Mar Version TH Rush

Mar Andoc is TH10 with 1 Canon Level 1. This is how to describe this kind of TH Rush. As TH Rush TH9.5 should means TH10 with TH9 defenses, Mar Andoc defense is insanely low. As a result, Mar Andoc will have mirror TH6 and lower despite having TH10 offensive.

Is TH Rush good and better strategy?

Yes it is. I have no doubt TH Rush is the best strategy in Clash of Clans. Well, you need to consider how you define “best?” If “best” is define as the most powerful attacker in war. TH Rush is the answer. Non TH Rush is also the answer. Non TH Rush can be the most powerful attacker in war as well. So, what is the different? If you talking about clan war, TH Rush easily become the best strategy as it gives advantages to clan thus increasing the chance of winning. Which strategy is the best overall? There is no clear answer. Non TH Rush is no better than TH Rush. Both have advantages and disadvantages; both have benefits and weaknesses. So far, we define greatest player by trophies. So, there is no indicator to say Non TH Rush is better. Although most top ranking players is not TH Rush. What we can say for certain is most top players don’t like this strategy or failed to use it. At the same time, we can say TH Rush does not have intention to collect trophies or they failed to do so.

Advantage/benefits and disadvantages/weaknesses

Advantages in attack are discussed above that focus on how easy to defeat enemies. The benefits TH Rush as a whole is significant. It cut overall time playing this game. Assuming reaching TH10 as one goal to achieve, TH Rush can reach it in less than 2 month. Normal player took more than a year to reach TH10. With intense efforts, rush TH10 can build Inferno Towers immediately after; the same if you play normal. In this sense, TH Rush is clear winner. To maxing TH10, TH Rush maybe need less than 1 year as he will get much benefit from war or farming if he farming well enough.

Farming as TH Rush is hell. The higher your TH, the difficult to farm. Although farming should be much easier as you will having better troops, farming in general become harder as you need to defend loots that you collected. As your defensive is weak, you can easily attacked by anyone. There is no room to breathe or hide. You will be attacked as soon you go offline. In this case, TH Rush need to plan his upgrade and farming strategy like going to farm 3 or 4 hours straight to obtain enough resource. This can be exhausting and required full commitment.

Focus and commitment are required in TH Rush as each mistake will punish you heavily. For example, mistake in war will cost you not having that bonus loot. This bonus loot is far needed by TH Rush compare to normal player as Treasury is most reliable defense of his/her loot. Mistake happen during farming can be disastrous. If you forget to charge your device battery and offline for a while, you will lose so much resource that make you want to kill yourself. Disconnection also becomes major killer that ruin your mood and kill off your spirit. If you didn’t reach your target loot and kicked by the game because playing too long, you will lose collected resources. TH Rush requires unshaken dedication and positive minded to go through the pains. Sometimes, these commitment, dedication and hard work are discrediting by other people. They said TH Rush is not how the game should be played or TH Rush is not testing skills as a player.

In Summary

There is no clear winner between TH Rush and Normal (Non TH Rush). If you really want the answer, the answer should lies on how you define best strategy, how you gonna play this game and how much commitment you put into the game. If you define best strategy as the best attack execution and strategy base on specify level troops (limit by TH), the answer should be Non TH Rush. Non TH Rush means more difficult opponent especially during war. This means you need to be at best possible shape in order to defeat your mirror opponent. This include understanding, strategising and executing best attack. If you define best strategy base on outcome, TH Rush will be the clear winner as it will be facing easy mirror opponent.

Defining best strategy also determined by yourself in term of what commitment you have in playing this game and how you want to play this game. If you have plenty of time and can concentrating on this game alone, you should chose TH Rush as this will shortening the whole process by a lot. If you dont have much time and have other commitment or just playing for casual, Non TH Rush will allow you to enjoy the game and developing ideas and experiencing many possible strategies.

The whole idea of COC is to become the champion or the best of the world. This is define as having most thropies or winning war clan. Supercell did organize many tournament that match up best clan in the world. The winner of such tournament can be considered as the best. In term of collecting trophies, Non TH Rush is clear winner as TH Rush can never defense itself as much as Non TH can. However in long run, TH Rush defenses will catching Non TH Rush counterpart. In long run, TH Rush will look exactly like Non TH Rush. I myself is TH Rush. My Witch Doctor account is TH Rush especially during TH9. I just play TH9 for 1 or 2 month and directly upgrading into TH10 without maximizing defenses. As you can see right now, my current village is strong enough and looks like Non TH Rush. Kamaa (Maic 5) play this game 1 years before me and he reach TH10 months before me. Right now, I just a couple steps behind him. This show, in the long run TH Rush will catching Non TH Rush but we do it in short amount of time.

Sometimes, people set up their own goal like who is the best player using Gowipe, Dragon, Gohog, Govaloon and etc. They try to compete which each other to determine who is the best player. In this case, best strategy use is define as what they want it be or what goal they consider as success.

Our Cikgu Suraya
We have broad range of players. We have TH2 until TH11. We have different background thus distinguishing how we play this game. We have different idea, theory and knowledge to apply. Some people copy from other. Some create their own and test it. With such diversity, our clan develop some important strategy in order to help each other and to covering what other lacking. Such strategy is Brute Force, TH Rush and Happy and Lucky policy. These are what made Cikgu Suraya such amazing clan. We define success or best as having 3 stars attack in war. Such simple definition is realistic enough yet electrify our spirit to play this game. Outside clan war, each member is allow to define what is best for them. This simple definition together with firm rules and solid legacies and histories made us the best clan ever.