Best Clash of Clans Town Hall 8 Base Layout: Farming, War, and Trophy Defense Setups

A well-designed base at Town Hall 8 can go a very long way in protecting your resources and trophies. While TH7 is the first Town Hall that allowed players to mount an effective defense, TH8 represents the first Town Hall range where a good defensive layout can result in days or even weeks passing without getting fully (or even mostly) cleared by an opponent.

With the base layout discussed below, you will find that other Town Hall 8 players (or even TH9 players) simply are unable to clear your base and take all of your resources. While enemy players might grab a few storage units, they will rarely be able to get your valued Dark Elixir – the most important resource to protect at this level range.

TH8 Base Layout: Video Guide

In the video below, I reveal my recommended base layout and discuss the rationale behind the way everything is set up. The video also shows just how effective this base is; not only do I show how the base performs against several strong attacks, but you can also see that in my full 2 week defense history, I never even came close to being cleared (I also barely lost any Dark Elixir during that time).

Top Strategies for Defending Your Base at Town… by CoCGuides

This base layout, known as “The Tempest”, is not my original creation. I picked it up off theSupercell forums from the original poster named Orz. I tried out many bases, and this one was by far most effective. I have modified the base slightly, most notably by moving the Dark Elixir Drill internally into the base’s structure (requires minor wall restructuring) as well as shifting around building and trap positions (namely in the center of the base).

CoC Town Hall 8 Base Layout Discussion and Strategy

Farming Version:

There are a number of features which make this build so effective. Like many effective builds, this does feature a funneling system. It is very difficult for Giants to attack this base, as they are quickly pulled along the funnel that runs along the perimeter of the base, which features many Spring Traps. Each trap will flip up to 3 Giants; even just two traps successfully going off can be disastrous for an opponent’s attack.

One of the best things about Town Hall 8 is that it is now far more difficult for an enemy player to lure troops out of the Clan Castle, particularly with this layout. In order to lure out Clan Castle units, an enemy must actually make physical contact with one of the walls of the northern aspect of the base, or come inside the base from any other point. Simply reaching the bottom Cannons from a melee distance will not be enough to lure out Clan Castle troops.

Since Clan Castle troops are hard to lure out with this base, it can be extremely effective to place good units in your Clan Castle. I am partial to the Dragon at this level range; many players often attack with Giant-heavy forces that struggle immensely against the Dragon. Wizards work great too, but good players (particularly the TH9 players that might raid for your Dark Elixir if it gets too full) will carry a Lightning Spell to take our your Wizards in one hit. The Dragon is barely touched by such attacks.

The best players will carry a single Hog Rider around to jump the wall and lure your CC troops, but this has happened to me only one or two times during my entire stay at TH8 (and I was there awhile). Once your Dark Elixir reaches 10,000+, it is worth it to try and procure a Dragon for your Clan Castle, whether it be through an alt account or a Dragon trade with a fellow clan member. Often, a Dragon in a Clan Castle with this base layout will last for a week, so you rarely have to replace it.

Base Weak Points

From a farming perspective, the base has two weak points. Firstly, the three outermost resource nodes (where the Gold Storage structures are on the picture above) are fairly vulnerable. About once a month when using this build, an enemy would attack with about 10 Wall Breakers along with either Goblins or Archers. The player would specifically target those three storage units, pick off the perimeter Town Hall, and then leave.

Sniping these storage points does not happen until you reach about 2 million+ of the resource type on the perimeter of the base, as that allows the enemy player to grab an easy 300,000 of one resource type. You can limit the effectiveness of this strategy by shifting around your storage units to put your least-full structures on the perimeter of the base. If I was carrying around 2 million+ of both resource types, you should put whichever resource you need more of on the inside of the base. In the picture above, I was just trying to max out both Gold and Elixir for my incoming TH9 upgrade; since Elixir typically builds slower than gold (due to army cost exceeding “Next” costs), I kept Gold on the outside. The point is that you should strategically shift these structures around depending on your needs at that particular point in time.

The primary weak point of this base from a defensive perspective is an attack from the east side of the base powered by two Rage Spells and Wall Breakers. If a player drops a Rage Spell that straddles the exterior eastern wall and overlaps with the point where the easternmost Elixir Storage is in the base layout picture above, and then breaks down multiple walls with Wallbreakers, the attacker is now very close to your Dark Elixir storage. With wave of initial units, a second round of Wall Breakers, and a second rage spell spanning the Wizard Tower to the Dark Elixir Storage, the player can get access to your Dark Elixir storage.

For this reason, the Dark Elixir storage is deliberately set back a tile from the wall and surrounded with Bombs. Enemy units that penetrate this space do not have long to live, given the amount of Mortar fire, the Barbarian King, and Clan Castle units that will invade this area. This is one of the great reasons for having a Dragon in the Clan Castle; between the Dragon and the Barbarian King, enemy units will have a lot of “priority” targets to hit before getting the Dark Elixir Storage. These two meat-shield units will allow your towers time to focus down enemy units.

The extra space between the DE Storage and the wall makes it more difficult for Archers to target the DE storage itself; Archers will have a tendency to move north or south and attack defensive towers there. Only Goblins will typically rush in and attack the DE storage itself. Should that happen, the layering of Bombs will often take out the Goblins before the Dark Elixir Storage can suffer too much damage. Be sure to place your traps appropriately to defend your DE storage and make sure your Clan Castle is always full of powerful units should you reach 10k+ Dark Elixir in order to protect this valuable resource.

On the Importance of Additional Resource Storage Structures

One of the most important new structure allowances at Town Hall 8 is the introduction of a new gold and elixir storage building. This significantly changes the dynamics of attacking for an enemy player. The way it works is as follows:

• At Town Hall 8, enemy players are able to steal 14% of the loot in your gold and elixir storages, up to a cap of 300,000 of each resource type.
• If you have about 2.15 million gold or elixir in storage, you will be at the resource cap for that particular resource.
• Considering each gold or elixir storage structure can store 2 million resource units, it is easy to reach the max available loot cap with just 2 storage structures.
• If you have 2.15 million+ of one resource spread across two storage structures, that means each storage structure will hold 150,000 resources for the enemy that attacks it (assuming each one is max level).
• If you have 2.15 million+ of one resource spread across three storage structures, that means each storage structure will hold 100,000 resources for the enemy that attacks it (assuming each one is at least level 10).

In short, having extra storage structures means that it is more difficult for enemy players to get your loot. Instead of having to destroy just two structures, they have to destroy three structures. It is easier to spread the 3 structures of each type around your base (as in the base layout above) than it is to spread out just 2 structures. Getting and upgrading your extra storage structure is a high priority at this level range, as it will drastically reduce the amount of loot stolen with each enemy attack.

TH8 Trophy/War Layout:

The great thing about this build is that it barely requires modification for War or trophy set-ups. We move the Town Hall into the center of the base, and move a Gold Storage to the outside of the base. We also move the Dark Elixir drill back to the outside of the base and adjust the walls accordingly.

• Note: I would not recommend trophy pushing at TH8 unless your towers are fully maxed. At this point, you should barely carry any gold as you should be spending it as soon as it comes in on upgrading your walls. With this constant gold sink, you will never carry enough gold to worry about placing a Gold Storage outside of your base.

Note that I do leave the Dark Elixir storage in the center of the base, even during Clan Wars. This is useful as a defensive structure in the center of the base would encourage Giants or Golems to core towards the center and break down the wall that is guarding the Town Hall.

This base will stand up to just about any attack a TH8 can throw at it as well as low to mid TH9 players. TH9 players with great Hog Rider control will be able to 3-star this base, but if you made a higher level TH9 spend 1,500+ Dark Elixir just to take out a much lower level TH8 player, you did a good job in the war. Once the base is fully upgraded, should the Clan Castle be full, most Hog Rider attacks from TH8 players will only result in 2 stars. The same goes for full Dragon attacks or even GoWiPe (Golem/Wizard/PEKKA). In fact, as one of the higher-level players in my clan, against an average opponent, this base often did not get attacked at all.