Defense and Base Building Guide V2

The Basics[]

It is common knowledge that no two yards are the same, however, some may be very similar. any people prefer making their own designs when making bases as it is more rewarding than simply copying someone else, and while this guide cannot inspire you with the creativity to suddenly come up with lots of good yard designs, It an teach you the basics of good yard design, as well as some additional techniques and features that will be critical to your success.

Bases, particularly at lower levels, will change over time. Some players like to allow for their yards to harbour new towers as they are released in updates or as they upgrade their Town Hall, whereas others make effective but temporary designs that will not ( but sometimes ) cater for any new features. If you have or almost have finished upgrading your town hall. you're best bet is to simply make the design however you wan't it. If you are at a low level, I would allow for later buildings to be placed easily into your current design.

If you are new to the Forums, you may be wondering exactly what makes a yard "good" or "bad", and although it may seem odd at first, when you look at hte logic behind it it all becomes clear. That is the purpose of the next section - to explain what a lot of people do wrong, and how not to make the same mistakes.

What not to do[]

The Box yard; why is it hated?[]

The box yard, also referred to by many as the farm yard, is considered the worst layout by most players who have been on the forums long enough to understand the key concepts of what makes a good yard. However, the bow yard is used by the vast majority of players, largely because they are not aware of things like SDTs, NECs,a nd other various add-ons to yards which are common knowledge on the forums.

But, lets be fair, we can't say how bad the box yard is without proving otherwise.

So, with that in mind, lets take a look at what some may call a typical box yard:

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While box yards are easy to build, they are not the most practical when it comes to defending. They are easily taken down by D.A.V.Es with Zafreetis and a fomor. Here is that same yard after I attacked it with D.A.V.Es, Zafreetis, and my level 3 Fomor

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Whilst I could talk about each point individually and in great detail, here is a list of pros and cons of the average box yard so that you can get the general idea:

Pros:

Easy to build
Adjustable
Sometimes good CF

Cons:

No pathing
Silos often underprotected
No eye-ra bait
Easy to PPX
Prone to attacks from zafreeti
Easily catapultable
Poorplacement of traps, no SDT

So with this said, you should not make a box yard.

Are there any exceptions?[]

Of course! Not all boxes are bad, but it is important to remember that the majority are; some forumers have managed to design box - like yards that actually defend rather well, but such yards are often tricky to make, so i wouldn't recommend trying it.

Priority of Defence[]

You should protect your buildings in this order, those at the top of the list being the most important to defend.

Silos and Town Hall
Defensive Towers
Harvesters
Everything Else

The problem with most yards is that they don't protect their silos enough, and instead concentrate on Harvesters. In realitl, silos hold the majority of your resoruces, and the Town Hall holds a fair amount too.

Never Ending Chain (NEC)[]

A never ending chain is a line of useless buildings around the edge of your base to slow down monsters that target anything. If you're wondering on how to determine if a building is "useless" then simply look for anything that is not a Defensive tower, Harvester, Silo, or Town hall. here is an example of part of an NEC

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NECs are very easy to tet up and are usefull at all levels. If you are wondering why it is called a never ending chain when it will eventually end at some point in time, I have no idea, but the name isn't important.

NECoRG[]

a NECoRG is a never ending chain of resource gatherers. This has the same concept of a regular NEC, only with Harvesters to distract looting monsters instead.

Anti-catapultability measures[]

Having your towers grouped together makes them more vulnerable to an attack from the Catapult as more towers per a shot will be hit. There are measures you can take to limit the capability of the catapult when someoen is attacking you're yard

1) Placing Towers next to silos [4]Placing a tower to or next to a silo is by far the most effective way to prevent yourself from being catapulted. This is because if the attacker chooses to catapult the specified tower, it is likely that the silo will also be destroyed, rendering the resources unlootable, as you do not loot resources from catapulting silos, Town halls, Outposts, and Harvesters. The attacker is more likely to hit the silo when using a pebble bomb, but can also accidentally hit your silo with a twig missile. Yo can see an example of that int he pic to the left.

This method unfortunately does come with a price; in the majority of cases, it can ruin your SDT. There is, however, a way around this, too. You can simply place a line of blocks to make the tower monsters and resource monsters path along a diffrent route. Although this does make it slightly less likely that the silo will be catapulted, it does allow you to retain your STD'a effectiveness. A very basic example of this method is een below. As you can see, the traps right next to the silo will not be affected by tower monsters. {C [5]Despite this not being a very good SDT, it does demonstrate the basic idea behind this method.

2) Place Harvesters next to towersEdit[]

[6]This method of preventing anti-catapultability, while not the most effective, is still worth doing if you are planning on having some towers close together anyway. As with placing towers next to silos, if an attacker catapults a tower next to a harvester(s) they will miss out on some loot. While the amount of resources lootable fromt the average Harvester is limited, you may asweel do this if your towers are likely to be catapulted anyways. A good example of this method can be found to the left.

3) Spreading out your towersEdit[]

Spreading your towers out enough to prevent more than 1 from being catapulted s a very good idea, but due to limited space it is not always possible. This is where having extra yard expansions really helps out. Bear in mind that the diameter of the target for a pebble bomb is about 12.5 blocks, so leaving a 13+block space between a small group of towers will prevent a large numer of your towers from being catapulted in 1 shot. {C [7]Twig Missile Target Diameter[8]Pebble Bomb Target Radius this rocks man

Eye-ra bait[]

Eye-ra bait is putting blocks around your yard to distract Eye-ras, forcing them to self destruct on those blocks instead of on the main part of your base, which can ruin your pathing and make attacking your base much easier. Eye-ra bait should be moderatly spaced out,at a minimum of 2.5 brick spaces apart. if you out them closer 1 eye-ra will damage multiple blocks at a time. An example of eye-ra bait below {C [9]Note that is best not to place eye-ra bait on the very border of your yard unless necessary.

Eye-ra bait can also be used as anti-fling zones, stopping your enemy from flinging monsters onto that area as you cannot fling monsters on top of blocks.

Silo Death Trap (SDT)[]

The Silo Death Trap, as it's name suggests, is putting most of your Booby Traps around your Silos ( And town Hall) but thats technicaly a Town Hall Death Trap) in order to protect them from looters. SDT's only work with pathing, which we will cover more of later, but the most important thing you need to make sure of is that the pathing works and that all or most of the traps will be tripped. While it is dificult to make shure that all your traps are triggred by looting monsters, as long as the traps are along the entrances to the sdt, and the main pathways, you should be fine. To better understand SDT's, you need basic Understanding of pathing, so you may wan't to skip ahead to the pathing section ( not done yet ) and comeback to this section when you're ready.

Placing towers right next to your silos can ruin your SDT, but as stated in the catapultability section, placing a thin line of blocks betweem them can prevent this. There is no perfect SDT, and in many variations have now been created.

Here is an example of a good SDT

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The pathing on this SDT works, and it is not ruined by tower monsters. It also has a THDT ( Town Hall Death Trap), which is the equivalent of an SDT for Town Halls.

Hiding Buildings[]

[11]When a hatchery is level 3, it is big enough to fully hide some towers behind it from view. This can trick some attackers into not knowing the location of all your towers. it is fairly simple to do; simply move the hatchery around untill ic covers as much of the building as possible. An example of this can be found to the left.

Note: Fortifications can give away towers that you are trying to hide, so be carefull.

There is actually a cannon tower behind that hatchery, but it is entirely invisible. It can only be seen by the Yard Planner view shown below.

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Hiding buildings is an effective tactic against some opponents, but not so much for others, it really does awae on the awareness of the attacker. As hatcheries serve no purpose other than being a part of an NEC anyway, you may as well use this tatic when possible. Hatcheries are not the only buildings that can hide things, but they are the most effective for this.

Branching[]

Branching, as demonstrated in the fallowing image, is when a group of monsters splits into two groups.

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Branching can be both usefull and not so useful, so here is a list of the pros and cons of having a yard that uses branching: