Clash of Clans Attack Strategies by Town Hall: What to Learn at Every Level
Updated: 16 September 2026 · Goblins Farm
The question players ask is which army is best. The question that actually improves their attacking is which army they should learn properly at the level they are on now. Those have different answers, and the second one is answerable from what the game unlocks at each Town Hall.
One army, learned properly
Attacking in Clash of Clans is not a knowledge problem. Almost every player can name four or five strategies. Very few can execute one to a reliable three stars, and the gap between those two states is entirely repetition.
So the recommendation that runs through all of this: pick one army for your Town Hall, research it, and attack with nothing else for a few hundred attacks. Your results improve far faster than they would by cycling through armies, and — this is the part people forget — the laboratory is the constraint. Research applies permanently, it runs one upgrade at a time, and spreading it thinly across four armies leaves you with four bad ones.
Worth knowing if you read older guides. Troops have no training cost and no training time in the current game — those columns do not exist in the game files. What an attack actually spends is the search fee (1,700 gold at Town Hall 18) and your time. Any guide still doing 'is this army worth the loot' arithmetic is running on a rule the game deleted.
Town Hall 7–8: dragons, and learning to place a funnel
The Dragon unlocks at Town Hall 7 and costs 20 housing space. Mass dragons with a couple of rage spells is the classic first real army, and it is classic for a good reason: it is forgiving. Air defences are few, dragons are tanky, and a bad deployment still often three-stars.
Use it as a teaching tool rather than a crutch. What you should be learning here is the thing that matters at every level afterwards: funnelling, which is the act of clearing the outside buildings on two sides so your main force walks into the core instead of around it. An army that funnels badly fails identically at Town Hall 7 and Town Hall 17.
Town Hall 8 adds the Golem, the P.E.K.K.A and the Valkyrie, and with them your first ground army worth practising. It also unlocks the Archer Queen, which is the single biggest attacking upgrade available to you for the next several Town Halls.
Town Hall 9–10: the level where attacking becomes a skill
Town Hall 9 unlocks the Witch, the Lava Hound, the Baby Dragon and the Minion Prince. Town Hall 10 adds the Miner and the Bowler.
This is the band where the game stops handing you three stars and starts asking for technique. Two things to learn here, in this order:
- Queen walks. Sending the Archer Queen in with healers to carve a path and kill a key defence is the most transferable skill in the game, and it stays relevant to the very top.
- Luring the defending Clan Castle. More attacks fail to defending castle troops than to any single defence. The lure tutorial is worth an evening.
Miners are the notable Town Hall 10 unlock because they travel underground, ignoring walls entirely, and they cost 6 housing space and elixir rather than dark elixir — which makes them unusually cheap to keep researched while your dark elixir goes to heroes.
Town Hall 11–12: the Warden changes the maths
Town Hall 11 unlocks the Grand Warden, the Electro Dragon and the Ice Golem. Town Hall 12 adds the Yeti, the Headhunter and the Workshop.
The Warden is the hero that makes armies survive things they should not, and his ability is a timing decision rather than a placement decision — which is a genuinely new skill. Learn to hold it rather than tapping it on deployment.
The Workshop matters more than it looks. Siege machines carry your donated Clan Castle troops into the middle of a base rather than making them walk there. Attacking at Town Hall 12 or above without requesting one is voluntarily throwing away the best free troops you get.
Town Hall 13–15: specialists
Town Hall 13 brings the Royal Champion, the Dragon Rider and the Apprentice Warden. Town Hall 14 adds the Druid and the Electro Titan. Town Hall 15 adds the Root Rider, the Furnace and the Dragon Duke.
The armies at this band are less about a single carry unit and more about a package: a tank that absorbs, a damage core behind it, a support unit that keeps the core alive, and heroes used as a fifth element rather than a clean-up crew. Root Riders are worth singling out because they attack walls directly on the way through, which changes what base compartmentalisation does to you.
Town Hall 16–18: the top of the game
Town Hall 16 unlocks the Thrower and the Ruin Witch; Town Hall 17 the Meteor Golem at 40 housing space.
What actually separates players here is not army knowledge. It is hero levels, equipment, and the willingness to plan an attack for thirty seconds before the timer starts. At this level the equipment you have levelled often matters more than the troops behind it.
The part that is not the army
Every band above has the same three failure modes, and none of them are fixed by a different troop composition:
- No funnel. Your army walks the perimeter and times out at 60%. Fix: two sides cleared before the main force lands.
- Defending Clan Castle untouched. Your core dies to troops you never saw. Fix: lure first, every time.
- Spells held too long. A rage spell dropped after the damage has already happened did nothing. Fix: decide the spell plan before deploying, not during.
If you fix those three at any Town Hall, your results improve more than any army swap will deliver.
Frequently asked
What is the best attack strategy in Clash of Clans?
There is no single best one. The best army for you is the one you have researched and have practised enough to execute reliably. At most Town Halls, an army you have used 200 times will outperform a theoretically stronger one you have used ten times.
What is the easiest attack strategy to learn?
Mass dragons from Town Hall 7 onwards. Dragons are durable, the deployment is forgiving, and it lets you practise funnelling and spell timing without also managing a fragile ground army.
Why does my attack always stop at around 60%?
Almost always a funnelling failure: the army found buildings on the outside and walked around the base instead of into it. Clear the outside buildings on two sides first so the path of least resistance points at the core.
Do I need a siege machine?
From Town Hall 12 onwards, effectively yes. Siege machines carry your Clan Castle troops into the core instead of making them walk in from the edge, and they are donatable, so the cost to you is a request.
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Goblins Farm is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or specifically approved by Supercell. Clash of Clans is a trademark of Supercell Oy. This material is unofficial fan content produced under Supercell's Fan Content Policy. Game values change with every update; always verify in-game before committing an upgrade.