Clash of Clans: Best Army Compositions By Town Hall Level

Picking the right units is essential to success in Clash of Clans. There are many considerations to make when trying to create the most powerful army. In general, there are three general types of armies you can build in CoC: trophy farming, resource farming, and power armies.

Trophy farming armies allow players to get trophies quickly. There is some consideration paid to both the amount of time it takes to train the units and the cost of those units. Resource farming armies are ideal for getting the Gold and Elixir you need to upgrade your base and spend on research. Resource farming armies tend to be inexpensive and train quickly, allowing players to farm more frequently.

Power armies are really only used for fun, completing difficult campaign missions, or pushing very high in the trophy count. Power army compositions are armies capable of taking out max-level defenses without regard to the cost or time it takes to create the units that make up these armies.

Town Hall 2

• Trophies: Barbarians
• Resource Farming: Barbarians or Goblins (See TH2 Farming Guide)
• Power: Giants & Barbarians

There is not much variety at Town Hall 2 simply because you do not have access to many troops. An army consisting of nothing but Barbarians tends to be the best trophy farming option. You can mix it up with Goblins for farming purposes or mix in a few Giants for a power army.

Town Hall 3

• Trophies: Barbarians
• Resource Farming: Barbarians or Goblins (See TH3 Farming Guide)
• Power: Giants, Barbarians, Wall Breakers

Not much changes with the introduction of Town Hall 3, although for the “power” army you can add a few Wallbreakers. At this level, Giants and Wallbreakers are too expensive and do not add enough to be very useful in either trophy farming or resource farming at this level.

Town Hall 4

• Trophies: Barbarians and Archers
• Resource Farming: Barbarians or Goblins (See TH4 Farming Guide)
• Power: Giants, Wall Breakers, Balloons

By Town Hall 4, you can push for the 1250 trophy achievement (though it does take a lot of time). You can do this by sniping buildings and Town Halls that are exposed due to farming layouts, slowly clawing your way to the 1250 trophy achievement. This tip can help you pick up a third builder pretty quickly.

Farming should largely be done with Barbarians, Goblins, or a mix of both. You can add a few Balloons for a power army – they are very helpful at clearing some of the campaign missions. Use Giants or Barbarians to snipe any Air Defense towers then allow the Balloons to clear the undefended base.

Town Hall 5

• Trophies: Barbarians, Archers, Wall Breakers
• Resource Farming: Barbarians (See TH5 Farming Guide)
• Power: Wizards, Giants, Wall Breakers, Balloons

By Town Hall 5, you will want to have a few Wall Breakers as part of your army in case you need to break through tough walls for trophy farming and power armies. You can still farm resources easily with mass Barbarians. I prefer this approach at this level due to the low training time required between runs. Wizards can be added to the power army at the expense largely of Balloons. Wizards scale extremely well with upgrades, so if you plan on using them regularly, do not forget to upgrade them!

Town Hall 6

• Trophies: Barbarians, Archers, and Wall Breakers
• Resource Farming: Barbarians (See TH6 Farming Guide)
• Power: Giants, Healers, Wall Breakers, Wizards

At Town Hall 6, you get access to the healer. The Healer drastically alters the “Power” army dynamic, as you can mass up Healers and Giants and take out most bases. Drop your Giants and Wall Breakers to break down the closest Air Defense tower, then use Healers to keep the Giants alive while they take out most of the base. Eventually, the second Air Defense tower will take out your Healer, at which point you can either drop another one or drop your Wizards to clean up the rest of the enemy’s base.

You can also use the Giant and Healer army for Trophy farming, but you can also still use Barbarians and Archers to take out exposed Town Hall farming-style bases to earn trophies. You can also mix in a few Giants into your resource farming army at the cost of a few Barbarians.

Farming still involves mass Barbarians. Players may not agree with me but there are videos out there that show just how effective mass Barbarian can be at this level. At Town Hall 6, a well-placed healing spell can allow a full Barbarian army to take out most TH5 and TH6 bases.

Town Hall 7

• Trophies: Giants, Healers, Wall Breakers, & Archers or Barbarians & Archers
• Resource Farming: Barbarians, Archers, and/or Wall Breakers (See TH7 Farming Guide)
• Power: Dragons or Hog Riders (See TH7 Clan War Attack Guide)

Once you reach Town Hall 7, your army compositions will change significantly. For farming resources, you can use Barbarians, Archers, and a handful of Wall Breakers. This composition is popular known as “Barcher”. I like to go with around 8 Wall Breakers, 90-100 Barbarians, and 78-88 Archers. This works to get Dark Elixir. If you just want Gold and Elixir, you can drop the Wall Breakers and just use Barcher.

For trophies, you can continue to snipe buildings and Town Halls with Barbarians and Archers, but eventually you may need to switch to a Giant and Healer composition if you want to push higher in the trophy count.

Once you get access to Dragons or Hog Riders, you now have one of the best “power” armies in the game. Mass Dragons + Lightning Spells can allow you to clear practically any base. You use the Lightning Spells to destroy an Air Defense tower, leaving little to stop the Dragons from clearing the base.

Hog Riders pair well with Healing Spells, as a few Healing Spells can cover most of an enemy’s base, allowing Hog Riders to take out enemy defenses with impunity.

Town Hall 8

• Trophies: Giants, Healers, Archers and Wall Breakers or Barbarians & Archers
• Resource Farming: Giants, Archers, Goblins, and Wall Breakers (see: TH8 Farming Guide)
• Power: Dragons, Golems, Hog Riders, Wizards (See: TH8 Clan War Guide)

The major change at Town Hall 8 is the modification of the farming army. Not much changes for power armies or Trophy armies, aside from the fact that you can produce more units at a higher level. You get access to the Golem, which can be used as part of a ground-based army to take out high-level players bases, particularly used with Wizard back up (due to high Wizard damage).

The new resource farming army involves using Giants to tank damage and take out a few structures, while Wall Breakers bust down any walls guarding valued resource points. Archers can be used to clear out most of the trash buildings and a few defensive structures. When storage units are exposed, Goblins can be used to rush in and take them down. A healing spell plus a rage spell can be used to take down a remaining wall or two if that is standing in the way of your Goblins and a stocked Dark Elixir storage.

Dragons and Hog Riders still work well in taking out tough bases. Hog Riders + Healing Spells are stronger than a full Dragon army, but Hog Riders cost Dark Elixir. If you can upgrade your Dragons to level 3, a full Dragon army will come close to rivaling an unupgraded Hog Rider army. However, 25+ 3 star Hog Riders with a few healing spells has no equal at this level range and can even take out TH9 players.

Town Hall 9

• Trophies: Giants, Healers, Archers and Wall Breakers or Barbarians & Archers or Ballon + Minion
• Resource Farming: Giants, Archers, Goblins, and Wall Breakers
• Power: Witch with Float Spell

The biggest change upon unlocking Town Hall 9 is the emergence of a new trophy farming army composition: Balloons and Minions, or Balloonion for short. This strategy involves making about 35 balloons or so and a handful of minions. Balloons are dropped against one side of an enemy’s base, and sped up with a Rage Spell or two. Healing Spells can be used as the Balloons approach Wizard Towers. Once most of the defense is destroyed, minions can be dropped to clear out the remaining buildings. This composition does not start working until TH9 because Balloons do not get strong enough until level 6.

The Witch is the major change at this level range. It is arguably the most powerful unit in the game, especially when Skeletons are given the Float spell to jump over walls and take out towers. You can use Witches and WIzards to take out the perimeter of an enemy’s defenses, then use the Float spell to allow the Skeletons to hit inner structures.

However, note that players will often still use Dragon or Hog Rider armies to take out lesser players in Clan Wars. Hog Riders are easier to use and Dragons do not cost any Dark Elixir, so both have their advantages. The extra supply space you get at TH9 means an extra Dragon, making a 3-star Dragon army capable of taking out any TH8 player.

Town Hall 10

• Trophies: Giants, Healers, Archers and Wall Breakers or Barbarians & Archers or Balloons + Minions or “power” style armies (at higher trophy counts)
• Resource Farming: Giants, Archers, Goblins, and Wall Breakers
• Power: Dragons, Witches, Golems, Wizards, and Hog Riders

Town Hall 10 does not unlock any new units, so there are not many changes between Town Hall 9 and 10 armies. However, with Town Hall 10, you may find yourself with less bases susceptible to typical “farming armies” or “trophy armies” and may instead need to use power armies to hit high level bases that have large amounts of resources or trophies, especially if you are pushing for the upper brackets.

Posted in: Clash of Clans