A lot of folks are more than willing to share unsolicited opinions about base design. Usually it sounds something like “shorten that base” or “you need a [insert name] on that island” or “store those ballistas.” Well, first off, the proper plural of ballista is ballistae. And second, there’s no single proper way to build a base. If there were, the game would get pretty boring since we’d all have the same base and no one would be able to beat anyone.
My best advice is the old saying, “measure twice, cut once.” In the case of base design, before adding or upgrading a building, consider what your goal is, how can your goal be achieved, and whether the build you’re considering will help achieve that. For example, most bases are designed for resource protection—that is, making it as hard as possible for attackers of roughly the same level to beat 70% or more of your base. If that’s your goal, the next question is how can you accomplish that? Do you want a base with really tough buildings that can survive several attacks? Or do you want a base that will kill three to five dragons? Consider your team—does it defend a lot or are you on your own? If they do defend, you might consider a slightly longer base in order to give teammates time to activate supershots. Even so, if they’re not international, there may be hours when everyone is asleep. And if your team wars a lot, you might instead consider a base with one or two buildings that are virtually impossible to destroy with two dragons. Once you know what your goal is, think practically about how you can best achieve it, make a plan, and stick to it. There is room to experiment, but if you change direction too many times, you may end up with a base that isn’t effective.
With this in mind, to simplify discussion of bases, I will be using different conventions to discuss buildings and their locations.
Type of building will be shortened as follows:
Perches will be referred to as PerchI, PerchII and PerchIII, beginning with the one closest to the castle.
The name of the building will be followed by a level if necessary. For example, FireT37 would refer to a level 37 Fire Turret.
Regarding absolute positions of buildings or islands within a base, they will be referred to by a capitalized Roman numeral indicating the number of the group of five towers beginning with those closest to the castle, relative to an attacker's approach.
My best advice is the old saying, “measure twice, cut once.” In the case of base design, before adding or upgrading a building, consider what your goal is, how can your goal be achieved, and whether the build you’re considering will help achieve that. For example, most bases are designed for resource protection—that is, making it as hard as possible for attackers of roughly the same level to beat 70% or more of your base. If that’s your goal, the next question is how can you accomplish that? Do you want a base with really tough buildings that can survive several attacks? Or do you want a base that will kill three to five dragons? Consider your team—does it defend a lot or are you on your own? If they do defend, you might consider a slightly longer base in order to give teammates time to activate supershots. Even so, if they’re not international, there may be hours when everyone is asleep. And if your team wars a lot, you might instead consider a base with one or two buildings that are virtually impossible to destroy with two dragons. Once you know what your goal is, think practically about how you can best achieve it, make a plan, and stick to it. There is room to experiment, but if you change direction too many times, you may end up with a base that isn’t effective.
With this in mind, to simplify discussion of bases, I will be using different conventions to discuss buildings and their locations.
Type of building will be shortened as follows:
- Storage = Storage Hut
- Breed = Breeding Castle
- Forge = Forge
- Incubator = Incubator
- Den = Dragons Den
- Research = Hall of Research
- Builder = Builders Hut
- Sheep = Sheep Farm
- Lumber = Lumber Mill
- Farm = Either Sheep Farm of Lumber Mill
- Archer = Archer
- Cannon = Cannon
- Storm = Storm Tower
- Ballista = Ballista
- Treb = Trebuchet
- Lightning = Lightning Tower
- IceT = Ice Turret
- FireT = Fire Turret
- Flak = Elemental Flak
- FireF = Fire Flak
- Red = Red Mage Tower
- Blue = Blue Mage Tower
- Totem = Any Totem
Perches will be referred to as PerchI, PerchII and PerchIII, beginning with the one closest to the castle.
The name of the building will be followed by a level if necessary. For example, FireT37 would refer to a level 37 Fire Turret.
Regarding absolute positions of buildings or islands within a base, they will be referred to by a capitalized Roman numeral indicating the number of the group of five towers beginning with those closest to the castle, relative to an attacker's approach.
This will be followed by the letter “A” to indicate absolute position (this is to leave the door open for relative position at a later point if necessary). Thus IIIA refers to the entire corner island defended by the first perch.
If referring to a specific position within an island, this will be followed by a digit from 1 to 5 in this order: Back Left, Back Right, Middle, Front Left, and Front Right.
Back always refers to side closest to the castle relative to an attacker’s approach. Thus on islands IVA and VA, the back would be the bottom when viewed from above.
I hope all of this makes sense. I know this complicates matters significantly, so I'll try to discuss exact positions as infrequently as possible.