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UPGRADING using the .5 METHOD

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Definition of the .5 Method- To Upgrade you Offensive components 1st and your Defensive components 2nd... its that simple.

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Why use the .5 Method?- To gain short term advantages in Clan Wars and to help ease the transition into your new Town Hall Level.

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Whats the difference between the .5 and Engineered Method? This is a huge topic in the game right now. Using the .5 Method players still max out their bases every Town Hall level (except walls in most cases) The Engineered Method is when players upgrade their offenses SEVERAL levels ahead of their defenses. 

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Is the .5 Method considered a cheat? This is only one players opinion but my answer would be NO it's not. The .5 Method is simply upgrading your base in  a specific order every new Town Hall level to keep that particular player's base lower on the Clan War line up within their clan. 

CHANGES TO THE .5 AS OF 3/20/2017

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       The game of Clash of Clans is this wonderful evolving experience that has been entertaining us since the beginning. One of the reasons that we ALL love it so much is because of the UPDATES and SuperCells constant efforts to make improvements. Due to endless complaining about the Engineered Base problem (people upgrading their offenses and not their defenses to try to gain an advantage in war) SuperCell will usually include some sort of change , upgrade or improvement to their matchmaking algorithm every update.

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       They have done that in the last several updates and it has caused TONS of improvements to the Engineered problem BUT the .5 bases have also been effected too. We have have always thought of the .5 as the "fairplay" way to try to combat other tactics that clans use to gain advantages BUT this method does (*kinda) fall into the similar category as the engineered base especially if taken to the extreme. 

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       To prevent this from being 10 pages I will get right to it. Its been clearly outlined (one of the best explanations was from Heather (Clash Tudor) is this video called "The Ultimate Guide to Clan War Matchmaking" In this video she has outlined whats going on. She had explained in previous videos called "End of Engineered Bases" that she was given insight from Supercell and she wasn't allowed to give too many specifics BUT what she did say is this....

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       The NEW matchmaking algorithm will include an "adjuster" or a "Modifier" on all bases that are not evenly upgraded. And yes I think its ironic that they are adding a Modifier that's being abbreviated as a "Mod" to our bases.. Pretty funny actually! What this means in short is that if you have a FULL .5 base and you have maxed offenses (for TH9 let's say) and you still have not added the defenses for TH9 or started upgrading the existing defenses then the algorithm will change your defensive base weight to match what it should be according to your offense. So maxed offenses and underdeveloped defenses will get adjusted to max offenses and maxed defenses.I could get into the #s but I think its simpler this way...

 

         what does this mean?  this means that based on this information if you have maxed troops and your base is going to be adjusted top have maxed defenses too which means that the clans your going to get matched with will have more maxed defenses as well.. this puts you and your clan at a disadvantage.

          what do you do?   its simple, upgrade evenly. Im telling our guys to STILL do the CC, Lab (and start a troop asap) camps, barracks, spell factories FIRST, BUT as soon as you have the 1st maxed (for that TH lvl) troop come out of the lab, start planning on upgrading your defenses. BE SMART! Upgrade the defenses with the MOST VALUE 1st. By trying to keep you offense and defense as close to one another as possible there will be NO ADJUSTMENTS added to your base during matchmaking and you will get a much BETTER matchup then if your clan has 10 maxed .5 TH9s and after the adjustments your getting matched with 10 fully maxed TH9s. If your going to get penalized for having maxed troops and your base will be treated as if its maxed anyway then you should HAVE the defenses that the adjuster will add to your base's weight. 

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if this is not a good enough explanation for you I would strongly suggest watching the video we have linked to above. It will answer most of your questions!

           

Here are a pair of great videos from the Clash Tudor

Be sure to go and visit her channel its really good!

The .5 Base vs The Engineered Base

WE WILL GO THROUGH THE ENTIRE UPGRADE PROCESS USING THE .5 METHOD. FOR THIS EXAMPLE WE WILL GO FROM A TOWN HALL 7 TO TOWN HALL 8 AND EXPLAIN WHY IT'S CONSIDERED A 7,5 AND NOT A TOWN HALL 8. IN THIS EXAMPLE WE WILL ASSUME THAT THE PLAYER HAS A MAX TOWN HALL 7 

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  1. Max out TH7 (TH is short for Town Hall) except for 50 walls that will be left 1 level before max (we need to have a little Base Weight to play with going into TH8)

  2. Upgrade to TH8

  3. DO NOT ADD ANYTHING NEW TO YOUR BASE.. NOT YET

  4. Buy all of the new Resource Buildings and Army Buildings for TH8 (this includes Gold/Elixir/ Dark Elixir items | this includes Army Camps, Barracks, Heros etc)

  5. Buy the new Traps for TH8

  6. Upgrade all Army Buildings starting with the Laboratory then the Spell Factory, Dark Spell Factory, Clan Castle, Barracks, Dark Barracks, Army Camps etc.

  7. The moment your Laboratory is complete start your 1st Troop Upgrade. Some players start with their farming army most start with their favorite war troops

  8. As you are upgrading your troops you can begin to upgrade all of the Army and Resource Buildings

  9. Upgrade your Hidden Tesla Towers and Air Defenses (optional- many players do not do this BUT if you look at the BASE WEIGHT page in this website you will see how little impact these particular defenses add to the "weight" of your base. In my opinion you get much more VALUE than you do weight so it's worth it!

  10. Buy the new Hidden Tesla and Air Defenses for the new TH level (also optional)

  11. Once all of your Army and Resource Buildings are maxed out begin to max out your Traps... remember you are also upgrading troops in the Laboratory. NEVER go 1 day without a troop in the Lab... this takes careful planning to make sure you have the loot needed for next troop upgrade the SECOND the Lab is available for the next troop!

  • The moment all Resource and Army Buildings, Traps and Troops are all maxed out for Town Hall 8 you are officially a TH7.5! 

  • the 2nd half of the .5 Method is to begin to add the defensive part of the new Town Hall level to your base

  • Alternate your upgrades with your new defenses and your existing defenses. This means you upgrade your TH7 cannon to maxed for TH8 then add the new cannon to the base and upgrade to lvl 2. Then upgrade the next TH7 cannon to max then upgrade the lvl 2 cannon to lvl 3. This allows you to not only bring in the new defenses but to get those existing defenses maxed out.

  • Start adding defenses to your base in a specific order. Start with Single Target Defenses because the have MUCH less weight than the Splash Defenses. I try to use this order for any .5 base that I'm building

  • Hidden Tesla Tower (always 1st to bring onto base and upgrade)​

  • Air Defenses (always my 2nd)

  • Archer Tower 

  • Cannon

  • Wizard Tower

  • Mortar

  • Bomb Tower

  • Elite defenses (in higher Town Hall levels)

  • Walls. max out all but 50 walls to prepare for the next Town Hall Level

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UPGRADING to Town Hall 7.5
using the  .5 METHOD

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THE EVOLUTION OF THE CLAN WAR MATCH MAKING ALGORITHM

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    Over the past several years there has been significant changes to the Clan War Match Making Algorithm. This is mainly because Supercell has this constant effort to make our matchups as fair as possible. In addition to that they try to maintain this transparent form of operating, allowing players to have enough information about their system with the intentions of enhancing their gaming experience BUT players have chosen to take advantage of this transparency and have used the information they have gained to minipulate their bases to best suit the Match Making Algorithm. The .5 method is actually a moderate form of this while the Engineered method is a much more "abusive" approach... again only 1 players opinion.

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Below we have a couple of great explinations of how the Match Making system has been evolving over the years... I think its great information for those players that want to continue to use the .5 method and still stay within the perameters of the Fair Play system

THE CLAN WAR MATCH MAKING

ALGORITHM as of 8/25/2017

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    Our latest update has given us even more to think about as a .5 Method user. The announcement of a "NEW ALGORITHM" is both exciting and thought provoking for everyone. In short (and this is a very short version) the new algorithm will take both the offensive and defensive sides of the base into consideration where in the past the focus has been of the defensive side much more than the offensive side. The goal is to match clans up with similarly minded clans. To match clans that upgrade in the "traditional" manner up with other traditional clans, to match the .5 clans up with the .5 clans and to match the engineered clans up with the engineered clans.

    This could mean that if your clan goes to war with 20 engineered bases, you would ideally get another clan with 20 engineered bases. This will usually translate into 20 three stars on each side and the inevitable tie... after tie... after tie... boring!

     Supercell has long stood for attempting to remove their rules and regulations from influencing players on "how" to upgrade their bases. They really want everyone to do things they way they want to BUT they do not want to force clans that have upgraded in the traditional manner to have to deal with the engineered clans, at least not on a regular basis. 

     For a Fair Play advocate that also believes that the .5 method is a viable and intelligent strategy I am very optimistic about the future of Clan Wars!

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WE WILL ADD MORE TO THIS PAGE AS THE CLAN WAR MATCHMAKING ALGORITHM EVOLVES AND WHAT EFFECTS IT WILL HAVE ON THE .5 METHOD SO CHECK BACK OR SUBSCRIBE TO THE SITE!!

PROS AND CONS

1/10/2018

 

     Below are the Pros and cons of the .5 system. Unfortunately as of now the cons are starting to outweigh the pros. I believe this is because a >5 is now officially looked at from the eyes of the developer as a form of engineering your base. You can  agree or not, the numbers don't lie. If your clan has 50% of the players in the process of upgrading their Town Hall and they are using the .5 method then you are considered an engineered clan and run the risk of facing an engineered clan in war each and every war. This will not bother some clans. (they are the clans that have the capability of 3 starring every player in every clan they face) Many other clans will have to deal with the negative impact that warring against an engineered clan can bring. This in addition to loosing the war mainly involves watching the bottom members of the opposing clan jump up to 3 star the top 5 in your clan. WOW it can be frustrating!

     I have been suggesting the .5 method to our clan for many years. We "strongly" suggest that they get even as soon as they are comfortable with the new troops and new attack strategies. At this point I would suggest against the .5 method. This is why-

  • .5 can not defend against maxed players of the same TH LvL. You have the same troops but still do not have the defenses to compete.

  • .5 has a disadvantage to a fully engineered player. They can build a TH11 and leave off key defenses and have their TH11 end up across TH8s in the Clan War match up.

  • A .5 base is considered "engineered" by the developers. This means that the system is designed to match you up against other "like" clans and you will get matched up against an engineered clan if the war search is a "success"

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What to Do??

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     I will never suggest the "if you can't beat them join them" school of thought. Therefor at this time your best option will most likely be to upgrade all of your offensive buildings 1st (this has not changed for the .5 players) Once the Laboratory is completed it's upgrade and you are ready to upgrade your 1st troop for the new TH LvL consider adding the new defenses to your base. As far as I know if you have a maxed out offense they (the Clan War Match-Up Algorithm) are adjusting your defense weight to match your offense so you should add the pieces that are being added to the weight of your base anyway. What this really means is that the time that you can stay a .5 and still help your clan is a very short amount of time. You have from the time you hit the new TH level until your 1st troop is finished upgrading in the Laboratory. This technique can be fine tuned and tweaked I'm sure but for the most part I would strongly suggest AGAINST the .5 method.. wow I said it..  

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the section in BLUE below was the original .5 post and there are several time stamped additions below. There may be a time that we go BACK to where the .5 Method is a good method to use (for example if a system similar to the 1 & 2 system that's suggested here) until then fair warning, if you use the .5 method you Will be considered an Engineered Player to the Dev team and the Clan War Algorithm 

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