Legend:
CoC – Clash of Clans
KS – kill squad
AQ / BK – Archer Queen / Barbarian King
WB – wall breakers
AD – air defense
AT – archer tower
WT – wizard tower
CC – clan castle troops
DGB – double giant bombs
Trash – non-defensive structures on the outside of the base
WHY SHOULD I FUNNEL?
Funneling is perhaps the most critical part of most war attacks. If you don’t funnel correctly, your attack is probably ‘screwed.’ Most war attacks at TH8, TH9 and TH10 rely on the precise execution of a multi-stage attack plan. The first stage in the plan is usually the insertion of the KS. The KS should have a specific purpose in the raid, whether to eliminate the enemy CC, AQ, AD(s), and / or trip DGB locations. Getting one or more of these accomplished is often the difference between success and failure. Given that most of the objectives can only be accomplished by the KS going into the core of a base, it is critical to learn how to prevent your KS from wandering around the outside. This is where funneling comes into play. For the sake of simplicity, I will discuss mainly golem-based funneling techniques in this guide.
WHAT IS FUNNELING?
First, let’s talk about what funneling actually is. Funneling is the process of intentionally removing certain buildings in a specific order so as to cause deployed troops to path into the desired area of the base. Sound complicated? It isn’t but it is easy to screw up.
Most troops in CoC attack the closest available enemy building or troop. I use the word available because if one building is two tiles away but is behind a wall and another building is six tiles away and is not, your troops will go to the building six tiles away. As such, if you want the majority of your KS to go into the middle, you need to eliminate the outside buildings that would otherwise be the closest available buildings to where you deploy. Let’s look at an example:
Example Base #1 Suppose that you intend to use your KS to remove the southern DGB (next to the BK) on this base by attacking from the southwest. If you were to drop all of your troops at once on the Laboratory, they would likely split into two groups and walk around the edge of the base. That’s obviously not good and would result in much tears and sorrow on your part and likely laughter and the dreaded “nice try” on the part of your teammates. In order to prevent the “nice try” comments, you must master funneling and the art of getting your KS into the middle of the base.
HOW TO FUNNEL
The most common method of funneling is to use golems as a distraction while wizards remove trash buildings on one side of the base. (Note that golems have a special pathing AI. They will always target and path to the closest defense including those behind walls - unless an unwalled defense is within 8 tiles.)
Let’s use the example posted above and assume you still want to attack from the southwest side. Looking at the base, the defenses which need to be distracted are (starting from the north and working our way south) the AT, WT, cannon, and southern AT. If you dropped one golem between the northern AT and the WT and the other in between the cannon and the southern AT, those two golems would distract all four of the specified defenses. Next, you would immediately drop wizards on the outside army camps and then quickly work your way inward by dropping one wizard on each building. Most KS rely on approximately on 2 – 3 golems and 6 – 8 wizards to create the funnel. You would then deploy your AQ / BK in the middle and use either WBs or a jump spell to enter the base. Using this example, we can see four clear steps once you have decided where to attack:
* Place your golems wide enough apart to distract all local defenses.
* Once the defenses are distracted, quickly deploy one wizard on each trash building starting on the outside of the line and working inwards.
* Place your heroes in the middle of the line after the outside buildings are destroyed; this is important to prevent your heroes from walking along the edge of the base.
* Deploy your WB or jump spell as your means of ingress to the base.
As a quick aside, steps 3 & 4 can be switched if you are concerned about your heroes ‘walking’ around the edge of the base. See the section on “Heroes and Funneling.”
Here’s an example:
Example Base #1 with KS deployed Purple – golem
Blue – wizard
Green - heroes
As you plan for your attacks, it’s important to deploy your wizards quickly after you drop your golems. This preserves golem health and is key in allowing your golems to penetrate farther into the base (thus keeping your heroes / wizards alive longer as well). I would recommend that you take a picture of the base you are attacking and practice tapping the screen in your specific initial deployment until you are very comfortable with this approach and can get your initial golems & wizards down very quickly.
After your golems and wizards have been placed and the wizards have destroyed the outermost buildings in your attack line, your heroes and remaining KS troops (if any) can be dropped in the middle of the attack line (where the heroes are dropped) with confidence that they will path into the core of the base. Please note that the timing of the hero drop is important; see the later section on “Heroes and Funneling.”
OTHER STUFF TO REMEMBER
Apart from the general order of the funnel (golems first, then wizards, then heroes), here are a few important things to remember:
* Start your funneling wizards on the outer buildings first. Start your funneling wizards on the outer buildings first. Start your funneling wizards on the outer buildings first. Start your… you get the point! Here’s why: as your wizards destroy a building, they will move to the next closest building. If you start your wizards on the outer buildings first, they will (theoretically) move inward with each successive building destroyed. The ideal KS has nearly all the wizards protected by the golems as they destroy buildings and move inward. They then can enter to the core of the base behind the golems and with the heroes. That could be the difference between 2 wizards in the interior versus 6+ in the interior. That is HUGE to accomplishing the objective(s) of the KS.
* Always err on the side of making the funnel wider rather than smaller. The cost of eliminating the extra building is usually just one wizard per building. That’s four troop spaces out of 200-240, depending on your camp levels. Keep in mind that your AQ is prone to staying on the outside of the walls and wandering around to pick off the buildings just inside of the walls. Where possible, try to eliminate all the outer buildings on the entire side of the base with your funneling wizards. Don’t assume that your heroes will ever be smart enough to go where you want. Force your heroes into the middle.
* Don’t forget that a funnel is also about depth and not just width. Using the example above, it is usually wise to let your golems distract for the wizards long enough that the wizards can remove both the outer trash buildings AND the first layer of defenses such as the archer towers on each side of the southwest line of the base. That will ensure your KS moves to the core of your base rather than along the outside. It will also help prevent your AQ from dancing along the edge of the base and walking around rather than pathing into the middle.
* Remember that storages can take a long time for one wizard to take down. If you have a storage on one edge of your entry line, deploy an extra wizard or two to help take it down quickly and not disrupt the timing of your attack.
* Minions can be a cheap funneling troop (in terms of troop spaces) if you can deploy them where they cannot be hit by an Xbow, AT, WT, or AD. However, if you rely on minions for a side of the funnel and they get destroyed by a random air bomb, you may wish you had brought wizards instead! I would save minions for cleanup attacks where you are sure they won’t get destroyed by a random air bomb or tesla.
* Teslas can wreck a funnel if you are not careful. Always keep an eye out for empty 2x2 spaces which could house a tesla which can either repath a golem or wreck an unprotected wizard / minion. Remember that a golem will repath to an unwalled tesla up to eight tiles away.
If you funnel correctly, your 2-3 golems, 6-8 wizards, and heroes should get at least the following structures out of the base in addition to the enemy CC troops and the enemy BK:
Example Base #1 with initial buildings destroyed by KS As such, any troops deployed in the middle of the southwest line (such as another golem or more wizards or your remaining heroes) should have no choice but to move into the core of the base. Assuming that you deploy your WBs / jump spell correctly, you should be well on your way to a successful three star attack!
HEROES AND FUNNELING
In a serious war, you need both heroes available for your attacks. Both the AQ and BK have important roles in the funneling process. Let’s discuss those roles here.
ARCHER QUEEN
The AQ can be used as to clear the middle of the attack line. Please note that the AQ is a ranged unit and, if deployed close enough to several structures, will stay in the same spot until all structures within her range are destroyed. That is very useful when deploying her in the middle of your attack line.
Using the example above, the KS could technically consist of a northern golem + two wizards and a southern golem + two wizards. The wizards could remove the three army camps, the dark barracks, and the regular barracks pretty quickly while you could use your AQ only to clear the gold mine plus the laboratory. This is an efficient way to start the raid and save more troop space for hogs / loons / etc. You could also use the ‘saved’ troop space to drop more wizards in the middle of the attack line once the entry point has been made and your KS starts to penetrate the core of the base.
BARBARIAN KING
The BK isn’t usually used in the funneling process but rather is often the most important troop to funnel into the core (due to the BK’s ability to quickly rage & take down the enemy AQ). The BK should be held and deployed AFTER the golems, wizards, and AQ. As a melee troop, the BK will always target the closest structure. If you drop the BK before the outer external structures have been sufficiently cleared, he will likely move from structure to structure along the outside of the base and be far enough away that he will not enter the core once the WBs or jump spell has been used.
If you are having problems with your BK walking, you can prevent this by using the following pattern:
* Deploy golems (spread apart) along an ‘attack line’
* Quickly drop wizards right behind & outside of the golems (this should leave a couple of buildings untouched in the middle of the attack line).
* After these outside external buildings have been destroyed, deploy your WBs / jump spell and then your AQ & BK in quick succession. Your heroes will clear the middle untouched buildings while the golems route to the core of the base and begin to distract the defenses / enemy heroes / enemy cc. Your heroes will quickly follow and begin to engage while not being targeted.
In the pattern above, think of these untouched buildings in the middle (ideally also where you deploy WBs / jump spell) as the beginning of a bread crumb trail leading your heroes into the core of the base. That should prevent the heroes from walking along the edge of the base.
QUICK SUMMARY
Funneling is the act of removing exterior buildings from the outside first so as to force your troops to target the middle of the base because those are now the closest buildings. This is just as critical a step in three star attacks as eliminating the enemy CC troops / AQ, proper spell deployment, and timely cleanup troops. This has been a very basic introduction to funneling and is not intended to address all aspects or advanced funneling techniques.
