Best Defending Clan Castle Troops (Clan War & Home Village) – incl. TH17

Which troops are the best for defense in a Clan Castle? That’s a very common question and there are many different opinions. I will show you in this dedicated post which Troops work best in your Clan Castle for defending your base during Clan War and also for your Home Village.

In the first section of this guide, I will give you some info on how to build your defending Clan Castle setup and in the second part you find my favorite setups ranked by effectiveness.

Updated with the recent meta and updated some setups with how the defensive meta works right now, espcially for Town Hall 17

Best Clan Castle Troop In Clash of Clans (Ranking)

Here are some setups that have worked really well and I update them with every balancing update.

Town Hall 17

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH17

Ice Golem + Head Hunter

Just like at TH16 the setup to dominate with the versatility of Ice Golems to disrupt enemy attacks with their freeze effect that adds some unpredictability for the attacker, the Head Hunter that are always nasty to deal with in pretty much all attacking strategies - this setup will very likely be meta for TH17 as well, at least for now.

Variations:The only variation there is really is either using 2x or 3x Head Hunters and adjust with how many archers you fill. In my experience this comes down to personal preference and none of them is really stronger than the other one

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

S+

Best TH17 Bases

Town Hall 16

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH16

Ice Golem + Archers

Oddly enough this cc setup has been becoming a lot dominant in the second half of 2024 for TH16 where ideally defenders use the full possible 3 Ice Golems for maximum disruption capabilities.

Variations:You sometimes come accross the variation with 2 ice Golems, but in most cases 3 ice Golems are the better choice

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

A+

Best TH16 Bases

Ice Golem + Rocket Balloon

An alternative option that normally works better for Legend League and defending your Home Village in situations where the attacker can't really scout your base for a really ong time.

Variations:not really

War/CWL:

A

Home Village:

S+

Best TH16 Bases

Ice Golem + Head Hunter

This defensive cc setup has been falling off more and more after the release of Town Hall 16 since the additional Ice Golem the other setups offer are just better in disrupting than having the Head Hunters that are annoying but also more predictable for the attacker.

Variations:The only variation there is really is either using 2x or 3x Head Hunters and adjust with how many archers you fill. In my experience this comes down to personal preference and none of them is really stronger than the other one

War/CWL:

A+

Home Village:

A+

Best TH16 Bases

Town Hall 15

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH15

Ice Golem + Archers

has been proven to be better at defending and the best cc setup for TH15 right now, for war or your home base. They are stable, disrupting and super annoying to deal with and you can also try the variation of 2x Ice Golems and 20x Archers if you want it a little bit more spammy..

Variations:can be used with everything that fits the remaining 5 Housing Space like Balloon. Sometimes even using 2x ice Golems with a Dragon works but the classic works the best

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

A+

Best TH15 Bases

Super Minion + Rocket Balloon

has been catching up a lot recently as it is harder to deal with and helps switching up things when most attackers approach with hacing ice Golems coming out of the cc in mind.

Variations:not really

War/CWL:

A+

Home Village:

S+

Best TH15 Bases

Lava Hound + Head Hunter

has been a lot stronger when TH15 was release but with higher Town Halls in the mix this is too easy to deal with.

Variations:Frequently used either with 2x Head Hunters or 3x Head Hunters. More Archers make only sense in Home Village defense since attackers can't prepare and in war they simpyl bring their Poison Spell and call it a day with too many archers

War/CWL:

B+

Home Village:

A

Best TH15 Bases

Town Hall 13 + 14

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH13 and TH14 (they have the same housing space so their cc setups are pretty much the same)

Super Minion + Head Hunter

Long range and nasty to deal with makes them, today, the best defensive cc setup allround.

War/CWL:

S

Home Village:

S

Best TH14 Bases

Best TH13 Bases

Lava Hound + Head Hunter

Oldie but golde. Dominated a long time here but with higher Town Halls attacking your base they are not the best anymore. The reason why they have been so strong in the earlier days of TH14 was that there wasn't much to do about this setup but higher Town Halls ahve the tools to work with them.

War/CWL:

A

Home Village:

A

Best TH14 Bases

Best TH13 Bases

Town Hall 12

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH12

Super Minion + Witch

The best overall with Super Minions that have the range and the Witch that can snowball the ideal cc setup these days for Town Hall 13.

War/CWL:

S

Home Village:

S

Best TH12 Bases

Lava Hound + Archer

A classic but also effective setup you an use with the Lava Hound always eating attention of attacking troops and the archers. Has always good potential to force the attacker to make a mistake they pay for later..

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

A

Best TH12 Bases

Town Hall 10 + 11

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH10 and TH11 (they have the same housing space so their cc setups are pretty much the same)

Super Minion + Witch

Absolutely GOAT at TH11 and the best overall setup you can use.

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

S+

Best TH11 Bases

Best TH10 Bases

Lava Hound + Archer

Is useful here and there, also because most people expect the Super Minion Witch setup coming out so this can take by surprise. Not really in Clan War though.

War/CWL:

B+

Home Village:

S+

Best TH11 Bases

Best TH10 Bases

Town Hall 9

Here are the most used defensive Clan Castle Setups for TH9

Baby Dragon + Witch

By far the best cc defense you can use for Town Hall 9 these days in all cases.

War/CWL:

S+

Home Village:

S+

Best TH9 Bases

Difference Of Clan Castle Troops in Clan War VS. Home Village

You might be thinking why a dedicated post for defending Troops in Clan War is necessary.
There are some circumstances in Clan War that require variations in order to have the best Troops in the War Castle:

1. Lack of surprise – your enemy will know after 2-3 replays what’s inside your Clan Castle without having to make a first attack
2. Your enemy is better prepared for the attack in general (we don’t want that!)

The taste of surprise in Clan War

I personally see a huge difference – and also disadvantage – in Clan War. Your enemy knows what’s coming out of the Clan Castle because he only has to watch replays of the base being attacked by his other clanmates.

My advice is to avoid filling all Clan Castles with more or less the same setup. Bring in some surprises by filling the War Castles with different combinations of Troops you find below.

Imagine an attacker hitting base #10 and has just seen that base #9 had Wizards in the Clan Castle, but you have put a Dragon in #10. I think you get my point, right?

With all the troops available, there are endless possibilities to combine them, but the right approach is always combining them right against the setup your base will have to defend.

A good defensive CC setup will always consist of:

• A base troop (with much housing space)
• Variety troops (to make it hard to counter one troop kind)
• Fill troops (to use all the housing space in your Clan Castle available)

Here are the ground rules you should always keep in mind when requesting troops:

NEVER only have one single kind of troops in your Clan Castle! This will make it a lot easier to take them out, especially when the attacker is prepared.

Prevent having many low-hitpoint troops like Archers, Minions etc. – most attackers carry a Poison Spell and wipe them out easily. They are a great support and fill troop, but no more.

It’s not all about the damage! Golems & Lava Hounds deal no damage but keep a Queen busy or deal additional damage when getting destroyed.

Mix air & ground to make it harder for the attacker to deal with your defending troops 🙂

Best Troops To Choose

Now I want to show you the useful troops that you can use for the three categories I showed above.

Base Troop

Good base troops are

• Golem
• Lava Hound
• Dragon
• Electric Dragon!

because they are not really affected by a Poison Spell and the Pups confuse the Queen during a Queen Charge and the Golem deals the same damage as a Giant Bomb when it gets destroyed. Time is always a big enemy of your attacker and they will keep his troops busy for some time 🙂

I don’t recommend using Giants (they will suffer more damage from a Poison Spell & any splash damage) or PEKKA (the hit speed is so slow, she gets killed before dealing damage 3 times)

Electro Dragons are a great defending troop, as it can charge its strong lightning attack until attacking troops will target it – and the damage can take away a lot of hitpoints, even from a maxed Hero! Even after dying, the death lightning will deal great damage to the attacking troops 🙂

Variety Troop

The best options here are troops that deal ranged damage. I prefer

• Witches (because the Skeletons keep attacking troops busy)
• Bowlers as they also can hit troops behind tanks

You can take multiple of them in your CC with great results.

Here are troops that you should only have one single of inside your CC:

• Baby Dragon with the splash damage and raged when no other air troop is in the CC
• Valkyrie because when she hits it deals amazing damage
• Balloon (so slow and predictable that a group of them always goes down in Poison Spell)
• Wizard

Miners or Hog Rider are no good choice in your Clan Castle from my experience.

Filling Troops

Now you probably have some housing space left that you should fill, I recommend using:

• Minions (if you do NOT have a Baby Dragon to not remove the raged bonus)
• Archers

Barbarians are too slow and die off too fast and Goblins are so fast they will reach the target first and get killed without dealing any damage at all.

Wrapping it up

You see there are different combinations to use and mixing them up will really help you. You will save yourself some Stars and make your attacker use more troops than originally planned.