This is not as easy as finding a village with similar Trophies, so the matchmaking takes longer. Fortunately, there is no need to wait in the Clan Wars screen. You can close the screen with the red “X” button and you will be notified when an opposing clan has been found.
Another difference from multiplayer: you can’t choose your opponent, you can’t skip. As soon as the game finds a Clan similar to yours, the “Preparation Day” begins.
WAR WEIGHT
When you tap “Search Battle” the game calculates how strong your clan is. Every building, troop and hero on each village has a value. Strong defenses and heroes are worth more, so your base gets “heavier” as you improve your village.
After calculating the “War Weight” of your Clan, the matchmaking looks for a similar Clan to battle. This is how the system works.
Based on this system, over the years clashers came out with several ideas to take some kind of advantage and find easier wars. The most common ones, used until today, are Engineered Bases and .5 Town Halls.
The point of these villages is to stop upgrading the defenses, but keep upgrading the offenses. This will give you more offensive power while keeping the almost the same weight. You will match someone with similar defenses, but you will have more offensive power.
Adding these villages to the Clan War, especially Engineered Bases, will increase the number of villages without adding much weight to your Clan.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE SYSTEM
Although it’s not considered illegal or cheat and will not get you or your Clan banned, Engineered Bases are not considered fair play by most of the clash community. The official forums are always flooded with complains about this.
On the quest to create fair and well balanced wars, Supercell is constantly changing the war algorithm. Yes, they know about Engineered Bases and they are working constantly to fix this. Their last statement on this issue came in 02/2017, when changes on the algorithm were made to prevent these bases from taking advantage of the matchmaking.
But have they fixed it? Well, we don’t have access to the actual algorithm so we can’t really tell the changes they did, so the best way to find out to actually try on the Clan War and see the results. This is where everything gets a little confusing.
ARE THEY STILL WORTH?
All I can give is my opinion, but I don’t work on Supercell and I don’t know the developers. I know some YouTubers that will disagree with me, but here is my opinion: both village types took a big impact from the last matchmaking changes, so I don’t really see an advantage .5 bases anymore. Engineered Bases, on the other hand, are definitely still working, BUT they definitely don’t make a big difference anymore.
The changes made on the last couple of months by Supercell really impacted the matchmaking, but even though some YouTubers claim it is fixed, I still see them on the Clan Wars and I still think Engineered Bases are working. Running a poll with my followers on Twitter, over 80% of them think Engineered and .5 bases still work!
THE FUTURE: .5 BASES
Should you keep upgrading as .5 base? Considering that .5 Town Halls have a big disadvantage on regular multiplayer, I think it’s time to move on and upgrade as a regular base.
Even though you might think they are still worth the trouble and creates a small advantage on Clan Wars, Supercell is definitely cracking down on them, so it’s just a matter of time to totally end with this advantage.
THE FUTURE: ENGINEERED BASES
Well, since Engineered Bases are not your main base, you can keep them for fun and keep trying to take advantage on the matchmaking. I still think they are working, but the advantage is so small I’m not quite sure it’s worth the trouble of upgrading a defenseless village.
