TH18 bases: what actually holds in 2026
What makes a TH18 base hold in 2026: the new defences that matter, why anti three star beats anti two star at this level, and how to pick between war, Legend League, trophy and farming layouts.
TH18 arrived with a set of changes that quietly broke a lot of layouts people had been recycling since TH16. The compartment shapes that used to hold do not, and the attacks that punish them are the ones everyone is already running. This is what actually matters when you pick one.
The one decision that comes first
Before anything about compartments and traps: what is this layout for?
| Layout | Town Hall | Storages | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| War | Buried in the core | Spread across compartments | You are in a war or CWL and defending percentage |
| Legend League | Centred, well covered | Irrelevant | You are in Legends, where only stars and percentage count |
| Trophy | Buried, hard to reach | Secondary | You are pushing the ladder and want to force a two star |
| Farming | Outside the walls, given away | Deep in the core | You are upgrading and loot matters more than trophies |
| Hybrid | Inside, but not the deepest thing | Reasonably protected | You want to set one layout and stop thinking about it |
Most people who complain a layout "does not work" are running a farming base in war. The layout is doing exactly what it was designed to do, which is give away the Town Hall.
If your defences are two or three levels behind what TH18 allows, the layout is not what is losing you wars. A level 6 Scattershot dies to things a level 9 survives, and no arrangement of buildings changes that. Check the gap before you spend a week collecting layouts.
Anti three star, not anti two star
At TH18 the second star is close to free for anyone who knows what they are doing. Fifty percent is reachable off the outer ring on almost any layout, and burying the Town Hall so deep that a good attacker cannot reach it usually means weakening everything else to do it.
So the goal moves. A good TH18 war layout accepts two stars and makes the last twenty percent as expensive as possible: cleanup that costs a Hero, buildings scattered so the timer runs out, compartments that do not open in a straight line. That is what wins a war on percentage, which is how most even wars are actually decided.
The exception is trophy pushing, where a one star defence is worth real trophies and an anti two star design pays off. Different job, different layout, and it is worth having both saved.
What TH18 specifically punishes
Straight lines of buildings. Electro Dragons chain between buildings that are close together, and a tidy row is a free path through the base. Spacing defences so the chain jumps to a collector instead of the next Inferno is most of what an anti Electro layout is doing.
Long unbroken walls. Root Riders follow walls and tear straight through them. A layout designed before Root Riders existed usually has long clean wall runs, which is exactly what they want. Break walls into short segments and the rider never gets a run.
Predictable air defence placement. Three air defences at the points of a wide triangle is the old advice and it is still roughly right, but the seeking air mines matter more. Place them for the tank, not the pets. A Lava Hound eating both mines is a wasted pair.
An easy edge for the Queen. A Queen charge needs somewhere soft to start. If one side of your base is collectors and a single Archer Tower, that side is the entry and everything else you did is decoration.
Reading a layout before you copy it
Thirty seconds of looking saves a week of losing.
- Where is the Town Hall? If you cannot answer immediately, it is a war or trophy layout. If it is sitting outside on its own, it is a farming layout.
- Can you draw a straight line from an edge to the core? If yes, that is the path everyone will take.
- Are the two Scattershots covering different halves? Two Scattershots covering the same compartment is a common and expensive mistake.
- Where would you start a Queen charge? Whichever side you picked is the side the layout is weakest on. Ask whether you are happy with that.
TH18 layouts with working links
War, Legend League, trophy, farming and counter-specific TH18 layouts, each with a link that loads straight into the game.
Browse TH18 basesSwap the layout before CWL
This is the cheapest win available and most clans do not take it. In Clan War League the same seven clans attack you across the week, and every attack becomes a replay they can study. A layout that held on day one is a solved problem by day four.
Save two or three TH18 war layouts and rotate them mid-league. The layouts do not even have to be better than each other; being unfamiliar is worth more than being marginally stronger. Which is also why the CWL section exists separately from the war one.
The thing worth checking first
None of the above matters if the account underneath is behind. Layout advice assumes your defences are roughly where TH18 expects them to be, and for a lot of accounts that jumped up quickly, they are not.
Find out where your TH18 actually stands
Paste your player tag. Every hero, troop, spell and defence is scored against the TH18 cap, not the global maximum, and you get the three upgrades that matter most next.
Check your base for freeShort version
Pick the layout for the job you are doing. At TH18 build anti three star, not anti two star. Watch for straight building lines, long walls, and one soft edge. Rotate layouts during CWL. And if your defences are several levels behind, fix that before you touch the layout, because nothing else you do will show up.
Frequently asked
What is the best TH18 base layout?
There is no single best one, because a war base and a farming base are opposite designs. Pick by what you are doing: a war or CWL layout buries the Town Hall and defends percentage, a farming layout gives the Town Hall away to protect storages, and a Legend League layout is built to deny the last few buildings.
Should a TH18 base be anti two star or anti three star?
Anti three star, in almost every case. At TH18 a competent attacker gets two stars on nearly anything, so the layout's job is to make the last twenty percent slow and expensive. Anti two star designs mostly matter for trophy pushing.
How often should I change my TH18 base?
Change it whenever someone three stars you twice with the same army, and change it before a CWL week regardless. In CWL the same clans attack you seven days running, so a layout they have a replay of is worth very little.
Does a good layout fix a rushed TH18?
No. A layout arranges what you have. If your defences are several levels behind what TH18 allows, the best layout in the game buys a percentage or two. Check the rush score first and fix the levels.
What this covers
- th18 base
- best th18 base
- th18 war base
- th18 base link
- town hall 18 base
- th18 anti 3 star base
- th18 farming base