Town Hall Level 3 Base Design Guide: Maximize Defense: 1 Minute to Build an Unbreakable Town Hall 3 Base

When you first unlock Town Hall level 3 in Clash of Clans, you might be eager to expand your village and start attacking more often. However, a strong defensive base is essential to protect your resources and trophies at this stage. Town Hall 3 brings limited but crucial buildings—most notably, a second Cannon, a second Archer Tower, and your first Mortar. With these, you can establish foundational defense patterns that set your village up for long-term growth and success.

1. Core Defense Structure: The foundation of any great TH3 base is protecting your Town Hall and storages. Place your Town Hall at the center, flanked closely by both Gold and Elixir storages. Surround them with walls, creating a compact inner box. This setup ensures that any attacker must break through at least one, preferably two layers of defenses before reaching your key assets.

2. Defensive Placement: Cannons and Archer Towers should be placed at the four corners of your base’s inner ring, spaced out evenly. This maximizes their range and ensures overlapping coverage, making it harder for attackers to snipe a building with minimal losses. The Mortar, your most powerful splash-damage defense, should be at the very center, behind as many layers as possible but still within firing range of the outer edge of your base. Because Mortars can’t hit troops that are right next to them, use small wall offshoots or traps to push attackers away from the base center.

3. Wall Optimization: At Town Hall 3, you’re given a limited number of walls. Instead of spreading them too thin around every building, create strong core compartments. Single outcraps for storages or builder huts can be tempting, but centralize your effort so your most important structures (Town Hall and storages) are fully enclosed.

4. Trap Placement: You’ll have access to a few traps—mainly Bombs at this level. Put these just inside your walls or near likely entry points where enemies might breach using Giants or Barbarians. Predict the main attack paths and consider layering a bomb where wall-breakers are likely to target.

5. Building Placement: Place less important structures (Army Camps, Barracks, Builder’s Huts) outside the walls in a spaced manner. These act as a buffer—drawing initial attacking troops into a predictable pathway, giving your defenses more time to work.

As a designer, I see TH3 as a great exercise in minimal, functional space planning. Much like an efficient studio apartment, every wall and structure in your base needs intentionality—balancing protection, accessibility, and coverage. If you want to visualize different room layouts and defense patterns before building in-game, consider using online planning tools to iterate and optimize your design strategy.

Tips 1:

Upgrade your defensive buildings before resource storages or collectors; this step ensures attackers face stronger resistance, preserving your loot and trophies.

FAQ

Q: What is the best way to layout walls at TH3?

A: Centralize your walls around your Town Hall and storages, creating a compact, hard-to-breach core instead of spreading them thin over every building.

Q: Where should I put my Mortar at Town Hall 3?

A: Place it near the center of your base behind walls, to protect it and ensure maximum splash coverage of your base against swarms of enemy troops.

Q: Should I upgrade all buildings at once or focus on defense first?

A: Always prioritize upgrading your defensive buildings (Archer Towers, Cannons, Mortar) before resource collectors and storages at TH3.

Q: How do I defend against Giants and Barbarians at TH3?

A: Use traps such as Bombs at likely entry points, and position splash damage (Mortar) to cover the critical parts of your base.

Q: Is it worth placing Builder’s Huts and Army Camps outside the walls?

A: Yes, spacing these out around your base buys you more time, as attacking troops must target them before reaching your walled defenses.