I have tried barching, but I feel like I lose a prohibitive amount of troops to their aoe defenses unless I am running a bunch of bombers as well.
...and they are expensive as hell.
It's all about strategy man. You're a TH7 like me so I'm guessing you usually raid with Giant + Healer armies? (I'm just guessing because that's the most common setup I see at this level, other than Barch.) Giant + Healer is more of a strategy to take out tougher bases. Barch armies are designed to raid bases with weak defenses or exposed collectors. Victory Red is right, it's all about pressing the Next button. Press next until you find one of these bases:
- An abandoned base with full collectors
- A "rushed" base (high level storages/collectors but weak defenses)
- A base with several of its splash defense buildings under construction
If you look for long enough, you'll eventually find one of those. I'm usually around the 1,000 - 1,200 trophy range.
And what do you mean Barch is expensive as hell? It's one of the cheapest army setups...
My Army Camps are level 6 (200 troops) and my troops are fully upgraded in the laboratory (4 stars). I Barch with 110 Barbarians & 90 Archers.
Total cost: 23,200 elixir. That's a lot less than any Giant + Healer army setup.
*Edit: Just for fun I'm gonna calculate the cost of the last few Giant + Healer armies that raided me. I'm gonna display troop level with asterisks (4 stars = ****).
Army #1 — 16 Giants(****), 2 Wall Breakers, 3 Healers, 31 Archers(****), 1 Lightning spell(***), 1 Healing spell.
Total cost: 86,960 elixir (53,960 without spells).
Army #2 — 18 Giants(****), 73 Archers(****), 2 Wall Breakers(****), 1 Healer, 2 Healing Spells(***), 1 Rage spell.
Total cost: 116,680 elixir (57,860 without spells).
Army #3 — 16 Giants(****), 8 Wall Breakers(***), 35 Archers(****), 13 Barbarians(****), 2 Wizards(***), 2 Healers, 2 Healing spells(**).
Total cost: 102,640 elixir (69,640 without spells).