Just found out something nice.
Lets say you are raiding (not war) and the 30 second timer expires and you get into the 3 minute battle timer. If you don't drop a troop, you can still quit the fight without a trophy loss.
I wanted to bring this up again because of another tip I have been meaning to mention.
I used to do this all the time, because it's often tough to glean all the info you want in 30 seconds. Especially when you are in the higher leagues, and have more considerations than simply how much loot is in the collectors (can I get to that TH, are the infernos covering each other, are the AD covering each other, where could the teslas be, etc.). I might actually take a full 90 seconds before chickening out or dropping my troops.
However, there is a downside to this that is not initially obvious. This is especially important when boosting.
The minute you click attack, your barracks start producing your next army. Let's say I have to next 25 times before I find a suitable target. Those nexts average 15 seconds or so. So for this example, let's conclude on average I 'next' for 6 minutes. During those 6 minutes, your barracks are spitting out troops
even though you have not dropped your army yet.
You attack that 25th base and the attack lasts 2 minutes. When you return, you already have camps with 8 minutes worth of troops built. For boosted balloonion, that means
16 balloons ready to go for the next attack.
However, let's say on that 24th base you exceed the 30 second timer because you couldn't make up your mind. You decide not to attack, and click 'end attack' to avoid the trophy loss. When you return to your base, the barracks will have the "!!!" above them. You press attack again and encounter the 25th base and make the same attack as above. However, in this example, when your attack is over, you only have
8 balloons in your camps. You essentially forfeited 4 minutes of your gem boost.
TLDR;
When boosting and nexting, you get more bang for your gems if you DO NOT quit back to your base. When you see the 3 second timer, commit to attacking -- or hit 'next' if undecided.