Battling is the center of everything that you do in Clash of Clans for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Even when you are managing your base, all that you are really doing is preparing it for further battling. Trophies are a source of major bragging rights in Clash of Clans. Stars are a sign of progress in the game as well, because the more damage you do, the more stars you earn.
You can earn up to 3 stars per battle in Clash of Clans. However, stars really mostly matter for the goblin battles. You can earn a maximum of 150 stars in PvE play, which equates to up to three stars per stage. One single star counts as a victory, but three stars counts for a perfect victory. To get three stars on everything, keep going back and replaying the stages until you achieve total destruction (this includes defensive towers, but does not include walls).
Trophies, however, are purely a source of bragging rights. You get trophies every time that you destroy another player’s base, and the more stars you earn on their base, the more trophies you get. To maximize your trophies, ignore the protection shield and simply start attacking other players as early as possible. Attack as often as possible, too, not bothering to gain levels unless you really need to do so, because experience levels are how the game matches players up against each other.
An easy way to simply go from battle to battle is to have multiple barracks. Fill up your army camp (or army camps), and then fill up the queue in the barracks, so that when you fight a battle, you will still have troops training. Quick training troops such as barbarians are good at this. Attack a player, then destroy their base to earn all of the trophies, and go back to your base and wait for the army gates to finish filling (this shouldn’t take long with barbarians). Then attack again as soon as you can. Repeat over and over again as often as possible in order to hoard trophies and become the top player in the world!