Tips to remember when under attack

Make sure that you level your storage and keep your resources covered. Anything that is not covered make sure to either donate or sell on the market so that when they hit you they dont get anything. When they dont get anything odds are they will move on and not hit you again.
Make sure you put your troops in a shelter every time you log off while you are growing. Don't want to log in and find them gone again. If your storage wont hold them all you can either send aid to another member and have them sit there or send them on a very long attack and recall the attack after you get back or after the attack.
Level your walls, towers, storage, and shelter as they are needed to get aid sent to you
Don't forget to post it on the War Room section.

another helpful hint is that if you cannot spend or protect resources from an impending attack is to put them on the market (put them on at a high price if you wish to come back and cancel it later). I would like to reinforce Kainen's comment that "When they don't get anything, odds are they will move on and not hit you again". that is a true fact. if i do a coordinated attack on someone and they outmaneuvered me I am hesitant to send another attack and waste my time.

Another good idea is to be ridiculously powerful. That way no one near you will have an army, because you farm them all every day. People won't want to send an army 5 hours to your town to attack you, and if they do, you can either beat them, or use a protection rune. When you're ridiculously powerful, you'll have like 30 protection runes because you never use them. I raided Mattsk's little sub-city, and he sent his army from his main town to get revenge. He sent me a message that said, "Scared? You should be." It took his army 39 HOURS to get to me, and an hour before it did, I used a protection rune. It took another 39 HOURS for his army to get home. So he was without an army for over 3 days for no reason.

P.S. Mattsk said in our message chain that MattDeeze was basically his ally, because MattDeeze was too scared to attack him for fear he would awake the sleeping Watchmen dragon.