TH8 GoVaHo Video Guide

Here's a video I found that details how to use a GoVaHo attack at TH8, with many examples against TH8s and even a TH9.  His style is different from mine in terms of spells and army composition, but of course there is no one "right way" to attack.  Experiment and find what works best for you.

https://youtu.be/-i3jlUVD1No

War vs. Empire, Battle Plan for Nat vs. #4

Step 1: Use 2 lightning/1 quake combos to kill the 2 air defenses highlighted above

Step 2:  Drop both your king and queen at the yellow star highlighted above.  It should easily be able to take out the enemy queen, nearby air defense, and the nearby archer tower, along with some other buildings.  The king and queen won't last very long, but we just need them to take out those few key defenses for your dragons.

Step 3: Send in your dragons from the upper right and hope for the best.  2 stars is definitely achievable, and with a little luck, 3 stars is possible.

Enemy Clan Castle Troops

This post will go over some pointers for how to best deal with the enemy clan castle troops.  First, let's review how the enemy clan castle works.

The enemy's clan castle has a very wide trigger range, which you can view for yourself if you click on a clan castle to see the large white ring (see image above for example).  The enemy clan castle troops will be deployed once your troop enters this range, and the enemy troops will focus on the first troop that entered the range.  After that, it will target your next nearest troop, and so on and so forth.

Enemy troops are always deployed in order of troop size, from smallest to largest.  So if the enemy has a dragon, a wizard, and an archer, the archer will come out first (troop size 1), followed by the wizard (troop size 4), and then the dragon (troop size 20).

Enemy troops will only come out if they can attack the troop that entered the range.  For example, if the enemy's clan castle was filled with balloons and you dropped a dragon into its range, the enemy balloons would not come out because balloons can't attack air units.  If the enemy clan castle had a mix of balloons and wizards, only the wizards would come out to attack the dragon, and the balloons would remain inside until a ground troop entered the range.

Now that we know the basics of how clan castles work, let's review the best way to fight them.

First off, do NOT devote too much troop space and battle time to defeating the enemy clan castle.  Yes, the enemy clan castle troops are powerful and can ruin your attack if not dealt with.  But if you devote 50 troop space worth of units just to defeat the enemy clan castle, you're wasting valuable offensive power that's needed to deal with the rest of the enemy base.  If you're spending more than 30 seconds of your 3 minute time limit to defeat the enemy clan castle troops, you're wasting over 1/6th of your available attack time to overcome a single component of the enemy base.  So yes, prioritize defeating the enemy clan castle, but please do not over-do it.

The method I find best for dealing with the enemy clan castle is to use my funneling golem and wizards to take care of them.  I try to get my golem to enter the enemy cc's range first so that when they come out, they will all focus on the golem (remember, your golem is not there to attack, he's there to distract).  If the golem cannot enter the range to attract the enemy troops, throw down a hog or balloon to lure them out first, and then drop your golem.  After the enemy troops have locked onto your golem, drop a poison spell on them, and drop additional wizards behind the golem.  I usually find that a minimum of 5 wizards to be sufficient in taking out the enemy troops in a timely manner, and I would say 8 is the absolute maximum number of wizards needed.  If you are TH9 or above, you can also drop a queen behind the golem if things go south or if you need/want the enemy troops to go down faster.

Also keep in mind, when funneling with golems and wizards, you always need at least 2 teams of golems and wizards.  You cannot make a proper funnel with just one group of troops.  You need golems and wizards on one side of your entrance, golems and wizards on the other side, and your kill squad troops deployed inbetween those two golem/wizard teams.  I've been seeing a lot of people dropping golems and wizards very close together in one big group, and you cannot properly funnel your kill squad if you do this.  Spread those two golem/wizard teams apart so your kill squad has a place to enter from.  If you're using valkyries, spread those two golem/wizards teams much wider than normal, because valkyries are harder to funnel.

So use one team of golems and wizards to trigger and kill the enemy troops, and the other golem/wizard team to funnel perimeter buildings as you normally would.  The golem/wizard team devoted to fighting the enemy cc should have 1 golem and 5-8 wizards.  The other golem/wizard team should have 1 golem and 3 or more wizards.

When fighting the enemy clan castle, a poison spell is a MUST.  It not only deals damage to them, it slows down the enemy's attack speed.  A lvl 4 poison spell slows down the enemy's attack speed by 50%, which effectively means it cuts down the total damage they can deal by 50%.  This means a poison spell will make your golem last much longer, enough time for your wizards to finish them off.  Also, when using the poison spell, throw it down as fast (but accurately) as you can.  The poison spell works like an inferno tower, starting at very low damage but exponentially ramping the damage up over time.  So the sooner you drop that poison, the more damage you can dish out to enemy troops.  

Advanced tactic: If you think you can predict where the enemy troops will stop at, try to throw the poison down there early, even before the enemy troops have entered there, to maximize damage when they enter.