#9

Drop king at the point indicated above.  It should enter the CC ring and lure them out.  When they start attacking your king, drop a poison on them and drop your queen as close as possible to your king to take out the CC troops.

Drop your CC lava hound, quickly followed by your other lava hounds roughly around the points indicated.  And IMMEDIATELY after dropping your lava hounds...

Release all your balloons behind your lava hounds, as RAPIDLY as possible.  I use three or four fingers to scatter them fast behind my lava hounds.  The faster you can drop your balloons after your lava hounds, the higher the chance of success on the attack.  Don't worry about accuracy deploying the balloons, focus on speed.

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys - Base #6

First drop a hog in southwest to lure out the CC.  You might not get *all* the wizards out, but as long as you get a majority out, lava pups can finish off the remaining few.

Drop your king in the very bottom corner to draw the troops down south, and then hit them with a poison and your queen to finish them off.

Drop your lava hounds in the following order pictured above.  Drop the CC lavaloon first, and quickly drop the rest around the top in a wide arc.  Dropping the lava hounds out wide does two things: it draws the attention of more defenses, and it sweeps up air traps so they don't hit your balloons.  I just drew the red lines to show the predicted pathing of the lava hounds, for those curious.

After your last lava hound is dropped, IMMEDIATELY release all your balloons in a wide arc, from left to right.  It's very important to drop your balloons right after your lava hounds are dropped, because the lava hounds won't last long without the balloons destroying defenses.

The rest of the attack comes down to spell placement.  Use hastes and rages on the appropriate defense clusters (I would use the rages on the xbows and air defenses).  And if you have a remaining poison, use it on the queen to weaken her for lava pups to finish her off.  Try not to have your spells overlap to make the most out of them.  This attack all comes down to speed and spells.  Good luck!

One Man Clan - Tactic Vs. #8

Army composition: 3 lava hounds, 26 balloons

Spells: 3 rages, 2 hastes, 1 poison

CC: max lava hound and max poison

(see image above) Drop CC hound and all lava hounds quickly so they stay together.  They should all head towards the nearest air defense.  Poison the CC IMMEDIATELY.

After dropping all lava hounds and poisoning the CC, VERY RAPIDLY release all your balloons in a wide arc behind your hounds (see image above).

After that, the rest of the attack is all about spell placement.  The enemy CC is the biggest threat, so focus on taking them out.  When the hounds pop and release the lava pups, quickly throw a rage on the lava pups.  Use your second poison if the CC manages to move out of the first poison.  If you manage to kill the CC with just one poison, use the remaining poison on the queen.  While all of this is going on, be sure to use hastes on your balloons to speed them around to their targets.

One Man Clan - Tactic Vs. #9

Army composition: 3 lava hounds, 25 balloons, 5 archers

Spells: 3 rages, 2 hastes, 1 poison

CC: max lava hound and max poison

(see image above) Drop CC hound and all lava hounds quickly in a tight bunch so they stay together.  They should all head towards the nearest air defense.

After dropping all lava hounds, IMMEDIATELY follow it up by releasing all your balloons in a wide arc behind your hounds (see image above).

After that, the rest of the attack is all about spell placement.  The enemy CC is the biggest threat, so focus on taking them out.  Poison them when lock on to your hounds, and when the hounds pop and release the lava pups, quickly throw a rage on the lava pups.  Use your second poison if the CC manages to move out of the first poison.  If you manage to kill the CC with just one poison, use the remaining poison on the queen.  Use hastes on your balloons to speed them around to their targets.  And of course, use archers on the corner huts.

Rotten's TH10 War Base

Ballooning Basics

These are just some general tips on attacking with balloons.  I will try to expand on these later in more detail.

Level 6 balloons are essential for attacking TH9 and above.  The damage and health increase between level 5 and 6 balloons is enormous, so if you want to use balloons in your attacks, I highly suggest upgrading them to level 6 first.

Balloons have two key weaknesses: clan castle troops and the queen.  An attack CANNOT get three stars if the clan castle troops or queen is left alive.   Clan castle troops will chase balloons all around the map and balloons will not retaliate.  The queen will chase balloons in her range and mow them down in seconds.  This cannot be said enough: find a way to kill the CC and queen first if you want a three star attack.

There are two types of balloon attacks I like to use: balloon spam and lavaloon.

Balloon Spam

• Good for raids and looting bases
• Easy to get 2 stars, difficult to get 3
• 20-30 minions, the rest balloons.
• 2 rage, 4 haste, 1 poison (to use on clan castle troops or queen)
• CC: Balloons and haste or skelly (to distract queen)

Drop all of your balloons over two adjacent sides of a base, trying to spread them out liberally (balloons are less effective in clumps).  Use hastes to speed balloons into the base, and rages near the core or near air defenses.  This will usually eliminate a good 70-80% of the defensive structures, at which point you can let loose your minions and your king and queen to loot the undefended portions of the base, or even try to three star the base if the balloons took out a big enough chunk of the defenses.


Lavaloon

• War attack, more difficult to use successfully than balloon spam
• Better chance of 3 star, but lower chance of 2 stars (high risk, high reward)
• 3 lavaloons, the rest balloons
• 2 rage, 4 haste, 1 poison (to use on clan castle troops or queen)
• CC: Lava hound and haste or skelly (to distract queen)

The first step in this attack is finding a way to take out the clan castle troops.  If there is no way to safely take out the clan castle troops, I would recommend not using this attack, as it will not lead to 3 stars.  If the enemy clan castle is close enough to the edge to lure the troops out, I would send out something to lure them (a giant or hog perhaps), and then lure the troops out to the edge and kill them with your queen.  You'll most likely have to use your queen's ability to kill the clan castle troops, and you might even sacrifice the queen early, but it's a necessary step.

The next concern is the enemy queen.  If the queen is close enough to the edge of the base, sometimes the king can actually close the distance and eliminate the queen.  If the queen is nested deep in the base, however, you can use a poison and a skeleton spell to take her out.  But the timing of these spell drops is key: you must drop it after the queen has been surrounded by balloons, lava hounds, and lava pups.  With all these troops around to distract her (and any nearby defenses), the poison will slow down her rate of fire, and the skeletons will quickly shred her.

So, after the CC has been eliminated (and if you're lucky, the enemy queen too), deploy all of your lava hounds to cover two sides of a base.  Deploy them WIDE, so that they can sweep up any air traps in their path, and so they can draw the attention of as many defenses as possible.  The primary purpose of the lava hound is to protect your balloons.

Quickly follow up with all of your balloons, also spread wide to maximize destruction (try your best to avoid clumping balloons).  Deploy the balloons to cover two sides of a base, don't deploy them over all 4 sides.  Use haste spells to speed up the balloons from the outer fringes of the base quickly into the core, and use rage on balloons to take out air defenses or large clusters of defenses.  Drop poison and skelly over the enemy queen once your army has swarmed her to take her out.

If your balloons can manage to eliminate all of the defenses, there's a good chance of getting 3 stars.  Practice makes perfect, good luck!

War Vs. 600 Squad (Spy intel courtesy of ricey)

Clan castle troops are listed below their picture, with troop level indicated in brackets.

CC: 3 barbs [max], 3 archers [6], 6 wizards [max]

CC: 1 dragon [5], 2 balloons [max]

CC: baby dragon [3] and 5 wizards [6]

CC: 1 dragon [5], 2 balloons [max]

CC: baby dragon [3] and 5 wizards[6]

CC: dragon [5]

CC: 1 archer [max], 3 minions [6], 1 valk [max]

CC: 1 archer [max], 3 wizards [6], 1 minion [6]


Thanks again double agent ricey ;)

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.