Our latest clan wars match up was one of the worst that I have personally been involved with from a balance standpoint. Generally when you have the top bases, the other clan is stronger in the middle, or somewhere else in the match to balance the weighting. For those that don't know, you can see your defensive weight by adding up all of the storages and townhall resources on your map during battle day. It will not display the weighting until battle day, so ignore the amounts during preparation day. The amount will vary based on your clan's perks, as well as based on your townhall level. So with that in mind, as long as one person looks at all the weightings, it will be accurate. So for instance our number one base is Tpchid. He has 23,250 gold in each of his four storages. He also has 1,000 in his townhall. This means he has 94,000 gold available. So for the purposes of his defense rating he is 94,000 or for convenience 94. This means an equal match for him would be another base of 94. Let's start with a look at the top five bases of this clan wars match. I will display our war bases on the left and theirs on the right.
So the breakdown for the top five bases is as follows. Evil Queso has Tpchid, Daan, Ms. Taco, Kletus, and Bdizzle with weight ratings of 94, 93, 93, 92, and 88. The combined royal levels for the top five in our clan is 270. The opposing clan's top five base defensive base weight ratings were 100, 98, 97, 95, and 95. Their combined royals were 359. This gave them five bases better than our number 1 defensively as well as a 89 hero level advantage just in the top five. Generally, this means that they will be weaker than our clan lower down in the match, so let's look at the next five bases.
So our 6-10 have defensive base ratings of 87, 85, 82, 70, and 70. They have combined hero levels of 154. The opposing clan's 6-10 have ratings of 94, 94, 93, 91, and 90. They have combined hero levels of 278. That gives them a huge defensive advantage from 6-10 and a 124 hero level advantage. In fact their 6-10 has higher combined heroes than our 1-5. So after reviewing the top 10 bases for each clan they have a 213 hero level advantage. I'm sure their advantage will go away lower in the match in order to balance this 30 vs 30 clan war. On to the next 5!
So the base ratings for our 11-15 go as follows: 68, 68, 68, 67, and 66. Our combined hero levels for 11-15 are 130. The enemy clan is 84, 73, 71, 70, and 66. Their combined hero levels are 173. The enemy clan still has a huge defensive advantage for 11-15, but the good news is we are tied at 15th place. They still have a 43 hero level advantage at this base range. I'm sure that the next five bases will be the turning point. I will however list the bases and hero levels for comparison.
Looking at the final 15 bases we have one base that has a higher weighting than the opposing clans lateral base. That is at base 24. For the last 15 bases we have 75 total hero levels. The other clan has 112 hero levels.
In conclusion our overall defensive weight for the entire war is 1,729. Our total combined hero levels is 629, Their overall defensive weight rating is 1,955. Their overall hero levels is 922. So this "fair match" gives us about 88% of the defense that they have and 68% of the hero levels that they have. It makes the opposing clan significantly better on offense and defense. I personally haven't previously witnessed a war this lopsided. We lost the war 79-64. I will leave you with this one replay versus their maxed base.
I have say I have been a bit behind on the war updates but I will try to get back on track today! First I will say that we have completed two different wars since the last update. The first war was versus a Chinese Clan that I do not know how to type the name. We were able to come out ahead and win 73-70. Here is a look at our war log to show the victory!
The next war was versus a clan named Jr. Gladiators. We were please to not have to fight the Sr. Gladiators because I'm sure they were much better. The Jr. Gladiators had 52 prior war wins and were a level 5 clan. They say that they war always which based on their clan level we felt it safe to assume they weren't very good. We ended up being right! As you can see above, we were able to win pretty easily by a score of 76-58. We ended up getting 21 three star attacks in the match. We were able to three star every base they had that was townhall 9 or below as well as one of their townhall 10's. This was despite them having 2 more townhall 10 bases than us. Here is a look at the slaughter.
I think they gave up pretty early in the war. They weren't very good at attacking, some of their top bases were attacking bases in our lower teens. At any rate we just scored two straight victories! We have another match in progress now that I am going to do a big post about as it's one of the largest mismatches I have ever seen. Look for that later on tonight!
It happened again, we lost by only one star. The final score in the match was 75-74. We actually beat them in three star attacks 21-19, which marks the second straight loss where we out 3 starred the opposing clan. We struggled against their maxed bases at the top which led to us losing. Here is the tale of the tape:
It's the weekend again and that means it's time for war. We matched up with a clan named **CAO*** for our weekend war. They look like they are serious because they have 6 bases that are townhall 3 with no added defenses other than the original canon. They are doing this to artificially lower their clan's value and to give their top and middle bases a huge advantage in the war matching. It doesn't look to have worked to its full effect this war because it seems like it is not going to be a huge mismatch. The clan is a Russian clan that wars twice a week and is clan level 5. They have won 65 wars to date. Here is a look at the opposing clan:
The war has just begun and will conclude tommorow night! Time to go watch some battles :)
It happened, we lost a war to Tawkeht 2014. We struggled versus one base design that the top three players in their clan had netting only 1 star for our efforts. We also could have gotten more stars against their townhall 9s but we did not manage to do that either. In the end we came up short 71-70. It is always disappointing to come up on the wrong side of a close war. Let's take a look at the star count to properly understand how we lost:
The first thing of note is that we won the three stars by a total of 16-15. We still lost the war because they managed to get stars on every single base we had, while we had two bases that we got no stars on. So while we lost less attacks and had a higher average destruction they won by outpointing us at the top of the map, and defending well enough at the townhall 9 level to keep us from winning. Essentially, there was at least 3-5 bases that we should have three starred but we did not. It's time to go back to the drawing board. We have another war starting tonight so we will have to dust ourselves off and get after it!
It's that time again, Preparation Day! This war we have matched versus a clan named Tawkeht 2014. I assume that means the clan was made in 2014 but I'm hoping it's their birth year. They are a level 6 clan with only 39 war wins. They have several members with over 500 war stars and some in the mid 600s which leads me to believe that they could be a new clan with serious war members. They hail from a little place called Uzbekistan. They have 48 members in their clan which makes me wonder if they usually war at a higher number of players. This war is 30 versus 30, so they have 18 members sitting out.
We appear to have the advantage at the townhall 10 level with eight townhall 10 bases to their 5! They however have way more maxed townhall 9s than we do. They have five maxed townhall 9 bases to our two, assuming the teslas are maxed, since we can't see them. They outnumber as 12 to 9 in total townhall 9s. I have a distinct feeling this will be a hog clan based on their profiles, so it will be a interesting war as we do have some bases susceptible to hogs despite my warnings about proper placement of double bombs. Either war I expect us to pull out the war win but only time will tell. Here is the profile of our latest matchup:
Each townhall level has a variety of popular attacks which are commonly used in an attempt to get three stars. Townhall 8s generally like to use hogs, gowipe, or dragons in their three star clan wars attempts. Townhall 9s like to use a various of air strategies as well as gowipe, gowiwi, and hogs. One of the common strategies between townhall 8 and townhall 9 is the use of hogriders.
In creating or modifying your base layout, you should give heavy consideration to the type of attacks you will typically be facing. For instance as a townhall 8 you should not prepare your base to defend against level 30 heroes and quadlavaloon. This is because if a townhall 10 is attacking you in war, the war is already won by your clan! So with that in mind let's consider hogriders for those townhall 8 and townhall 9 bases out there. Hogriders' biggest weakness at these townhall levels are giant bombs. This is in part because of the giant bomb does 1.5 times as much damage versus hogriders. If two giant bombs explode it instantly kills even a maxed level 5 hogrider.
Now that we know a pair of giant bombs can wipe out an entire group of hogriders, we must figure out how to place them in a manner that works best for our defense. I would list several key factors in placing a set of double bombs in the base. First, consider where your enemy will most likely attempt to lure the castle. Second, note that the bombs must be directly between two defensive structures. Third, understand that the bombs must not have additional defensive structures too close to them as that could change the pathing of the hogs away from the bombs. Finally, the bombs must not be in front of the archer queen.
So let's consider your clan castle. Click on your clan castle and view its range. Plan how you would lure the castle troops with hogriders. Ask a few people in your clan as well. Most of the time all of the players will pick the same location. You want to avoid using your double giant bomb in that location so as to avoid getting it triggered before the main army is deployed.
Next let's consider where they are placed in relation to defensive structures. They must be placed in between defensive structures to ensure that hogrider pathing takes them from one defensive structure directly through the two giant bombs and into the second defensive structure. This will allow both bombs to hit all of the hogriders. Placing them between regular building units will allow hogs to either avoid the giant bomb, or run through it before it blows up.
Now that we have established the two defensive structures that they will be between, we must make sure that those two structures are the closer to each other than anything between them. They must be two tiles away so we must ensure nothing is adjacent or one tile away in a manner that would navigate the hogriders away from our double giant bombs.
Finally, and perhaps the most important. Keep the double giant bombs away from your archer queen (townhall 9). Your archer queen is going to be a prime target for them to kill in order access the second and third star on your base. They will most likely use a golem, a couple wizards and their heroes to attempt to get to your archer queen. You do not want the golem absorbing your double giant bomb.
Here is a video illustrating most of the main points that I have listed, for those of you that are most visual:
In closing, hogriders are still a powerful force to be reckoned with at townhall 8 and 9. You can however, vastly reduce their effectiveness with proper defensive planning. Good luck making your next base!
Let's talk about hero levels. Many people believe the reason they don't three star in their war attacks is because their heroes are lower level. I will always agree that the higher level your heroes, the easier it is to win, but often times people assume that it is solely the hero levels that dictate the success of the attack. Under this logic, we should never war while a hero is upgrading and definitely not while two heroes are upgrading. Enter Burrito, my iPad account!
If you have read the most recent blog post about our war with Kernow Clan, you know we won by only two stars. Burrito got two three star attacks and did so with both heroes upgrading. Both attacks were versus other townhall 9 bases. Without these attacks we may have tied or lost. It goes to show that with proper planning, proper troop selection, and a bit of luck you can still be successful in your clan war attacks regardless of the level of your heroes. Take a look at the first attack which featured a quadlavaloon strategy. I picked this strategy because the base had already been attacked and I knew what was in the castle.
As you saw, the three star attack was never in jeopardy; it was a solid victory. Many people would say that because the clan castle had a pekka it was similar to attacking a base with no clan castle. The next battle featured a level 5 dragon in the clan castle and I attacked it blind with no idea of what was in the castle. In this battle I used a golem and wizard kill squad and lavaloons to get the three star. It is also a higher level base on the war map.
By watching the video you can see that I was able to destroy one air defense and lure the castle with the kill squad, but was unable to immediately kill the dragon. I was still able to three star the base because lava pups killed the dragon, where as I mentioned before a little luck comes into play.
In closing I would like to point out that while I was successful with Burrito in the clan wars, I did one star my second attack with my main versus their number 2 base. If I had gotten the second star it would have put the match out of reach and by not achieving it I put the clan at risk of a tie or loss. I wanted to use that attack to point out that every attack is not going to be perfect but they all matter. Just because you are not at full strength does not mean you cannot be a valuable asset to your clan.
We got matched with a nine win clan for our weekend war. The clan is named Kernow Clan. Kernow seems to be a place in Great Britain, but I don't know if that's where the clan is from. They are listed as an international clan that wars only once a week. They are a level 3 clan right now so it does appear that they are either new or don't war very often. The match is slightly in their favor at the top; they have twelve townhall 10s to our eight. We had nine townhall 9s to their seven.
We performed pretty poorly against this clan but were able to take advantage of their lack of experience to squeak out a 68-66 win. It is one of the lower scoring outputs that we have had and actually won. We were able to outscore them with 14 three star attacks to their 13. We also got one more one star attack than they did. They had a chance at the end to go for an easy tie but instead tried to attack for the win which resulted in them failing their last two attacks. We didn't play up to our ability and probably didn't deserve to win, but we will take it. Our next war will be in the middle of the week. Until then it's time to upgrade some heroes and walls!
We won our clan wars match over Elegante. The final score was 73-65. We were able to defeat every base they had and achieved maximum experience. We are over halfway to Clan Level 6, despite only warring twice a week. It doesn't hurt that we are on a 18-2-1 streak! Here is a view of the final score and my huge loot bonus:
We won on the strength of three more three star attacks than they had. We also defeated more bases than them which lead to the comfortable win! One thing I'd like to point out about this war is that one of their top three bases attacked our 10th and 14th base. This is no war to consistently win wars, but it is a great way to get individual war stars. So for all the people out there recruiting solely on war stars just remember that you may actually be hurting your can by getting that individual player as opposed to a team player. Either way, Evil Queso is going to enjoy the loot and start another war later today!
Well after the short maintenance break today we started a war. We got matched with a clan named Elegante. They have 125 war wins so far and are a level 5 clan. They are based out of Turkey. It seems as though we have been getting a lot of foreign clans of late! This clan has one more townhall 10 than we do. They also have two more townhall 9s than us. Hopefully we can overcome the townhall advantage. As always we are fighting 30 vs 30. The last two wars my barbarian king was upgrading, so I'm ready to go tomorrow at full strength!
We had a couple members opt out for war this weekend. This is unusual for Evil Queso so I thought I’d talk about it.
With very few exceptions, all members participate in clan wars. Before the opt out feature was implemented this was because I got tired of remembering who would be in or out, reminding people to leave or, more often, kicking them before war prep, and, if applicable, recruiting a replacement. After the opt out feature was implemented, people started to use it and I decided pretty quickly I didn’t want to go down that path, mostly because every time someone opts out I have to recruit, recruiting is annoying, new members who can’t get it together to follow our strategy and help us win make me cranky, and when I’m annoyed and cranky I don’t enjoy the game. When I stop enjoying the game I clean house and I start with those who aren’t helping the clan.
Now that clan perks are in play, I feel more strongly than ever that everyone should battle. Check out the perks that come with level 5 status:
We get and can hold more war loot, request troops more frequently, donate more and better quality troops, and we get a donation refund. These are awesome perks, they are earned by participating in war, and they are only going to get better. Anyone who wants to enjoy them must help earn them, period.
There are really only a couple of scenarios where I think it’s okay to opt out: 1) international travel that limits access to a data plan and…. uh, that’s about it. Even so, we have had members opt out for camping, illness, family trips, etc. and as long as it’s not a regular thing it’s not my hill to die on, but people need to remember it’s a burden and I will not drag anyone through this game. If our clan culture changes over time I might look at opting out differently, but right now we only war twice a week and we have a bunch of members who have never once opted out of war (or even missed an attack) since clan wars came along over a year ago. I feel pretty comfortable with our approach for now.
PS. Every now and then a noob comes along and argues that players should be able to opt out when heroes are upgrading. Hell. No. Heroes should be upgraded whenever possible until they are maxed and planning war around the hero upgrades of 30 different players would be a logistical nightmare. Also, people need to harden up! This is war!
We were able to achieve a victory over the Asian clan with 139 wins! The score was 74-72. We had a minor scare when Daan disconnected on his first attack but due to a strong second attack by Daan and a bunch of solid attacks by everyone else, we were able to prevail.
The difference in the war came down to us getting one more three star attacks than they did. We also got one extra one star attack. Ultimately it is the small things that usually end up winning the war. Here is a view of the star counts.
You can tell by the new stars per attack they didn't use as many attacks as we did. That said, they wouldn't have gotten any more stars even if they had because they only had low level attacks remaining.
Their number two player used an interesting strategy in getting two stars from our number 1 and 2 bases. He even had an outside chance at three stars on one of the bases. It involved the use of eight healers, a golem some giants and a bunch of archers. He used the archers to steer his archer queen in the right direction and used the healers to keep his archer queen alive. His archer queen destroyed about 35% of the base before he put down his army. He ended up get 87% and ran out of time, but with more time or a bit better use of his troops he may have gotten a three star. I'm not sure if this was two lucky attacks or the sign of a new townhall 10 strategy but here it is:
We are stacked up versus an Asian clan with 139 wins for our weekend war. They have 9 townhall 10s to our 8. One of their townhall 10s does not have an inferno towers. We have seven townhall 9's and they have but four. They do have one fully maxed base with fully maxed heroes, so it will be exciting to see what they can do. The war will end Sunday afternoon. I will update you then!
Our war with A Muralha didn't go well to say the least. We were defeated 72-68. So much for my million gold loot bonus. Reduced all the way down to $326,646.
They were able to get the solid victory despite being outscored at the townhall 10 vs townhall 10 ranks at 12-9. This was because their superior ability to get three stars on the townhall 9 bases. They beat us in three star attacks 19-14. It was enough for them to get the win. Here is a breakdown of the stars, attacks and defenses.
We actually defended more often than they did, but part of that was due to their obsession with scouting all of our top bases with their lowest ranking members. It didn't seem to help much because, as I mentioned before, we outscored them at the townhall 10 ranks. If it's any consolation one of their townhall 9s attacked our defenseless base at the end of the match with only his heroes and failed the attack due to the clan castle. Here is a glance at the terrible attack.
I guess as they say in baseball, wait 'til next year or in our case the weekend! Kletus signing out!
Kletus asked me to write a bit about clan management. I've been a
clan leader for a little over a year now and I don't consider myself an
expert on the topic, but we win more wars than we lose and we have a
core group of extremely loyal players, some of whom followed me when our
last clan imploded, so I must be doing something right. The way I see
it, there are three basic tenets of successful clan leadership: clear
and concise expectations, a fair approach, and leading by example.
Clear
and concise expectations are key. There really isn't room in
your clan description or even in chat to get prolific and I personally
find it tiresome to repeat myself all the time. I prefer fewer hard and
fast rules because it's more realistic that people will remember
them and it's less work to enforce them. In Evil Queso our expectations
are pretty straight forward: Elder is earned, everyone participates in
war, use both attacks in war or be kicked, help each other as much as you can
(this means donate), archers are the default donation, and no kids
allowed ever. All this is in the clan description, and we expect
everyone to know and observe these rules. Anyone who can't abide isn't a
good fit and has to go.
I will add this... we have a war strategy and it won't work if everyone doesn't follow it. It won't fit in the clan description and I don't bother explaining it in chat or mail except during war. Further, it goes
without saying we expect a certain level of gamepersonship, particularly
when it comes to war, and we enforce that same as we do all the other
rules (get on board or get out). I flat out refuse to explain why it's
not fair for a player to demand high level expensive troops like witches
(outside of war) if they can't even make them to reciprocate and before
donating to requests already open in chat. I don't mind helping people learn the game but if your character is borked you're on your own. I'm not a parent or a tee-ball coach and I don't argue with anyone about this kind of foolishness, I just kick.
A fair approach is important because it keeps resentment down and resentment
will kill a clan, ask me how I know! With this in mind, the rules are
the same for everyone and anyone who can't follow them has to get out,
even if they are friends outside of the game. Trust I'm not exaggerating
when I say I would kick my mother out of Evil Queso if she didn't attack
in war. My clan knows this and it's why, in general, the vibe stays
pretty copacetic.
Leading by example is part of a
fair approach and it fosters respect. If you're going to enforce rules, best be following them yourself. Luckily, this comes easily to me because
I'm naturally smug and I enjoy feeling superior. My donations are on
point, I make sure everyone has maxed troops for their war attacks, I
try to help players get better by giving constructive advice when asked, I can take anything I dish out, and I don't give my friends a pass when they act up.
I've
been criticized for being a hard ass in this game, specifically for
being too quick to kick players who would maybe respond to more
coaching, but here's the thing: it is a game and as soon as it stops
being fun I'm done. Arguing or debating with people I don't even know
is the opposite of fun for me and I refuse to do it. You can't make
anyone do anything in this game, all you can do is weed out behavior
that doesn't fit with the culture of your clan. Think about what that
means for you. Your clan may have different rules, or more rules,
whatever works for you is fine, but you must communicate them, enforce them, and
observe them yourself.
It's that time again, preparation day! We have found a match versus A Murahla. This appears to be a clan from Brazil. They have 51 war wins so far. The match as usual is 30 vs 30. Both clans have eight townhall 10s in the battle. They have one fully maxed base with fully maxed heroes to our zero. They also have 11 townhall 9s, we have nine. It appears they may have a slight advantage but if so it's not so big that we can't overcome it if we attack well. Here is a quick glance at the opposing team:
I'm off to fill some clan castles. Look for Ms. Taco to put up her guest blog post later on tonight!
GoWiPe (Golem, Wizard, Pekka) is a powerful army in clash of clans. It is powerful for townhall 8, 9 and 10 armies. It is one of the few strategies that remains viable across so many townhall levels. One of the biggest problems with the strategy is when your pekkas wander around the outside of a base for a one star attack. By practicing and learning what causes them to wander you can reduce the risk of this happening and increase your chances at a three star attack.
In our last clan war I used a Gowipe army with Burrito, a townhall 9, versus a townhall 10 on the opposing clan. This townhall 10 used a very common base I've been seeing for over a year. Check it out:
The base is a symmetrical base with obvious tesla positioning. They could have teslas outside of the base but in my experience that is extremely rare. The first thing I did when scouting this base is look for someway to pull the clan castle troops. This clan was heavy into dragons and lava hounds in their clan castle. This castle has space for 25 so I expected a dragon. I did not want to fight a dragon in their core when I may or may not have wizards left alive.
During the initial scout I noticed they had oddly place air defenses. I knew if I pulled the troops from the bottom middle of the map I would avoid air defenses. I also noticed there was only one archer tower (yellow circle) and no wizard towers in the bottom square. This meant I could pull the castle with a couple of balloons and take out that archer tower. This would leave two gold mines, two canons, two builder huts, dark spell factory, three barracks and a dark elixir collector free to be picked off by a couple of minions. There are 84 buildings at townhall 10. If I kill one archer tower with a couple balloons and use three minions during the fight to snipe those buildings, this base is giving me a relatively cheap 14% with the use of only 21 army troops. Noticing similar flaws on other bases will enhance your two and three star attacks.
Now that I had a plan to pull the clan castle and get that first 14%, I started thinking about the real assault. I like to attack near the archer queen if possible, in this base she is near the top left. This is a nice place to start an attack because two of the defenses near here are air defenses which won't hurt our land army.
I know where I want to initiate the attack, but I still need to consider how I'm going get to the core of the base and keep troops from wandering? First I can use four earthquake spells where that tesla tower will be. It's covered in a blue circle. This will open up the core and give access to five compartments. The next step is the most important part of the entire attack! Look at all the storages on the top left. A grouping of storages means two things. First, it means they could be trying to protect that area with large hit point buildings indicating they have identified they are weak to attacks from that area. This is a good thing for because they are showing us how to beat their base. Secondly, it means I have to ensure that I finish those buildings off before I drop my heroes and pekkas or they will wander around the base. The yellow arrows indicate what happens to my army if I don't kill those buildings before dropping the heroes and pekkas. It indicates where they will wander around the base. The red arrows indicates what happens if we clear out those trash buildings first. I drop three golems where the red arrows are. This will tank all of the damage from the northern left defense buildings while I drop wizards to clear out the storages. Once the storages are finished I used two more golems, two pekkas and the two heroes to go straight to the core. I don't usually use so many golems but Burrito is a townhall 9 with no freeze spell and needed the tanking. If you attacked this same base as a townhall 9 defender (meaning the base is a townhall 9 instead of a townhall 10) you could use just two golems instead of five.
This attack ended up being an 82% two star victory. Most people complain that townhall 9s cannot beat even a relatively new townhall 10 because of the infernos, but this video will show you otherwise. Check out the actual battle:
We won another clan war! This one was a blow out. I'm not sure if the other clan gave up or just wasn't that active to begin with. The final score versus BK Giants was 73-43. It was a largest victory in quite some time. It's pretty exciting given the concern over the amount of townhall 10s they had compared to us. We were able to three star every base they had below townhall 10 for a total of 18 three star attacks. Here is a recap of the final score.
I was pleased to defend against their number 2 and 5 and receive over a million in gold and elixir. We will war again in two days. Congratulations to Evil Queso on win number 71! Bam!
Preparation day has ended and a new war has begun. We are matched with a level 4 clan this war. We rarely get anyone under level 5, but since clan levels don't matter it will all come down to the fight. The clan we are facing is BK Giants. They are an Australian clan with 39 war wins. Here is a view of their profile:
The match up seems to be in their favor. They have 12 townhall 10s to our 8 townhall 10s. This is further complicated by two of our townhall 10s having just turned townhall 10 -- they only have level 1 freeze spells. They also have a fully maxed base with level 40 heroes. We have more townhall 9s than they do. That stacks up in our favor at 9 to 5. Hopefully our experience can outweigh their defensive advantage at the top of the war map. Time will tell!
Everyone knows that the best attack in clan wars is a three star attack. Evil Queso is a mixed clan where many of our wars come down the success of how many townhall 9 bases that we can effectively three star compared to the opponent. In this post I am going to show you two separate townhall 9 vs. townhall 9 three star attacks with air troops using different strategies.
The reason for showing different strategies is to make sure you understand that attacking is not a one size fits all thing. Players who master one army composition for every attack handicap themselves when they come across base layouts that are designed to defend well versus that style. I will explain why I chose each of the armies and what was going through my mind during the placement of the troops and spells.
Here is a look at what I see in my mind when I view the first base:
For this base Burrito used a Golem with five wizards as an archer queen kill squad. The remainder of the army consisted of three lava hounds and 22 balloons. Let's start with the red arrow. The red arrow indicates where I would drop the golem, wizards and heroes. They have access to the archer queen, clan castle, and hopefully the air defense labeled number 2. If successful you would have three lava hounds dealing with only three air defenses. Essentially, because I think I can get an air defense and the archer queen and clan castle reinforcements for the price of a golem and a couple of wizards, I am happy to make this kill squad and lose one lava hound.
The yellow arrows indicate where I would drop the lava hounds. This will make them take the three air defenses closest to where the army will enter and allow the subsequent balloons to start knocking out defenses to allow your heroes to live longer. As the lava hounds drop, balloons must also be dropped to quickly take out the air defenses. They are represented by the blue arrows. If you look closely you are dropping the balloons to specifically target each defense that is protected by the lava hound. You don't want the balloons to stack up because they move slowly and do plenty of damage on their own.
For the final purple arrows... I saved two balloons for when a lava hound reached the final air defense. I used them to try to take down that last archer tower. The goal was to eliminate the last unit killing air and to keep balloons separated so you have enough time for the three star.
I generally use three rage spells, a heal spell and a poison spell. The poison will anticipate where the troops will stop to attack my kill squad, the three rages will be used to get in to the first three air defenses and the heal will be used as needed for balloons or the queen. I believe there was over a minute remaining at the end of this three star and the archer queen took no damage during the raid. Here is the actual replay where you can see how I did:
The next base has a much different layout. In this attack I use four lava hounds, twenty four balloons and five minions. Here is a view of the base and how I break it down in my head:
Two main difference in this base from the last are 1) you can't pull the clan castle from the same side that the archer queen is on and 2) the air defenses are all well inside of the base. That is why I selected an all air army to manage this base. Another nice feature of this base is the crossbows are pointed downward as evidenced by the green circles.
Before I explain the attack I want to focus on the dark bluish purple colored circle. That is what I would call a wander ring, where your troops will go wandering. Essentially if you don't clear a proper path by using good balloon placement, they will all stack up and wander around that circle never heading to the middle and will get murdered by the four central air defenses.
In the attack, the balloons and lava hounds are placed on the queen's side in hopes that she will jump over that first wall and be accessible to our archer queen without breaking a wall. Our barbarian king and archer queen will kill the archer queen and poison will kill the clan castle troops. If any of the troops separate lava pups should handle the rest, and maybe a couple balloon explosions. I started by putting a couple of balloons on the perimeter and immediately dropped lava hounds. You want four different paths so they will trigger as many air traps as possible. Hopefully all of the red traps, they hurt your balloons the most. Make sure you don't go too crazy with the paths because you want two to go to each air defense and not three going to one side. The lava hounds are represented by the yellow arrows. It will show you their path.
In order to prevent the balloons from wandering in the wander ring we will put them down quickly and spread out across the whole lower half strategically aiming for each defensive structure on the perimeter. What this does is kill them roughly around the same time. This means the ones on the edge of our attack will continue fighting around the ring and the ones in the central of our attack will be free to go towards the middle of the base. Getting your troops down fast is the key to this attack as your lava hounds will be tanking four air defenses at once. Please don't forget to poison the clan castle troops will this is happening. I generally use two rages to get the balloons to the core and two more to get them through the end of the core. At that point it should be mop up time. The minions can be used as needed to help with castle troops, air skeletons, or the archer queen. In this fight I could have kept them back at my base. Another three star attack and again our archer queen took no damage the entire fight. Here is a look the at the battle:
That is a look at two entirely differently strategies that can successfully destroy two different types of layouts all with an aerial flair. In parting I want everyone to remember that in order to be successful you need multiple attack strategies in your back of tricks, so don't forget as a townhall 9 fighting other townhall 9s that you have many land strategies available to you as well. Check out my relatively new but growing YouTube channel!
