While all air attacks using 4 and even 5 hound strategies can work on many bases, LavaLoon attacks are usually more reliable when preceded by a small strategic ground assault known as a Kill Squad. The Kill Squad typically consists of 1-2 golems, 4-12 wizards, heroes, usually a couple wallbreakers, and sometimes a witch or 2, usually with 1 or more spells. The object of the Kill Squad is to take out the enemy Queen, CC, and at least 1 air defense, which paves the way for the air squad to take out the rest of the base.
Cold Blooded GoLavaLoon
This is the name given to an attack that features a single golem in the Kill Squad. Typically, if you can only reach one air defense with your Kill Squad, and can get away with using a single golem, it is the preferred method, as it will give you more wizards, balloons, and minions relative to the 2 golem alternative.
Composition
1 Golem (max in CC if possible)
8 Wizards
2-3 Wallbreakers
3 Lava Hounds
16 Loons
6-7 Minions
There isn't generally too much variation in this army other than the number of wallbreakers, and the possible inclusion of a witch if you know there is one in the enemy cc, and aren't bringing poison. If you need to drop troops, you can typically afford to lose a couple minions or balloons, or 2-3 wizards.
Spell Selection
The standard spell selection with this army is 1 jump 1 rage 1 heal 1 poison 3 haste.
The jump spell is for your ground attack to make sure your troops penetrate deep enough into the base to do their job. You may be tempted to bring additional wallbreakers instead, but the attack typically goes much more smoothly when using a jump spell. In instances where you don't need it, you'll usually want an additional rage spell, possibly 2 haste if the base is very spread out, or in rare cases a second heal.
The poison is used to slow the Queen and enemy CC down. It isn't always necessary, particularly against low level Queens and troops like golems and hounds. In these cases, it can be traded for an additional haste, or you can switch to 2 rage 2 haste.
The rage spell is mostly there to give you a little flexibility. If your ground force looks like it's running out of steam and hasn't gotten the job done yet, you can rage them to help them along. While it's ideal to have at least 4 rage/haste + 1 heal for your air troops, you can usually get away with 3, and failing to take out the Queen or an air d with your ground attack makes it very difficult to get more than 1 star. In most cases though, you'll be able to use it for your air troops.
The haste spells are used to get your loons to the air d as quickly as possible. The heal spell usually goes in the middle of the base to protect the loons from damage from teslas and xbows once your hounds are no longer tanking for them.
Deployment
1. Once you pick the best entry point to take out the Queen and at least 1 air d, you need to check to see when the enemy CC will be triggered. If it takes too long to trigger, your ground squad can die before killing the enemy CC, which can cause major problems for your air troops. In these cases you may want 1-2 giants or hogs to trigger the CC before starting your ground attack.
2. If there are buildings out of range of defense near where you're going in, you may want to start with a couple wizards on those, otherwise drop the golem first. Make sure you're not too close to any defenses that might be outside the walls, or it could throw off your whole attack.
3. Use at least some of your wizards to take out outer buildings so your heroes will funnel into the base. Placement has to be very precise. With only 1 golem tanking and a limited number of wizards, you have to know what defenses the golem will trigger and when, wait to deploy your wizards until the defenses are distracted, and keep as many of them out of range of defenses that aren't targeting the golem as long as you can.
4. Use wallbreakers to break through outer wall. Do not send through fire from level 7 wizard towers, and time to avoid mortars. If necessary, bring backup. If wallbreakers fail, use jump spell.
5. Drop King first, then Queen, and any remaining wizards. The trickiest part of this attack is usually making sure the King heads into the base instead of around.
6. Drop jump spell to get troops deeper into base, and poison to slow down queen and enemy CC.
7, Use Hero Abilities
8. Start the air assault either clockwise or counterclockwise from your Kill Squad. Getting the air attack going quickly can keep some of your ground troops alive longer, particularly if you have a high level Queen, and use her ability after sending in your hounds. Send 2 hounds to the first air defense followed by 2 or 3 clusters of 2-4 loons targeting each outer defense, and a rage or haste spell. 2 balloons is enough to 1 shot most defenses, with the exception of air defenses and xbows, which you'll want to send 3-4 at, particularly if they're not going to clump together with another group of loons.
9. Drop the final hound at the second air defense, followed by more balloons and rage or haste. Try to save 2-4 balloons to drop closer to the final air defense, but wait until the hounds have engaged other nearby defenses. Watch the first set of loons and use heal and the final rage or haste as necessary.
10. Look around the base to see where dropping minions will be most useful. If you didn't take out all the defense and the Town Hall is still standing, try to create a funnel if necessary and get your minions there. Otherwise, drop them around the base in areas where lava hounds aren't already cleaning up.
Shattered GoLavaLoon
Shattered attacks use 2 golems in the Kill Squad. If you can easily reach a second air defense by adding a second golem, it usually allows you to drop down to 2 hounds. If you're only targeting 1 air defense, you'll need 3, which can be done, but will limit the other troops you're able to bring.
Composition
When taking out 2 air d with the Kill Squad, the composition is generally mostly the same as the Cold Blooded attack, except you're swapping out your third hound for a second golem. When going for a single air d, the composition generally looks more like this:
2 Golems
5-7 Wizards
2-3 Wallbreakers
3 Hounds
12-14 Loons
2-7 Minions
This combo can be used if you're going after 2 air defenses as well. In these cases the third hound generally survives after the final air d is down, providing continuing protection as the loons take out the remaining defense. Typically though, unless the air defense is going to take a long time to take out, you only need 1 hound per air defense.
Spell Selection
When going after 2 air defenses, using 4 earthquakes to open up a section of the base is a popular option. This leaves room for 1 heal and either 4 haste, 3 haste 1 poison, or 1 rage 2 haste. The alternative is to use a jump spell, which leaves room for additional rage or haste, but earthquake typically makes the attack easier to execute.
Deployment
If using quake, start with that, then follow the same general strategy as the Cold Blooded attack. Make sure you spread the golems enough to distract as many defenses as possible, while still getting them to go into the base instead of banging on a wall.
Quadra and Pentaloon
The one major weakness of all air attacks is their ability to deal with the enemy queen, who can easily ruin an attack if not taken out early. This is why many top TH9s prefer GoLavaloon strategies to all air strategies.
Base Selection
These attacks are best suited for bases where the CC is easily lured, and the enemy queen can be quickly and easily engaged.
Composition
As the names suggest, Quadraloon starts with 4 hounds, Pentaloon with 5. This leaves at most 20 balloons in a Pentaloon army, or 26 in a Quadraloon army, though in many cases you may want to drop 2-4 loons to bring 5-10 minions, and you're also going to need a way to lure and destroy the enemy CC.
You'll also want at least 1 heal, at most 2. Rage can be good if air defense is buried deep and there are multiple hounds on it, but it usually takes loons getting there to take it out anyway, so if you have haste unlocked, it often pays to drop 1 or more rage and take 2 haste in its place. Poison can also be helpful for destroying the enemy CC, slowing down the queen, and taken out any skeleton traps set to air.
Deployment
Step 1 is almost always to lure the clan castle. Any dragons, wizards, or archers need to be destroyed; any other troops can be ignored as they will only target your heroes.
Step 2 is to send 2 hounds at each of the first 2 air defenses you plan to target, followed by groups of 2-4 balloons aimed at each outer defense on that side, and rage or haste spells.
Next, you'll probably want to poison the enemy queen when she starts shooting at your troops just to slow her down. Then, if you can funnel your minions toward her (using your heroes to create the funnel will help speed up the process), you can get them to take her out before she does too much damage. If you can't get her like this, you basically have to rely on your loons to take her out with splash damage, and that can be very hit or miss (which again is why a lot of players prefer GoLavaloon, as it is more reliable).
When the first two air defenses are destroyed, you'll want to throw a heal in the center for the loons that will be exposed to defensive fire as the hounds move to the other 2 air defenses. If you have a 5th hound, now is the time to throw it down on whichever side needs it more. You should also still have at least 4-6 loons ready to drop as close to 1 or both of the remaining air d's as you can, and rage or haste spells for whichever ones need to be helped along the m
No comments:
Post a Comment