Thursday, October 22, 2015

How to Golaloon correctly and how to path manage loons

This thread is quite eye opening if you want to get a hang of Laloon or Golaloon attacking methods. It's actually all come down to path management so you can quickly take out ADs and Wiz Towers. This guy for sure know what he is talking about. It also teaches you how to read map in a whole new way. Check it out. I have to warn you, even for a science person like myself, the stuff he is talking about is quite brain twisting mind bending. This is LONG post. But if you can get it right, you can conquer most bases.

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Laloon isn't as easy as a lot of people think. I couldn't tell by your post, but if you're going for a 3 star, never bring minions unless its only a couple for clean-up purposes. Lavaloonian, is a 2 star comp, laloon, is the 3-star comp. On anti-air bases, timing is incredibly important because normally the air defenses and wizard towers will be positioned that loons take a really long to get to them. If you just yolo drop like most people do in matchmaking, you'll most likely get your loons clumped and they'll move away from the ADs. In war, good attackers will drop their loons in pairs on specific defenses that open up pathing, aka surgical attacking. This is important because on anti-air bases the first pair of loons will path away from the AD, but the second pair dropped several seconds later should ideally path toward the AD. Here's an example.

 If you dropped loons from the southeast in a line, none of them would go to the AD. If you wait for the southern AT/mortar to die, you might be able to get loons to path toward the AD, but they won't unless you killed the cannon/AT to the NE and even then loons could still path to the WT towards the NE. No matter what angle you approach that AD from, it's a huge pain in the ass to take down. Even if the attacker decided to use a golem and heros to get that AD/AQ/CC, it's not easy. The attacker would have to prevent his wallbreakers from dying to the single bombs and then deal with 3 teslas, a cannon, an AT, an xbow, the BK, CC, skellies, AQ, storages before getting his AQ to snipe the AD.
It's extremely hard to penta/quad laloon a base like the one above because the pathing keeps the ADs and WTs alive longer. It's difficult to kill 5 hounds quickly, so the better way you can stop laloon is by killing the 'loon' portion of the raid. This is basically done by separating the hounds from the loons and letting WTs/teslas/ITs/ and air bombs pick away at the loons while the hounds fly away. A lot of people don't understand the importance of wizard towers. Even if they don't overlap the ADs if they can be targeted with the initial loon drop, they're essentially useless because they'll maybe take half the health from 2 loons. Usually you see laloon fail because of the clutch wizard towers and teslas left standing that couldn't be taken down. Personally, I believe there are a few TH 9 bases that are damn near impossible to penta or quad laloon because they have extremely good pathing, well positioned WTs/teslas/AQ.
I also strongly believe penta/quad laloon involves an element of luck, which makes it less reliable and is the reason why I no longer use it on strong TH 9s. You never know how quickly your pups will aggro onto the enemy AQ or how quickly they'll kill the cc wizards. If they fail or take awhile, your raid can come to a halt very quickly. A lot of laloon raids literally come down to fractions of a second, which is why timing is incredibly important. I've seen some raids that look like domination, but in fact the attacker was able to get a stray loon on an AD that otherwise would have been untouched. Even though he may have 3'ed with 10 loons left, if that one loon didn't happen to stray off because the tesla pop stunned it enough to skew it's pathing, the AD would have lived and it would have been an 80% 1 star. We've all seen some attacks come down to 1 or 2 loons vs 1 archer tower, sometimes the archer tower wins and sometimes the loon, but either way it literally comes down to the fractions of a second it takes for the bomb drop to hit the ground.
If you have both heros, I would resort to golaloon as a means of attacking. Golaloon is much more versatile and can be used on any base, the only thing that differs is the number of golems and spells. Golaloon is much more powerful for a few reasons. First, it eliminates the CC/AQ/AD or 2AD if done properly. More importantly, it can make pathing much easier to get to the remaining ADs, which otherwise would have been much tougher in a penta laloon attack. It also can eliminate some air mines and bombs. It takes the 'luck' element out of the loon portion because you're killing the AQ and CC beforehand so you don't have to worry about pups killing them. However you do have to get some good fortune and hope your AQ doesn't shoot everything but the AD.
Symmetrical bases are not too hard to laloon because the pathing is identical on each side unless the defender positions his teslas differently on each half. When scouting the base really think about how the loons will path. Will they get to an AD quickly, what about the wiz towers? If they reach the AD on the second defense they attack, then it'll go down quick. If the AD's will die fast, take 4 hounds an extra loons, otherwise take 5. Generally it's good to get the AD down fast, but if you get your hounds way to far ahead of your loons, you'll have nothing to tank for your them if the the AD are really spread. 
This is an example of a difficult base to laloon. Even though it's easy to get to the AD, 

they'll go down quickly and then the hounds will fly far away leaving the loons behind with nothing to tank for them. The other issue with a base like this is that few pups will spawn over the AQ since the ADs are really spread. Take into consideration the AQ and her position when thinking about doing a laloon attack. You need to be able to rage pups over her to take her out. In Moskri's base the AQ doesn't cover any AD so she likely wont aggro onto a hound for too long and instead she'll run back to her altar and shoot loons in the core. For your laloon attack to go well, you have to think about how quickly you can get the ADs and wiz towers down. For this reason you should drop your loons surgically so they can cover more defenses and not clump up as much. On symmetrical bases you can drop loons in a line and often get away with it, but as you start dealing with harder and harder bases, dropping loons in pairs is essential to ensure your loons to path to the ADs and WTs as efficiently as possible.

LL(Laloon) is a complicated strategy. It can't be used on almost every base to get 3 stars. For reference, I am a low TH10 (almost TH9.5 really) who usually attacks the high TH9s in the opposing clan. Sometimes this means attacking my equal, but usually a couple spots lower. My success at tripling in wars is based on several key factors when scouting:
  1. Can I kill the AQ? How hard will it be and how much will it cost? If I can kill her with my cc kill squad and heroes, then it's usually game over.
  2. Can I lure the CC? If it's an easy CC draw, that makes the whole attack easier.
  3. Are the WTs next to the ADs? If they are, it's a cakewalk. If not, you have to be more careful and plan better.
That's pretty much all I look for. The formula from then on is simple:
  1. Lure the CC over to the side with the enemy AQ.
  2. Deploy 223 CC and heroes to wipe out enemy CC and AQ. As soon as AQ is engaged with kill squad, move on to the LL. Trust your kill squad, and don't waste time watching. This is important because time can be a big factor for cleanup if all your hounds don't pop. It is crucial though to remember to rage your heroes, so while you are dropping the LL, keep an eye on them and activate if they get to about half health. This will ensure that the cc/aq kill gets completed and will substantially help with cleanup after all the defenses are down.
  3. Drop LL. This is the tricky part that most people don't realize is so hard. The three sources of inconsistency in LL are first that people don't deal with the enemy AQ/CC, second that they do not plan loon pathing as /u/edpgolfer pointed out, and third that they do not time the loon/hound placement properly.
The first destroys people because a high AQ is as powerful as an AD, and a pack of wiz or a dragon can also wreck you. The raged pups method just isn't reliable enough.
The second inconsistency causes people's loons to clump up. This makes them fodder for red mines and WT fire, but even worse it means that they totally overkill every defense they attack while taking fire the whole time. Loons are powerful but slow, and clumping them is like having three pekkas that go circling a base. Sure, they dominate every building they come to, but one pekka alone would accomplish the same thing. Half your loons are redundant when they are all clumped and they will die before they finish killing stuff.
The timing of the loons and hounds is really one of the hardest things about it. This third one is why some raids look ridiculously OP and others are 33% fails. You want the loons coming in as soon as possible behind the hounds so the hounds don't get wasted before the loons do their damage. BUT you also don't want the loons to get there first or they take the first hits and you lose 1/3 - 1/2 of them before the hounds even get to the fight. My experience with timing this perfectly (which again is really hard), is to drop the loons in groups of 2-3 per defense, but as FAR away from the base as possible. Then I wait until the exact right time to drop the hounds to get the timing just right. If for some reason, the best side to attack from has ADs on the edge or not enough space for the loons to safely be deployed, then I drop the hounds first. These raids tend to be harder for me, so if at all possible I try to take advantage of the blank space to get my timing right.
One other thing to remember is that you have to train your army specifically for the base you want to attack. You can't just bring a canned army comp and expect to triple with regularity. If the AQ is deeper in the base you will need a golem and jump spell with your kill squad. If the cc is hard to lure you might need hogs or more loons to get it out. If the pathing is weird, you might need to change your deployment plan. LL is OP but only if you tailor it to the base you are attacking. And some bases are truly anti-LL, so just avoid those and let someone else in your clan hit em with gowipe or hogs. For my LL I usually bring 20 loons, 4 hounds, two giants/hogs for luring, and 10 archers for cc kill and cleanup. In my CC I bring a 223. Two witches, two wizards, and three barbs. It's a standard offensive CC comp for wars because it can kill whatever comes out of the enemy cc. The three barbs take all the fire while the wiz and witches deploy. By the time the barbs are dead, the enemy troops are surrounded by ~16 skeletons and the wiz polish them off. Usually I drop it then put my queen behind. When the dust settles I tend to have both witches and at least one wiz still alive.
The last bit of advice I have is that I always bring a heal spell. Most of the time I don't end up needing it, but a single heal will work wonders for a clump of loons. If I mess up the pathing and my loons clump up (which usually doesn't happen until 3/4 ADs are down and most of the defenses are cleared), the heal keeps them going to finish the job. It helps cover for mistakes I make which makes the strategy more consistent.


Then entire thread can be found here
Galaloon and Laloon to three star

TH10 Survival Strategies

TH10 war raids are tough. Sometimes you just don't know how to get to the center or stay afloat with 50%. I am going to dedicate this thread to showcase some TH10 strategies.

General tips for TH10 raiders:

1) First of all, I think it's a good idea for TH10 players to start pushing to Master and start getting used to achieving 50% to win raids. Loose the farming troops and try with lavaloons, hogs, golems etc. The bonus will make up for your cost of the troops. Watch some pushing videos which are all about 50%.

2) practice surgical attack deployment. Design your attack around the maps. For example, if ground defense are far away from infernos and ADs, use loons to take them out before sending ground troops to ease the firepower in general. If the map is tight, use quake to open up. So point is, no one size fits all so study the map and plan out your attack

3) Watch the elite clan three starring TH10. I have attached One Hive clan's war recap here. Check it out. You will see they really tailor their troops and attack strategy per the map. For example, a map with lvl 3 single target infernos will wreck your golems, but mass giants got the job done. A map with outer skirt ADs are ideal for Golaloon.

4) Funnel and pathing management is key to your 2 star success. You will see most elite clans are ditching freeze and go with quake or jump. 4 jump and a rage is very common now. The point is, your troops need to go to core as quickly as possible. Time is money. That 2,3 seconds will make or break your raid. Funnel is huge. It's a method to keep your main troops on path while having other troops (wiz or minion) taking out building structures to force your main troops to go a certain direction. All good players know how to use funnel concept to direct where your troops would go. You won't be surprised and yell "My troops went outside" if you funnel right.

Here are the videos for your entertainment. Check them out.

 Here is a video of TH9 attacking TH10 with surgical attack.



here is a video shows how to use mass golems and jumps to conquer ringus. Note even the heroes are max in the video, they were unharmed even after TH falls.


Now onto war raids with TH10. Unfortunately, higher heroes do play a major part of your success. I did find some videos showing how to 2 star TH10 without max heroes. The most important thing is to plan ahead per the map layout. You have to have a plan with all your troops. Check out the following two videos talking about how to conquer TH10 with mid level heroes.



  Here is an all elite TH10 clan war raids recap showcase three starring techniques
I will keep updating when I find good stuff to show.

Asians showing off surgical hog attack with Balloons and Giants aid

We've all got wiped by those Asians in wars. The key to these clans success is that majority of their players deploy a well planned attack with absolute precision, aka surgical attack. They know exactly where and how many loons or hogs to deploy and pace themselves.

Here is a very remarkable surgical attack with mainly hogs. Each troop has its purpose,even the goblins. Yup, it's a good idea to use gobs to clean resource buildings cuz they are much faster than anything else. check it out





Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Max Attack (30+ hogs and Quake) and Max Attack with Laloon Quake

Here is the video shows the Max Attack with hogs and quake




This is a Max Attack with Laloon

 I also found this pretty cool one that talks about combining quakes with hogs and how to use quake more efficiently
 

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

GoHog in depth - how to three star max TH9 with Golem Hog combo

Another post about Golem Hog combo because we have seen some massive successes and massive failures too.

Here is what I concluded as how to three star a max TH9 with GoHog.

1. Most importantly, where are the double giant bombs (DGB). In some cases you can still use hogs even the maps have DGB, what matters is where they are located at. Can you either eliminate them first before you send in hogs? Can you avoid them? If you answer yes, then go for it. But most definitely take that into consideration. I have seen ppl sending a few hogs to designate just one of them or use gowi heros to take them out. Or if they are placed poorly, you can avoid them all together, which is shown in the following video.

 2. You gotta get rid of the heroes or at least the queen. AND you also need to rid of CC. If CC and queen are together, bingo, send in Gowiz Heroes and hopefully you take care of the business. If CC is far away from Queen, you want to lure the cc out first kill them, or you can lure them out and make them walk over to where queen is, then release your CC golem and send in Wiz and take care of Queen and CC together. Either way, get rid of CC and Queen or you are dead meat.

 3. Now, the main part. The hog part. I saw many successful attacks don't wait till your gowiz heroes are depleted then send them in. They are sent in almost as soon as CC and queen are dead. The most critical factor as how successful your attack will be is to calculate your hogging path. Where they will go next? where should you drop heal? The most deadly defenses against hogging other than DGB is wiz tower, they can zap all of your hogs away so make sure you heal by wiz tower. According to the guy in video, 3 hogs can take down a single target defense so if there are one archer tower and one wiz tower, you need minimum of 6 of them assuming no other defenses are nearby. So definitely don't separate your hogs too much if there are a lot of defenses around, they won't last.

 4. Skeletons chase your hogs around and smash them till they are dead. Not sure how to deal with that one if you don't know where they are. All the successful attacks didn't show skeletons or they were handled by the Golem wiz Heroes part. This is really a wild card in my opinion.


Anyway, this guy does fairly good job explaining the thinking process and analysis behind gohogging. Check it out

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Bear and Kat Out of Africa

For those of you who are interested, here is the 5 minute recap of your clanmates epic trip. Sorry for missing the attacks... Kitty will cut the slack now the video is done :) Enjoy!!