Hey all. It's been a while since I last went on the wiki, and I've learned a lot about 3-star attacking in both TH9 and TH10. I'd like to share with you guys how I've approached different bases in the past in hopes that you guys will learn how to choose, plan, and execute attacks for any base!
Just a couple things to keep in mind. My TH9 and TH10 accounts both have maxed heroes, so if you don't, I can't guarantee that you will be able to reproduce all the examples I show.
Second, some of you might find these bases generic/easy. Unfortunately, this is all I got.
Also, you will not find any Witch Slap/BoWitch attacks here because I don't believe that spam attacks are beneficial to improving one's attacking skill. Attacks involving Laloon and Hogs, however, teach skills about pathing, troop and spell management, timing, etc. that will affect both present and future gameplay.
Let's begin!
TH9
I will start by saying that because I've spent more time with Laloon, I have a bias for it. Thus, whenever I look at a base, I first check if Laloon will work well. If not, then I consider Hogs.
When I first looked at the base, I immediately saw that it had huge alleys giving access to important things that should be taken down with a Laloon kill squad: the queen, wizard towers, air defenses, the clan castle, and an air sweeper. Generally, when you see these kinds of high-value alleys, you should plan for a queen walk into the base.
Whenever you plan a Laloon, in addition to taking out high-value buildings, you need to ensure your Laloon has good pathing. This means, the kill squad, whether it be a golem-based or queen walk-based one, should leave a narrow strip of defenses arranged in an "L" "I" or "(" shape that allows you to facilitate your attack better.
This is what I planned for the queen walk portion of the raid.
Minion. Barbarian King. Archer Queen (with Healers). Baby Dragon.
I recognized that my king would be able to take care of the enemy queen by himself and lure the cc, so I decided to send him in alone. He would also double as funneling to ensure my queen wouldn't go left. I wanted my queen to go down the alley accordingly so it could take care of 2 wizard towers and 2 air defenses. Eventually, it would kill the clan castle troops. I placed the minion in its spot because it was out of range of any defenses, and I placed the baby dragon in its spot to ensure the queen wouldn't veer right, and it might have the possibility of taking down the cannon.
Provided all went well, the buildings within the aqua curve would be destroyed. This would leave a 2-3 defense-wide strip for my Laloon, allowing my spells to be efficient and none of my balloons to stray. I decided I would start my Laloon from 3 o clock and progress counterclockwise so I wouldn't have to fight the last sweeper.
I decided that my army composition would be 4 healers, 1 baby dragon, 1 lava hound, 22 balloons, 7 minions; my spells would be 3 rages and 3 hastes; and my clan castle troops would be 1 lava hound and 1 poison. Generally, my queen walk Laloon compositions are similar to what I brought this time, but sometimes I won't need the baby dragon, or sometimes I'll need to bring some wall breakers. I usually use the same spells, however, because having 3 rages provides some flexibility.
My attack goes according to plan for the most part. The queen takes down all the defenses it needs to. I dropped the 1st rage on my queen + healers when she attacked the clan castle troops. I dropped the 2nd rage when I saw that an air defense was shooting down my healers - I wanted the queen to clear the Town Hall ASAP so it could take down that air defense. The baby dragon also took down that cannon, which was a nice bonus.
Notice my balloon deployment. I dropped 3 balloons per defense at the front of the remaining "(" of defenses. I did this because the best Laloons involve max efficiency. You want your balloons to 1-shot defenses, especially when you bring 18+ of them as they move along. If your balloons have to backtrack because they missed a defense, it 1) wastes time and 2) leaves your lava hounds unassisted for longer, meaning that they might have already died by the time your balloons get back on track.
Another thing is my lava hound drop locations. I dropped the 1st one shortly after I dropped my balloons because I didn't want it to get too far ahead from my balloons, yet soon enough that the wizard tower would target it and not my balloons. I dropped the 2nd one on the same air defense as the 1st but from a different angle - this was to soak up any air bombs and help out the 1st hound. You generally want to have 2 hounds on an air defense at the start of a laloon.
Finally, notice how my haste spells weren't rushed. I waited until the moment when I decided that they needed to be rushed, which was as soon as the 2nd lava hound was about to pop. If I hadn't rushed, that wizard tower would have really hurt my balloons. All of them converged nicely, and there was no backtracking at all.
The base was crushed in 2 minutes and 10 seconds. I had 5 balloons, 1 haste spell, and the queen's ability that I used for swag. Queen walk Laloon is so effective once you get good at it, and it works even better on the right bases.
I know I said that my TH9 and TH10 accounts were maxed, but I also have a rushed TH9 account that has 10/10 heroes. Unfortunately, since 10/10 heroes can't do much, I am limited to a strategy called Queen Pop Laloon. However, it's a very powerful strategy that can theoretically be used on any base, and I use it because all my heroes have to do is kill the cc troops.
The strategy is a style of mass Laloon that utilizes raged lava pups to kill the enemy queen and the sheer number of balloons (26 in the composition) to overwhelm a base. The army composition will usually be 26 balloons, 3 lava hounds; 2 lightnings, 2 rages, and 1 haste; and 1 lava hound and 1 haste in the clan castle. 2 lightning spells are used on 1 air defense to create rotational pathing for the Laloon, and the air defense you should zap depends on queen placement (which I'll explain later).
I'd like to state that while this strategy is "mass Laloon," it's not the "spam Laloon" you'll often see casual clans use (I like to call this "foreigner Laloon"). The strategy requires a good understanding of spell management and balloon pathing and distribution that does involve some finesse.
Much of QP Laloon planning revolves around the placement of the queen. Generally, when you zap 1 air defense, you want the other 3 to form somewhat of a triangle around the queen. This triangle is the "queen kill zone," where you will rage the lava pups and balloons in the area to make sure the queen is killed. However, this base has the queen at the corner of the base. She is too far away from any of the air defenses that she won't shoot a lava hound, and the lava pups won't target her. If you can't kill the queen during the Laloon, you have to end the Laloon on her. So, this is what I came up with.
Balloons. Lava Hound. Barbarian King and Archer Queen. Lightning Spells. Rage Spell. Haste Spell.
I've divided my attack plan sketch into 5 stages total. First, I would lure the clan castle using 3 balloons and kill whatever came out with my king and queen. I only used 3 because I expected a baby dragon and dragon clan castle combo.
For stage #1 of the Laloon, I would send 3 groups of 3 balloons and 2 lava hounds accordingly, making sure to 1-shot any defense they would pass. I would drop my cc haste spell to speed my balloons into stage 2. (Speed is important to make sure you have at least 1 hound alive for the queen kill).
For stage #2, I would reinforce my Laloon accordingly, again making sure I was targeting each point defense with groups of 3 balloons. I opted to use a rage instead of a haste this time because it would cover more area.
For stage #3, I would reinforce my Laloon with groups of 2 balloons instead of 3, since I would be running out of them. I would also use a haste to speed my Laloon along.
Finally, for stage #4, I would wait for my troops to reach the queen area then drop a rage, making sure the balloons and lava pups would rush the queen as soon as they finished off the last defenses.
The lure doesn't go according to plan. A hidden tesla popped up and fried my balloons, so I had to make the call to use 2 more balloons and the haste spell. As soon as the cc is lured and locked on to my king, I started my Laloon to save time.
Since I had to use those extra balloons for the lure, I didn't get to follow the plan for stage #3. However, the attack still went well. The base was crushed in about 2 minutes and 13 seconds. I really recommend learning Queen Pop Laloon if your heroes are relatively low, and it is definitely still viable if your heroes are maxed!TH10
With access to Siege Machines, TH10 has so many more 3-star attack options. However, I still try to Laloon a base when I can, and if not Laloon, Hogs.