Drag'M: A Possible High Trophy Army

I am a TH8 and have being doing air attacks all the time. My army is 4 dragons/16 balloons/10 minions/20 archers. The build time is 1 hour 4minutes. I am doing very well at the 1600 region but I believed it will be much harder up there.

With 4 dragons and 60 minions, the build time can be cut to 30 minutes. This is very enticing.

I have a few questions though.

1)My minions are still at lv1 and dragon at lv2. Will they work or do I need to get them up?

2)If I mixed in 4 balloons(lv 5), will it bring better results? The build time will be increase by 8 minutes though...

3)Are archers not needed? I have 20 archers in my army composition because I have come across many bases that have a AD that can be pick off by 20 archers or lesser(they do die sometimes as a results from the other point defenses but my life is much easier with one more AD down. Also I do come across free AD from time to time but I guess it will be rare up there:rolleyes:)

Thank you very much in advance for the advices.

I'd say balloons are better. They go directly for the defenses, which makes them more suitable at higher leagues.
Dragon go around like their dumb. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by lim81

I am a TH8 and have being doing air attacks all the time. My army is 4 dragons/16 balloons/10 minions/20 archers. The build time is 1 hour 4minutes. I am doing very well at the 1600 region but I believed it will be much harder up there.

With 4 dragons and 60 minions, the build time can be cut to 30 minutes. This is very enticing.

I have a few questions though.

1)My minions are still at lv1 and dragon at lv2. Will they work or do I need to get them up?

2)If I mixed in 4 balloons(lv 5), will it bring better results? The build time will be increase by 8 minutes though...

3)Are archers not needed? I have 20 archers in my army composition because I have come across many bases that have a AD that can be pick off by 20 archers or lesser(they do die sometimes as a results from the other point defenses but my life is much easier with one more AD down. Also I do come across free AD from time to time but I guess it will be rare up there:rolleyes:)

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If you are serious about trophy pushing, those troops are all going to struggle. Bases above around 1600 trophies typically have pathetic air defense - you can't compare Gold with Crystal, especially when it comes to air attacks. Once you get over 1900, the number of bases with terrible air defense starts to get low, and over about 2100 it's near impossible to find really poorly placed and/or upgraded air defense and the number of TH9 thins out a lot too.

So level 1 minions, and level 2 dragons, won't get you success above, say, 2100. Ballons might, I don't know personally as mine are still level 4 which is way underpowered. Personally I only have archers in the clan castle, I never brew my own, my minions clear a path.

If you start climbing in trophies, you'll soon see how the number of poor bases gets steadily lower - the higher the cups, the less viable targets your air attacks will find. Start with balloons and minions, and you'll get soime valuable practice in as you go along.

OK, so I've tried a few attacks using only 4 dragons, and 60 minions... yes it's quicker to brew, but I beleive it's a lot weaker - I struggled to get a 1-star victory on a couple of TH9 bases that I was aiming for a 2-star on, and I'm currently only around 2260 trophies. In particular:

• It's really hard to reach air defenses that are in the middle layer (not the centre, just betwwen the edge and the centre).
• The minions invariably clump up around a wizard tower, and you lose a bunch at once.

Having 6 dragons, you have 6 tanks who can take plenty of damage before they die, and you use rage if and when required to move them forward quickly to take out air defense, high level xbows/tessla, etc. More than 6 would probably be stronger again, but it's very expensive in terms of elixer.

So I'm sticking with 6xD, 40xM.

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Originally Posted by Forte

In preparation for the forum elite trophy push, I've been contemplating high trophy armies to get at least to Crystal 1. Seeing how I am TH8, several armies aren't as effective for me, and GoWipe takes a bit more time than could work for me. An army that I've heard have variable success is all minions, but the cost in DE and time isn't appealing to me.

I considered using test's army, but I cannot fit a golem into the CC and using a Pekka would take considerably longer. Therefore, I thought of an aerial version.

In the army camps: two dragons and eighty minions, the clan castle should be a trump card(usually aerial) .

The army takes 30 min and two barracks are free for donations. It costs 72k elixir and 720 DE with level 4 minions.

I haven't tried it yet, but will try it just as soon as I finish my last few upgrades at TH8. The biggest destruction to it that I see is centralized air bombs(which appear to be fairly rare) or focused wizard towers.

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Ever seen an air bomb drop about 20 minions in 1 shot? I have... I have 5 of those lil beauties just waiting for a horde of minions to come by.

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Originally Posted by hastur

OK, so I've tried a few attacks using only 4 dragons, and 60 minions... yes it's quicker to brew, but I beleive it's a lot weaker - I struggled to get a 1-star victory on a couple of TH9 bases that I was aiming for a 2-star on, and I'm currently only around 2260 trophies. In particular:

• It's really hard to reach air defenses that are in the middle layer (not the centre, just betwwen the edge and the centre).
• The minions invariably clump up around a wizard tower, and you lose a bunch at once.

Having 6 dragons, you have 6 tanks who can take plenty of damage before they die, and you use rage if and when required to move them forward quickly to take out air defense, high level xbows/tessla, etc. More than 6 would probably be stronger again, but it's very expensive in terms of elixer. So I'm sticking with 6xD, 40xM.

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http://i42.tinypic.com/1693f39.jpg

2 lvl 1 xbows
lvl 4 AD's
lvl 3 wiz towers i think

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Originally Posted by hastur

I love GoWiPe, it's really fun when it works, but have switched to Dragons and Minions because I think it's more reliable especially if you are not gemming troops because a good GoWiPe is much slower to build and also it tends to leave a lot more loot behind when you only have 200 troop slots and 3 spells. Certainly I think using GoWiPe requires more skill and experience to use succesfully.

With Dragons and Minions, I can usually go raiding with only 1-2 rage spells brewed, a clan castle, and my king only sometimes... I only feel vulnerable if I have 1 rage and no king, otherwise I can find a base to raid in Crystal 2 that offers about 95% chance of success, and decent loot, in a reasonable search time (i.e. less than 20 minutes of searching). When using GoWiPe, I found I reallty needed my king, and at least 2 rages, plus clan castle, for every raid, and typically 2 pekka was too light I'd rather have 3 maybe even one more in the castle and that's not the kind of raid I can do every time in a session without gemming barracks.

Anyway, I'd love to hear another's thoughts, most GoWiPe I've seen is all TH9 or TH10 with maxed out gollems, archer queen etc... it's not the same when you are TH8 - the peeps in my clan who use that kind of troop mix are all well below Crystal level so are not usually putting them up against tough bases...

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GoWiPe has worked well for me, but as an overnight army. As you said its risky and time consuming, so it's one of the main things I'm trying to avoid.

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Originally Posted by lim81

I am a TH8 and have being doing air attacks all the time. My army is 4 dragons/16 balloons/10 minions/20 archers. The build time is 1 hour 4minutes. I am doing very well at the 1600 region but I believed it will be much harder up there.

With 4 dragons and 60 minions, the build time can be cut to 30 minutes. This is very enticing.

I have a few questions though.

1)My minions are still at lv1 and dragon at lv2. Will they work or do I need to get them up?

2)If I mixed in 4 balloons(lv 5), will it bring better results? The build time will be increase by 8 minutes though...

3)Are archers not needed? I have 20 archers in my army composition because I have come across many bases that have a AD that can be pick off by 20 archers or lesser(they do die sometimes as a results from the other point defenses but my life is much easier with one more AD down. Also I do come across free AD from time to time but I guess it will be rare up there:rolleyes:)

Thank you very much in advance for the advices.

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Remember this is strongly theoretical(experimenting will begin in a few days when my DB is finished).

1)You'll need to get those up. With my limited experience, I struggle with maxed troops.

2)Balloons tend to be best used en masse, so I'd advise against including them.

3) The beauty of it is that the army is being developed as we speak. There's two barracks open for changes, so maybe when I have an unused troop for donating I may find that wizards or pekkas or something work very well with this combo.

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Originally Posted by hastur

OK, so I've tried a few attacks using only 4 dragons, and 60 minions... yes it's quicker to brew, but I beleive it's a lot weaker - I struggled to get a 1-star victory on a couple of TH9 bases that I was aiming for a 2-star on, and I'm currently only around 2260 trophies. In particular:

• It's really hard to reach air defenses that are in the middle layer (not the centre, just betwwen the edge and the centre).
• The minions invariably clump up around a wizard tower, and you lose a bunch at once.

Having 6 dragons, you have 6 tanks who can take plenty of damage before they die, and you use rage if and when required to move them forward quickly to take out air defense, high level xbows/tessla, etc. More than 6 would probably be stronger again, but it's very expensive in terms of elixer.

So I'm sticking with 6xD, 40xM.

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I've experienced the same problems in my trials. Perhaps you could experiment with two drags and six balloons using the unused barracks. It may seem counter intuitive to use more minions, but the increased speed in attacking may prove more effective(I roughly imagined this to be used like test's archer golem combo).

Thank you for the replies from Hastur and Forte.

I am definitely going to upgrade those dragons and balloons. Just needed time to do so. Think I will put them before my wb and giants upgrade. (I am a newly minted TH8 with only lv5 archers, barb, balloons:o)

I know after the 1900 regions, the weak AD bases will be very hard to find. I faced this problem firsthand during my trophy push during my TH7 days with my lv4 balloons and lv1 dragons. Yes, I had being playing with them extensively since my TH7 days:rolleyes:

I loved my balloons very much and I know that with only 4 of them on their own, at most they can only take down a AD at the outer perimeter. I am thinking of setting them down right behind the dragons to take out the AD/WT/AT... but had not tried them out yet. Too used to my 16 balloons.

4 dragons if all working together, they should be enough. Dropping a rage when the situation gets hot (the dragons concentrating on that few high hp buildings like stores, TH and CC while the AT/WT/AD are taking free shots). But as I had not try them out at higher level, I can't say much. High lv WT/AT tear apart my lv1 dragons during my last push...

Overall, thank you very much for the advices... looking forward to see more reports from you guys so I have something as reference when I get my dragons and minions up for my personal trophy push.

Good luck clashing.:cool:

So with my experience I've found that 8 balloons two drags and the rest minions is extremely effective. Tank with the Dragon, line minions, drop balloons to the AD, rage if necessary. I'll see about maybe making a video in forum elite.

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Originally Posted by Forte

So with my experience I've found that 8 balloons two drags and the rest minions is extremely effective. Tank with the Dragon, line minions, drop balloons to the AD, rage if necessary. I'll see about maybe making a video in forum elite.

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Hi Forte,

1)Do you take on bases with 4AD or mostly just 3AD?

2)What about bases with centralised AD or with X-bow pointing up or AQ, do you avoid those? I am not even going to mentioned inferno towers...

3)What is your approach on using the above mentioned troops? All start in from one side?

4)Lastly, what trophy level are those tested on?

Wanna learn from the successful people out there. Thanks a million Forte for your time sharing.


My usual tactics are choosing bases with no more than 3AD or 4AD if it is poorly positioned.I will split my balloons into 3 groups of 5 or 6 to take the AD individually from 3 different sides. As such, the AD cannot be more than 2 layers inside so centralised AD are out(Unless the loot is attractive and the AD is weak). Rage is used sometimes if the AD is together with other def. For this tactic, I must read the balloon pathing correctly else I will be in trouble.

I normally set all 4 dragons at the same spot with minions and archers clearing the outer perimeter so all 4 dragons will fly into the core at the same time. Hate to see dragons flying in one by one and taken down by the defense. Just sharing my noobish tactics:rolleyes: