Defending Against Lava Hounds

With all this talk about nerfing Lava Hounds, I'd like to share a few tips for defending against them.

• Clan castle unlureable with balloons. CC wizards really shorten the lifespan of Hounds.
• Air defenses all in range of eachother. Hounds go down fast when taking fire from all 4 ADs.
• Seeking air mines next to air defenses. They take a nice chunk of Hounds' health.
• Air defenses out of range of some archer towers/wizard towers. Hounds go straight for the ADs. If the ADs are out of range of an archer tower/wizard tower, the archer tower/wiz tower will not be able to reach the hounds. They will attack the balloons instead.
• Strategically placed defenses to guide balloons away from the core. Balloons go for the nearest defenses and ignore walls, which makes it easy to predict their paths.
• Avoid having many defenses densely clustered around the Archer Queen. This will lessen the chances of the splash damage from balloons killing the Archer Queen.
• Air bombs and skeleton traps set to air strategically placed near defenses and away from Air Defenses. This way, they are more likely to go for balloons instead of Hounds.
• And of course, X-Bows set to air.

Lavaloonion is a strong army composition which is capable of getting 2-3 stars on strong bases. Just like any other army composition, a well designed base has the potential to stop it dead in its tracks.

Let's see these tips put to good use to make some good anti-Lava Hound bases. Clash on! :cool:

Great guide, thanks for the tips!

I'm just a TH8 but thanks for the advice when I go to TH9!

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is just common sense.

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Originally Posted by Janz

• Air defenses out of range of some archer towers/wizard towers. Hounds go straight for the ADs. If the ADs are out of range of an archer tower/wizard tower, the archer tower/wiz tower will not be able to reach the hounds. They will attack the balloons instead.

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only this one helps, rest of your tips do nothing to stop lavaloon and things like all AD within range of each other actually makes it easier to 3 star the base.

Tesla's behind an AD help too!

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Originally Posted by xCompleteBSx

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is just common sense.

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Common sense ain't so common these days.

If you haven't been placing your seeking air minds near your AD, have you been living under a rock?

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Originally Posted by xCompleteBSx

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is just common sense.

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Some of these things may be obvious to some people. To others, they might not be. As long as someone finds this thread helpful, I'm happy.

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Originally Posted by Morgauth

only this one helps, rest of your tips do nothing to stop lavaloon and things like all AD within range of each other actually makes it easier to 3 star the base.

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I'm going to have to disagree with you. All of these tips certainly do something to defend against LavaLoonion. A well designed base which utilizes all of these will be able to stop most attackers from getting the 2 or 3 star.

Also, in my experience attacking with LavaLoonion, it is beneficial for the defender to have ADs within range of eachother.

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Originally Posted by Janz

I'm going to have to disagree with you. All of these tips certainly do something to defend against LavaLoonion. A well designed base which utilizes all of these will be able to stop most attackers from getting the 2 or 3 star.

Also, in my experience attacking with LavaLoonion, it is beneficial for the defender to have ADs within range of eachother.

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Depending how the base is laid out otherwise, having AD within range of each other makes it easier to attack imo. Since I use hounds frequently, I'm not going to bother saying what kinds of defensive layouts I avoid, but's it's certainly not bases with overlapping ADs.

sounds like an easy base to holo 3 star..

Not so sure with all these "tips" .... I love bases with all 4 ad overlapping ---- makes lavaloonion a lot easier(imo and experience to date).....:confused:

Air bombs are tricky. The way the hounds explodes grabs most air bombs tucked inside a base. I've been running a few air bombs next to Air Defence though for this reason otherwise they're just a waste on one or two pups. You can throw them outside away from Air Def in the hope they will catch a bunch of loons but most people (myself included) drop hounds from different angles on a base for this reason to catch them all.

Here's my attack in our current war, two stars with them before I even drop heroes... :rolleyes:

http://instagram.com/p/yFmK-ciwlS

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Originally Posted by Janz

• Air defenses out of range of some archer towers/wizard towers. Hounds go straight for the ADs. If the ADs are out of range of an archer tower/wizard tower, the archer tower/wiz tower will not be able to reach the hounds. They will attack the balloons instead.

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This advise useful form trophy push base only . to prevent lavaloonian . In war base , this type of base is very weak against Holowiwi.

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Originally Posted by victort

Not so sure with all these "tips"

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Then don't use them. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by facescraper

I've been running a few air bombs next to Air Defence though for this reason otherwise they're just a waste on one or two pups. You can throw them outside away from Air Def in the hope they will catch a bunch of loons but most people (myself included) drop hounds from different angles on a base for this reason to catch them all.

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My loons have definitely snagged a few unexpected air bombs on the outside of the base before. I agree, it's a good idea to place hounds in different spots to try to trigger as many traps as possible. Depending on the placement of air defenses, it can be easy to mess up though. It's frustrating when 3 hounds go for 1 AD, and only 1 goes for the other, leaving half of my loons with less protection. :o

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Originally Posted by soaraspros

sounds like an easy base to holo 3 star..

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Originally Posted by kennyAD

This advise useful form trophy push base only . to prevent lavaloonian . In war base , this type of base is very weak against Holowiwi.

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Keep in mind, I'm saying ADs out of range some archer towers/wizard towers. Not the other way around. And not all of them. Just a couple is good.

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Originally Posted by Janz

• Air defenses out of range of some archer towers/wizard towers. Hounds go straight for the ADs. If the ADs are out of range of an archer tower/wizard tower, the archer tower/wiz tower will not be able to reach the hounds. They will attack the balloons instead.

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Good tips - I've been doing all of the ones you said except this one; it didn't really cross my mind. Typically I like Air Defenses to cover every defense to help rip balloons apart; but indeed Hounds temporarily mess that plan up.

Not sure if I can get that to work effectively but will keep it in mind. Thanks for sharing.

These Hounds are really dangerous, really need to make you re-think base design...probably even bring back the old ringus style we used for Hogs before they got nerfed a million times.

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Originally Posted by Janz

Then don't use them. :rolleyes:

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lol

Was just pointing out that the one I mentioned specifically (and you edited out to quote me) was actually bad/questionable advice (imo), and actually makes your base easier to attack with lavaloonion..... I find 4 overlapping AD helps my attack, rather than hinders it....

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Originally Posted by facescraper

Air bombs are tricky. The way the hounds explodes grabs most air bombs tucked inside a base. I've been running a few air bombs next to Air Defence though for this reason otherwise they're just a waste on one or two pups. You can throw them outside away from Air Def in the hope they will catch a bunch of loons but most people (myself included) drop hounds from different angles on a base for this reason to catch them all.

Here's my attack in our current war, two stars with them before I even drop heroes... :rolleyes:

http://instagram.com/p/yFmK-ciwlS

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Damn that looked FAR too easy.

The Balloon splash damage just destroyed absolutely everything with ease.

If anything needs to be nerfed, that splash damage does - not the hound...

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Originally Posted by victort

lol

Was just pointing out that the one I mentioned specifically was actually bad/questionable advice (imo), and actually makes your base easier to attack with lavaloonion..... I find 4 overlapping AD helps my attack, rather than hinders it....

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My experience has been different. Also, I can't think of any reasons why overlapping ADs would actually be beneficial to the attacker. Either way, the effect of this single thing on the outcome of the entire battle is minimal because there are so many other factors.

What's a Lava Hound?

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Originally Posted by Janz

My experience has been different. Also, I can't think of any reasons why overlapping ADs would actually be beneficial to the attacker. Either way, the effect of this single thing on the outcome of the entire battle is minimal because there are so many other factors.

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4 centralised and overlapping AD, means rage spells can be dropped later, and further inside the base, anything moving between them is still raged when they get to the next one, win/win for the attacker, also if centralised, you can let your loons hit the outer defences, before releasing the hounds which means your hounds have a longer clear run to the core) ..... (also if too close, you could be hit with a freeze that does double duty....)


Yes other things do come in to play --- which is why I only disagreed with your one point - the others are good or have some merit, it's just that one I disagreed with...

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Originally Posted by Bill2

What's a Lava Hound?

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Assuming you're being serious, here you go...

http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Lava_Hound

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Originally Posted by daz258

Damn that looked FAR too easy.

The Balloon splash damage just destroyed absolutely everything with ease.

If anything needs to be nerfed, that splash damage does - not the hound...

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Hey enough with that nerf talk... lol

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Originally Posted by Janz

Assuming you're being serious, here you go...

http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Lava_Hound

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I left the game 1 year ago, and I'm thinking about coming back, but firstly I want to catch up in the forums1!

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Originally Posted by Bill2

I left the game 1 year ago, and I'm thinking about coming back, but firstly I want to catch up in the forums1!

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In that case, you might want to take a look here to get caught up.

http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Version_History

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Originally Posted by facescraper

Hey enough with that nerf talk... lol

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I agree. Shhh... ;)

I agree. Shhh... ;)[/QUOTE]

I do agree too. It's not fun when SC nerf perfect troops. On the other hand, it's very enjoyable to research how to defend your base against the new strategies and attacks. I like a challenge. :)

I assume we are talking TH10 vs TH10 here? I see TH10 being quite different than lower down, i.e. infernos and freeze.

In my own experience, it's been impossible to defend vs lavaloons in Champs using my own base designs - e.g. I can get a base that does really well vs some people in clan wars (usually vs gowipe or similar), but in regular play someone comes along with 2-3 hounds, around 28 balloons, and max heroes, and gets 2 stars no sweat - in fact I've not been high enough to be where everyone attacks on sight so it seems I only get people who are sure they can get me which is over 50% lavaloons.... So some more insight on defending maxed TH10 vs maxed TH10 would be great...

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Originally Posted by facescraper

Air bombs are tricky. The way the hounds explodes grabs most air bombs tucked inside a base. I've been running a few air bombs next to Air Defence though for this reason otherwise they're just a waste on one or two pups. You can throw them outside away from Air Def in the hope they will catch a bunch of loons but most people (myself included) drop hounds from different angles on a base for this reason to catch them all.

Here's my attack in our current war, two stars with them before I even drop heroes... :rolleyes:

http://instagram.com/p/yFmK-ciwlS

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Also on this I was going to reply to the first point...but was distracted by that dominant video.

The hound itself is bad enough, but as you said the lava pups totally ruin everything as well. It makes it nearly impossible to have any red bombs spare to combat the Loons/Minions as the little pups that burst out pop them all.

I'm not one to say 'overpowered' lightly. But Lavaloonion is OP, and I would be shocked if SuperCell don't nerf it soon.

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Originally Posted by xCompleteBSx

I'm sorry, but a lot of this is just common sense.

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common sense is hard to come by these days

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Originally Posted by Pantu

I agree. Shhh... ;)

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I do agree too. It's not fun when SC nerf perfect troops. On the other hand, it's very enjoyable to research how to defend your base against the new strategies and attacks. I like a challenge. :)[/QUOTE]

Agree, the point in new troops is to challenges you Brain to think about new ways to defend. So SC should stop this nerfing of the troops and allow us, who like the challenges of new troops to try to stop them with out nerfing them.

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Originally Posted by hastur

I assume we are talking TH10 vs TH10 here? I see TH10 being quite different than lower down, i.e. infernos and freeze.

In my own experience, it's been impossible to defend vs lavaloons in Champs using my own base designs - e.g. I can get a base that does really well vs some people in clan wars (usually vs gowipe or similar), but in regular play someone comes along with 2-3 hounds, around 28 balloons, and max heroes, and gets 2 stars no sweat - in fact I've not been high enough to be where everyone attacks on sight so it seems I only get people who are sure they can get me which is over 50% lavaloons.... So some more insight on defending maxed TH10 vs maxed TH10 would be great...

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I'm no expert defender, but I found the best way to prevent 2-stars was to route troops, especially defense-targeting ones, around my base. I did end up getting fairly high in cups, and people almost never got 2 stars before dropping heroes on me. Whether their heroes ended up getting the th was mostly a function of how may defenses they destroyed, but it ended up being 50/50, which isn't too bad for pretty high up.

I personally agree with the op regarding placing ad withing range of each other. It takes down hounds faster. It doesnt need to be all 4. Thry just need to be covering the middle of the opposite ad. That still covers far towards the outer ring. So u cant just drop baloons and wait till the outer ring is dead before deplyoing hounds

After 9 straight 3* (vs max TH9 or low-mid TH10) with lavaloon in CW I got a 0* today! Hahahaha. It was a pretty epic fail really. I knew the lure was tough but that never really bothers me... the biggest thing was my minions focused on killing their max valk from the cc instead of their wizards. I am currently down my AQ and my BK was needed elsewhere.

I knew right then it was all over but went in full spells etc anyways... 42% as those wiz chipped away at my bloons after my hounds were taken out by L7 AD and max IT. Hilarious!

So yeah. Even if you do it right 10000000 times without problems... all it takes is that one "common sense" mistake for it to be all over.

Stupid cc wizards :/

Tbh the best defense is not to centralize the air defense around the town hall. AND make sure a golem and the opposing heroes cant get to 2 of them or 1 and your queen. You can technically do a anti hog thing with ring defenses to send the loons on a ride, but that's pretty bad against other stuff notably gowipe.

in my experience, the most important thing is to route the loons.. If the loons can't kill Inferno/AD fast enough, then the lavahounds will die sooner or later, and when the hounds die, the loons will die really fast from inferno/AD.
And sometimes, depending on the number of the hounds, the loons might die quite fast from the WT/AT/bombs/other if they are routed well

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Originally Posted by Janz

• Air defenses out of range of some archer towers/wizard towers. Hounds go straight for the ADs. If the ADs are out of range of an archer tower/wizard tower, the archer tower/wiz tower will not be able to reach the hounds. They will attack the balloons instead.

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This is actually an interesting idea, but sadly it also means that AD can't reach AT/WT ranges, which opens the base to an easy Holo attack