3-Star How-to Video Compilation by Town Hall

A compilation of How-To videos organized by TH level. Hope this helps your clan.

http://slayersredux.weebly.com/

12/14/15 Update: added giant bomb placement page, TH 8.5 page. 2 x BBQ strategy also added to TH9 page.

I started to phase out when I read, "Hogging Update: With the arrival of the poison spell, we are seeing more dragons with loons in clan castles. We recommend the following troop composition for CC kill: 18 archers, 8 wizards, 30 hogs. Drop 18 archers in a circle around a lured dragon and loon. Then drop one or two wizards. Save the remaining wizards for clean up."

18 archers and 8 wizards? All that unnecessary room comes at a cost of fewer hogs, which is not ideal.

6 is all you need, using either giant or B King to distract CC (i.e. drag and loon in this case) &, if things go as planned, you really only need 5 wizards (if you wanted to push it). I take 6, as I want one extra in case something goes awry with the CC kill and need an extra wiz. I also find it nice to drop a single wizard after my hogs have done there job on the other side of the base to help clean, so I almost always go with 6 wizards.

With 6 wizards, if you do it right/goes according to plan, you'll likely have 5 wizards cleaning up, which is plenty...hogs are a far, far better cleanup troop than wizards.

Using B king to distract for wiz is completely unnecessary. I prefer 13 arch and 1 wiz for the cc kill, usually leaves me with all but a few archers remaining. Drop hogs down and you won't lose any of these remaining offensive troops, and you still have the B king to distract cannons/AT's on back end as well as 7 wiz for cleanup.

Dropping the giant to get roasted will work but sometimes pulls the drag beyond wiz range and into the defenses. We adopted archers with a wiz or two over a distracting giant/BK to prevent anything from "going awry" with the cc kill, as you put it. Works every time. Thanks for the input, though. We wrote up 18 archers months ago when first experimenting with the technique and have since adopted a 13 arch, 8 wiz combo with 31 hogs.

As for hogs being better clean up troops than wizards, I again disagree. I drop wizards behind hogs as they clear each section of the base. By the time the hogs are finished with defenses, the wiz have cleared one half, and the other 3-4 wiz are quickly taking down all peripheral structures where the hogs finish. The hogs then jump back into the core and clean up only non-defensive buildings within walls. My attacks usually last 1:30-2:00 using this technique.

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Originally Posted by Travania

Using B king to distract for wiz is completely unnecessary. I prefer 13 arch and 1 wiz for the cc kill, usually leaves me with all but a few archers remaining. Drop hogs down and you won't lose any of these remaining offensive troops, and you still have the B king to distract cannons/AT's on back end as well as 7 wiz for cleanup.

Dropping the giant to get roasted will work but sometimes pulls the drag beyond wiz range and into the defenses. We adopted archers with a wiz or two over a distracting giant/BK to prevent anything from "going awry" with the cc kill, as you put it. Works every time. Thanks for the input, though. We wrote up 18 archers months ago when first experimenting with the technique and have since adopted a 13 arch, 8 wiz combo with 31 hogs.

As for hogs being better clean up troops than wizards, I again disagree. I drop wizards behind hogs as they clear each section of the base. By the time the hogs are finished with defenses, the wiz have cleared one half, and the other 3-4 wiz are quickly taking down all peripheral structures where the hogs finish. The hogs then jump back into the core and clean up only non-defensive buildings within walls. My attacks usually last 1:30-2:00 using this technique.

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It works for the cc kill every time but if your hogs don't clear the base you're out of luck. You increase the odds of the hogs making it through the base by bringing more hogs. That's it. That's the only thing you can do to upgrade your odds. If you do it my or lunatic's way, you'll have half the wizards clear the outside on one side if the base, the other half will split to the other side, and they will clear that while the hogs wreck the base. You then have a wizard left over if you don't get a good hog split to help clean up, and will find that the hogs ignore the walls and are far better clean up troops. Give me one reason why I should waste all of that space on troops other than hogs.

Phrased another way, it will take x hogs to take out a base. Your way will work if that number is 32 or lower, whereas our way works if the number is 40 or lower and will work on any base yours works on.

Well, what's really being discussed here is the cc kill, no? We're both poisoning the drag/loon during the kill. The arch/wiz method accomplishes the kill with a troop space of 17 (13 archers and 1 wizard). You accomplish it with 4-5 wiz and a giant (troop space of 21-25). Our way is simply cheaper and doesn't require a BK or giant (which can lead the dragon away from the wizards and the wizards into the line of fire).

So our cc kill will actually allow you to take more hogs, if that's what you're after. I would think that being able to deploy wizards behind hogs is more efficient with the clock, rather than having to wait for hogs to clear the base before placing remaining clean-up hogs to target non-defensive structures around the base.

That being said, I may try dropping the wizard count as follows: 12 arch/ 1 wiz cc kill, 36 hogs + 5 cc hogs (41 total), 1 wiz cleanup. Saving 5 hogs for cleanup will be an interesting tweak. And yet, 36 hogs using our 13 arch, 8 wiz method has always been enough to 3-star most any max TH8 ;).

Appreciate the input, gents. We've been cleaning up with wizards for so long, cleaning up with hogs never really occurred to me until this post. Will give it a shot.

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Originally Posted by Travania

Well, what's really being discussed here is the cc kill, no? We're both poisoning the drag/loon during the kill. The arch/wiz method accomplishes the kill with a troop space of 17 (13 archers and 1 wizard). You accomplish it with 4-5 wiz and a giant (troop space of 21-25). Our way is simply cheaper and doesn't require a BK or giant (which can lead the dragon away from the wizards and the wizards into the line of fire).

So our cc kill will actually allow you to take more hogs, if that's what you're after. I would think that being able to deploy wizards behind hogs is more efficient with the clock, rather than having to wait for hogs to clear the base before placing remaining clean-up hogs to target non-defensive structures around the base.

That being said, I may try dropping the wizard count as follows: 12 arch/ 1 wiz cc kill, 36 hogs + 5 cc hogs (41 total), 1 wiz cleanup. Saving 5 hogs for cleanup will be an interesting tweak. And yet, 36 hogs using our 13 wiz, 8 arch method has always been enough to 3-star most any max TH8 ;).

Appreciate the input, gents. We've been cleaning up with wizards for so long, cleaning up with hogs never really occurred to me until this post. Will give it a shot.

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I don't care how you divvy up the CC kill, the idea is that you should be taking at least 40 hogs. I

The troop count for the cc kill is ultimately what determines how many hogs you can take, so might be worth caring about! Up until now I've elected to take 4-5 wiz over 4-5 hogs for cleanup, but it's worth trying it your way, for sure. I've updated the page to reflect these multiple possible hogging compositions.

On another note, anybody have a high-quality GoWiVa How-to video for TH8 or 9?

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Originally Posted by Travania

Using B king to distract for wiz is completely unnecessary.

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I don't do this, as I don't prefer it. I do, however, respect the mindset of others who do and are successful with it. I use a giant every time

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Originally Posted by Travania

Dropping the giant to get roasted will work but sometimes pulls the drag beyond wiz range and into the defenses.

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You're likely doing it wrong then. I've seen one miss in the last...idk...50 hog runs? And that was because the loon was pulled too close. Was funny actually...

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Originally Posted by Travania

We adopted archers with a wiz or two over a distracting giant/BK to prevent anything from "going awry" with the cc kill, as you put it. Works every time. Thanks for the input, though. We wrote up 18 archers months ago when first experimenting with the technique and have since adopted a 13 arch, 8 wiz combo with 31 hogs.

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You don't need anywhere near that much to kill the CC

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Originally Posted by Travania

As for hogs being better clean up troops than wizards, I again disagree.

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Ehh, it's not even close really. Hogs are a far superior cleanup troop. Despite the fact that hogs have less DPS, they can actually survive a GB, are faster, and hop over walls, to say nothing about... (see further comment below)

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Originally Posted by Travania

I drop wizards behind hogs as they clear each section of the base. By the time the hogs are finished with defenses, the wiz have cleared one half, and the other 3-4 wiz are quickly taking down all peripheral structures where the hogs finish. The hogs then jump back into the core and clean up only non-defensive buildings within walls. My attacks usually last 1:30-2:00 using this technique.

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Yes, but let's not forget that destroying defenses is, and always will be, the #1 priority for a hog run. As such, you always, always, always, want to bring as many hogs as possible for that to be successful. Cleanup is an after thought anyways

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Originally Posted by Travania

Well, what's really being discussed here is the cc kill, no?

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Not necessarily. I'm referring to using ~38 hogs during a run. Tyler runs 40 I think, but I consider the difference to be immaterial. I agree with using the B king as a distract, Tyler doesn't, but he gets ~2 more hogs

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Originally Posted by Travania

We're both poisoning the drag/loon during the kill.

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I almost never do. I save poison for skellies. And I use, on average, 1 hog to pull, say 2-3 arch/barb to anchor and position, 1 giant for distract and I lose 1 wizard out of the 5 that I drop for drag/loon.

That's 16-17 spots and I save my poison. In those rare circumstances where I do poison the drag in the CC, I'll only use like 3 wizards to kill it (the loon, or whatever will be gone).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Travania

The arch/wiz method accomplishes the kill with a troop space of 17 (13 archers and 1 wizard). You accomplish it with 4-5 wiz and a giant (troop space of 21-25). Our way is simply cheaper and doesn't require a BK or giant (which can lead the dragon away from the wizards and the wizards into the line of fire).

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False. I only lose 1 wizard on average.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Travania

That being said, I may try dropping the wizard count as follows: 12 arch/ 1 wiz cc kill, 36 hogs + 5 cc hogs (41 total), 1 wiz cleanup. Saving 5 hogs for cleanup will be an interesting tweak. And yet, 36 hogs using our 13 arch, 8 wiz method has always been enough to 3-star most any max TH8 ;).

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I don't understand the logic of saving hogs for cleanup. In my mind, I want every swinging hog possible to help destroy the defenses. 5 hogs for cleanup is a huge mistake in my mind. That's a significant amount of DPS that's being removed unnecessarily

If you're saving the hogs for cleanup, you get 5 hogs, whereas if you use them earlier in the raid you'll likely have another 8-10 hogs left for cleanup. Using them "For cleanup" is the wrong mindset. And since the update where poison spells aren't likely to use the skeletons I mostly use the poison on the dragon, which means that when my wizards knock the dragon out of the sky my BK is at full health to tank the point defenses from the wizards in the couple seconds before the hogs wipe them out so I don't lose any wizards.

Fringe or tyler, do you have replays showing your cc kill and hogging method? Below is one from our most recent war using 7 wiz 12 arch for cc kill and cleanup, rest hogs. Would like to see the effectiveness of your method in action, preferably against a base with a double giant bomb.

https://youtu.be/dgSikjG7b4E