3 Star Attacking Guide for LavaLoon / LaLoon - 2017 | Clash Of Cans | TEC Clashzz

LavaLoon is an excellent attacking strategy utilizing Lava Hounds and Balloons. Air attacks are slowly coming back and it’s possible to 3 Star with this strategy again. Right now I don’t see it being the most frequently used attack, but with that many ground focused defensive bases, this strategy can yield a lot of good results.

How LavaLoon / LaLoon Works

The basic strategy behind LavaLoon is to take down as many Air Defenses as possible, then send in your Lava Hounds to tank away damage and distract defenses with Lava Pups. Shortly after, sending in Balloons to take down defenses while the Lava Hounds do their job and then finally your clean up troops to take down what’s left. In detail it’s a little more complicated.  This is what I will show you in this guide! :)

Which Town Halls Levels does LavaLoon work?

Town Hall 9 to Town Hall 11

Main Purpose Of This Attacking Strategy

Clan War, Trophy Pushing and also (Gold) Farming for TH11 (League Bonus required!)

Pros of LavaLoon:

+ Quite Easy To Use, not many steps

+ No complicated scouting for Traps and pathing required

Cons of LavaLoon:

– Requires high level Spells & Lava Hound and max level Balloons

– Sometimes requires higher level Heroes (for solid TH10 and TH11)

Troop Variations for LaLoon / LavaLoon

There are different variations, but only small differences. The attack strategy itself is always the same, but some prefer to use Minions, others bring only Balloons. These variations are personal preference and you should try them out yourself to see what works best for you.

In general, I always recommend bringing 4 Lava Hounds for TH10 and TH11. If you’re TH9 and have Level 2 Lava Hounds, you can also try with 3 Lava Hounds.

In general, you should bring the 4 Lava Hounds to have at least one of them available when it comes down to the last Air Defense.

Spells are also a question of your personal style and favor. The best working composition allows you to take out 1 Air Defense with spells:

• 2 Lightning & 1 Earthquake to zap 1 Air Defense + Haste Spells
• 1 Poison Spell for the defending Heroes
• Fill up with Haste Spells!

Additional Scouting Tip!

If you have an option, go for bases with Town Halls that have defenses next to them, like this:

Often the splash damage of the Balloons is enough to get the Town Hall destroyed without sending in Heroes to clean it up!

LavaLoon Step by Step

Now let’s take a look at the different steps that this attack requires. The most crucial part of this strategy is not the timing of deployment, but where you decide to start your attack. LavaLoon attacking consists of these 5 steps:

1. Take care of the Queen & the Clan Castle
2. Choose the correct side to start attack and choose which Air Defense you will take down with your ZapQuake (2 Lightning Spells + 1 Earthquake Spell)
3. Send in your LavaHounds
4. Surgical Balloon deployment
5. Spells & Clean Up
6. Let’s have a closer look at these steps.

Prevent Fails of LaLoon

This attacking strategy is pretty solid and once you get into a routine you will get your results. However, there are some things that will make these attacks fail, so watch out:

1. Take care of the defending Archer Queen
2. Take care of the Clan Castle Troops

Often enough the Queen is offset so you can take her down with a Suicide King or Queen and also pull the CC troops in the same step.

Choosing the correct side to attack with LavaLoon / LaLoon

There are a few variables to consider when deciding where to start you attack:

• Where are the Air Defenses and what level?
• Where are the Air Sweepers placed & what Direction are the covering?
• (TH10 and TH11) Where are the Inferno Towers?

If the Air Defenses are all inside the core, you’ll have a hard time. Lava Hounds will go directly to Air Defenses leaving outside defenses to take out your Balloons.

This will not work because you need to distract the defenses with your Lava Hounds to give the Balloons opportunity to take them down from the outside in.

Always attack in a straight line – you should avoid attacking from a corner because your Balloons will group together and get killed easier.

Also, take a close look where the Air Sweepers are pointed. They can really slow down your Balloons and Lava Hounds. This too gives defenses the chance to target Balloons instead of the Lava Hounds or can prevent the Balloons from dealing damage on defenses. Try not to attack directly INTO the direction of an Air Sweeper when possible. Come from behind or from the side.

Regarding Inferno Towers, you can directly attack a base with Single-Target Inferno Towers. This mode is an invitation to crush the base:

Take Down The Air Defense with ZapQuake

Now it’s time to take down the Air Defense. This step is not just about the the Air Defense, it’s also about the pathing of the Lava Hounds. If you take down the wrong Air Defense, your Hounds might get into trouble by incorrect pathing and your attack can fail.

What you want is a clear pathing of the Lava Hounds, because you will deploy your Balloons at their rear.

Check out this base – what Air Defense would you take down with your spells?

The answer always depends on where you will start your attack. What you want to do is always have a kind of “L” left, so your Lava Hounds will just go from one to another and you can smoothly add your Balloons.

In this case you will ZapQuake the central Air Defense.

If they are in a formation like this, it doesn’t really matter which one you take

But you will ALWAYS HAVE TO START THE LAVA HOUND ATTACK ON THE END OF THE “L”!

If you take down the bottom side with the spells, you will need to start your attack with the Lava Hounds either at 3 o’clock or 9 o’clock.

You don’t want your Lava Hounds to go too deep into the base, otherwise your Balloons won’t follow fast enough to take down the other Air Defenses. The results will be bad for you becaue you will not have Lava Hounds left and the Balloons go down too quick.

Send in the Lava Hounds

First things first, I often see people deploying their Hounds simultaniously on multiple Air Defenses. That’s not good, because you can just take down one and then use the leftover troops to support at the next Air Defense.

You will deploy 2 of your lava Hounds on the first Air Defense and then send in soome Balloons after it.

Send only as much as you need, that’s about 2-3 Balloons per defense.

Follow the line!

Once the Air Defense and the defenses are down in this area, your troops will go to the next one.

You should still have 2 Lava Hounds left, and now you need to deploy so you have 2 Lava Hounds on the Air Defense again.

And now you also deploy another couple of Balloons, depending how much you have left.

In regular curcumstances, you should not have lost that many Balloons, so 4-5 wil be enough.

This step repeats again after the second Air Defense is down.

Spell Deployment for LavaLoon / LaLoon

Deploy your Haste Spells so your Balloons follow up with your Lava Hounds. You always want to have them grouped up, so the lava Pups don’t get eaten alive within seconds.

Step 5 Cleaning Up

Cleaning up is something you don’t have to deal with – the spawned Lava Pups will take care of the trash buildings and resource buildings.

Conclusion

LavaLoon was a major player in 2015 and is starting a comeback in the end of 2016. If you like air attacks, you’re still able to crush bases. I personally like air attacks and this strategy is very simple. No need for multiple attacking stages, kill squads, etc. You simply choose the correct side to start your attack, deploy your troops, deploy your Spells and push to >50% destruction!!!