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| Here comes the Zap Quake! |
Zap-Quake (aka zapquake) is a new strategy that employs the use of the earthquake dark spell in conjunction with the lightning spell to destroy air defenses using the fewest spell spaces possible. This is a guide that will help you master the different approaches to the zapquake strategy, and I have also provided several tables that will show you how many lightning spells you will need to use with an earthquake spell (at a given lightning and quake spell level) to destroy an air defense of a given level. The zapquake attack is very versatile and can be used in almost any situation for many TH levels. By the end of this guide, you should be able to use several variations of the zapquake attack, which will allow you to attack many different base designs and have success in many different situations (such as inactive heroes that are being upgraded or facing a higher level base than your own).
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| Zap Quaking 2016! |
In general, you will want to use the zapquake to destroy the air defense that is the hardest to get to or the hardest for your army to destroy. This way, you can take out the easier ones that much faster without worrying about another air defense attacking your army from deeper within the base. A pro tip for this strategy is this: if you find that the queen is nearby one of the air defenses, you can sometimes take her out along with the air defense by waiting for her to walk near the air defense while she is doing her normal patrol she does before you start your attack, before dropping your zapquake spells. This can kill her outright, and really make the rest of your attack much easier.
Zap Quake Spell Combinations
The spells you take along in your zapquake attacks will depend on the army you are using as well as which style of zapquake you intend to do. If you have any leftover spell space, you will want to take either rage or haste spells (preferably haste since you can take more of them), to help the balloons or dragons move about the base much faster.
For a double zapquake, you will use:
4 lightning spells, 2 earthquake spells
To take out 2 air defenses by zapping each twice then using a single quake that reaches them both:
4 lightning spells, 1 earthquake spell
To take out 1 air defense and if you need a jump to reach the queen:
2 lightning spells, 1 earthquake spell, and 1 jump spell
Types of Armies that Work Well With Zap Quake:
- 1-5 Lava Hounds (the number of air defenses you will have left over after zapquake/kill squad + 1), 10-20 Balloons
- 1-3 Lava Hounds, 6-10 Dragons
- As many Dragons as you can take
- Dragons and some Balloons (Dragoons)
- 1-3 Lava Hounds, 1-2 Golems, 10-20 Balloons, 6-12 Wizards
For Lava Hounds and Balloons:
But if your heroes are up to the task, you will first destroy the toughest air defense to get to or the one furthest from where you plan on starting your air attack. After destroying it, you will send out your heroes and a wall breaker or two to get them into the first compartment nearest to the enemy queen. Note that if the queen's altar is against a wall, she will hop over it to attack your heroes once they move within range of her, allowing your King to take her out. As soon as she begins attacking your heroes, they will turn and target her, sometimes this even gets them to move deeper into the base and nearer to the next air defense. They will likely also pull the CC troops during this time as well, so if you haven't used their abilities yet, now may be a good time to have your finger at the ready in case they start taking heavy damage. You can also opt to take a poison spell in place of a haste if you think your heroes might need some extra help.
After you have destroyed the intended air defenses and killed the enemy queen and clan castle troops, you will begin the air raid portion of your attack. The lava hounds will tank for the balloons while they take out the final air defenses, and when the hounds begin popping (dying) they spawn several lava pups that are very similar to minions, which will help the balloons with clean-up duty. Place your remaining haste/rage spells near the remaining air defenses in spots that will allow them to catch as many of the balloons as possible. The hounds should be able to live long enough to allow your balloons to take down the remaining air defenses, and if you're lucky they will die off just as the air defenses go down and explode into several pups, since the pups will be much more help than the hound in destroying the remaining base structures.
For Lava Hounds and Dragons (or just Dragons):
If you're heroes are moderately high level and you are confident they can survive long enough on their own to take down the enemy CC and an air defense (and maybe the enemy queen), you may opt to use dragons instead of the golem, kill squad, and balloons with your lava hounds. You will be able to take between 6-10 dragons depending on how many hounds you need and whether you take along support troops for your heroes. You can still take a golem to help your heroes using this strategy, preferably in your CC, but this will definitely hurt you in terms of taking up a lot of your already limited space, since the dragons will be taking up 20 spaces each already. This strategy is a little simpler, because you can choose to leave the enemy queen alone if she is too difficult to pull, since the dragons are tough and will be able to tank her damage until they take her down. Also always remember to take along a few wall breakers to get your kill squad into the right compartment, otherwise you will risk them just circling the base which would be useless.
The same overall strategy still applies; zap down one or two of the air defenses before beginning your attack. You can either choose to take along a few wizards to help your heroes take out another air defense and the clan castle troops (and possibly the queen), or you can just send your heroes and use a few wall breakers to get them into the compartment with the air defense (or a compartment adjacent to an air defense since the queen and/or wizards will shoot over the wall and destroy it). You can take along a heal or jump if needed to help your troops access everything they need to take out and help them survive longer.
Once your kill squad has accomplished their tasks, you can release your lava hounds and dragons to begin your air attack. You will want to release the hound(s) so that it(they) only begin taking damage at the time the dragons start to get in range of the remaining air defense(s). You will also want to release the hound(s) so that they trip as many air bombs and traps as possible while they path towards the air defenses. Sometimes this will mean sending them from the opposite side of the target air defenses, and other times it will mean sending them from some other angle, you will have to make your best judgement on where the most likely spots for the air traps are.
The rest of the attack is basically the same as before; you will use your remaining rage and haste spells to speed up your dragons as they work their way through the base, especially while they are still dealing with any remaining air defenses because the air defenses will be the main threat to your dragons from this point forward. If all goes according to plan, at this point you should be on your way to a 3-star victory!
One final note: If you are using only dragons as your air raid army, you will want to save as many spells as you can to help speed them up and get them to the remaining air defenses as quickly as possible. Without the hounds to tank for them, the dragons will be more susceptible to the air defenses and will need more help to get past them. The advantage to this strategy is that you will be able to take more dragons with you, so you can afford to lose a few to the air defenses if needed. You will be able to take 3 extra dragons in place of 2 lava hounds, so it is quite a significant increase in the number of dragons you can take to battle if you opt to leave the lava hounds out of the fight. In this strategy it is more important than ever for you to take out as many of the air defenses as possible before releasing your dragons, because they will not be able to survive for long if there are more than 2 air defenses remaining.
For Dragons and Balloons (aka Dragoons):
This attack is very similar to the variation of zapquake that uses only dragons for the air portion of the raid. You will still want to take out as many air defenses as possible before beginning your air attack, so definitely take enough support troops along to ensure your heroes are able to take out 1-2 air defenses and the CC, and preferably the enemy queen as well (if not, she will make very short work of your balloons). Don't forget to take a couple of wall breakers to get them into the first compartment. You will probably want to bring along between 6-10 dragons and 8-12 balloons (you can also bring 1-2 lava hounds if so desired, but keep in mind how much space you are going to be using!). For spells, you should take 1-3 rage, 1-4 haste, and either a heal or jump if needed for the kill squad, and of course 2 lightning and 1 quake for each air defense you want to zap down at the beginning.
Once your kill squad is able to achieve their goals of killing the enemy queen and CC, and hopefully an air defense as well, you can begin your air raid. Start by releasing your dragons (and hound(s) if you have brought any) in such a way as to let them reach the remaining air defenses as quickly as possible. Specifically for the hounds, in this strategy it is very helpful to send them from the angle that will let them trip as many air traps as possible, because air traps and skeletons can wreak havoc on your balloons!
After your dragons have a decent head start (usually around the time they are about to enter the range of the air defenses) you can begin releasing your balloons in groups of 3-4 or by spamming them in a line behind your line of dragons (preferably the first option). By releasing the balloons in groups, you can have different groups released at different angles so that even if one group gets distracted and moves away from the air defenses, the other groups should still be able to make their way to the air defense. When spamming balloons, they tend to either stay grouped up and make easy targets for wizard towers and air mines, or they don't group up at all and get shot down one by one before they are able to take out any defenses. So try to plan ahead several paths that will have a good possibility of getting the loons to the air defenses quickly, and drop a group at each good spot you found in your scouting.
While the dragons or hounds are tanking the air defenses, the balloons will come from behind them with the help of rage/haste spells and quickly take out the remaining air defenses (and the other defenses as well). After that, the base is yours! There will be practically nothing standing in the way of your 3-star victory, except maybe left-over traps or the battle timer...
For Golems and Wizards with Lava Hounds and Balloons:
This strategy is the same as the above strategies, but with this strategy you commit a sizable portion of your army space to ensuring your kill squad is able to do it's job completely. This is a good way to go if you are facing a base that has an outside compartment adjacent to two air defenses, because if your kill squad can destroy them both and you have zapquaked another one you will only have one air defense left to deal with.
You will take along a single golem (maybe 2 if you really really need it), a few wizards (4-10 should be plenty to support your heroes and golem), enough hounds to equal the number of air defenses remaining at the start of the air portion of the raid plus one, and the rest of your army will be filled with balloons (hopefully you will end up having around 10-20 balloons), and finally just enough wall breakers to get you into the compartment that will allow you to take out as many air defenses as possible, probably around 2-8 wall breakers. And yes, even if you plan on being able to destroy all the air defenses before the air portion of the raid, I would still recommend taking along a single lava hound just to help tank for the balloons and cause some havoc when it explodes upon death (and also give you some pups to help the balloons clean up). For spells, take 2 lightning spells and 1 quake for each air defense you plan to destroy using the zapquake strategy, 1 jump if needed for the kill squad, and use the space you have left for as many rage or haste spells as you can take, also remember to either get a quake or haste spell in your CC depending on whether you already have enough quakes or not.
For the air portion, you will drop the hounds first, making sure they pick up as many skeletons and air traps as possible on their way to the air defenses. Then you will drop your balloons and wisely choose where to deploy your rage/haste spells to help them get to the remaining air defenses as quickly as possible. It is better to use them early on to make sure they take out the air defenses before the hounds go down, otherwise the balloons will die off quickly once they start being targeted by the air defenses. Once the air defenses are dealt with, the only real threat remaining is traps and wizard towers. If you saved any extra balloons, this is a great time to deploy them to distract wizard towers while your bigger groups of balloons (that are probably low on hit points by now) zero in on the wiz tower and take it out, because it is much better to have the wizard towers shooting at a single balloon rather than an entire group. Avoiding any major catastrophe, you will be able to wipe out the base in surprisingly quick fashion with these strategies.
It takes some practice to get skilled at these attacks, but it is well worth it in the end. You will be able to 3-star a variety of bases using the zapquake strategy, and now you know exactly how to do it. But as I have said before, seeing and doing are two totally different things, so make sure to get plenty of practice in on farming attacks before trying this strategy out in war. Good luck, Clash On!!!
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