[STRATEGY]Theory of Clash #1: Adjusting Kill Squad parameters to match objectives

Most TH9 three star attacks use some form of kill squad to get out the enemy queen and some combination of double giant bomb spots or CC or air defences, etc. The problem can be that we often get stuck doing more or less the same killsquad on base after base after base.

What I suggest is being very aggressive at a) establishing what the objectives of the kill squad are and b) only taking enough troops and spells to accomplish those tasks within a reasonable margin of error. At the low end you might be trying to accomplish nothing more than a hero for hero trade. At the high end your "kill squad" is more like "the entry point for your mass valks".

Ways we can adjust:

1. one two or three golems
2. 3-12+ valks.
3. Wizards beyond minimum needed to funnel 5)witches (fairly rare relative to valks but possibly still useful for regions with lots of point not splash damage)
4. heal spells
5. rage spells
6. and many more...

The point here is that there is a lot of different ways we can modulate the power of our kill squads. One of the more experiential components of the game is getting a feel for what size kill squad is necessary to accomplish what kinds of goals.

Troop and spell selection is a question about relative value. Anything you expend on your killsquad (that extra golem, a rage) is something you can't use on the main phase of the attack. It is obviously a disaster when your kill squad fails to accomplish a key objective like the queen or CC kill, the air defence taken down, or a double giant bomb trigger. But what is less obvious but still bad is when your kill squad over kills its objectives. For instance, on a golalo attack, if you use a spell and the kill squad ends up taking out a bunch of mortars and canons, and non defence buildings like the town hall beyond the original queen/air d objectives, that is only a small increase in the value of the kill squad, which is often far less than the increase in value of an extra couple hastes on the loons.

After deciding what your main objectives are and roughly the amount of power needed to accomplish it, the question turns to a more complicated one I will leave for another post: how to decide which of the many ways to beef up a kill squad. Do I add the third golem, or a few valks? Should I rage for the dragon kill or just bring more wiz as? Heal or rage those valks? Certain bases are more suited to some types of kill squad buffs than others.

tl:dr: think about what you want your killsquad to accomplish, and and how to take only just enough to accomplish that within the margin of error.