Hog Rider

Hog Rider




General Information:

The hog rider has high damage per second and moderate hit points, he only takes 2 minutes to train. Because of his moderate levels of health and high levels of damage, and his preferred target being defenses, the hog rider can be used as a replacement for giants. In the hands of even an unskilled player, the hog rider is one of the most powerful units if not the most powerful in CoC (witches & golems take a little more finesse to use effectively). Hog riders are quite easy to use and very effective used in groups (provided heal spells are used to keep them in the battle) against th7 to th10 base setups.




War Usage:

Hog riders are the ultimate war unit for use by  th7, th8, and th9  members.  Experience has shown it is impossible for a th7 to defend against and close to impossible for a th8 to defend against a heavy hog rider attack. With good healing spell placement and cleanup/support units, it is even difficult for th9 players not to get 3-starred by a mass hog rider attack. The strategy for using the hog rider is straight forward:

  l) Load up on healing spells and or maybe a rage spell along with your hog riders.  

  2) Plan to take troops for clan castle elimination, generally archers, wizards etc. for enemy clan castle troops.

3) Lure out the clan castle troops and hero units as a priority. Once activated,  draw them away from defenses if you can take them out with your planed troops or your own hero's as a last resort. 

4) Once clan castle and hero's are cleared , drop your Hog Riders.  

5) Try not to drop them all in the same place, it will leave the hogs vulnerable to big bomb splash effects.

6) If your senses tell you there might be a trap send in a single troop or hog to set off, trust your experience...save hogs. 

7) As the hog riders take damage (particularly from  bombs), drop a healing spell on the pack of hog riders when they get near heavy concentrations of defense, so the hogs will stay in range for a bit to get the full benefit of the healing spell.  

8) Timing of the pause in the healing spell and placement is the key to keeping your hogs in the battle and comes from practice and experience using the hog rider.  

9) A high-level healing spell will easily top off the hog riders as they continue through the enemy’s base. Placing with proper timing in heavy splash damage is another key to their survival, properly placed healing will negate a large amount of heavy splash damage per second, keeping them topped off. 

Hog Riders Spells:

The hog rider does very well with the healing spell, the hog riders main weakness in defense structures attack is splash damage, so proper timing and placement is the key to keeping the hog rider in the battle. The rage spell is useful when the hogs approach a high-concentration area of splash damage defenses..less time destroying equaling less splash damage to the hog riders. (typically found near a town hall on a war base). A freeze spell is quite useful for multi-target inferno towers.

TH9 ATTACK:

When attacking a th9 enemy base, a different more cautious thought out attack needs to be applied, many times I have seen the most problems occur in th9 attacks, thus this separate section. There will be use of big bombs, spring traps, skeleton traps, and such in an effort to try to curb hog rider attacks. Healing spells and upgrades (for more health) help offset this significantly. Experience has shown on th9 bases sometimes you walk into a trap with multiple big bombs and hog riders might get taken out as a group. This isn't as much a problem for th7 & th8...but for th9 be aware of this situation and learn to read the enemy base...for large empty areas, generally around the centrally spaced town hall(th) or along the hogs paths of travel. ( Learning to read the enemy base takes time and review of past attacks after each war helps as is learning the general paths of hogs in various base attacks...again study is the key).  For this reason when first learning th9 attacks and reading of defenses, never send in all 25+ hog riders in a single attack wave. Instead, drop about 15, then keep about 10+ on reserve. Once your first wave takes out a significant number of your enemy’s base defenses, drop the remaining at another end of the enemy’s base, so that each hog rider group is operating independently of each other.



The Hog Riders 3 Main Weaknesses: Dealing With Each

(1) Bombs: 

The biggest weakness of the Hog Rider is pockets in the enemy’s base that are loaded with big bombs and regular bombs ,  traps and such laid out to specifically destroy clumps of hog riders. Dropping a healing spell as soon as you notice these traps being triggered is key if you want to save your hog riders, additionally dropping a healing spell ahead before hogs reach/cross this area negates the damage. Again this comes from the experience you gain from studying your hog attacks and advanced reading of base layouts (this will come to you with time, study, and practice...so don't get discouraged). Additionally, spreading your hog riders out into two attacks to help mitigate this effect if you're unsure.


 (2) Spring Traps:

Spring traps are hard to avoid and well-designed bases will naturally funnel units that target defensive targets over a few spring traps. A large number of hog riders is important for countering these traps, as one trap will rarely flip more than 3 hog riders even when the hog riders are traveling in large number together. 


(3) Inferno Tower:

Inferno towers set to multi-target are the hardest thing to deal with, blocking  the healing spell from working. A freeze spell on inferno towers or placement of hog riders that they target perimeter defenses rather than the inferno towers is sometimes required. Hog riders are weak against multi-target inferno towers, hog riders are strong against single-target towers verses the king or queen which excel at multi-targeted inferno towers and are weak against single target inferno towers. Therefore, use hog riders to take out single-target inferno towers and king/queen to take out the multi-target inferno towers.


Hog Rider Stats:

Preferred Target	Attack Type	Housing Spaces	Training Time	Movement Speed	Attack Speed	Dark Barracks Level Required	Range
Defenses	Melee (Ground Only)	5	2m	24	1s	2	0.6 tiles

Level	Damage per Second	Hit points	Training Cost	Research Cost	Laboratory Level Required	Research Time
1	60	270	40	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	70	312	45	20,000	5	8 days
3	80	360	52	30,000	6	10 days
4	92	415	58	40,000	6	12 days
5	105	475	65	50,000	7	14 days