- Introduction
The best thing a TH8 player can do to 3star a base in a clan war is mass dragons. Dragons lv3 are not hard to upgrade, of course this also works for lv2 dragons.
There are 2 ways of attacking with dragons, either you bring rage spells and a heal spell or you bring 3 lightning spells. Trust me when I say DO NOT MIX. Lightning spells only have few specific usages:
- 1 Lightning spell kills enemy CC troops
- 2 Lightning spells kill a mortar, that’s useful for attacking with giants
- 3 Lightning spells kill an airdef, the goal of this strategy
- Requirements
A little skill is required if you want to 3star a base, a 2star is almost guaranteed with mass drags. Firs thigh you need, are of course:
- Dragons
Lv3 is ideal, lv 2 also works, I would not advise going for a th8 with lv1 dragons unless the air defenses are really low level
Second thing you need is the
- Lightning spell, and 3 of them
Know what your lightning spells can, and what they can’t:
- Level 2 lightning spells can kill lv 4 airdef
- Level 3 LS can kill lvl 5 airdef
- Level 4 LS can kill lv 6 airdef
- Level 5 LS can kill lv 7 airdef
With every kind of lightnings you can kill almost every Castle troop except dragons.
The third thing is, you need something to lure out the CC. There aren’t many players that build an unlurable CC base at TH8, so in general, every base can be lured with a hog rider. He is fast, has decent health and can jump into the CCs perimeter. If you aren’t sure he survives long enough, bring 2.
What you also need:
- Good clan mates that can hook you up with lv4+ hogs or max balloons
- The right base for a 3star and the attack
A 3star for your clan means: 1 attack is used on that player, and DONE. If you 2star someone in the bottom half, it means someone else has to attack a second time to get a 3star, rendering your attack absolutely useless. So attack one that you are sure you can 3star, and don’t go for loot, you want your clan to win!
What you are looking for is one exposed air defense. I took some bases from our current war to explain the important points:
1) 
This is a safe 3star due to TWO exposed airdef. The third doesn’t matter because you have your lightning spells.
Before youre building your army, develop a plan. Check out where the teslas might be, as your hogs might be distracted. The first thing to do:
- Lure the CC
Luring is not that necessary when attacking with dragons, but since youre bringing some lightning spells you can get rid of the CC problem almost for free. I would lure this cc with either a giant or a hog rider (yellow). In 70 % of the cases you will encounter witches and wizards, in 30% a dragon. If it’s a dragon, never mind. If its wizards or witch or archers (weak units), then it’s getting interesting: when your luring unit died, the cc troops will be at the green circle. Now we want to lure these units across the map to the air defense you will strike with your lightning. An archer shooting at the northeastern builder hut should do the trick.
When the units reach the Red Cross, drop all your lightning spells on that air defense. Why not wait? The lightning spell strikes about 1 second after you drop it, so if you drop it when they reached it, they might be getting away.
- CC is down, time to kill one air defense. Looking at the left one, I would suggest using maxed hogs from your CC. there are 2 places for dropping them: blue and purple
The blue spot has the problem that there might be a spring trap between the WT and the AD that can kill 3 hogs at once. I think that even 2 hogs will get the AD though.
Purple has a chance that the hogs destroy the cannon and don’t target the AD but the southern AT. I don’t see that happen, that’s why I would choose purple.
- That’s only one AD remaining, this last one can be overwhelmed by your dragons. Nice to have: a barbarian king. This is the time for using him (star) as he will clear the edge buildings so your dragons won’t be occupied to long. It also works without him.
- Finally! Time to send the dragons. Don’t spawn them in one spot, draw a line instead. This ensures they take the base like a wall of fire, otherwise they will wander around the base and get shot by the AT and the remaining AD
- After 1 min of dragon damage you should have 3 stars now!
Watch out that you don’t waste too much time, since dragons are not the fastest units.
Now we have our army composition, you can start producing now:
One hog or giant (2 if you want to be on the safe side), a CC full of max hogs (or at least lv 4), one archer, 9 dragons, the rest you can fill with whatever you want, I like bringing minions since we are attacking all air.
2) 
This is the base you are looking for most of the time. One airdef is exposed, all 3 are relatively low lvl, but it would also work if they were all lv 6.
This time we can use hogs again, or balloons ( but be sure to get lv6, lv 5 are not strong enough). The strategy is the same as in 1), so I’ll just put the symbols. There is no building for luring cc troops to the other side without being shot, so bring at least 3 barbs that you spawn one after the last one died at the blue star.
Army: 9 dragons, 2 hogs for luring and 5 barbs, CC full of balloons lv 6 or hogs 4+.
3) 
This base has two relatively exposed airdef and should be a 3star too.
Lure with a giant, then one archer. Hogs are better here, but balloons would also make it. You can also send one dragon to kill the bottom cannon first.
Army: 9 dragons, a giant, an archer, CC full of hogs or balloons lv6.
- Summary
As you can see, with some good planning ahead you can 3star any base that has an exposed air defense. When planning, tell your clan mates who you’re going to attack early enough and be ready as soon as the war day starts, as you will be the best prepared and don’t want anyone else to take your target!
I hope you enjoyed this guide and it will improve your dragon skills.
Have a nice War,
