Handle the Eagle Artillery

The Eagle Artillery is the exclusive Town Hall 11 Defense.  Right after the Update back in December 2015, only a few gem-users had it and all avoided it. After a couple of weeks, the Eagle Artillery was quite a common in Town Hall 11 bases, but it was very weak. In January, Supercell buffed the Eagle Artillery turning it into the nightmare of a Defense it should be, dealing 3 times the damage to Golems. My first version of this post was on the pre buff version without the extra damage to Golems, so please take your time reading it again (in case you already read the past version).

How the Eagle Artillery works

Those of you following my guides already know that I like to start off with the basics. The Eagle Artillery works in different levels:

1. Activated after 150 Housing Space worth of troop capacity is deployed (Attention: Each Spell Housing Space also counts for 5! Dropping 2 Jump Spells is like deploying 20 Housing Space of troops!)
2. Shoots three volleys with each 250/300 damage on impact every 10 seconds (x3 to Golems!)
3. Dead spot of 7 tiles around but outside that 7 tiles it covers your entire base

It focuses primarily on the space with the most troop hitpoints. Let’s assume it will hit Lava Hounds and Golems first and then Heroes, etc.

You CANNOT outsmart the Eagle Artillery

The Eagle Artillery only gets activated after 150 troop capacity is deployed on the battlefield, and it also has a focus for highest hit point troops. Things that don’t work are:

• Deploy Golems and Barbarians mixed, so the Eagle Artillery attacks a Barbarian with every second shot. IT WONT! It will attack the Golems as long as they are alive. The same for Lava Hounds and Balloons. => Mixing troops does not help
• If you have 5 Golems one might think that deploying one at first, then a second and then the others in a pack behind will help. WRONG! The Eagle Artillery will attack the pack of Golems first because there are so many hit points concentrated on a certain area.
• The Eagle Artillery is smart! If the first shell kills the target, the next shells will re-target to other troops and not hit open space.

You see that cheap tricks won’t help here. Don’t get frustrated, the Eagle Artillery can be beaten quite easily if you mind my tips below.

How to Beat The Eagle Artillery

First, I don’t recommend a TH9 attacking a TH11 base – I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s not very smart. When we talk about important attacking strategies with regards to the Eagle Artillery, I will cover BARCH, Giants & Golems, GoWiWi/GoWiPe and Ballonian. Each one of those can be used against the Eagle Artillery when minding some simple rules.

Eagle Artillery versus GoWiWi/GoWiPe

These attacks are based on Golems tanking damage while other troops destroy buildings behind them in the second deployment. Pre-Update it was pretty easy, depending on how many Golems you brought to the party, to have them get grouped up. At this time it was no big deal because the splash damage was not very high.

Now you have to deploy them one-by-one, so they don’t group up. This requires some skill, but will help you keep them in the attack longer. You must prevent them being killed in the early part of the attack, because once your DPS troops are inside they will enter the dead spot area of the Eagle Artillery and destroy it with no problem.
With the latest changes to the Eagle Artillery, the Golems will get shredded fast by the triple damage of the Eagle Artillery. Be sure to bring Freeze Spells if the Eagle Artillery is not fast to reach and deploy them thoughtfully!

• Don’t deploy the Freeze Spell in the 10 seconds break between the Eagle Artillery’s’ shots
• Don’t deploy them if the Eagle Artillery is shooting in that very moment. Until your Freeze Spell is activated, the shells are in the air and you’ve only frozen the reloading break!

You’ll also need your Grand Warden with his ability (Level 5+). This will also keep your troops alive a little longer. Read here how to use him best:
[irp posts=”13264″ name=”Integrate the Grand Warden in your attacks”]

BARCH

If you’re one of the farmers with an eye for details and use BARCH you will only have one problem with the Eagle Artillery – it will take down your Heroes very fast.

You deploy your troops very spaced out, so that’s no real problem, but using Heroes to get to the Dark Elixir Storage, just as an example; you will notice how fast they go down. Read the tips for your Heroes versus the Eagle Artillery below.

Giants & Goblins

Another composition that made a huge comeback with the last Clash of Clans Update is using Goblins. They are lightning fast and attack the Clan Castle and Town Hall. Some insights here:
[irp posts=”13156″ name=”How To Farm in 2016″]
The Eagle Artillery is a huge pain when your Giants group up on the Defenses and also your Heroes if close by. This is where the Eagle Artillery makes a difference. You need to deploy a Healing Spell BEFORE the impact comes down and watch carefully when the projectiles of the artillery go up in the air.

Balloonion

I’m a huge fan of Balloonion right now and have used it for more than two weeks now exclusively. Together with the Rage Spells, you won’t see more than two strikes of the Eagle Artillery before your Balloons go down anyway. The problem is that the Minions brought to clear out the Collectors and Storages are also addressed by the Eagle Artillery along with your Barbarian King and Archer Queen. Perfectly used minions to take down an area with more Storages will see a faster end.

Below you will find some help for your Heroes – otherwise, you don’t need to mind much more, though of course you must deploy the Balloons correctly in a line.

Make Heroes stand against the Eagle Artillery

In many attacking strategies the Heroes are crucial to the attack’s success, but often they become the favorite target of the Eagle Artillery sooner than you would like. Heroes can’t hide or disappear, but they have the potential to survive the Eagle Artillery a little longer by using their ability.
When it comes down to your Hero(es) against the Eagle Artillery you need to watch very closely to time the ability trigger.

Archer Queen

The three volleys of the Eagle Artillery deals 750 or 900 damage in total; the Archer Queen can survive that if she’s Level 12+, but only if she hasn’t had to deal with other Defenses. Her healing effect from the Royal Cloak can cover 1 of those three strikes, so you need to time it well!

Only activate after the first strike has hit her. Otherwise you’ll waste the precious healing boost.
If she’s already down to <60% health you should activate it BEFORE the first missile will strike.

Barbarian King

This fat guy has better chances against the Eagle Artillery but being in the first line of attacks will not make it easier.
The good news is that the Barbarian King will survive all three volley shots from the Eagle Artillery if at full health and not under heavy fire. You can easily wait until he drops below 50% to activate the Iron Fist – that will heal at least two strikes from the Eagle Artillery.
I mentioned that the Barbarian King is always under fire. Sadly most of the time he is, so watch his health bar closely. If you deploy him together with the Archer Queen he will be the one attacked by the Eagle Artillery first.

Grand Warden

The Grand Warden does not survive all three volley strikes from the Eagle Artillery! You need to activate the Life Aura before they hit him.

Also, keep in mind that the Life Aura doesn’t heal the Grand Warden.
From my personal experience he is deployed with the other troops so you won’t see him in a one on one fight with the Eagle Artillery.

Conclusion

I’ve learned with all my research for this post that the Eagle Artillery isn’t the killer defense we all thought it could be. It’s actually not stopping that many attacks as long as you:

• deploy your large health troops away from each other
• if you use Golems, bring Freeze Spells and deploy them at the right time
• watch your Heroes for the activation of their ability very carefully

Please let me know if you have other strategies you use against the Eagle Artillery in the comments.
Thanks for editing: EnchinsuOcha, MikeO