Placement of this trap, like most of the traps, will be the key to success. Attackers like to use Minions and Balloons sparingly on defenses and other buildings that do not defend air troops so these are areas that an Air Bomb AKA "Red Loon" will be the most helpful. The problem most defenders have with this trap is they place them on the map in the wrong spot, then attackers begin their attacks with Lava Hounds or Dragons and the Air Bombs pop out of the ground and do such little damage to these heavy troops that it was like they were never there to begin with. The key is to place these traps in locations that attackers would not want to begin their attacks from much like the Skeleton Trap, in fact there is a great explanation of how to avoid setting these traps of prematurely on the Skelly Trap page that I'm going to copy here as well.. "The LaLoon is a little trickier to trap because the target for the Skeleton is the Balloon and the Balloon is always dropped in to the map right behind the Lava Hound. You want to try to avoid allowing the Lava Hound from triggering the Skeleton Trap because they have such high HP. To do this takes a little planning, a little extra thought and a little luck too.

Remember their are no obstacles in the air to direct the air troops towards or way from your traps so you need to be very carefull with this placement. Again we are going to think like the attacker. They are going to drop 2-4 Lava Hounds on to the map and they will head in a straight path towards the Air Defenses. Good attackers will start their Lava Hounds off in what you may think to be odd places far away from the Air Defenses but this is to distract the defenses and have them target the Lava Hound on its way towards the Air Defenses. Then they will drop the Balloons on top of the distracted defenses. What you will want to do is place a Mortar and a Cannon with 1 tile separating them outside of any direct path from the outer walls to the Air Defenses. The attacker, even the great attackers will not try to path the Lava Hound near those two defenses because nether one will be able to shoot into the air at either the the Hound or Loons. They will also be a prime candidate for the Balloon portion of the raid for the same reason, they can't defend themselves from an air raid. Be sure to include one Air Bombs in with the Skeleton Traps just in case the attacker decides to use a few Minions to take out the Mortar and Cannon. Now if things go as planned the attacker will drop Lava Hounds, they will path far enough away as not to set off the Skeleton Trap. Then as they begin the Balloon portion of the raid they will drop several Balloons on top of those sitting ducts, the Mortar and Cannon. Seconds later our of their hiding spot, deep in the ground come the airbound Skelly Traps and there they are chopping away at the Balloons completely uncontested."

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       By using the Air Bomb in combination with the Skeleton Trap you can really pack a meaningful punch.. of course even the best planning takes a little luck too because you can have the most strategically sound plan and base layout and still have an attacker get lucky and drop a Lava Hound in a location that would not seem to make any sense based on the design of your base, thus triggering the Air Bomb and Skeleton Traps with the hefty Lava Hound instead of the fragile Balloon.

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       I would always suggest placing at least 1 Air mine close to Town Hall as well. You want to protect TH from the Minion Hordes that many players use to invade the core of the base. As a matter of fact I would strongly suggest (on your home village) that you have an Air Mine close to each of your storages, especially the DE Storage. All though there are so many different base designs, most effective bases will split the storages up as best as possible. You do not want an attacker to take 52% of your base and 100% of your Storages. If you do split the storages up evenly you will probably be left with pairs of storages in close proximity to one another. Try placing a Red Loon near each pair of storages for uniform coverage over you hard earned loot!

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       On offense its always best to test the waters.. or the air in this case. Try sending 1 Minion into an area by itself to see if it digs up and Air Mines. Use a Balloon if you think the Balloon will travel far enough into the base to trigger the Clan Castle troops.. this is how most of you will want to start your air based raids off anyway. They key to a successful raid is to start off cautiously, burning through a few housing space worth of troops just to make sure the area is clear. You don't want to start your raid off with 4-5 traps smashing your important troops in the mouth as soon as the raid begins!