Dragons are a 20 housing space aerial

troop that breathes fire upon anything that

gets in their way. They are deadly in

numbers. They are the most popular

defensive Clan Castle troop.

They are… well.. Dragons,

terrors of the sky. Dragons

are a mythical creature that

has been feared and revered

by most every culture on the

planet and SuperCell has made that representation hold true here in the Clash world as well. They are one of the few troops that come into the game at lvl 1 and are immediately effective. They deal splash damage and can incinerate several troops at once although the .3 radius keeps casualties

at a manageable number. They can attack both land

and air units which makes them perfect Clan Castle

troops for defending your village.

      On offense players will learn very quickly that a

Dragon, as powerful as it is, will be no match for the

Air Defenses. Using spells like the lightning or the

combination of Lightning and Earthquake  Spells to

eliminate one or two of the Air Defenses give players the best chances for successful Dragon attacks. Placing Dragons at key points around the base or using a few units to clear out sections along the outer walls followed by an assortment of deployment techniques designed to funnel the troops have been proven winners for the mighty Dragon. You will hear the term funneling a lot with the Dragon. In short this means to force the bulk of the units into a common area, usually headed directly toward the core of the base. To achieve this advanced players deploy the Dragons in several waves. The 1st wave to clear out buildings off to the sides of the target area, once those buildings are cleared and the 2nd wave of Dragons have nowhere to go but into the base, they are deployed in great numbers. The desired effect will be 7-8 Dragons passing over the 1st layer of walls with no buildings left to destroy but the ones in line with the core of the base. To help protect the Dragons on their quest to burn down the town, many players use the Balloon. This attack is known as the DragaLoon. In the DragaLoon attack, players deploy the Dragons 1st, funneling them into the base followed by several Balloons and a key placed Rage Spell. If the timing is good, the Loons will pass over the Dragons (that have to stop and clear each building) and head to the next Defensive Building.. Hopefully the Air Defenses. The use of Balloons with the Dragons also help absorb some of the Seeking Air Mine blows that are designed to cripple the Dragon. If you are TH7 or TH8 the DragaLoon should be one of your goto attacks.. especially in war.

       On defense the Dragon is a vital troop in any Clan Castle that will hold 20 housing spaces. Don't get me wrong, clashers with any experience in the game have already learned how to trigger the Clan castle, pull the troops out, lure them away from the base and eliminate the troops either by surrounding them or using a kill squad with decoys and snipers.. If this sound foreign to you, just keep playing! The reason why players practice pulling CC troops and Luring them and killing them is because if there is a Dragon in the Clan Castle and it is left unchecked it will literally kill their entire army. That sounds like a high value CC troop to me! If a player enters the base without consideration of the Clan Castle troops and they deploy Giants, Golems, Hog Riders or any other defense only troop they will be completely helpless if a Dragon pops out and begins to shower them with fire. (Most clashers will agree that the reason they limit the Clan Castle to 35 troops is to prevent players from using 2 Dragons in the Clan Castle, which would throw the delicate balancing of the games offense vs defense off.. That’s a good indication of how powerful the Dragon troop is)

       The Dragon does have a weakness… attack speed... WAIT A MINUTE! AS OF DECEMBER 2016 AKA THE WINTER UPDATE, the Dragons now have a much faster attack speed.. They do the SAME DPS BUT they are able to get that 1st shot off faster and due to their new found quickness they will be able to turn a smaller building (like a builders hut for example) to cinders and more on to the next building MUCH, MUCH faster than before! Now if a Lava Hound is used in the Clan Castle for defense, the Dragons will have no problem quickly popping the Lava Hound and now they can also make fairly quick work out of the Lava Pups too!. I would still suggest using the larger  Poison spell to help the Dragons eliminate the pesky Lava Pups or other low HP troops like the Archers. Winter Update or not... Beware of the Wizard! They are the one troop that in groups of 5-6 can one or two shot a Dragon to the ground!

       Overall the Dragon is one of the games elite troops. Their heavy housing space cost of 20 is well worth it to all that have learned how to use them. They are useful at all TH levels either as offensive troops in the TH7-9 range and as Clan Castle troops in the higher TH levels. Even in TH11 where Air Defenses, Inferno Towers and the Eagle Artillery reign supreme, players utilize the Dragons to clear out entire sides of elite bases and follow them with their high leveled Heroes. The Heroes now have a clear path to Town Hall and a great chance at a 2 star attack and 2/3 of the trophies for that base. They can be tricky to control and their pathing has been known to be less than desirable at times but by working on and perfecting troop funneling you will enjoy great success with this monster of a troop. 

​

Finally! we get to add a little more to the Big Beasts of the Sky... a new style of attack has emerged using the Dragons! This is great news for those of us who loved dragons in TH8 and the start of 9 but then couldn't get anything going from the mid 9s on. Advanced players are combining the use of Baby Dragons and their full version along with Balloons to do a Baby Dragaloon attack! This strategy is allowing top TH10 attackers to jump on TH11 ring bases and 2 star them with consistency! Goto our ATTACKS 101 PAGE and find the Baby Dragaloon (AKA BRAGALOON) attack and see for yourself!