CoC BH8 - GiCart Attack Strategy

Time to talk about the friendly giant - Boxer Giant combos.  For starters, we’ll look at one that’s just burning up the circuit - Boxer Giants and Cannon Carts.  I’ve just been calling this one “GiCarts”.

You can run the GiCart attack strategy a few different ways.  I like it as a 3/3 but I’ve seen it run as a 4/2 and 2/4 as well.  As always, it really comes down to what you’re most comfortable with and the layout of the base.  

The GiCart strat is nothing new but it gains its strength from the improvements to both Boxer Giants and Cannon Carts at BH8 - specifically, the additional units in each camp.  That and, of course, the stronger Boxer Giant.

In all of Cannon Cart combos, one thing should be abundantly clear - Cannon Carts are great in large groups, but they absolutely MUST have a tank to keep defensive fire away from them.  This combo is no different in that regard.  The Boxer Giant acts as a solid tank and, because there are 4 in each camp at L16, you can take a LOT of them with you into battle.  Their numbers are important as they not only have to withstand the barrage of enemy defenses but also take down those same defenses.  

The biggest problem for the Boxer Giants is the same you’ve seen in most ground attack strategies - how do you get past the Crushers and how do you keep them alive against splash damage like the Roaster.

Rule #1 - Spread ‘em out.  Watch the replays I provide in the video; notice every attacker spreads their Boxer Giants across the base.  If it’s at all possible, you want to come in at more than one ingress point.  If they all come in at the same break in the wall, they tend to bunch up a bit (as will the Cannon Carts).

Rule #2 - Don’t send everything in at once.  You’ve got to spread them out and send them in at a pace that is fitting for the base.  In some cases, the spread will provide the timing but in others, you’ll need to hold back on a portion of the attack.  The key here is the spread - it can be a bit spammy but only if the base allows it.

The Boxer Giants provide tanking services to the Cannon Carts, which will be coming in from behind to take out whatever is in front of the Boxer Giants - it’s kismet; a match made in heaven.  Of course, we run into the same issue here as other Cannon Cart attack strategies…

The evil that is the Giant Cannon.

I can’t hardly begin to count the number of times my Cannon Cart attacks are sent awry by the everlasting cannon ball.  I swear, that thing just goes on forever and it never seems to have a problem finding my Cannon Carts wherever the clump together.

This makes the spread of your Cannon Carts even more important.  If I haven’t said it enough…

Timing

Timing

Timing

…it’s all about the timing.  You want them to come in behind the Boxer Giants but you do NOT want them clumping up either as a result of a common target or a single point of ingress.

A lot of base designs will have “junk buildings” around the outside.  I like to set a Cannon Cart on these as soon as I have nearby defenses focused on my tanks.

Of course, that begs the next question - where to deploy?

Two stars are a must if you want to win the match, so I’ll usually start the strat at a point where it will path to the Builder Hall.  There are times, though, that it makes more sense to start from a side or the opposite direction.  Look at the base - does it have 2 or 3 aprons to direct the path of troops around the corner where the BH resides?  Are the walls a higher level on a certain side?  What’s the range of the MultiMortar?  How quickly can you get to the Crushers and will the Cannon Carts following the Boxer Giants to it or go off on their own?

An even more common attack strategy is the GiBoCC attack where you take a single camp of Bombers to open the base for your troops.  We’ll break that out in another article/video.

In each of the replays I share, you can see the choices made by each player.  They all have different styles but they adhere to the basic rules of keeping things spread out and not simply spamming the attack.  (Again - just because they go down fast doesn’t mean it’s been spammed; good attackers can deploy an attack quickly for maximum effect without it just being a dump and run.)  Here’s the link to the companion video: