When to Attack the Other Lane

An opposite-lane punish is a cheap, fast threat played at the bridge while the opponent's elixir is sitting in a slow troop on the other side. The threat has to arrive before they can spend again. Hog Rider, Battle Ram, Ram Rider, Goblin Barrel, and Wall Breakers do this. Giant, Golem, and P.E.K.K.A do not. They are too slow and too expensive to be the punisher. They are the card you punish.

The goal is not always a tower. Sometimes the goal is to force a response so the Golem arrives without a Night Witch. A Hog that gets Skeletons dropped on it and deals no damage still did the job if those Skeletons were the support the Golem was going to have. Players who measure the punish only by tower damage keep Hogging into buildings and calling the deck bad.

Golem is Slow. From the back tile behind the king tower to the bridge is several seconds, and during those seconds elixir is coming back at 2.8 seconds each. If you Hog the instant the Golem is placed, they answer with whatever costs 2 or 3. If you admire the Golem for two elixir ticks and then Hog, they have a real answer and a supported tank. The count from how to count elixir is the whole decision. The card choice is the easy part.

P.E.K.K.A is the punish people mistime most often, because she looks like Golem and she is not. She can turn around. A Hog played while she is still behind the king arrives, takes a swing or two, and dies to whatever they drop. A Hog played after she has walked forward arrives as she is ready to step into your lane or rotate back. I only Hog a lone back-P.E.K.K.A when I still have a building or a mini-tank in hand for her arrival. If my defensive answer is the next card in the queue, I cycle first and give up the punish. A missed punish costs nothing. A punish that leaves you with Skeletons against a supported P.E.K.K.A costs the tower.

Goblin Barrel is a punish that does not care about buildings the way Hog does, and it does care about The Log and Arrows. If you have already seen the small spell this cycle, the Barrel is the right card. If the small spell is still in their hand, the Barrel is a 3-elixir donation and you have told them your win condition for free. Scout first. The first minute is for that information.

New Hog players take the tower damage and then keep spending in that lane. That is how a correct punish becomes a lost defense. The sequence that works on ladder, the one I use in Hog 2.6, is short:

1. Hog at the bridge opposite the tank. One card. Not Hog plus Ice Golem plus Musketeer. You need the rest of the bar for the Golem.
2. As soon as the Hog is answered or connects, look back at the tank lane. Cannon in the center, or whatever your deck uses, before the support troop crosses the bridge.
3. Spell the support, not the tank. A Fireball on the Night Witch or the Baby Dragon is the defensive spell. A Fireball on the Golem is a feeling, not a plan.
4. If the Hog took half the tower and their push still looks fatal, stop playing offense entirely until the tank dies. A 800-damage Hog does not matter if their push takes the whole tower and you have 0 elixir.

Beatdown versus beatdown is different. If you are the Golem player and they drop a Golem, you are not punishing with Hog, because you do not have one. You are deciding whose support troop is better. Matching their investment with your own tank in the same lane usually builds one giant mess that favors the player with the better splash. Dropping your tank opposite splits their elixir. That is still a punish. It is just an 8-elixir one, so you only do it when the count says they already spent.