Obscure Tactics

Overview

In this guide i will be discussing some tactics that not many think about.

Intro

In this guide I will be teaching you any weird but (sometimes) helpful tactics. I am absolutely open to suggestions, because I have only one reason so far.

Rain of Fire Refresher

This is an unusual tactic that I thought of which is entirely circumstantial. I will get some screenshots later, but this is just the beginning so I’m not yet good at making guides.
What has to happen is something big, say an ogre in the early levels, or something else has gotten past your defences with low health, and your Rain of Fire is almost ready but it won’t be ready in time. If you can force the next wave on, DO IT. it will (hopefully)refresh your Rain of fire Random Burning Rocks Floating Through Space that just Happened to Land Exactly Where you Wanted Them to Land, or refresh it so that you can use it soon enough to kill the beast. If you think that you will not have enough time/charge to hit it, block it with reinforcements to stall it and get more charge. I would recommend only using this if the beast would make you lose because otherwise you are just rushing a wave with things that will make it harder maybe definitely kill you. This strategy can be a lifesaver, but use it wisely. Using it more than once is very risky, as you will be quickly swamped with enimies, so use with caution.
NOTE: CANNOT be used in Iron Challenge, as there is only one wave.
Note 2: It takes about 25-30 seconds for a wave to come after showing the incoming wave icon. I’m not sure, but hopefully it adds all of that time to the ninety second cooldown.

Healer Blocking

Thanks to ⚡ STaTiC ⚡ for the tactic!

Essentially, this tactic is meant to seperate one or more healers from a powerful enemy or a group of enemies. What you need to do is have your reinforcemnets readily available and not needed for another advancing group so you can use them as meatshields to stop the healer from advancing and healing their comrades. I would advise having upgraded reinforcements so that they can take more punishment just in case something with a ranged attack comes through and so the reinforcements might be able to dispatch of the healer by themselves so you won’t have to let your towers deal with them. You may need two sets of reinforcements to keep all the healers back, but as long as there aren’t above 4 healers, you shouldn’t have a problem keeping the healers constantly blocked. If you do need two waves to deal with the healers, alternate which group gets reinforced so that all the healers are forced to stay back. Later, when the rest of the group has been dealt with, let the healers though so that your towers and soldiers can take care of them. If done correctly, you should have effectively separated the healers from the main horde so that they can’t heal the major threats, and dispatched the healers at the same time.
This picture shows the perfect time to use this tactic, as not only is there nothing that could cause you trouble in the second lane, but there is also space between the big enemies and the healers, so you have much less of a chance that one of the reinforcements will target the big enemy instead of the healers.
In this situation, you can also use the strategy since the enemies in the second lane pose no threat that your towers can’t take care of. However, you need to place the reinforcements behind the healer so that they target the healer and not the grunts.
Now is not a good time to deploy reinforcements because you cannot reliably target the healer to keep them out of the pack. Wait for a better opportunity and then strike.

Rapid Rallies

Once again, tactic thanks to ⚡ STaTiC ⚡

Now, to take the words from the man himself:

Originally posted by {TS} STaTiC_:

Had to change the bracket type due to format interference. Just FYG.(For Your Goats)
Rapid Rallies: This might not be AS obscure as most tactics, but it’s worth putting it up here. This tactic is mainly used in maps with multiple lanes, or maps with big U-turns. You put one or more barracks in between the lanes, and constantly switch their rally points between lanes accordingly. If a lane is empty and troops are sitting there, just switch the rally point!

So, now for the pictures with simple editing:
In the second lane you have a squad of troops unused, so you can switch them over to the first lane to stall the troops and to have more people to block the troops.
This may not always happen, but if you reassign the troops in the spur of the moment, you might have the rally points way apart. In this case, just reassign them to be pretty much inside of each other, as indicated by the green circle.
Here, since there are multiple waves, you can reassign your troops to make a wall slightly behind your towers, indicated by the blue.

Respawn Rush

Once again, tactic by ⚡ STaTiC ⚡. At this point I probably should make him a co-author.
Done.
Once again, in his own words:

Originally posted by {TS} STaTiC:

Once again, had to change the brackets.
Respawn Rush: Let’s refer to the pre-max upgrades as “temporary upgrades” because they can always be upgraded further and it wont last at that level forever. The max upgrades will be called “permanent upgrades” as they will be kept in that level forever. The nature of this tactic is the fact that upgrading a barracks will instantaneously respawn any dead troops. To take the highest advantage of this tactic, you should (almost) never upgrade a barracks unless at least 2-3 troops have died. If you upgrade early, the HP of the pre-upgraded troop won’t be used. Additionally, you only have two temporary upgrades and one choice of a permanent upgrade, leaving you with only 3 instant respawns.

Once again, cue the pictures with poor editing:
In here, the top row has a barracks with two troops dead. Instead of using reinforcements or a rain of fire(god forbid), you can upgrade the barracks, get your troops back from the dead and heal the living. This will work from the 1st level to specialization i.e. Barbarian Hall or Paladins, allowing it to be used three times: 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, 3rd to Special.
Here you can see that after upgrading, the soldiers have been restored and are hacking away yet again.
In my opinion, this is much better used in early waves in earlier leevels, because in later levels you will want to upgrade your troops earlier so they don’t get one-shot.

Silveroak Outpost: Elf Protector

Yet again, a tactic by ⚡ STaTiC ⚡

This tactic is very self-explanitory. All you need to do is train four elves, and protect them with barracks troops! The obscurity of this tactic comes when you place the elven bowmens’ rally point as shown below:
When the elves are well-positioned, they are able to shoot their high 25-50 damage arrows at both lanes! Be sure to place a barracks in each of the two paths, the left one to protect the elves, (didn’t see that coming) and the right one to stall any enemies for the elves to destroy. Now, watch as the elves plow through those first few waves. Utilizing the Respawn Rush tactic, the next few waves are a breeze. The only worries you’ll have are the elven bowmens’ deaths and the spiders, but the spiders are easily mowed down by archer towers and a few barracks troops.

The end?

Although this is the end of what I have at the moment, it is not the end of what there ever will be. I am always looking for suggestions and if you have any, put them in the comments; I will read them.