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TROOP SELECTION
Let's break down the troops of a GoHo. You have: funnel troops, kill squad (which may also contain some/most of the funnel troops), hogs, clean-up troops, and the CC.
Funnel troops: 2 golems, 1-4 wb, and usually 4-7 wizards. 4-7 wizards is pretty standard, but this is all about maximizing value for troop space. If you can use a couple minions to snipe some end buildings rather than a wizard, that's more efficient. Need to create a wide funnel where your wizard would get killed before it got the building down? Consider using a valk or baby dragon instead. You'll probably still just use wizards (I do 90%+ of the time), but I want to throw in other troops so that you at least start to think about it. Don't go in with the mindset that you have to use wizards.
Kill squad: 2 golems from the funnel, maybe 4 of the wizards from your funnel (expect some to die), your king, your queen, your CC, and maybe another few wizards for good measure. The ENTIRE goal of the kill squad is to kill the CC, kill the queen, and get to the core. Failing any one of these 3 things could ruin your attack, but luckily most bases are set up in such a way that you can easily get a queen and CC pull from some angle. The core is just a jump spell away from there (or you could rage through it if the walls are level 8 or lower).
Hogs: 20 hogs. I don't think less than 20 hogs is a good idea, and more hogs could detract from your kill squad being effective or leave you with not enough clean up troops. After many many war and raid attacks with hogs, I found 20 hogs to be the sweet spot at TH9. HOWEVER, the one time I may take more than 20 hogs (not many more - something like 16-18 hogs + 6 in the CC) would be on really spread out bases where it's unlikely you'll get your KS far into the core. 99% of the time 20 will do the trick.
Clean-up: This varies, but it could be anything from a few wizards to 3-5 minions to 4-10 archers. Small troops that can pick off trash buildings
CC Troops: for GoHo, the only options you should really consider are (1) bowlers, (2) golem, (3) more hogs - in that order. (1) 2 golems with bowlers in the CC is the strongest version of GoHo, but I think it works better with higher level heroes. Since you're only taking 2 golems, you need to have the DPS to clear out defenses, the CC, the queen, and anything else on your way to the center before the defenses take out your 2 golems (that are also weakened from funneling) and then the rest of your KS. It might be counter-intuitive to think that taking less DPS and more tank is worse when you have weaker heroes, but don't underestimate the strength of a fresh golem + 2 weakened golem behind even a level 15 queen + a few wizards. You're not going for a speed run, you're going for a 3 star. (2) I think a golem in the CC is probably the best option for anyone that has around 15/15 heroes (queen is more important than king). Like I explained above, you need the extra tank to keep your KS alive since you'll be going through everything more slowly with lower level heroes. (3) As I explained in the troop section, this should really only be considered as an option on spread out bases where you don't think that you'll be able to get your KS very far into the core. Usually you'll be going with option (1) or (2).
FUNNELING
Your attack begins with funneling. Even if you take 3 golems, I think you really only need 2 to create a good funnel, and I drop the third one right before I drop the rest of the KS, as a fresh tank. For the placement of the 2 golems, I drop them a little wide (right and left) of where I want to enter. This will be maybe 5-ish squares from the point I plan on WB into. Any further and the golems won't see the hole and you'll just have a 30 troops space golem beating on a wall, not really providing much value. After I drop the golems, I drop my 4-7 wizards (or whatever you're using for funneling) to clear the initial trash buildings. You should clear trash buildings within 9-11-ish tiles on either side of where you're going to be entering. The whole point of this is to remove all the trash buildings that might attract your king, queen, or CC. After your funnel troops have gone to work, drop your wb in between your golems where you want to enter. Getting your WB to break through the initial wall is a KEY part of almost any effective strategy. If you don't feel comfortable with being able to WB effectively, take more wbs. I would rather see someone take 10 wbs and guarantee they get through the first wall effectively than see someone take 4 wb and fail. This is an incredibly important part of the attack - don't underestimate it. AFTER you have successfully wb in (and NEVER before - ever), drop your CC, your king, your queen, and a couple wizards for good measure. If you don't wait to drop everything until after you wb in, you risk having your troops wander (despite your funnel) and ruin your attack.
KILL SQUAD
The next part of the attack is the Kill Squad. At this point, you should have made a funnel, broken into the first wall with your wb, and dropped off your kill squad troops. If you're running a stoned GoHo (3 golems), drop your golem first (which should be in the CC), then the rest of your kill squad. With a fresh golem as a tank and your king, queen, and a few wizards behind it, you can really do some damage and clear a lot out. Your troops should be heading into the base and you should be at the point that you're drawing aggro from the queen and the CC. It's now time for the level 5 poison. On a GoHo, you should always take 2 poisons. First one is for the CC, second one is for any ground skeletons that pop up to kill your hogs. Don't forget about poisoning the CC. When not in poison, they'll have twice as much DPS, which can put some stopping power onto your kill squad - not something you want. If you can also snag the queen in the poison with the CC, that's cool, do it, but ALWAYS make sure you get all of the CC. If you're not sure you can get all of the CC + the queen, don't even try to get the queen. 95% of the time you'll end up with all/mostly air CC, and your king will beeline for the queen and wreck her in the first 10 seconds. The only exception to dropping your poison on the CC is if there's a lone golem or lone hound. For a lone golem drop the poison on the queen and for a lone hound drop the poison after the hound has popped. I always take a jump spell with GoHo to make sure my KS gets to where I want them to go, but sometimes you can also opt for rage (if you're trying to get past level 8 or lower walls). Whichever you take, right after you drop your level 5 poison is the time to drop your jump/rage spell. This will effectively kill both the CC and the queen, and carry your KS into the core of the base, right where they need to be.
So to recap up to this point, your drop order should be: [Funneling troops] 2 golems, then funneling troops, then wb, [Kill Squad] CC, then King, then Queen, then a few wizards [Spells during Kill Squad] Level 5 poison, then Rage/Jump It should almost always be in that order. If you have to write it down before you attack to help you remember, do it. Remember: Funneling troops, Kill Squad, Spells during Kill Squad. Or Funnel, KS, Spells for short.
HOG ATTACK - DOWNFALL + SURGICAL DEPLOYMENT
FINALLY, we get to the hog part of the attack. At this point, you have set yourself up for success, and you'll have a good idea whether or not you're going to absolutely crush the base or not. What you are actually doing up to this point is creating a "U" shape of the base. Bases are typically in a square or circle formation, you're cutting out a line on one side to the middle, turning the circle/square into a U (this is important to recognize, so if you're having trouble seeing this, PM me and I can explain it further). Your hog attack should start on one end of the U and end on the other end of the U destroying every defense, then clean-up will go in the exact reverse. At this point, what I've seen from many people attempting GoHo is what is known as a Surgical GoHo. What this means is that you're surgically deploying 3 or so hogs per point defense so that you eventually add more and more hogs to create an unstoppable force. The way you deploy these also naturally push the hogs around the U that you created. Surgical GoHo is difficult to pull off, and I think more of us should first be learning a more straightforward GoHo. I'll first explain the major downfall of a hog attack, then why surgical GoHo is difficult (hint: it's easier to hit the major downfall point), and finally explain what I think is better.
The BIGGEST downfall of a hog attack is your hogs splitting up and going in different directions. Together, hogs are amazing and can mow through everything, but on their own they're relatively squishy and can die pretty easily. The strength in GoHo attacks comes from the strength of the pack of hogs moving together throughout the base. This is why you want to start your hog attack on one end of the U and end on the other end - because it's a natural path for the hogs to follow. If you have half your hogs going left and then half going right, which hogs should you heal? Odds are, you choose the bigger pack and leave the others to die. If you heal both, you'll likely run out of heals (TH9 only get 3 heals + jump/rage) and you end up prolonging the inevitable choice of leaving a pack of hogs to die. These are the scenarios you want to avoid and why you should NEVER voluntarily split your hogs (i.e. attack from both ends of the U). Your goal is to keep your hogs continuing to path in a single direction (either clockwise or counter-clockwise), deploying more as they go around, and healing when necessary.
Now onto why Surgical GoHo is difficult. When you deploy only 3 or so hogs per point defense, and deploy lots of groups of 3, you open yourself up to more opportunities where a group of 3 hogs will fail, and you're left with some defenses up between your hogs. This hurts you two-fold: (1) This creates a separation in your hog pack. Surgical GoHo relies on all groups of hogs taking out their point defenses and joining together into a major pack. When one part of the surgical deployment of hogs fails, you're left with a separation in your pack, which will leave you with 2 distinct groups. This is the first way you hit the major failure point for hog attacks. Which group do you choose to heal? The larger one, and you leave the smaller one to die. You just voluntarily killed off some of your hogs, hurting your attack. (2) If you're trying to keep your hogs going in a single direction, when a surgical hog deployment fails to take out all of the expected defenses, you now have defenses pulling your main pack of hogs in two separate directions. Which way do your hogs go? Hopefully in the direction that you want them to, but they'll likely partially split, further hurting your attack. When one surgical deployment of hogs fails, you open yourself to a two-fold major failure in your hog attack. Yes it looks prettier, but no, it's not worth the much larger potential failure rate. Which is why I suggest switching to a standard GoHo.
HOG ATTACK - GENERAL GOHO DEPLOYMENT
Next is what I recommend using: just a plain old, really standard GoHo. The main difference between GoHo and Surgical GoHo is the number of hog deployments you do and the amount of hogs you deploy in each deployment. Surgical hog deployment uses 5-6 deployments of 3-4 hogs, and a normal GoHo uses 3 (sometimes 4) deployments for all 20 hogs. I found this works best when you do 3 decrementing deployments. The deployments could vary depending on the point defenses you're trying to get through between deployments, but I usually choose something like 9, 6, 5 or 8, 7, 5. The simple reason behind my choices: a pack of 7, 8, or 9 hogs is much less likely to fail and not get through defenses compared to a pack of 3-4 hogs. The whole idea of the hog attack is creating an overwhelming force of hogs that path across a base together and tear through defenses. It's much easier to create that pack of hogs when you start strong.
The next aspect to understand is where you deploy your 3 packs. You'll want all 20 of your hogs deployed by the time your pack is half way around the U. That means the last deployment of hogs will likely happen just before the bottom part of the U, and the first two deployments will happen before that point. Obviously the initial deployment will happen at the start of the U, which just leaves the second deployment of hogs. I'd say a good estimate is just before the half way mark between your first and last deployment. It will vary a bit, but you'll basically be adding your hogs to attacking defenses on the outside, in order to keep your initial pack of hogs towards the inside of the base. The general concept I like to think of for (all) hog attacks is to continue adding more and more hogs to the pack until it becomes unstoppable. You don't want to send in the entire pack at once, you want to keep adding reinforcements beyond what the defense can handle so it seems like it's hopeless for the defense. Like in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf showed up to stomp all the orcs. You know the scene.
The last aspect of the hog attack is when to deploy each of your 3 deployments. The first will go after the kill squad has reach the core, so you really just have to think about the second and third deployments. But honestly there's not much thinking involved, you want to deploy them when the pack has reach that point. So if you drop at 0%, 25%, and 50% around the U, you'll want to drop the second deployment when the initial group reaches 25% around the U, and you'll want to drop the last deployment of hogs when the pack has reached the 50% point around the U. Pretty simple stuff - just don't deploy hogs way ahead of where your pack of hogs currently is.
TROOP SELECTION
Let's break down the troops of a GoHo. You have: funnel troops, kill squad (which may also contain some/most of the funnel troops), hogs, clean-up troops, and the CC.
Funnel troops: 2 golems, 1-4 wb, and usually 4-7 wizards. 4-7 wizards is pretty standard, but this is all about maximizing value for troop space. If you can use a couple minions to snipe some end buildings rather than a wizard, that's more efficient. Need to create a wide funnel where your wizard would get killed before it got the building down? Consider using a valk or baby dragon instead. You'll probably still just use wizards (I do 90%+ of the time), but I want to throw in other troops so that you at least start to think about it. Don't go in with the mindset that you have to use wizards.
Kill squad: 2 golems from the funnel, maybe 4 of the wizards from your funnel (expect some to die), your king, your queen, your CC, and maybe another few wizards for good measure. The ENTIRE goal of the kill squad is to kill the CC, kill the queen, and get to the core. Failing any one of these 3 things could ruin your attack, but luckily most bases are set up in such a way that you can easily get a queen and CC pull from some angle. The core is just a jump spell away from there (or you could rage through it if the walls are level 8 or lower).
Hogs: 20 hogs. I don't think less than 20 hogs is a good idea, and more hogs could detract from your kill squad being effective or leave you with not enough clean up troops. After many many war and raid attacks with hogs, I found 20 hogs to be the sweet spot at TH9. HOWEVER, the one time I may take more than 20 hogs (not many more - something like 16-18 hogs + 6 in the CC) would be on really spread out bases where it's unlikely you'll get your KS far into the core. 99% of the time 20 will do the trick.
Clean-up: This varies, but it could be anything from a few wizards to 3-5 minions to 4-10 archers. Small troops that can pick off trash buildings
CC Troops: for GoHo, the only options you should really consider are (1) bowlers, (2) golem, (3) more hogs - in that order. (1) 2 golems with bowlers in the CC is the strongest version of GoHo, but I think it works better with higher level heroes. Since you're only taking 2 golems, you need to have the DPS to clear out defenses, the CC, the queen, and anything else on your way to the center before the defenses take out your 2 golems (that are also weakened from funneling) and then the rest of your KS. It might be counter-intuitive to think that taking less DPS and more tank is worse when you have weaker heroes, but don't underestimate the strength of a fresh golem + 2 weakened golem behind even a level 15 queen + a few wizards. You're not going for a speed run, you're going for a 3 star. (2) I think a golem in the CC is probably the best option for anyone that has around 15/15 heroes (queen is more important than king). Like I explained above, you need the extra tank to keep your KS alive since you'll be going through everything more slowly with lower level heroes. (3) As I explained in the troop section, this should really only be considered as an option on spread out bases where you don't think that you'll be able to get your KS very far into the core. Usually you'll be going with option (1) or (2).
FUNNELING
Your attack begins with funneling. Even if you take 3 golems, I think you really only need 2 to create a good funnel, and I drop the third one right before I drop the rest of the KS, as a fresh tank. For the placement of the 2 golems, I drop them a little wide (right and left) of where I want to enter. This will be maybe 5-ish squares from the point I plan on WB into. Any further and the golems won't see the hole and you'll just have a 30 troops space golem beating on a wall, not really providing much value. After I drop the golems, I drop my 4-7 wizards (or whatever you're using for funneling) to clear the initial trash buildings. You should clear trash buildings within 9-11-ish tiles on either side of where you're going to be entering. The whole point of this is to remove all the trash buildings that might attract your king, queen, or CC. After your funnel troops have gone to work, drop your wb in between your golems where you want to enter. Getting your WB to break through the initial wall is a KEY part of almost any effective strategy. If you don't feel comfortable with being able to WB effectively, take more wbs. I would rather see someone take 10 wbs and guarantee they get through the first wall effectively than see someone take 4 wb and fail. This is an incredibly important part of the attack - don't underestimate it. AFTER you have successfully wb in (and NEVER before - ever), drop your CC, your king, your queen, and a couple wizards for good measure. If you don't wait to drop everything until after you wb in, you risk having your troops wander (despite your funnel) and ruin your attack.
KILL SQUAD
The next part of the attack is the Kill Squad. At this point, you should have made a funnel, broken into the first wall with your wb, and dropped off your kill squad troops. If you're running a stoned GoHo (3 golems), drop your golem first (which should be in the CC), then the rest of your kill squad. With a fresh golem as a tank and your king, queen, and a few wizards behind it, you can really do some damage and clear a lot out. Your troops should be heading into the base and you should be at the point that you're drawing aggro from the queen and the CC. It's now time for the level 5 poison. On a GoHo, you should always take 2 poisons. First one is for the CC, second one is for any ground skeletons that pop up to kill your hogs. Don't forget about poisoning the CC. When not in poison, they'll have twice as much DPS, which can put some stopping power onto your kill squad - not something you want. If you can also snag the queen in the poison with the CC, that's cool, do it, but ALWAYS make sure you get all of the CC. If you're not sure you can get all of the CC + the queen, don't even try to get the queen. 95% of the time you'll end up with all/mostly air CC, and your king will beeline for the queen and wreck her in the first 10 seconds. The only exception to dropping your poison on the CC is if there's a lone golem or lone hound. For a lone golem drop the poison on the queen and for a lone hound drop the poison after the hound has popped. I always take a jump spell with GoHo to make sure my KS gets to where I want them to go, but sometimes you can also opt for rage (if you're trying to get past level 8 or lower walls). Whichever you take, right after you drop your level 5 poison is the time to drop your jump/rage spell. This will effectively kill both the CC and the queen, and carry your KS into the core of the base, right where they need to be.
So to recap up to this point, your drop order should be: [Funneling troops] 2 golems, then funneling troops, then wb, [Kill Squad] CC, then King, then Queen, then a few wizards [Spells during Kill Squad] Level 5 poison, then Rage/Jump It should almost always be in that order. If you have to write it down before you attack to help you remember, do it. Remember: Funneling troops, Kill Squad, Spells during Kill Squad. Or Funnel, KS, Spells for short.
HOG ATTACK - DOWNFALL + SURGICAL DEPLOYMENT
FINALLY, we get to the hog part of the attack. At this point, you have set yourself up for success, and you'll have a good idea whether or not you're going to absolutely crush the base or not. What you are actually doing up to this point is creating a "U" shape of the base. Bases are typically in a square or circle formation, you're cutting out a line on one side to the middle, turning the circle/square into a U (this is important to recognize, so if you're having trouble seeing this, PM me and I can explain it further). Your hog attack should start on one end of the U and end on the other end of the U destroying every defense, then clean-up will go in the exact reverse. At this point, what I've seen from many people attempting GoHo is what is known as a Surgical GoHo. What this means is that you're surgically deploying 3 or so hogs per point defense so that you eventually add more and more hogs to create an unstoppable force. The way you deploy these also naturally push the hogs around the U that you created. Surgical GoHo is difficult to pull off, and I think more of us should first be learning a more straightforward GoHo. I'll first explain the major downfall of a hog attack, then why surgical GoHo is difficult (hint: it's easier to hit the major downfall point), and finally explain what I think is better.
The BIGGEST downfall of a hog attack is your hogs splitting up and going in different directions. Together, hogs are amazing and can mow through everything, but on their own they're relatively squishy and can die pretty easily. The strength in GoHo attacks comes from the strength of the pack of hogs moving together throughout the base. This is why you want to start your hog attack on one end of the U and end on the other end - because it's a natural path for the hogs to follow. If you have half your hogs going left and then half going right, which hogs should you heal? Odds are, you choose the bigger pack and leave the others to die. If you heal both, you'll likely run out of heals (TH9 only get 3 heals + jump/rage) and you end up prolonging the inevitable choice of leaving a pack of hogs to die. These are the scenarios you want to avoid and why you should NEVER voluntarily split your hogs (i.e. attack from both ends of the U). Your goal is to keep your hogs continuing to path in a single direction (either clockwise or counter-clockwise), deploying more as they go around, and healing when necessary.
Now onto why Surgical GoHo is difficult. When you deploy only 3 or so hogs per point defense, and deploy lots of groups of 3, you open yourself up to more opportunities where a group of 3 hogs will fail, and you're left with some defenses up between your hogs. This hurts you two-fold: (1) This creates a separation in your hog pack. Surgical GoHo relies on all groups of hogs taking out their point defenses and joining together into a major pack. When one part of the surgical deployment of hogs fails, you're left with a separation in your pack, which will leave you with 2 distinct groups. This is the first way you hit the major failure point for hog attacks. Which group do you choose to heal? The larger one, and you leave the smaller one to die. You just voluntarily killed off some of your hogs, hurting your attack. (2) If you're trying to keep your hogs going in a single direction, when a surgical hog deployment fails to take out all of the expected defenses, you now have defenses pulling your main pack of hogs in two separate directions. Which way do your hogs go? Hopefully in the direction that you want them to, but they'll likely partially split, further hurting your attack. When one surgical deployment of hogs fails, you open yourself to a two-fold major failure in your hog attack. Yes it looks prettier, but no, it's not worth the much larger potential failure rate. Which is why I suggest switching to a standard GoHo.
HOG ATTACK - GENERAL GOHO DEPLOYMENT
Next is what I recommend using: just a plain old, really standard GoHo. The main difference between GoHo and Surgical GoHo is the number of hog deployments you do and the amount of hogs you deploy in each deployment. Surgical hog deployment uses 5-6 deployments of 3-4 hogs, and a normal GoHo uses 3 (sometimes 4) deployments for all 20 hogs. I found this works best when you do 3 decrementing deployments. The deployments could vary depending on the point defenses you're trying to get through between deployments, but I usually choose something like 9, 6, 5 or 8, 7, 5. The simple reason behind my choices: a pack of 7, 8, or 9 hogs is much less likely to fail and not get through defenses compared to a pack of 3-4 hogs. The whole idea of the hog attack is creating an overwhelming force of hogs that path across a base together and tear through defenses. It's much easier to create that pack of hogs when you start strong.
The next aspect to understand is where you deploy your 3 packs. You'll want all 20 of your hogs deployed by the time your pack is half way around the U. That means the last deployment of hogs will likely happen just before the bottom part of the U, and the first two deployments will happen before that point. Obviously the initial deployment will happen at the start of the U, which just leaves the second deployment of hogs. I'd say a good estimate is just before the half way mark between your first and last deployment. It will vary a bit, but you'll basically be adding your hogs to attacking defenses on the outside, in order to keep your initial pack of hogs towards the inside of the base. The general concept I like to think of for (all) hog attacks is to continue adding more and more hogs to the pack until it becomes unstoppable. You don't want to send in the entire pack at once, you want to keep adding reinforcements beyond what the defense can handle so it seems like it's hopeless for the defense. Like in Lord of the Rings when Gandalf showed up to stomp all the orcs. You know the scene.
The last aspect of the hog attack is when to deploy each of your 3 deployments. The first will go after the kill squad has reach the core, so you really just have to think about the second and third deployments. But honestly there's not much thinking involved, you want to deploy them when the pack has reach that point. So if you drop at 0%, 25%, and 50% around the U, you'll want to drop the second deployment when the initial group reaches 25% around the U, and you'll want to drop the last deployment of hogs when the pack has reached the 50% point around the U. Pretty simple stuff - just don't deploy hogs way ahead of where your pack of hogs currently is.