Hog Riders

Summary
The Hog Rider is a rugged, dark-skinned man riding a large hog. He is bare-chested, wearing only a brown leather loincloth, a red belt and a pair of leather sandals. He has two large golden wristbands and a gold earring. His weapon of choice is a large warhammer.
His mount is a large boar/hog, about half its rider's height; the Hog Rider holds a brown leather bridle which is looped around the boar's tusks.
He is a mortal troop and can be created in multiple numbers like other normal troops.
Because of his hog he can jump over Walls, giving the user a great advantage over the enemy base.
Although he has high damage per second and high hit points, he only takes 2 minutes to train.
Hog Riders make good distractions when deploying other units such as Archers.
Because of his large amount of health and damage, and his preferred target being defenses, the Hog Rider can be used as a replacement for Giants.
Offensive Strategy
He can be used to jump over any level Walls, rendering them ineffective against Hog Riders. Note that while this allows Hog Riders free access to what lies behind the wall, it does not open up gaps for other troops to move through. If the Hog Riders need the support of other ground troops, you will still need to deploy Wall Breakers in order to assist them.
The Hog Rider could potentially be used in a fashion similar to Barbarians, i.e. a "Hog Rider Rush", without requiring any Wall Breakers to break Walls. However, this would likely be a poor tradeoff of resources, as a large raid of Hog Riders would cost a significant amount of Dark Elixir.
Hog Riders are very capable of acting as distracting troops like Giants; they have nearly as much health as a similar-level Giant, move twice as fast and do considerably more damage.
They work perfectly with the Healing Spell when you group several of them together.
When used all together they can be extremely effective offensive troops, though this is balanced by the fact that you must use a substantial amount of Dark Elixir.
Defensive Strategy
Defending against Hog Riders is tricky, as wall placement becomes irrelevant when dealing with them. However, the fact that they can jump over a Wall and attack a defense means that they may leave their ground support behind (Barbarians, etc.), as they will not be able to follow. This will allow your interior defenses to concentrate on the Hog Riders.
Although the Hog Rider is certainly not a liability on defense, the fact that all defensive troops are unimpeded by walls negates the primary advantage of the Hog Rider. As of the 30 Jul 2013 update, they take up the same amount of housing space (5) as Giants but are much faster and do considerably more damage. They are also much less susceptible to Lightning Spell attacks than Minions and Tier 1 troops, so they may be a good alternative for the Clan Castle if your clanmates don't mind donating Dark Elixir Troops.
Upgrade Differences
At level 3, the Hog Rider's hammer increases in size and turns black. The brass bands on the hammer's head disappear, replaced by a massive golden knob.
At level 5 his mohawk turns from black to orange, making it similar to that of a level 5 Goblin


Preferred Target Attack Type Housing Space Training Time Movement Speed Attack Speed Dark Barracks Level Required Range
Defenses Melee (Ground Only) 5 2m 24 1s 2 0.6 tiles
Level Damage per Second Hitpoints Training Cost Dark elixir Research Cost Dark elixir Laboratory Level Required Research Time
1 60 270 40 N/A N/A N/A
2 70 312 45 20,000 5 8 days
3 80 360 52 30,000 6 10 days
4 92 415 58 40,000 6 12 days
5 105 475 65 50,000 7 14 days