How to fight Braxas and the Hounds?

[Finrod]

I've been working on various ideas for my tournament army, but when I playtest it... I always get slaughtered by the Braxas/Marrden Hounds x2 army.

Anyone had success against that army? I don't want to use it myself, but I keep losing to it...

[Snotwalker 8000]

What does your starting tourney army look like so far?... More info on what you're trying to put together would help us to help you.

In general, against Braxas, just make sure you have some Large figs who aren't vulnerable to her halitosis breath.... Against the M Hounds, soulborgs are great counters, as are any 7+ ranged unit... being doublespaced figs, the M Hounds can have harder times climbing, and can also at times have difficulty closing in on good ranged figs if they're rolling poorly for movement. Plus, keep your units spaced out so the M Hounds can't dive into an inviting "gaggle" of easy targets for plaguing.

[AgentX-127]

Q9 - immune to both the plague and poison
Major X17 - also immune, plus can hold the hounds and keep 'em off Q9 while Q9 concentrates fore on Braxas.

That's 280 points so far...
How many points total?

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Finrod

I've been working on various ideas for my tournament army, but when I playtest it... I always get slaughtered by the Braxas/Marrden Hounds x2 army.

That is a really good army. I'm having trouble thinking of a good counter to it that would still be competitive in a tourney environment. Braxas is a major game changer, and I'm surprised that she doesn't show up in more tourneys.

Q9 is probably your best bet against this particular army setup. Also, he is a good counter and solid draft pick for most situations, so if you expect to see Braxas show up a lot, I'd also bring Q9.

[Finrod]

Originally Posted by Bobbo

That is a really good army. I'm having trouble thinking of a good counter to it that would still be competitive in a tourney environment.

That's the thing. It doesn't seem to matter what my army is. Unless it has Q9 in it to counter Braxas & the hounds, I'm going to get slaughtered if someone else has that army.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

Q9 is probably your best bet against this particular army setup. Also, he is a good counter and solid draft pick for most situations, so if you expect to see Braxas show up a lot, I'd also bring Q9.

It's not a matter of expecting to see her a LOT; it's that we know she'll show up, regardless. So should every tourney army have Q9? I hope not. But what else can counter the poison?

X17 is not immune to the poison, that I can tell. So... what else is there? There aren't very many large characters that can easily fit into a tournament army.

I suppose Deathstalkers are an option... hmmm...

[Aldin]

Brunak, mebbe? He's about half the price, immune, and a good all around figure for fights that don't involve Braxas.

~Aldin

[yagyuninja]

I played a game with all medium figures except Brunak versus an army with Braxas in it, and I can vouch for him. With some ranged support, he can hold her off long enough to at least severly cripple her.

[AgentX-127]

Originally Posted by Finrod

X17 is not immune to the poison, that I can tell.

I suppose Deathstalkers are an option... hmmm...

X17 is not immune to poison, true, but he's a hero so he's got a better chance to survive.
His job would be to keep the hounds off Q9 while Q9 takes out Braxas.

Now, the Deathstalkers are a very interesting idea.
Q9 and two sets of Deathstalkers for 380 pts?
That would be almost an exact figure for figure counter to Braxas and Hounds! (I'd really like to see that matchup...)

Now, for a more versatile Tourney army, Deathreavers might be useful.
(Q9, 5x Deathreavers again for 380 pts.)
Send them out first to tie up the Hounds, let Braxas try to take out a few every turn, meanwhile you'll attack them all with Q9.

Finally, a hybrid of the above (Q9, 3x Deathreavers, 1x Deathstalkers 400 pts) might be viable too.

I worry about the other armies (Not the Braxas/Hounds) that you have to face too, which is why the Reavers might be good. (Tie up the ranged/common hordes.)

[Bobbo]

Originally Posted by Finrod

It's not a matter of expecting to see her a LOT; it's that we know she'll show up, regardless. So should every tourney army have Q9? I hope not. But what else can counter the poison?

I wouldn't worry about Braxas against the heroes. She will kill a hero every two activations (working with total averages here), and in a point for point comparison, I would be surprised if Braxas killed her points worth in heroes before going down.

Honestly, I think your best bet would be to build a solid army and forget about countering this one. The Braxas/hounds army seems strong, but all the figures in it are so expensive that one or two bad rolls will pretty much take the army out of the running. This makes it dangerous to field and hard to be consistantly competitive, and in a tourney army means that it will be rare.

Honestly, what are the chances of you coming up against this army in the tourney? In the Mass tourney, I threw out my original army build because I realized that Braxas would munch it. Instead I played an army that was competitive, but was immune(ish) to insta-death. Well, Braxas didn't show up at all in the tourney. Talk about a let down.

Even if that army shows up once, I think it will be a "middle of the pack" army. Sometimes it will decimate, and other times it will fall quickly. If you win all your games, you won't be playing it except in the first round or two. You are much better off planning out a balanced force that can handle almost anything then bringing an army that counters one particular thing you are worried about facing.

Or, you could bring Q9 and Raelin. I'd bet that would beat Braxas and the hounds almost singlehandedly, and be a great base for a "take on anything" type army.

[Finrod]

I attempted a game last night using Deathstalkers as a counter. Worked surprisingly well. It was still a very close game, but the cyberwolves were able to engage Braxas and the hounds long enough to allow my ranged units to do some major damage.

Now to playtest it against some other common tourney armies...

[Fourshadow]

I don't have all of Wave 5 yet--lack of funds--but I am salivating at the possibilities the Deathstalkers promote! Fast movement, decent attack, good defense and being large gives immunity to many Specials....