How to beat this army?

[BrandonD]

So my friend and I play large-scale games, with 1000 point armies and a really gigantic board with a 20+ height mountain in the center. Our start zones are at the 2 far edges behind castle walls.

Lately my friend seems to have found the ultimate army for this large board. But I don't consider myself an expert, so I suspect you guys will have something useful to counter this opinion.

Basically, his army consists of Thanos and the Marro Hive, along with a ton of marro squads that can regenerate. He sends out Thanos and a few backup squads to wreak destruction, and when Thanos is dead he just keeps regenerating and sending out marros until he is revived. Rinse/repeat.

Thanos basically has a 1 in 10 chance to revive, and as long as he has a marro on the board there's a chance he'll come back in full health. On a huge board it becomes very likely that Thanos will revive multiple times.

My strategy up to now has been basically to use heros like Morsbane and the Mindshacklers to threaten Thanos and give me a little freedom of movement. Their specials have the potential to ruin his plan, but he has a greater movement as well as flying so avoiding my guys is not too difficult.

What would you guys recommend as an anti-Thanos/Marro army? Is there a better strategy than the Morsbane/Mindshackler counter-army?

[Lyrgard]

You have two problems here. your first is thanos, the second is the Hive.

For the Hive, a lucky drop of Airborn elite could take care of it. Phantom knights, or an orc army can go all the way to the Hive without being blocked by opponent army.

As for thanos... Don't try to kill him ! Your best bet would be to surround him with knigths of Weston. Ideally, with 2 squad of knigth around him + Raelin, you can stale him for a long moment.
Remember, Thanos hit hard, but only once per turn ! If he try to disengage, A COWARD REWARD will probably kill him.
With the rest of the army, take care of the marro. The hive in itself is not that great. Once the hive is done, clean remaining marro.
Rats could help too

So :

Hive assasin squad :
Tornak 100
6x blades gruts 240
Airborn elite 110

To hinder opponent movements (Thanos or marro, depending of the situation), make the hive assassination easier, etc
4x rats 160

To take care of Thanos, to clean-up
4x Knights of Weston 280
Sir gilbert 105

= 995 points.

I would begin by moving slowly all the army, rats in front. When "near" the hive send in rats and tie the maximum of units, then send the orcs to the Hive as quickly as possible.
Knigths take care of Thanos
If AE drop, try to kill the Hive.

Alternatively, I would just ignore the hive and use a massive steamroller to kill all figure in sight. The hive cost is 160. The best it can revive is a Stinger, costed 20points each, at a 40% chance. That means the Hive need to revive 8 stinger to be worth its cost. 8 stinger with 40% chance means around 20turns (20 activation of the Hive. Any activation of Thanos or others cards delays it further). Moreover, it is useless when no marro is dead. So when you start to kill marro, if you kill the Hive before nearly 7 round, no problem ! Thanos + Marro hive is nearly 500 pts, half your opponent army. Just ignore those two and hit the remaining 500 points army with your strong 1000point army, and he will not be able to do anything !
Replace the orcs by 1x Weston and 4x 4th Mass

5x Weston
Sir Gilbert
4x 4th Mass
4x rats
1x Airborn elite
= 1005points.
(note that this army is not fully valiant, but sir Gilbert can help 4th Mass move along the knights)

Move all your army slowly, killing whatever come in sigth. If needed, spend 2x Weston to tie Thanos down. When marro are dead, kill Thanos

[Neo]

Next game, you should follow the above as well as point out that the marro hive can't activate his marro, because once they are beyond the wall, it can't see them.

[wolfeman1968]

To move a Marro with the Hive, it must be clear line site and start movement within 12 spaces.
Alexander Drake (II) may be an option, he hits hard and Marro army does not have any special attacks to hit him from range. Plus he can scale castle walls

[BrandonD]

Originally Posted by wolfeman1968

To move a Marro with the Hive, it must be clear line site and start movement within 12 spaces.
Alexander Drake (II) may be an option, he hits hard and Marro army does not have any special attacks to hit him from range. Plus he can scale castle walls

The time that I won against his army was when my Morsbane successfully removed Thanos's special revival power and then Sgt Drake moved in for the kill. He's definitely good against Thanos because Thanos only has a normal ranged attack.

Thanks for the helpful hints everyone, I'll let you know how it goes...

[Dr. Weirdscaper]

Quick question:

Can Zelrig see the top of the Marro Hive over the wall?

[Shedim Kabal]

Morsbane
Theracus

Silver Surfer

Raelin
Torin
Zombies of Morindan x5

Slow roll the Zombie pod out, keeping Torin out front with as many adjacent zombies as you can. It's order marker intensive, but that's ok for this strategy. Once the horde has surmounted the summit, bring up Morsbane on Theracus followed by the Surfer. Provided you've pulled enough of his swarm away from the Hive, then you should move in to assault it with Surfer. The Hive's a good target for Cosmic Blast since it's a low defense Hero with lots of order markers. Zombies are also good against the Marro swarm, as they Rise Again better than the Hive Rebirths. And Torin works well since the Marro are without a single special attack.

[Grut Ranger]

Originally Posted by Shedim Kabal

Morsbane
Theracus

Silver Surfer

Raelin
Torin
Zombies of Morindan x5

Slow roll the Zombie pod out, keeping Torin out front with as many adjacent zombies as you can. It's order marker intensive, but that's ok for this strategy. Once the horde has surmounted the summit, bring up Morsbane on Theracus followed by the Surfer. Provided you've pulled enough of his swarm away from the Hive, then you should move in to assault it with Surfer. The Hive's a good target for Cosmic Blast since it's a low defense Hero with lots of order markers. Zombies are also good against the Marro swarm, as they Rise Again better than the Hive Rebirths. And Torin works well since the Marro are without a single special attack.

Hmmm...at first sight,

This looks like a job for...
Deathwalker 9000!!!
or Q9, but mobile, ranged artillery seems like a good idea in this scenario.

[Grut Ranger]

Originally Posted by Grut Ranger

Hmmm...at first sight,

This looks like a job for...
Deathwalker 9000!!!
or Q9, but mobile, ranged artillery seems like a good idea in this scenario.

oh...wait <smacks head>
MORSBANE!!!!!!

[Hive Lord 1233]

Originally Posted by Grut Ranger

oh...wait <smacks head>
MORSBANE!!!!!!

[Lyrgard]

I think he confused this thread with the running thread "I could beat that Army"

[Shedim Kabal]

I've been hoping to see if BrandonD had any luck defeating his Marrden laden opponent.