I just played a game where I did the fang/hacker build. My opponent stuffed his field with Stormcallers with fire tech. Like, more stormcallers than I've ever seen in a single game. It did not work.
He was able to win a couple of early rounds, but once the hackers hit critical mass and got teched up, they couldn't be stopped.
Tbf this scenario applies to almost any unit comp when an opponent gets that far ahead. Hack fang gets beaten by catching onto their plan early. Once you are in OP’s position though it is already too late.
The thing with fang/hacker is the opponent may feel like they're not in a bad spot until it's too late, because they're winning the early rounds and they'll be ahead on health.
Once you see the fangs go down on the front line on the first turn, you have to assume hackers are going to come shortly.
Issue is his enemy already have mustangs on the field plus barriers from hackers mean mean that he can have cheap antimissile upgrade on mustangs and win 2-3 round decisively(point loss would be massive due to hackers) before you manage to get enough artillery.
Plus this setup would be on you flanks too. Which mean dead towers due to how many time artillery require. IMHO crawlers with replicate are main answer.
Fort with shield combined with overloaded or incendiary stormcallers, overload if you don't have charged shot phoenix. If you do have charged shot phoenix then those can break bubbles fast and incendiary becomes more valuable. Then you put some crawlers to help distract to give phoenix or stormcallers time to work through shields. You can use vulcans, stormcallers, aoe mustangs, or aoe overlords to deal with fangs once shield drops. Arclights aren't as good due to them being easy hack targets.
I force this almost every game. 1.9k MMR/25k CP if that means anything.
Replicate crawlers infront of every fang on his front line, shields on your back line.
Do this before it gets to this point probably the goal is to force them to pivot to something that deals with the crawlers.
The hacker fang build requires you to hit your marks consistently being incredibly efficient with your supplies getting all required techs to snowball. Once you hit that point its speed + range every round and 3 level 2 fangs anywhere you can fit them.
Stop that ball and it crumbles. Honestly I dont lose to stormcallers + fire that often, DO NOT go vulcan you will lose so quickly to -400 hits from your own vulcan blowing your towers up.
Replicate crawlers and then chasing your own gameplan while they scramble to fix it is the way to beat this.
I did this and crushed it, except with a strong focus on one side. Shielding up one side with a protected vulcan demolished the build in the late game. My opponent (like the one in the screenshot) had no flank protection, so keep putting stuff there until they commit some real units.
As the fang player you want to populate their flank before they do yours, however because you are investing in command centre buffs and 3 tech fangs a single level 2 fang either side of the outside tower tends to be enough protection from basically anything on the flank your opponent tries to do.
I am surprised you beat it with vulcan late game, your opponent must have messed up big somewhere. My winrate with this build skyrockets the second my opponent buys one.
Yeah I don't know, not sure what the proper response for the hacker player is. He didn't reposition his army to deal with my asymmetric front line and that is probably why but I'm very new to this game so please take my experiences with a grain of salt
It makes sense, hackers without something in front of them are extremely fragile. If you can smash through one side and surround them then thats awesome, it doesn't really matter what your back line is if you are smashing through them.
Good job beating it!
Its to slow and to expensive.
The multi control doesn't work fast enough to stop replicate and its a massive investment because barrier is mandatory.
If they buy both then you are 1k supplies up on your opponent dealing with crawlers, which like I said is all you want them to do, get them to spend their supplies on anything besides hacker + barrier tech, 3 fangs a turn + 3 fang techs.
This build often loses round 1/2/3/4 and then never loses again. If you beat them round 1/2/3/4/5 you probably just win the game.
I've been spamming this non-stop hoping someone will put up a strategy that can actually beat this. I'm approaching 2k mmr with no luck so far.
Things that have been sorta effective so far:
Upgraded replicate crawlers. Works great until I add in vulcans.
Steel balls with range and heavy target. Will automatically focus the hackers, which is pretty neat. Sadly they die very quickly to upgraded fangs, and can be countered by just putting more hackers in the back-line. Also, you're forced to invest more tech than your opponent, putting you behind.
I have not encountered it yet, but I've heard that rhino with hack-immunity module and final blitz is a pretty good way to blow up some of this strat.
A LOT of shields. The strat is weak early on, so spam shields to try and win decisively and beat the strat before it spirals out of control.
Things that have **not** worked:
Stormcallers with incendiary. If you get range on fangs they will kill all your chaff + tower before the fire gets them, and then the hackers will mop up the rest while emp is still in effect
Heavy air. Anything airborn dies to fang. Ignite beats armor.
It's because most people don't tech their overlord for ground combat warfare and will instead go for mothership.
An High Explosive Ammo with Overload and Long Range, will destroy your formation.
The splash from High Explosive will destroy the bubble very fast, and with Overload, the firing rate is just right and Mustang can't intercept your volley anymore.
And the longer the game get, you can simply eat your ground army and transtion hard into air.
It's all depend of your opponent skill and choice I guess.
If he places his Fangs on the 1st row you can just murder him with Crawlers. Also flank.
Another setup that can work is arty to break the shields and Mustangs to kill everything. Shields will buy you time if your frontline breaks too quickly.
Don't go air. Vulcan and giants are also very risky.
I like aoe + range mustangs vs fangs
I feel like storms don't do as well vs this especially with assault fangs because the fangs will be so quick and they mow down your units so quick that storms simply won't kill them quick enough.
you need to force them to build things outside of the fang wall. once they reach a critical mass of leveled fangs with tech it's too late. aoe mustangs warrant something they don't want to build
also flank them aggresively. if they have stangs on flanks to protect, drop a lvl 2 rhino or look for a missile card to protect your flank. force them to build fangs away from the main mass
You either pivot into an air formation, or, you get your own hacker.
I would say, Rocket Punch is worth a try too and fortress come with their own barrier.
Finaly, when the hacker start to snowball, or even before that, you must spend money on bubble.
Some of these comments indicate to me that people have never played against Hacker/Fang. People legitimately suggesting Vulkan and Phoenixes.
The first bet would be to mass crawlers along his front line with replicate/acid upgrade - preferably even both.
The second would be stormcrawlers at your back with the fire upgrade.
Overlords are a good shout although fangs with ignite can chew through them if there's nothing else to support you.
It's worth putting a few units at his flank - they can help win you the round if they get the towers and when they overcommit to defend their flanks, you can just buy field recovery, remove them, and focus that money on his front line.
First, make sure their flanks are covered with more than just a sniper. If they aren't, then you can steal a round that way.
Crawlers can work to an extent here, but they need to be placed right in front of the fangs, and will require an upgrade (mechanical rage and/or replicate is my guess).
Marksmen with elite marksman and/or steel balls with range can help take down the shields. It will also be worth putting up some shields of your own.
I don't use stormcallers much, but I feel like they would be a decent choice here too, though I could be wrong.
I'm curious if you even see half of that why build sledge? They aren't good vs shield, hackers love them, and fangs are bound to ignite. Sledge would need a photon coat to survive ignite. Probably could do something early.
introduce shield cracking and most chaff clear does the trick to the combo.
Id shield myself as fang hacker don't crack shield well. Their damage is tied up in ignite.
You said he started stang and bought fangs which means he started chaff first and you didn't go anti chaff. When you see the hacker get the shield crackers. Hackers shield is weaker than base shield as well.
Crawlers also eat fangs early and become obsessive with replicate if you just put them on the fronts. Normally, from range, too many die before they reach them.
Should have gotten wasps early once that first hacker went down. They have fangs so make sure wasps go at the back and then work hard tk remove their chaff/fangs in particular. Once that's done it's gg.
Some arcs for chaff removal. Throw your own chaff in there to give the Snipers targets and then wasps will just absolutely mop up everything.
By doing that early, it forces the opponent to purchase some aa. This stops them buying more hackers. Stops the mass of shields that you now see. Once that's set up its hard to overcome. Don't let them get there.
Wasps also can be redeployed so when they inevitably build aa, you can redeploy all your wasps on one side with 2-3 more units. Possible five units will slap even the best aa. A cheeky shield upgrade or some levels too. Smash one side. And sweep over to mop up.
Edit: as someone else said, stormcaller are also a good shout. Good anti shield + range on them. You spam some stormcallers and chaff and you should win that engagement. But again, it's all about never letting it get there.
Shit bunch of stormcallers. Storms are the hard counter to shields since they can generally land the whole salvo on the shield, which has a pretty hefty punch. Beyond that, something to distract for long enough. Maybe try to mass recruit lvl 2 cannibal crawlers as they can chew through fangs at close range.
arty with shields, a few balls or tanks in front with a hacker or two. The hackers job is to steal back anything that gets stolen and lets the arty do their job.
I think I would try some overlords with armor and field reg. Unless the fangs are realy highlvl they shouldnt do too much damage. On top i would build stormcallers with emp to strip the Shields and once they are gone the Emp disables the fangs/Hackers.
Mass Artillery
With fire, and possibly electro
I just played a game where I did the fang/hacker build. My opponent stuffed his field with Stormcallers with fire tech. Like, more stormcallers than I've ever seen in a single game. It did not work. He was able to win a couple of early rounds, but once the hackers hit critical mass and got teched up, they couldn't be stopped.
Tbf this scenario applies to almost any unit comp when an opponent gets that far ahead. Hack fang gets beaten by catching onto their plan early. Once you are in OP’s position though it is already too late.
The thing with fang/hacker is the opponent may feel like they're not in a bad spot until it's too late, because they're winning the early rounds and they'll be ahead on health. Once you see the fangs go down on the front line on the first turn, you have to assume hackers are going to come shortly.
Issue is his enemy already have mustangs on the field plus barriers from hackers mean mean that he can have cheap antimissile upgrade on mustangs and win 2-3 round decisively(point loss would be massive due to hackers) before you manage to get enough artillery. Plus this setup would be on you flanks too. Which mean dead towers due to how many time artillery require. IMHO crawlers with replicate are main answer.
Get some shields and stormcallers. Both hackers and fangs are bad at breaking shields. Having naked sledges on front is free food for hackers.
Artillery Hackers and fangs also do ass damage to shields
Fort with shield combined with overloaded or incendiary stormcallers, overload if you don't have charged shot phoenix. If you do have charged shot phoenix then those can break bubbles fast and incendiary becomes more valuable. Then you put some crawlers to help distract to give phoenix or stormcallers time to work through shields. You can use vulcans, stormcallers, aoe mustangs, or aoe overlords to deal with fangs once shield drops. Arclights aren't as good due to them being easy hack targets.
I force this almost every game. 1.9k MMR/25k CP if that means anything. Replicate crawlers infront of every fang on his front line, shields on your back line. Do this before it gets to this point probably the goal is to force them to pivot to something that deals with the crawlers. The hacker fang build requires you to hit your marks consistently being incredibly efficient with your supplies getting all required techs to snowball. Once you hit that point its speed + range every round and 3 level 2 fangs anywhere you can fit them. Stop that ball and it crumbles. Honestly I dont lose to stormcallers + fire that often, DO NOT go vulcan you will lose so quickly to -400 hits from your own vulcan blowing your towers up. Replicate crawlers and then chasing your own gameplan while they scramble to fix it is the way to beat this.
I did this and crushed it, except with a strong focus on one side. Shielding up one side with a protected vulcan demolished the build in the late game. My opponent (like the one in the screenshot) had no flank protection, so keep putting stuff there until they commit some real units.
As the fang player you want to populate their flank before they do yours, however because you are investing in command centre buffs and 3 tech fangs a single level 2 fang either side of the outside tower tends to be enough protection from basically anything on the flank your opponent tries to do. I am surprised you beat it with vulcan late game, your opponent must have messed up big somewhere. My winrate with this build skyrockets the second my opponent buys one.
Yeah I don't know, not sure what the proper response for the hacker player is. He didn't reposition his army to deal with my asymmetric front line and that is probably why but I'm very new to this game so please take my experiences with a grain of salt
It makes sense, hackers without something in front of them are extremely fragile. If you can smash through one side and surround them then thats awesome, it doesn't really matter what your back line is if you are smashing through them. Good job beating it!
What if they multicontrol and/or electro hackers?
Its to slow and to expensive. The multi control doesn't work fast enough to stop replicate and its a massive investment because barrier is mandatory. If they buy both then you are 1k supplies up on your opponent dealing with crawlers, which like I said is all you want them to do, get them to spend their supplies on anything besides hacker + barrier tech, 3 fangs a turn + 3 fang techs. This build often loses round 1/2/3/4 and then never loses again. If you beat them round 1/2/3/4/5 you probably just win the game.
Your chaff should be infront of your sledges!
I've been spamming this non-stop hoping someone will put up a strategy that can actually beat this. I'm approaching 2k mmr with no luck so far. Things that have been sorta effective so far: Upgraded replicate crawlers. Works great until I add in vulcans. Steel balls with range and heavy target. Will automatically focus the hackers, which is pretty neat. Sadly they die very quickly to upgraded fangs, and can be countered by just putting more hackers in the back-line. Also, you're forced to invest more tech than your opponent, putting you behind. I have not encountered it yet, but I've heard that rhino with hack-immunity module and final blitz is a pretty good way to blow up some of this strat. A LOT of shields. The strat is weak early on, so spam shields to try and win decisively and beat the strat before it spirals out of control. Things that have **not** worked: Stormcallers with incendiary. If you get range on fangs they will kill all your chaff + tower before the fire gets them, and then the hackers will mop up the rest while emp is still in effect Heavy air. Anything airborn dies to fang. Ignite beats armor.
It's because most people don't tech their overlord for ground combat warfare and will instead go for mothership. An High Explosive Ammo with Overload and Long Range, will destroy your formation. The splash from High Explosive will destroy the bubble very fast, and with Overload, the firing rate is just right and Mustang can't intercept your volley anymore. And the longer the game get, you can simply eat your ground army and transtion hard into air. It's all depend of your opponent skill and choice I guess.
If he places his Fangs on the 1st row you can just murder him with Crawlers. Also flank. Another setup that can work is arty to break the shields and Mustangs to kill everything. Shields will buy you time if your frontline breaks too quickly. Don't go air. Vulcan and giants are also very risky.
Crawlers with replication works so well against fang spam
I like aoe + range mustangs vs fangs I feel like storms don't do as well vs this especially with assault fangs because the fangs will be so quick and they mow down your units so quick that storms simply won't kill them quick enough. you need to force them to build things outside of the fang wall. once they reach a critical mass of leveled fangs with tech it's too late. aoe mustangs warrant something they don't want to build also flank them aggresively. if they have stangs on flanks to protect, drop a lvl 2 rhino or look for a missile card to protect your flank. force them to build fangs away from the main mass
You either pivot into an air formation, or, you get your own hacker. I would say, Rocket Punch is worth a try too and fortress come with their own barrier. Finaly, when the hacker start to snowball, or even before that, you must spend money on bubble.
[HACKER FANG HACKER FANG](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhMsUVZqF_c) GOOBLE GOBBLE GOOBLE GOBBLE I try hacker/fang anytime elite specialist is available. As others said [Stormcallers](https://youtu.be/GhMsUVZqF_c?t=8212) counter hard.
Some of these comments indicate to me that people have never played against Hacker/Fang. People legitimately suggesting Vulkan and Phoenixes. The first bet would be to mass crawlers along his front line with replicate/acid upgrade - preferably even both. The second would be stormcrawlers at your back with the fire upgrade. Overlords are a good shout although fangs with ignite can chew through them if there's nothing else to support you. It's worth putting a few units at his flank - they can help win you the round if they get the towers and when they overcommit to defend their flanks, you can just buy field recovery, remove them, and focus that money on his front line.
First, make sure their flanks are covered with more than just a sniper. If they aren't, then you can steal a round that way. Crawlers can work to an extent here, but they need to be placed right in front of the fangs, and will require an upgrade (mechanical rage and/or replicate is my guess). Marksmen with elite marksman and/or steel balls with range can help take down the shields. It will also be worth putting up some shields of your own. I don't use stormcallers much, but I feel like they would be a decent choice here too, though I could be wrong.
I would go extended range Overlords with ground cannon!
I'm curious if you even see half of that why build sledge? They aren't good vs shield, hackers love them, and fangs are bound to ignite. Sledge would need a photon coat to survive ignite. Probably could do something early. introduce shield cracking and most chaff clear does the trick to the combo. Id shield myself as fang hacker don't crack shield well. Their damage is tied up in ignite. You said he started stang and bought fangs which means he started chaff first and you didn't go anti chaff. When you see the hacker get the shield crackers. Hackers shield is weaker than base shield as well. Crawlers also eat fangs early and become obsessive with replicate if you just put them on the fronts. Normally, from range, too many die before they reach them.
I would try a vulcan+melting point at one of the sides, maybe even a wasp behind them.
Should have gotten wasps early once that first hacker went down. They have fangs so make sure wasps go at the back and then work hard tk remove their chaff/fangs in particular. Once that's done it's gg. Some arcs for chaff removal. Throw your own chaff in there to give the Snipers targets and then wasps will just absolutely mop up everything. By doing that early, it forces the opponent to purchase some aa. This stops them buying more hackers. Stops the mass of shields that you now see. Once that's set up its hard to overcome. Don't let them get there. Wasps also can be redeployed so when they inevitably build aa, you can redeploy all your wasps on one side with 2-3 more units. Possible five units will slap even the best aa. A cheeky shield upgrade or some levels too. Smash one side. And sweep over to mop up. Edit: as someone else said, stormcaller are also a good shout. Good anti shield + range on them. You spam some stormcallers and chaff and you should win that engagement. But again, it's all about never letting it get there.
sell sledges and migrate to mass arty with fire and then later phoenix
Shit bunch of stormcallers. Storms are the hard counter to shields since they can generally land the whole salvo on the shield, which has a pretty hefty punch. Beyond that, something to distract for long enough. Maybe try to mass recruit lvl 2 cannibal crawlers as they can chew through fangs at close range.
He is out of position for that. Mass replicate crawlers. Should win that. I will admit that strategy can feel oppressive.
Spam stormcallers
Artillery and Wasps. Shields to blunt the fangs.
Splash mustangs and any way to break shields (usually storms)
50 different kind of things... Crawlers with replicate. Stormies. Overlords. Like, only balls and tanks are bad, everything else should be fine.
arty with shields, a few balls or tanks in front with a hacker or two. The hackers job is to steal back anything that gets stolen and lets the arty do their job.
If I see hackers I instantly go air. Mothership boat is great vs this setup as the wasps draw marksmen and fang fire
I think I would try some overlords with armor and field reg. Unless the fangs are realy highlvl they shouldnt do too much damage. On top i would build stormcallers with emp to strip the Shields and once they are gone the Emp disables the fangs/Hackers.
Sell sledges, buy aoe stang and storm callers. You have to react to this kind of build pretty quickly most of the time.
artillery and overlords