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I have got 7 hounds plus Karanak. How many hounds should I run as a minimum?

I can attach Skulltaker to Karanak base and say it is a juggerherald of Khorne.

I am also looking for cheaper alternatives for hounds. How do the beastmen hounds from Warhammer compare? Any third party alternatives?

You can never have enough hounds my minimum is 60 corn dogs

I’ve been using the chaos war hounds on bike bases as khorne hounds. Works out well but the bike bases aren’t really needed IMO.

In my mixed 2k list I’m running a distraction unit of 14. With pure khorne, I’m running 40 with 2 heralds.

I really really really hate facing hounds. Those things move way too fast and are very hard to get rid of.

So, if you are playing ME then I'd say 7 is more than enough

Hounds are brutal and a an effective counter for the New Tau/Eldar Meta. The more the better. Either one large unit if you are planning on using the Grimiore, or MSU(More like multiple medium units).

So damn fast, and pretty difficult to kill.

So, at least double them. Looks like I need to find some alternatives.

Check out Fantasy WoC warhounds or even vampire count direwolves. (both come in boxes of 10)

Find some bike bases and you're good.

All of them.

8 or 16 per squad, any more and you risk the displeasure of Khorne

Minimum size 15 for a single unit, below that and you are better off with screamers. Otherwise any number as long as you have counters to their bane, walkers and MCs.

Somewhat off topic but are 40k beasts required to be on bike bases? Same for cavalry, is a bike base the catch-all base for bikes, cavalry and beasts, or could you use the original beast bases.

You use the base the models are supplied with, for flesh hounds that is a 50x25mm rectangular cav base. for Karanak it is a 40mm circular base. Some people prefer the 70x25 pill bases.

For alternatives you might consider the GW Fantasy range.

For example the Chaos warhounds:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440026a&prodId=prod1570038&rootCatGameStyle=

or even the Dire Wolves:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat720001a&prodId=prod1050050&rootCatGameStyle=

I use the Dire Wolves as Khymerae in my DE army. I figured 10 for $25 was a much better price than what they wanted for the actual models.

I've used a mix of chaos warhounds and VC dire wolves, always plenty to find on ebay.

For Karanak himself, there's a couple cheap versions that Reaper makes.
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/cerberus/sku-down/03423
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/cerberus/sku-down/02172
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/cerberus/sku-down/89296

Reaper's made more demonic dog things to run as flesh hounds than I'd care to link, and most of them are pretty cheap.

I will go with the chaos warhounds, thanks.