Best way to fight against the Caro-Kann Fantasy?

I am essentially a Caro-Kann only player (thanks to Hanging Pawns) and nowadays I am running into the fantasy once in a while. I used to play the dxe4 line in somewhat of a clueless manner so obviously I found myself in trouble quite soon. I came across these 2 lines but I am a bit conflicted as to choose which one to effectively respond against the fantasy.

The first one looks better because it's looks equal and you're going to castle and survive the second one idk feels kinda bad tho

And yet somehow the engine evaluation gives it a 0.6 advantage for black when black has a ruined pawn structure and kingside castling would be unsound

I play the Qb6 with an idea to play e5 and bc5

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I think I saw the Qb6 line in a book on the Caro-Kann. I'll post the relevant theory moves here once I find it.

This is the only theory I found for the Qb6 sideline. Hope this helps.

Are you looking for the "best" (but difficult to handle) way to face the Fantasy?

Or are you looking for a practical, easy-to-handle way to face the Fantasy?

Because if you're looking for the latter (practical way), you can play this, no problem:

Put your pawns on light squares, and get your light-square bishop "out".

This isn't the most theoretical of tries, but it's quite practical, and should suit you well if you're looking for a way to simply "get developed" and reach a playable middlegame.

After that, it's just a matter of figuring out how to develop the rest of your pieces.

I agree with @IronStream1. This is my go to weapon because I used to play the french. Sometimes it can transpose. It can't be bad to explore other middlegame structures to increase your general chess understanding.

Thanks for sharing the e6 Line. I have been trying to gradually change my repertoire from the Caro-Kann to the French and I hope playing this line will help me in that. Have a nice day ahead.

You're welcome.

And yes, if you're familiar with the French, then playing ...e6 against the Fantasy makes a lot of sense.

The main reason is because of how the f3 pawn cuts off Black's queen bishop diagonal.

Now there aren't any logical squares for Black's queen bishop to develop to.

So it makes sense for Black (positionally) to play ...e6 and develop the queen bishop to a different diagonal (either immediately, or later on in the game).

Agreed. Whenever I play the 3.dxe4 or 3.g6 lines, I usually find my light square bishop sitting on the backrank till the early middlegame, which in turns avoids my rooks from being connected and I find myself in dark waters.

With the e6 line I can at least maintain a solid position and try to develop my LSB in a somewhat of a French Winawer style( I am referring to getting my bishop to a4 or a6, of course with proper considerations of the position at hand)

3.e5

Like @DifferentFear, I play 3.. e5. It gambits a pawn, but you can attack like crazy with Bc5 and Qb6. Here are some lines:

I haven’t explored this variation much, as I don’t face the Fantasy very often and at my level online (I play better OTB), no one knows any actual variations. This is as far as I know.