# Anvil and Hammer tactic



## Ancient Tiel' a fier (May 5, 2008)

After Son of Horus made a great tactic thread i thought i would offer another approach, the classic anvil and hammer.








The anvil unit its vital it needs to be strong, defensive and most importantly it musnt run away. A battle standard bearer is always a good choice for an anvil as is any stubborn, heavily armoured, or best of all unbreakable unit. The basic principle is the that the anvil unit moves up to block the enemy advance, once the enemy are locked in combat with the anvil the Hammer moves up to break the enemy against the anvil.
The Hammer unit should be fast and very good at killing quickly, a great place for your general. Good units for this roll should have high strtength and attacks, ranks and a standard are not as important for the hammer as the anvil provides those.
Both of the Main units need support the Hammer musnt get bogged down so fast cavalry and chariots are a good way to keep the enemy off there flanks.The anvil can struggle against greater numbers while it waits for the Hammer to charge, so firepower units are useful so thin enemy units down before they reach combat.

When timed well this can be a game winning tactic it can be used to take centre field from the enemy leaving them disorganised and often with their best units destroyed.

I hope this helps or inspires some of you (sorry about the poor picture it was a quick scribble on paint)


----------



## Gen. Confusion (Apr 26, 2008)

A great post Ancient. I like the way everything works together to destroy a unwary foe. I think I will try a empire army for this tactic. Flagalents and great swords would make a good anvil. Knights of the order can be the hammer. I could give the knights the banner of daemon slaying which makes them cause fear on the charge. :victory:


----------



## Green Knight (Feb 25, 2008)

Looks like a good tactic I could use it with my Bretonnians using a Grail Reliquae and Battle Pilgrims as the anvil. And use grail knights as a Hammer, a unit of knights of the realm as the fast cavalry, and small units of knight of the errent as the chariots. I think it will work


----------



## loser for sale (Jun 12, 2008)

Or with Tomb Kings I could use Skeleton Warriors or Tomb Guard (equipped with the Banner of the Undying Legion - bound spell casting the incantation of summoning) as the anvil, and Chariots or Heavy Cavalry with the Mirage Standard (enemies must re-roll to hit at range. If they do not roll to hit, confers a 5+ ward save) as the hammer - probably chariots in order to insert a Tomb King.
Nice tactic.


----------



## Syko515 (Jan 22, 2008)

how would you go about this with the VC's army? as i see they lack shooting for the most part.


----------



## Ancient Tiel' a fier (May 5, 2008)

for vampire counts the anvil is much bigger i use three units of zombies as an anvil, the special trick is that the zombies, while they will never win, can hold the enemy for a long time. The hammer is grave guard, black knights, big ghoul units, anything that can kill basically. This works really well for vampire counts.


----------



## Green Knight (Feb 25, 2008)

Looks ace ancient


----------



## Gharof von Carstein (May 19, 2008)

yet another post for counter strategy discussion.

the anvil and hammer has one big flaw to it. which is that if your anvil breaks the strategy automatically fails miserably. in warhammer this is less of a issue due to unbreakable and high LD units. undeads can optimise this strategy due to the undead rule. 

so what if you cant crack the anvil? than your next option is of course disrupting the hammer.

the problem with the hammer is that aldo its often times a unit that hits hard its overall not a unit that can stand by itself unsupported. using magic or fast units to disrupt or intercept the hammer is a good strategy to destroy the tactic completly. the anvil will not hold out forever (its not ment to) and without the hammer you can quickly turn things around. using a anvil of your own on the hammer is a good idea. this gives you time to swing around your own hammer on his anvil, cracking it and giving you the upperhand.

any thoughts about my 2 cents or counter strategies?


----------



## Ancient Tiel' a fier (May 5, 2008)

Very good post gharof, i was going to get round to these myself. Very good insight.


----------



## Gharof von Carstein (May 19, 2008)

thx just trying to do my part to help further tactic insight and becoming more active on this forum. its helped me out a lot seeing as im a beginning player (3 months into the game)


----------



## Gromrir Silverblade (Sep 21, 2010)

Good discussion, I have tried to field this tactic with Dwarfs but it doesn't work due to my hammer unit not being able to get into combat fast enough. My main advantage is shooting and with a big anvil sticking up the place, my enemies use it to flank round and come at me from behind. The only time I have managed to pull this off was using the rune of challenge which of course MADE the unit charge my anvil. This in turn meant I could place my anvil behind my warmachines LOS. However since this is a one off rune I can't see this as a very friendly dwarf tactic.


----------



## Durzod (Nov 24, 2009)

One thing left out of the discussion of this classic tactic: you don't HAVE to charge with your hammer in the enemy's flank. Nor do you have to charge in different turns. the anvil unit is there to provide ranks and (hopefully) negate steadfast, while the hammer racks up the kills. 
The anvil is also useful for keeping the enemy in place for your hammer to get there, as very few opponents are going to oblige by deploying their juiciest target opposite your killiest. This is especially true with dwarves, who sometimes have difficulty outmaneuvering the terrain!
The most surprising thing to me about this thread is the number of folk who found it innovative. I guess it's the difference in generations.


----------

