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I am trying to get into fantasy. I am building an orc army. Many tatctic guides talk about hammer and anvil units. Looking at the codex, I think an anvil unit would be easy to make (blorks with sheilds, boyz with sheilds, trolls, etc.). But what comprises an orc hammer unit? And if you don't play orcs, what other hammer units are out there?

For HE, the only army I have knowlege of, Sword Masters are a great Hammer unit.
They hit hard, but suffer from dieing very easily.

Don't forget white lions and Phoenix.
For woc tz warriors with shield and rap standard or warbanner is a good anvil same with lumberjacks.
Hammers mok warriors with halberds or knights with mok.

I would say black orcs would do good for a hammer.

Savage Orc Big Uns, units of chariots, and possibly Mangler Squigs work as hammers. Anything with a high damage output.

O&G Hammer?
Trolls, giants, chariots, chariot units, big un hordes, black orc hordes; Hero Mob*.

*That would be 3 or more heroes with great weapons in a single block.

-Matt

Or you could go for da big un' and chuck an arachnarok spider at them (although that's not really a unit.)

Like others have said, mostly any big 'un units and/or black orcs. Mangler squigs I hear are also deadly (though I have not used them - yet). Boar chariots too.

30-40 Savage Orc Big-Uns, with a level 2 with Shrunken Head and a Black Orc hero with the Stubborn crown make for an excellent hammer unit

It's pretty easy to figure out which unit is the Hammer in an Orc army: it's the Big 'Uns. Whichever unit you make your Big 'Uns is going to hit very hard. Pick a flavor. If you're not using Big 'Uns, then your options are pretty much the things people are listing here: Mangler Squigs, Hordes of Savage or Black Orcs, etc. I would hesitate to say that regular Orcs can be a good Hammer Unit without the Big 'Uns upgrade.

On Anvil units: for the most part, effective anvils are going to be made out of much cheaper units than Black Orcs with shields (one of your examples in the OP). While there is some argument to be made for using regular orcs with shields vs lots of goblins with shields (each individual model is more survivable), the better argument is that a greater number of cheaper models is better because they will be steadfast, and therefore stubborn, longer. YMMV.

1. Find a nasty looking unit.
2. Make it huge.
3. Put a character in it.
4. Go nuts.

That's what I'm doing with Chosen.

I prefer to use either Warriors with Haleberd, MoK and a lord/ extaled hero as my hammer unit if Im playing Woc, If Im playing Beastmen I use bestigors

It isn't so much the unit's equipment, although that is important, but how you use it.


I could very easily have 2 identical units with one acting as the Anvil and the other as the hammer. Warriors of Chaos for example. I might take a charge with my 24 Warriors with shields and MoT, then on my turn charge the enemy flank with my other identical block of warriors. This isn't always the case, but it is hardly uncommon.


The anvil basically takes an enemy charge, or it could actually charge itself to pin the enemy, and then it waits for the Hammer to arrive.


for my ogres I might have a block of Bulls with a hero with the Crown of Command be my Anvil and have a unit of Mournfangs be my Hammer. Although, with a 2+/6+ save they could easily be an anvil too.

Ogres is everything is pretty much a hammer and an anvil but most of them can do both really well from what I have seen. Impact hits + attacks+ stomp mean a lot of combat rest already and then them being T4 and having 3 wounds each helps too.



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But yes warriors are versatile since those tz warriors with shields are warriors after all they still have 2 attacks and are str 4 with ws better than yours.
So ya good times with them.

I field a kitted out Doombull with a pack of GW equipped Minotaurs as one of my hammer units. The Minotaurs are easy to kill but hit like hell with lots of str 7 attacks, and they help keeping the DB alive so he can murder everything he touches.

Doom bulls are a little scary that's ok my bsb usually turns them into steak or burgers bestigores work well too for hammer unit.
Still 17 trolls throgg and a bsb with flaming banner run in horde formation. So ya magic insta hitting armor ignoring flaming attacks come at me bro.