Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Meta Hotness: January 2024 – The Best Anvil Units
Right now 40K is starting to be dominated by Anvil units. These are the toughest of the tough, how to use, and kill them.
Anvil units are tough to deal with models that can basically move forward, hold a zone, and just don’t give a rat’s butt about your army. Pressure units are not merely assault-crushing options. They now look like tabletop bullies who own an alleyway you can’t go down.
An anvil unit is usually a quick moving, tough to deal with, and normally big enough to take up a ton of room on the tabletop. This way, it controls the area and threatens adjacent areas. This is a critical trait, and probably one of the things that is going to dominate the meta for the next few months. Just the threat and control aspects make these Anvil units really rough for a lot of armies to deal with.
Custodes Wardens – 10th’s First Anvil Unit (now nerfed)
You can see how the initial meta was dominated by one of the greatest anvil units we have seen in a while with the Adeptus Custodes 10-man blocks of Wardens and friends. Being able to mix in Fight First, massive damage, and a ton of wounds meant this unit was a lot to deal with. Thankfully, they got hit a bit (probably too hard) so we are seeing assault armies come back as nothing wrecks assault like a giant Strike First unit of damage jerks.
IWe really have two major anvil units right now with the brand new Necron codex and the seemingly dominant Chaos Space Marine Index list. I have talked about both units before but really we need to look at why they are so good and then think of some ways to “hurt” them. Also we need to give players wanting to take some of these units a few hints to keep their characters alive.
Necron Wraiths with Technomancer
The newest one is the Wraith unit mixed with a Technomancer. The other part of the current beef-dominated Necron builds we are seeing (Wraiths + C’Tans = BEEF). This anvil unit is very tough to deal with. They are fast, have a ton of wounds, and with an invulnerable save/FNP combo they are just very hard to chew through. On top of that, they can get healed by their Technomancer and other fun Necron stuff, making this unit a tabletop nightmare to deal with.
In fact, you have to put in so much damage into them that it is hard to really wreck through them. This leads you to need to “overwhelm” the unit in a single turn, remove the leader in some way, or just ignore and out-OC them on the objective. All of these are very difficult for a lot of armies to do and a savvy Necron player can play around the whole “precision” bomb you might have to deal with.
CSM Accursed Cultists with Dark Commune
The other one that is similar but not the same is the Accursed Cultists unit we get from CSMs mixed with a Dark Commune. The Dark Commune gives the unit an Invulnerable save as well as a few extra wounds you can easily use as damage gets put into the unit. Then, of course, it heals itself thru the battle round, too, which makes it hard to remove. I was able to get rid of one utilizing an entire Chosen unit shooting and charging in with rerolls, but a ton of armies don’t have some of those damage options.
Defeating Anvil Units
So how do you get rid of these? How do you deal? I think will all have to look at Precision options if you have that in your army or looking towards Devastating wounds to mitigate one of the saves and just pour wounds in the unit. You need to somehow remove one of the saves, which leaves the Anvil unit as a big bag of wounds but a lot easier to “control”.
Also all the assaulting options you have need to invest into one target Anvil unit and not try to be tricky and hope for dice to go hard in your direction. That seems to be the big thing I see in a lot of batreps and tournament streams. The opponents try to get tricky and hit two things in hopes that their saves go bad and you destroy them both. I would advise to not do that. Instead, play conservatively and always engage your attacks into one unit to reliably put it down. Kill them outright is always more important than leaving them with a few wounds and watching as all your work evaporates with a few d3 rolls and regenerated models.
Playing Anvil Units
On those playing these units, you need to make sure to watch for Precision traps that could happen. Remember, the rule states the enemy unit with Precision has to see the model to put damage into it. This is the same with Epic Challenge as it grants the one challenging precision strikes, but again you have to see. I expect to see most “Technomancer” and Dark Commune leaders to be hiding behind walls as they stretch across the field.
The other interesting thing in all of this is that when a Technomancer joins Wraiths, they gain the Infantry and Character Keyword. This lets you chain some things off like Anti-Character or Anti-Infantry to try and spike more damage into the units. This is helpful to know if, again, you are rolling up with Combi-Weapons and other fun options that key off of those keywords.
Anvil Unit Futures
I expect Accursed Cultists to get a point hike later in January, and most likely Wraiths get left alone for a bit. It really depends on how many Necrons show up for the next few bigger events and if they dominate LVO as GW will be there watching. Until then, be ready to see more Anvil stuff coming. I am sure Dark Angels are going to have some kind of nutty Inner Circle Terminator block that will shuffle up, flip you the bird, and wreck your face with a bunch of somber-looking dudes.
Happy Rolling 6s!
