Battlefield Tactics Guide to: Hammer and Anvil

Stop camping on hills! Learn how to utilize an easy to execute decisive battlefield tactic which will leave the enemy in shambles.

Preparation: picking the battlefield

Selecting your location for battle should be your biggest consideration. Many inexperienced officers will simply go for the nearest hill and sit on top of it because most people's entire exposure to military history is from their high school history class where big hill = big win. I'm here to change that perspective. While passively sitting on a hill may provide generally positive results when the opportunity is afforded to you it's rarely decisive or conclusive and the enemy force may decide not to engage you there at all. Allow me to introduce you to one of the more easily executed and extremely effective battlefield tactics: The Hammer and Anvil. It is so named because the Anvil is analogous to a stationary defensive force which holds the enemy in place while a mobile force, typically cavalry, swings in from the rear to strike the enemy hard between it and the defensive force.

A good anvil position has 3 main essential elements: defensive cover, defensive terrain, and offensive terrain.

Defensive cover can be anything that provides some protection from minie and musket rounds flying at your troops. A fence, creek, railroad, whatever is available. Do not confuse this with concealment; you want your anvil force to be clearly visible and enticing. Further, because you want this anvil force to be your enemy's primary target in their attack you will want to get your units as close as possible to one another to provide enough mass and counter-fire to not be overrun.

Defensive terrain is not mandatory but is extremely useful for supporting the anvil. In the below image off screen to the left flank there is a wood line with 2 divisions concealed and spaced more sparsely with the sole purpose of protecting the flank of the anvil. If your anvil gets flanked it will completely invalidate the hard cover it's behind and will crush the morale of your units. Further on the right flank is a deep river with no crossing available for quite a distance behind the main line, further protecting from a flanking attack. In the rear is a small hill with 2 divisions of cannon stationed there, their main purpose is not to inflict casualties but to wear down on morale in preparation of the hammer strike.


In the example provided both armies had 32,000 men, union casualties numbered just 2000 whereas confederates numbered 14,000.

KEY POINT: OFFENSIVE TERRAIN!
Offensive terrain is the part that most people don't consider. Every good defensive position needs clear, open, and generally unobstructed terrain where the enemy will be staging their assault. This serves two purposes. Firstly it gives better line of sight for your artillery and infantry who won't fire on enemies they cant see allowing them to get in close to your forces with no resistance. Secondly it allows your hammer element to move in swiftly unobstructed to entrap and engage the enemy who are already engaging your anvil position. Without this offensive terrain you will find again and again that your hammer element's attack will falter and fail because the enemy will have plenty of time to respond to the attack, pulling away from your anvil's position.
Effectively a couple scenarios will occur when they have time to respond. The first is a defeat in detail, they will overwhelm the weaker hammer element driving them off, only to then return to your anvil and whittle them down until they break. Alternatively you will have to move your defensive force forward to try to continue engaging, but this response will still have some strong negative consequences as the units receiving the volleys will not be in hard cover, whether that be your flanking force or your anvil force.

Execution: Hammering the Anvil

The most important components of delivering the rear attack is placement and timing.

First you will want to place your flanking force in a concealed location, whether that be achieved by being on the back slope of a hill or in a forest, you want somewhere far enough away that it will be out of sight of the enemy but also as close as possible to a road which can take them directly to the enemy rear.

Next you will want to make an estimate of where the enemy lines will be when they are engaging your defensive line and make signal orders to move and form your flanking line behind them, but do not place them in the middle of a field away from roadways, always consider you may have to adjust their deployment at any given time and speed is a major factor for success.

Do not signal the maneuver too soon! Wait until the enemy force is fully committed to engaging with your lines, if half of their units are loitering in the rear your attack will likely be repulsed or will not have the momentum needed to be decisive. When the enemy is trading consistent volleys with your men then is the time to move in. Avoid the temptation to use double quick in this scenario, you want your flanking force to be fresh and in peak condition when they engage.

Picking targets is also important depending on how large your flanking force is. Focus on the largest concentration of enemy troops possible and try to get fire from multiple angles on them, do not worry about the two straggler brigades that were caught by your concealed flank protecting troops, pounce on those densely packed troops so that when one routs it chains to another nearby. Routing isolated brigades will have a minimal impact on the overall battle.

If using cavalry to flank you will want them to be equipped with high rate of fire carbines, accuracy and range are helpful but not essential since you will use the mobility of the cavalry to close in quickly before dismounting and unleashing a huge volume of fire. Then, when their ranks break into a full route, not simply when their morale is wavering, mount back up and charge in with cold steel. You don't want your cavalry to use their revolvers as revolvers are used to keep out of range of bayonets with resistant infantry, but for routing units you want to cut them down quickly as your cavalry will quickly tire. Attacking a unit that isn't yet routed can result in tremendous casualties for your cavalry units and you want to preserve their numbers as much as possible as they are your most versatile and decisive unit on the field.

Congratulations, if executed well you will find that the vast majority of the casualties are accrued in the final stage with cavalry running down routed troops. Without that the effect will simply be a rout with a fraction of the casualties.

[DoughBoy (Actual)]

Very well written, thank you

[Patrick]

Thx for the guide.
I tried Gettysburg battle and had a minor victory on the first day afternoon with only 25000 men on the battlefield. How to have a battle which lasts longer ?
It sound we can't change the victory conditions so how to do ?
Trying with a stronger ai ?

[Slackaveli999]

i like 2 gunner with 2 assault columns behind them as the hammer. As soon as they waiver, charge the assault column , and once they engage, mount up, assault column the cav, then cold steel as they break. It's just fun, I dont mind a few casualties; thats what field hospitals are for. This method also seems to keep my Prisons full, too.

[SoulServitor]

Very concise with detailed examples. Outstanding.

[SaltyFish]

I have learned something here, thank you.