Arcane Legions is about revenge. You're not going to be able to protect your troops: the best you can do is hurt back a unit that hurts you. If the unit you're sending to its death is a sortie, then your opponent gets less of a victory from killing it. Because it only costs 1 order point to move a sortie, you can push to move it twice for the cost of moving a formation only once. This gives a striker twice the effective striking distance of other close combat units. The best striker units have minimal build points and use special abilities to increase their damage or reduce the cost of using them. A good striker can move 10 or more steps when pushed to move twice and attack with 7 dice or more. Properly placed, they can be a severe annoyance to your opponent.
The simplest striker units are built with common cavalry figures. The basic Egyptian striker is the Hellenic Striker. If you push to move this unit twice, it has a range of 12 steps. Because of the Aggressive ability, it attacks with 7 dice. The unit is constructed so that it does not have to regroup in order to attack after moving, giving it a use cost of 3 order points.
The 7th Legion Striker has only 6 attack dice, which makes it inferior in every way. The problem, of course, is that you're paying for the common Roman ability Disciplined, which is of no use to this kind of unit (whereas the common Egyptian ability Aggressive is tailor-made for it).
The Imperial Striker is less expensive than the other two units, and thanks to the effects of Good Fortune, it actually delivers on average half a point more damage than the Hellenic version. The Han really luck out on this one.
Cavalry units are fast, but they are expensive. You can speed up slower infantry units, however, using the Hustle special ability. Since strikers are always pushed to close with their opponents, and Hustle kicks in when a unit is pushed, it is the ideal ability for creating a striker.
The Romans have an advantage for this type of unit, because they have the Priestess of Bellona. This figure instantly gives any sortie the Hustle ability. When combined with Rome's hardest-hitting infantry figure, the Gallic Berserker, this yields the Hammer of Bellona. This unit moves 12 when pushing and attacks with 7 dice. Thanks to the Charger ability, the entire process only costs 2 order points.
A perhaps more diabolical alternative is the Hammer of Vulcan. This unit uses a pair of Infantry Centurions to boost the attack dice to 8, and two Vulcan Priestesses to soften up the target with Fireburst before closing for the main attack. This costs a full 4 order points, but the effect is equivalent to a 10-die close combat attack when it's all over.
If you have access to some Egyptian figures, you can get a similar effect with the faster Cyclopean Wrath. This unit moves 12 when pushing and attacks with 7 dice, but against human units (which is most of them) it gets 2 extra attack dice from Resentful, and it delivers an extra point of damage from Brutal. A regroup is required to attack after moving, so like the Hammer of Vulcan, this unit consumes 4 order points when used.
Fireburst-throwing sortie units are almost always Irregulars, which means they face extra attack dice from units with Specialized. The ultimate anti-Fireburst striker unit, then, would have as many Infantry Centurions as possible, and use Gauls to increase its striking range past the 10-step range of a typical Fireburst sortie. This is the basis for the Hammer of Discipline. It normally strikes with 8 attack dice, but against an irregular unit it hits with 11.
The Han have two figures that contribute Hustle when a sufficient number are used. The first is the Charging Han Infantry, which is the basis of the Han Charger unit. The Han chargers only attack with 6 dice, but the effect of Good Fortune makes this equivalent to 7.
The other figure is the alternate stat Terracotta Striker. This figure is the basis of the Glory Squad, which does less damage than other striker units, but is extremely cheap, costing only 350 build points.
The Han also have access to Fireburst, thanks to the Goryo figure. This allows for the creation of the Terracotta Fire unit. Like the Hammer of Vulcan, the strategy for this unit is to move up, flame your target, then close and attack.
The only Egyptian figure that has Hustle is Decidius Saxa, who is too valuable to put in a striker unit. As a result, the Egyptians must use other means to create strikers. For example, the non-commander figure with the most attack dice per peg is the Cyclops. He is the basis of the Cyclopean Striker. This all-cyclops unit starts with 8 attack dice, then it gets 2 extra attack dice against human units (Resentful, 2 extra attack dice against cavalry units (Carnivorous), and 1 extra point of damage when attacking (Brutal). It must regroup to attack at full strength after pushing to move, so it costs 4 order points to use. Still, against most opponents it's as good as a high-end formation.
If a striker unit has Charger, it saves you an order point when you deploy it. The Egyptians get this ability from the Criosphinx. If you add a Cyclops to a trio of these, you get the Mythic Chargers. These move 12 when pushing and attack for free with 7 dice. Because they need to regroup after moving, the total cost is 3 order points.
The Cyclops is not the only figure with Brutal. The Egyptians are chock full of brutal figures. You can also get this ability from the Necrotic Warrior and the Anubian Guard. The Guardian Striker uses both of these figures.
Though they are not as powerful as formations designed with similar principles, striker units are cheaper to use during the game because they are sorties. The extra order points they leave you allow for more flexibility in utilizing your other units during a battle, which is a very good thing.