‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – A Grand Cathay Army List Deep Dive

Take a deep dive into the units in the brand new Grand Cathay army from Warhammer: The Old World.

After a long wait (decades for some people) Grand Cathay has arrived in the Old World with a mighty new army. Over the weekend I took a first look at the army, and how it’s strong but limited. Today let’s take a deeper dive into the armies units and how good, bad, or OP they are. So without delay, lets get down to business and dig in.

Miao Ying

First up we’ve got Miao Ying, The Storm Dragon. She is the one named character in the army and the only (so far) Cathayan Dragon. She’s also the most complicated character we’ve seen in Old World with three pages worth of rules. The main take away here is that during a game she can transform to be in either dragon or human form. In human form she’s a lvl 4 wizard, and no slouch at fighting. In dragon form she’s a lvl 2 wizard, but obviously much better at fighting and can fly. She’s not really any better at being a wizard than most lvl 4, but she can take two signature spells, included a special magic missile only she knows.

Transforming back and forth from her forms also heals her, and allows her to pop out of combat. It does come with a lot of restrictions on where you can place her and you can’t charge the turn you transform, so no popping into a dragon and charging a flank. On top of all that she upgrades you units, and lets you upgrade them even more with points and can limit the enemies ability to issues challenges.

Miao Ying On The Table – Dragon

I think it’s easy to look at Miao Ying and her pages of rules and be overwhelmed and think she is super OP. But lets breakdown what we have here, because it is good, but also tricky. At 485 pts Miao Ying isn’t cheap at all, in fact she going to cost you more than pretty much any non-mounted lvl 4. Now while she does have two forms and each is pretty strong, she doesn’t get to combine them at once, and neither is really stronger than a purpose built version of the same.

Take the dragon form. It’s better than any plain dragon out there. But it’s not better than than a tricked out combat lord on a dragon. It’s got less attacks, less wounds and its 4+/5++ save isn’t nothing, but far below what many combat lords can get. Simply running her as a dragon isn’t overpowering. Of course she can heal, which is nice, and also can get two Assailments. However in dragon form she’s only a lvl 2, so casting those is a little hard, and it means not taking magic missiles for her wizard form. In addition she’s got no multi-wound attacks. Match her right up against another top  tier dragon and she will lose.

Maio Ying- Human

That brings us to her human version. Here she is a more of less a tough lvl 4 wizard. If you want she is guaranteed to know two magic missiles. If you go with Battle Magic its possible for her to know three magic missiles and pillar of fire. That’s a lot of damage output. She knows a lot of spells and can be very flexible. She’s also though, so random close combat attacks won’t take her out. At the same time she is mostly just a LVL 4 caster with some good spells. She can, if placed correctly, get a +1 to cast once a turn. But the truth is most tricked out lvl 4s with items can be batter casters. It also doesn’t help that in human form she’s on foot, making her hard to place. This is a big drawback.

All of this might make me sound a bit hard on the Strom Dragon. And I do think she is harder to use then people realize when just looking at what seem like very good stats.  The key to her is that she is very flexible. You can tailor her spell choice to be good in dragon form or good in human form or a mix. She can heal, and transform and move around the table with tricks. Transforming is a risk, and done poorly, it can cost you a turn or more of usefulness. But there is a lot of potential here as a flexible jack of all trades character.

Shugengan Lords

Moving on from the real dragon, we have the dragon blooded wizards of the army. The Shugengan come in two forms, the Lords and the Generals. The Lords are slightly more powerful and can be up to a lvl 4 wizard, the lords are a little weaker and cap out at lvl 2. These are both solid choices and like Miao Ying are a mix of caster and fighter, and are reasonably priced for this.  Especially given that they are on a monster. Your army will likely run 1-2 of these at all times.

You can make some pretty good caster builds here, much in the same vein as other fast casters. You can also build a pretty good fight-y character that’s on a decent monster. Throwing in the option to have a couple solid  assailments doesn’t hurt them either. They are also cheaper than most other wizard/fighters on a monster. The closest comparisons are likely a Chaos Lvl 4 on a manticore, who starts at 345 pts or an Black Orc on a Wyvern which starts at 267 pts, but isn’t a wizard and doesn’t have a build in ward save.  By these standards the Shugengan is a steal.

But there are a few downsides. The biggest is that they HAVE to come on a Spirt Longma and be a monster. This means they can’t join units and can’t get Look Out, Sir! (though since they are not a large target they can hind behind units.) This does hold them back and means they can’t do some combos. Outside of one 70 pt item they also don’t really have an option to improve their save beyond 3+/5++. (It’s important to note they can’t take mundane or magical shields). Like Miao Ying, these are good characters. But like her they are not on par with either the best purpose build casters or the best combat characters in the game. You do have to work around their weaknesses.

Gate Masters

For a dedicated combat hero we’ve got the Gate Master and the smaller version the Gate Keeper. These guys are basically an Empire General and Captain. I don’t have a ton to say about them. They kind of suck with low attacks, few mount options, and not a ton going for them. You don’t see a lot of Empire Generals or Captains out there wrecking shop and the same is true here. They do get Harmony of Stone and Steel which lets you re-roll a few types of leadership tests.  That’s nice, but Cathay already has great LD.

You can give them items but, they have very few attacks so it’s hard to see what the point really is. The Gate Keeper is the only model that can be a BSB, so that’s likely what you’ll see. The Cathayan Warhorse does give them first charge, which the cav don’t normally have, which is a bit of a nice buff. They are also the only real way to put a flighty character into one of the ranked up units- but they will lose to basically any other combat character in the game.  Cool models though.

Magistrates of Grand Cathay

Next up we have the Magistrates which come in the big form (Lord Magistrate) and the little form (Strategist). On their own these guys aren’t much to talk about, but for my money are better than the Gate Master/Keeper. The have the same ability to allow some re-rolls, amazing LD (Ld 9 even on the little dude at 40 pts). They also allow all friendly models in their command range to use their LD, and let one unit a turn that wins combat fall back in good order rather than following up or pursuing, which  can set up interesting things.

40 pts to drop an LD 9 bubble with a few other buffs and to carry some items isn’t a bad buy, even if they won’t do much in combat at all. I can see this being a nice budget buy to let you get a few tricks in the list. If you really want to them to contribute they can be mounted on a Sky Lantern (more on that later) upping the wounds of that model and letting it take magic items (and another bomb attack). This is a decent and cheap character, but nothing that breaks the game.

Jade Warriors

Next up we have Jade Warriors. If you want infantry in your Cathay Army these are the guys you can take. They are also the only true core unit (though you can take some Jade Lancers as core). And these guys are… pretty mid. They’ve got elite human stat lines, mostly 3s, with 4 WS and LD 8. They come with heavy army and can either take shields or halberds. They can by Drilled or Stubborn and take a magic banner (the officer can take 25 pts of magic items). If they don’t charge they can re-roll 1s on saves in combat.

That’s all very mid. They are infantry, already not a great class, and either get a 4+ save or a 5+ save and S4 Ap -1. They are going to get charged. When they do they are going to lose models. They aren’t going to get a lot of attacks back. For my mind you run them with the shields and then have a 4+ re-rolling 1s, maybe add in a  6++ if you’ve taken Miao Ying and upgrade them. At 8 pts they aren’t very cheap and are closest to a Dwarf Warrior, with 1 better movement but worse T. Dwarf Warriors are bad, and its hard to see these as being very good. They also have much poorer support options. They can’t be joined by a really good combat character or other than Maio Ying, a wizard. It’s a very mid unit, and infantry to boot.

Jade Lancers

Next up you have Jade Lancers. If you want cavalry these are your option. They are also your other core choice, as you can take 0-1 per 1000 pts as core. If I’m being honest they are another pretty mid unit. They are in effect your pretty standard heavy cavalry, and at 20 points are on the cheaper end. The big draw back they have is that instead of lances they have Cathayan Lances, which are really just spears. These give you +1 S and AP -1 on the charge, and let you fight in two ranks always.

Between Cathayan Cataphracts letting you count follow ups as charges and Counter Charge, you should get to use these most of the time. But, that still has you fighting at S4 Ap -1, where as most other heavy cav is S5/6 and AP -2. This means they just simply don’t hit very hard.

Fighting in two ranks does let them get in a few more attacks, but even this isn’t a huge buff. First off, you need to have a decent number of models in the unit to take advantage of that. Running just five won’t do it. Once you get up to maybe 10 you see some advantage, but not much.

I normally run my 10-man units of Knights 8-wide. Vs a similar number of Jade Lancers that would give me 9 (counting the champion) better attacks vs their 10, but I’d also get 3 more horse attacks. Fighting in one rank my knights would still have more overall attacks and better attacks to boot, for a pretty close price. Maybe if you have huge units or 16-20ish you can see a real advantage, but end of the day S4 attacks won’t win games. Horde is also an odd rule as you’ll have to take really big units, and lose attacks, to see any advantage form it.

Ambushers, the options for Drilled and Stubborn, magic items and the like can give you some tricks. You can probably use them guys decently well. You can’t put a really good character in with them, but a BSB can join. Most players will likely take 1-2 units as core. But these are just a very mid unit overall to me with a lot of drawbacks.

Sky Lanterns

From a mid unit to the best unit in the list, and the one that comes closest to being broken to me. Sky Lanterns are a flying, unbreakable, heavy chariot/ With T5 and 7 wounds and a 4+ save they are already a steal at 135 pts. At that base price you can get 5 Crane Guns, which are S6 Ap2 (check the BS) or a combo of Iron hail guns and gunpowder bombs if you want a ton of lower strength attacks. They can upgrade to have Lantern bombs and the better dragon fire bombs. And look, if you are taking the iron haul guns and either of the bombs, you want to also add in the Sky Lantern bombs.

This is a super flexible unit. It gives you a number of nice buffs for you army and can fight in combat a little, but also fly away form it. It can be a cheap unit that sit backs with some strong ranged attacks. Or it can be an up close harasser with a ton of lighter attacks (the Lantern Bombs aren’t all that light at S5 Ap-2!) that get up and mess with the enemy. In a test game a single bombing/firebombing run wiped out 10 Knights of the Realm! They can also be character mounts, allowing you to add wounds, attacks and magic items (such as ward saves!) to them. It’s probably a model that’s a little too tuned (does it need unbreakable?).

I think you are going to see one of these massive models in every army. Quite possibly more. The thought of 8 of them scares me. They are a bit vulnerable to shooting. Poison blobs and cannons can do real damage. The Falcon Horn and other anti-flyer items can hurt them. But they are also just so good and so cheap! A truly bonkers unit.

Cathayan Sentinel

The Cathayan Sentinel is the combat monster (well Behemoth) of the army. It’s similar to a giant or other big monsters, with T6 and 6 wounds. It’s also not cheap at 230 pts. While it only has 3 attacks (and only d3+1 stomps) it does have two attack modes. One gives it +2d3 attacks (and strikes last) while the other gives it strong attacks that have killing blow, monster slayer AND d3 damage. So if this guy gets to hit he can do some real damage, even against strong enemies.

The issue, as it is with a lot of non-flying monsters, is the IF it gets to hit. While T6 provides some protection, this guy only has 6 wounds and 5+ save. Most good armies have a way of dealing with a big tough guy, and they will work just as well here. Getting the sentinel to actually make it to combat and do something isn’t all that easy. It suffers from the curse of all other big monsters.

It can be upgraded to have different types and rules, which is nice. At base it has a 6+ Regen save, which is nice, but not a huge boost. The Jade upgrade, which lets it pick a spell to know as a lvl 3 bound spell seems really solid, but you do have to keep it alive to use that, and paying 250 pts for a bound spell is a lot. Granite drops the Regen for a 4+ save and immunity to multi-wound weapons. This makes them a lot harder to kill, but not close to impossible. It also pushes the points up so that you can only fit one in rare. Considering the weaknesses of this model and that its competing with Lanterns for points, I’m not sure its a winner.

Fire Rain Rocket Battery

The first of two war machines Cathay gets is the Fire Rain Rocket. It’s basically a stone thrower with two modes, a weak 5 inch template or a slightly stronger 4 inch template. Stone throwers aren’t very good right now and I don’t think one is really anything special. It’s flexible, but it’s also competing with the much better cannon. It’s possibly that the new missions have more infantry on the table and make these better, but for now this is pretty mid unit and not one I’d really take.

Cathayan Grand Cannon

The Grand Cannon is simply put – the best cannon in the game. It’s a slightly better Empire Great Cannon in damage output, for slightly more points. It also shuts down swift stride and slows enemy units when it hits. Like, totally amazing, S tier war machine! This thing is great and you can pull a lot of tricks with it. For instance you can slow down units you can see, just by getting to hit near them. Like this is just a great unit and again you’ll likely see 1-2 in any Cathay army.

On the flip side they are, mostly, just a cannon and not an auto win button. In addition, even with an Ogre loader, they are more expensive and less reliable than Empire and Dwarf cannons. You do need to use these guys properly, but yeah, its a great unit, if not all that cheap once you add in a loader.

Ogre Artillery Crew

Lastly we have the Ogre Artillery Crew. This is a character you can buy as an upgrade for 35 pts to either war machine. They add an Ogre to the unit, letting it move a little faster, become stubborn in combat and have an Ogre with them. This makes them a lot more resilient to random attacks by light troops and has decent advantages.

More importantly however the Ogre helps you load the war machine. That means once per game you can either re-roll an artillery dice (becoming a one use only Engineer) or fire twice. I think obviously unless you misfire with your very first shot you will pretty much always fire twice and this is very nice buff to your damage output, which allows for some strong Alpha Strikes.  Overall this is a great upgrade. But it is costly- giving you some of the more expensive war machines around. For effectively the price of 3 cannons with Ogres you can just buy 4 cannons, and if you get more than 3 rounds of shooting, you’ll get more shots from them, though this is unlikely. So while I think it’s a strong upgrade, I’m not sure its a must take. 

Let us know what you think about the new units, down in the comments! 

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.

Read the Comments (0)

Read more at this site