Enough theoryhammer – lets talk about how Grand Cathay plays on the Warhammer: the Old World tabletop.
Grand Cathay, the first new Fantasy army in 20 years, is out. I was lucky enough to get a copy of some of the models and have been able to get in several games with them. The other players were kind enough to let me proxy a few models here and there, until everything fully released this weekend (and I’m happy to report I now have my army fully built). So given that I’ve talked about the army a bit, I figured I’d go over what I’ve learned from playing the and how they feel. So lets dig in. (Note some of these games were pre-FAQ and some were post).
The Crand Cathay Army As A Whole Is Not OP
In my initial review of the army I said that I thought it was a strong army but not OP. Having played several games with them, I pretty much stand by this. The army is not OP, though a particular unit is, which we will get to. The army has a some decent units and some tricks, but also some very mediocre units. It wants to kind of be a magic/casting army, but isn’t really all that amazing at it. In fact I’d move the army a bit lower on the good scale.
Its casters are pretty normal, and pricy, casters, without a lot of good buffs. The FAQ also really hurt them as their good signature spells are looking for 11s and even 12s to go off… which just isn’t happening now. It’s possible that they might get an FAQ to lower these, but they haven’t as of writing. They also limited the number of spells you can cast, which cut into the armies ability to get a lot of cheap spells.
The Lanterns ARE OP
The army as a whole might not be OP, but the Sky Lanterns are. This unit is amazing and even when I said it was bonkers in my army list deep dive, I wasn’t giving it enough credit. This unit… is possibly game breakingly good. I’m going to have to do a whole article on them, but they are just really amazing. Many armies in the game simply have no way to deal with them.
The Jade Lancers Are Quite Bad
I was pretty harsh on these guys in my review, but having played them more, I wasn’t harsh enough. This unit is just garbage. In every game I’ve played with them they have just gotten rolled and destroyed. Now yes, the fight vs Pegasus Knights was unfair and they should have lost that. Going up against Knights of the Realm they also got wiped out, despite being relatively closely priced. In one game I ambushed them in and got to charge a Wood Elf wizard and some Enteral Guard, who also kicked the Jade Lancers butts. And this was PRE-FAQ. I don’t know who these guys are supposed to fight when they are losing to Elf Spearmen. They just don’t hit hard. And this isn’t a cheap throw away unit, its 250ish points!
Jade Warriors Are Better
On the other hand Jade Warriors, thanks to the FAQ, are better than I had originally thought. A 3+ save and re-rolling 1s, with the option for stubborn, makes them quite a tank-y unit. They still aren’t going to kill a ton, but they can hold stuff up and claim objectives. They feel like they have a lot more solid of a role in the army than the Lancers. However they still lack good support and can’t get a good character in them. Still a block of 30 in a 10×3 formation can stick around and deal some damage to other infantry.
Grand Cathay Has Issues With Scoring
In all my games we also tried to incorporate the new matched play missions. And a thing that became pretty apparent is that Grand Cathay is really going to struggle with scoring secondary objectives in the game. Most objectives need you to be US 10+ to score, and Cathay only has three units in the army list that can get that big: Jade Warriors, Jade Lancers, and a Sky Lantern with a Lord Magistrate on it. That’s it, and one of those is an expensive character you don’t really want sitting on an objective. The cheapest scoring unit they can get is 5 Jade Lancers with no command at 100 pts, and if you lose a model they don’t score. Many armies can get 40-50 pt scoring units.
Moreover the Cathay scoring units are not the best parts of the army. You want to take them to fill core and that’s it. So most of my Cathay armies have had a grand total of two scoring units. You can take more, but this is really going to eat into your points for other much better units. I think this is a real weakness of the army and something it will struggle with.
It’s Just A Super Limited Army – Right Now
The more I play with Cathay the more I realize just how limited it feels. Yes, there are several builds you can make and you do have options, but they are limited and the realistic builds are kind of limits. For core you only have the two options, and unless you are taking small less effective units you are really locked into a choice or 2 units of Jade Warriors, 2 of Jade Lancers or one of each. If you go all Jade Warriors you can always chose two 30-man units or three 20-man units. Such variety!
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox.
Once you get into the other options its all still pretty constrained with most choices breaking down this or that, with two options to chose between. The FAQ has also not helped in this regards. Jade Lancers I think have gotten a lot worse as infantry are better suited to just rock them. Likewise magic has seen a big nerf and I don’t think you can reliably go caster heavy any more. Maio Ying, seems a lot worse as a very expensive lvl 4 with hard to cast spells. You just don’t have the kind of options for build, both crazy or viable that you get in other armies and this shows.
I don’t want all this to sound negative. I am really enjoying playing Grand Cathay. It does have interesting mechanics and fun rules. The Sky Lantern is bonkers and I want to run 7 of them! But I know that list won’t make friends, so I probably won’t. But it also feels like a half finished army. We are supposed to get another Arcane Journal for the army soon and we’ll have to see what all that adds. I’m also very interested to see what other players come up with in terms of lists and how they like the army. But for now, while I like Grand Cathay, I’m not yet in love with it.
Let us know what you think of Grand Cathay, down in the comments!
Don’t Miss:
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 more at this site