‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Who Is the ‘Dawn of the Storm Dragon Book’ Even For?

Dawn of the Storm Dragon is the weirdest Warhammer: The Old World Arcane Journal we’ve gotten yet. Here’s why.

This year saw the release of Grand Cathay, the first new fantasy army in over two decades. It’s been an exciting time and the army is very interesting, even if it has a few OP things in it. However the initial release was a little limited, so people were excited to hear the news that a second Cathay Arcane Journal would be coming out hot on the heels of the first one.  We’ll we’ve got our grubby hands on the book, and… I’m not really sure who it’s for. Honestly this feels like its the weakest of the Arcane Journals we’ve seen so far, and a lot of people are going to be disappointed with it. But  for now lets dig in and take a look at what you get.

Grand Cathay LORE LORE LORE!

If Lore is your thing, then this is the book for you. Over half the book is dedicated to Cathay lore and tying them into the Old World. Indeed only 17 of the 48 pages in this book have any kind of rules on them. With the remaining 31 being lore or pictures. Of those 17 pages of rules a good chunk of them are dedicated to missions for refighting battles in the new lore. So it’s very lore heavy, and rules light.

Now, it’s good lore. In some ways it’s needed lore. It helps give you a reason for why Grand Cathay is here at all. And for some people that’s going to be great. But… if you wanted a lot of rules and expansion of the army… well, this book won’t really give you much of that. Which is part of what makes this feel like an odd book. Is it for players, or lore people?

Non-Cathay Rules

But hey, at least Cathay gets 17 pages of rules in their book, right? Well… not really. Twelve of those pages are not Cathay specific rules. Instead you get an odd smorgasbord of rules. There are the above mentioned scenarios, which you could use with Grand Cathay. Honestly calling these “rules” is being very generous, but I am trying here. Outside of that you get some bare bones rules for playing multiplayer games that are so similar to the doubles rules in the Matched Play Guide (MPG) that I’m not sure why they bothered.

You do also get some expanded terrain rules, along with a random terrain generator. Some of these rules are just copied from the Matched Play Guides. The bulk, however, are new and fairly interesting. I’ll look at them more in-depth soon, but for now, if you aren’t into Lore and don’t play Cathay, these five-ish pages of terrain rules are your reason for buying this book. Though they really feel like they should have just been part of the MPG.

The New Army Of Infamy – The Jade Fleet

Two of the pages of Cathay rules are dedicated to the new Army of Infamy, the Jade Fleet. Now this contains no new units or profiles. But it does help to open up the Cathay army a bit, at least from a casual view point. The Cathay portion of the army is basically the same as the Grand Army. The only differences are the Miao Ying is the only Dragon you can take (not a big deal right now, as she’s the only one with rules), and that you don’t get an extra Sentinel/Lantern in special based on your General. For this trade off, you get access to 33% Mercenaries drawn from the more basic Empire troops and heroes. These guys also don’t get the Misbehaving Mercenaries rule.

For extra rules you get get a few, mostly based around The Mercs.  For instance your Empire units with black powder weapons get 3″ extra range the first time they shoot. And your State missile troops can fire in two ranks once a game. Other than that Jade Warriors and Lancers can re-roll 1s to hit while within 3″ of a Mercenary unit and for 15 you can put 0-1 per 1000 pts into Ambush.

Is the Jade Fleet It Any Good?

None of these rules are game breaking. Given that they have Scout, I’m not even sure you’d want to put the Lanterns into Ambush. Meanwhile the rest of the rules are pretty minor buffs. I think the big issue here is that since Mercs don’t fill up core they are competing with with you Characters/Special/Rare slots. Most people aren’t going to choose to take Empire State troops over a Cannon, or Lantern or Sentinel. Even things like Outriders aren’t a real buff. Giving an army with some of the most tuned units in the game accesses to a bunch of the most over costed ones, isn’t going to do much.

There are a few potential combos here, making use of a small number of Empire units. For instance while non-Merc characters can’t join Merc units, Merc characters can join non-Merc ones. This allows you to stick an Empire wizard (or priest) into a unit of Jade Warriors/Lancers – giving them magical support they couldn’t get otherwise and allowed them to Re-roll ones. It may also be possible for you take Empire Missile troops as detachments for a Jade Warrior unit, which is… mildly interesting. I think aside from the characters, Cathay armies may try to add a few units of Empire Archers, as they give the army a cheap scouting/ranged unit.

Even if the buffs aren’t crazy, I do actually think we will see this AoI played a lot. The downsides for taking it are basically nil. As along as you weren’t planning to take that 3rd sentinel/un-ridden Lantern in special then there is currently zero reason not to play this army. Even if all you want is a cheap wizard, it’s still a minor buff for no real loss. And it does open up some interesting narrative builds and could be fun for more casual players. I don’t think competitive builds are going to lean heavily into the Empire side, but even a little buff is not really something Cathay was begging for right now. So I do wish there was more of a trade off for taking this army.

New Grand Cathay Magic Items

But hey! Don’t worry, two pages of Army of Infamy rules aren’t all you get from this book as a Grand Cathay Player. You also get 3 new pages of magic items. Now the Cathay main book already has a baller item list, but there are still some here that stand out. Here are a few that are worth mentioning:

– The Sword of Reason – 65 pts for a great weapon (no strikes last) that lets you get killing blow on a 5+. I love 5+ killing blow weapons and if you are fighting a lot of monstrous infentry/cav this is a great weapon.

-The Mantle Of Heaven – A suit of armor that I’m not sure why it’s here. It gives a cav or infantry model +2 to their save vs non-magical shooting. The thing is… your cav and infantry characters should never be getting shot.

-Sigil of Smoke & Power – Enemies take -1 to shoot you. Stick that on a Lantern. Cus it needed more buffs.

-Vermillion Quills – super common, but 0-1 per character. One use and they let you re-roll hits and wounds. If you need a turn to go off, this is the item for you.

-The Jade Banner – 40 pts and gives you +2 combat rest- a nice buff and lets you get some high static res units. Has a fun Skaven focused typo.

-Ring of Jet – 30 pts and super common (but one per model) lets you case Unquiet Spirts s a Power Level 2 bound spell. This can let your army just spam bound magic missiles if you want. (I think you can easilly get 10 if you really want to.) Might get hit by an FAQ.

-Seal of Xing Po – super common but one per model. Lets you discard two spells to take two Cathay Signatures (from the same lore). Pretty nice to get more access to the cool Cathay spells. RAW it does not let you take one Cathay Signature and one normal lore one.

So Like Who Is This Book For

So that’s basically what you are getting in the book. And all that kind of makes you wonder who it’s really for. Cathay players are getting a pretty minimal amount of rules. It’s not really a Cathay 2.0 book. Meanwhile other players get some narrative options and a handful of generic rules. Overall it seems like its really aimed at a more narrative player/crowd. People who want a lot of lore and a few fun options. And I guess that’s fine, but I feel like selling it as the Cathay 2.0 Arcane Journal is a bit misleading. I think most players don’t want to buy a whole book for 4-5 pages of actual rules. Moreover, outside of the lore, everything in this book really feels like it should have been another book. The terrain stuff should have been in the MPG and the Cathay rules should have just been in the Cathay book.

I think what we are seeing here is a bit of a compromise book. It’s clear that The Old World is looked into 48 page books. This book just feels like stuff that had to be cut from the Cathay AJ and the MPG due to space and ended up stitched together into its own book. That’s really a shame as I think its a pretty disappointing book overall, even if it has some fun stuff in it. I wish they could have just given Cathay the grand book it deserved straight up, with all this stuff in it. Like… to say “here are you magic item rules, and then 2 months later you’ll get another batch” is just silly. Hopfully this isn’t a sign of what future books will be like.

Let us know what you think about the new book, 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.

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