‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – Grand Cathay’s Problem Is More Than Lanterns

Sky Lanterns are the big boogieman of Warhammer: The Old World’s Grand Cathay right now, but they aren’t the only issue with the list.

So we all know that Sky Lanterns are an issue for the game.  I’ve spent a bit of time talking about why they are an issue, and how we might fix them, so I’m not going to rehash that. It’s obvious that they are a big part of why Cathay might be bad for the game. However they aren’t the only issue the army has, and there are a couple of big ones that are getting overlooked. So today I wanted to take a look at them.

Cathay’s Hidden Problems

Now Lanterns are the biggest issue and need to be fixed. But my worry is that by fixating on them people might be missing a couple of issues with the list. These are things that both break the game a bit and have also helped feed into why Sky Lanterns are so good. So understanding them is needed to fully understand Lanterns, and also to fix the army. These aren’t hard things to fix. But they are important issues. It would be tragic is GW did fix Sky Lanterns, only to reveal another broken issue we’ve all been overlooking.

Issue 1- Stacking Cannons

In some ways the Cathayan Grand Cannon is an even worse issue for the game than Sky Lanterns are. Lanterns aren’t a lot of fun and are easy to abuse. Cannons straight up can make some people unable to play the game. They can create a totally uniteractive game. “But Abe,” you might be saying, “didn’t you say Cathay wasn’t broken, and weren’t you a little dismissive of cannons before?” Well, that’s fair, and I think we the issues I’m going to talk about Cathay is better, or more OP, then I gave then credit for. But I did always say the cannons are the best in the game. Even then I was undervaluing them.

You see back when the army released, I assumed that the -1 movement the cannons give out did not stack. I still think it shouldn’t, and that its not meant to. However it is a debate and a number of players, and many events, such as LVO, have ruled that it does stack. And thats… really, really bad. -1 Movement is pretty bad. But letting it stack means that you can basically prevent entire armies from moving. Many Cathay armies are running 3 cannons these days, which lets them put up to -3 Movement on enemy units. For example, that will stop Dwarves from moving completely.

Remember that this happens before you double for march. So even marching won’t help you if you are stuck at M0. However the army also normally runs Ogre loaders, so they can throw up to a -6 if they go all out. This lets them easily shut down enemy movement. Heck a -3, dropping marching infantry to 2 inch move is pretty bad. And Cathay can take up to 6 cannons event with matched play.

Combo’ed With Lanterns

Cannons are part of what makes Sky Lanterns so bad right now. Lanterns are already very fast, and good at shooting and running away from the enemy. The cannons synergies with this perfectly. They allow a Cathay player to shut down enemy movement and make the Lanterns even faster in comparison. It doesn’t matter how good a unit you have if it has to just sit there immobile and get bombed. When people talk about just running fast units to run down Lanterns, they often forget that cannons make this much, much harder.

And you have to remember that the -1 isn’t to a single unit. It’s in a radius, so you can shut down whole sections of an army. So even if you nerf Lanterns, it just means people will put more points into taking more cannons. That’s arguably going to lead to even less fun games where the opposing army gets to sit there and be shot. You won’t even have the chance to run across the table. Just not a lot of fun.

Issue #2- Ring Of Jet

The other kind of hidden issue with Cathay was added in the Dawn of the Storm Dragon book. This is with the Ring of Jet. The Ring is a 30 pt Enchanted Item that lets you cast Unquiet Spirts at bound power level 2. Post 1.5 FAQ that’s a pretty high casting value, it’s both cheaper and higher caster value than Ruby Ring. Unquiet Spirts is a decent magic missile. However on it’s own this item would be fine but not crazy. Basically a different Ruby Ring.  The issue is that the Ring of Jet is Extremely Common. That means you can take as many in a list as you want. Since it’s enchanted it also means that anyone who can buy 30 or more points of items can take one.

This item is super easy to spam. I’ve seen list that fit like 9 of them in, and that’s not trying as hard as you can. You can put them on Lantern Characters and in Jade Lancers. Now we’ve seen stuff like this before, and there has never one been a time when being able to spam bound magic missiles has been good for the game. This is a really powerful ability, that combined with the option of shutting down enemy movement leads to a deadly and oppressive game.

How To Fix Grand Cathay’s Issues?

The issue we face is that even if you took away Sky Lanterns, or heavily limit them, the combo of cannons and Rings of Jet is still crazy. You can still build a very oppressive, strong and unfun list with them. Kevin Morgan’s list from LVO as even with limited Sky Lanterns he went 5-0 using Cannons and Rings of Jet (which LVO limited to 4) to make up the rest of the army. It will be an issue.

The good news is that the fix is super simple and would take very little page space to fix. The main issue here is spamablity, so… just don’t let them. Make the Cannon’s -1 Movement not stack (events are starting to do this anyway) and take away Extremely Common from Ring of Jet. Do those two things and the issue is basically fixed. (Look I think the -1 Movement should just be removed from Grand Cannons, wholly as they are already good enough, but that’s another issue.)

It’s not a hard fix. I’ve already seen a lot of events rule that the -1 Movement doesn’t stack and that’s a good move. If you are running an event yourself please do everyone a favor and rule likewise. Letting this stack is one of the worst experiences players can have. But hopefully this will go beyond events and GW and just FAQ these two things when they also fix Lanterns.

Let us know what you think about these issues, 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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