‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Is Grand Cathay Coming and LVO Reveals

Last week at LVO, GW dropped a lot of news on us! Take a look at all the big Warhammer: The Old World news, with some hints at Grand Cathay!

Last week, LVO (The Las Vegas Open) took place. As part of it, we got another great GW seminar with a ton of Old World news. We not only saw the next army coming in all its glory but also got a nice peek at what’s coming after that. Part of that remains a bit of a mystery. So, let’s take a look at everything we learned from LVO (if you want to take a peek at the actual tournament, check it out here).

High Elves Are Coming

The first big reveal was that High Elves are coming. Now we already knew that they were going to be the next army, but had no idea exactly when they were coming. While we still don’t have an exact release date, most of the time, things revealed at events like this come out in the next couple of months, so we can guess that they are likely being released around March of this year.

Outside of that, there isn’t much shocking in this reveal. High Elves are coming and bringing back all the classic units you’d expect. They are getting a new plastic unit kit (out second of ToW) with new models for Ellyrian Reavers.

There are also a pair of new characters, The  Lord of Chrace:

And Ishaya Vess, Sentinel of the Silent Isle:

We also learned what their two armies of infamy are going to be, the Chracian Warhost and the Sea Guard Garrison. This is all nice stuff and I do like the next models. Outside of that it’s about what we were expecting.

The Final Armies

We also got a peek at what’s after High Elves. Namely, the final two armies. Now they hadn’t officially been announced before this. But of course, we did know that these books would be coming next, as they are the final armies that needed to be done. We do know the order they are coming now, with Beastmen first and Wood Elves last.

I am glad to see they are keeping the time-honored Warhammer Fantasy Battles tradition of Wood Elves having to wait a long, long, long time for releases. We didn’t get really any other info other than that and a look at one new Beastmen model.

And yeah, he’s a cool new model, but he’s about what we got. However, we can at least guess a bit about the release dates for these two. Based on the rate at which the books have been coming out and the fact that these books have been announced, I think we can expect to see Beastment around June and Wood Elves around September.

If that is true, then it means that all the core armies will be released within two years of ToW coming out. This is actually a very quick pace and great. It also means that we might get to see what is beyond the core nine armies this year.

Is Grand Cathay Coming?

So Grand Cathay was teased when ToW was first announced. We got a couple bits of art, like the above. But they were quickly dropped form the lineup. But now we have to guess at what is coming after the nine Core Armies. The roadmap that GW showed off has an empty block after Wood Elves. So it is clear that something is coming out after. But what could it be?

Well, eagle-eyed fans were able to identify that the bit of art in the empty box is a clipping from this bit of Cathay art. It’s actually the only bit of Cathay art in the rule book. That does seem to be a big hint. On top of that, GW also recently updated the world map. Along with filling out a couple of other nations, it added some new ships, including a Cathayan Junk.

So those are two possible hints that Cathay could be coming next. And yeah, a lot of times they do hide the next armies in the empty box in a road map. However, we also have this statement from GW:

So they have officially said they don’t have any plans. Was that a misdirect? Has the plan changed? It’s hard to say, really. However, given the lead times to produce a whole new army are a few years at least, then if it is Cathay GW saying there were no plans to put them out, it would be an outright lie.

I will say that I think the ship being added to the map is pretty thin proof. They also added other ships and a lot of detail to Tilea and Estalia. So, based on that, we are as likely to get Vampire Coast. Or a book based around Dogs of War in Tilea and Estalia, which would be really cool! So the real question is, did some intern grab a random picture of background terrain to put in that empty box, or did GW purposely put out a really obvious teaser? We’ll find out soon enough!

Let us know what you think of all these reveals, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

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.