‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – Grand Cathay Is Getting The Fix It Needed
Warhammer: the Old Worlds’s Grand Cathay is getting a bunch of new stuff to fix it! Let’s dive in.
It’s no secret that Grand Cathay has a few problems. When they were first released I talked about how it felt like it was going to be a very thin release, and indeed it was. Despite that Grand Cathay has turned out to be a real problem for the game with its overpowered Sky Lanterns and some other problem units. Now we’ve talked before about how these units might be fixed or toned down. But one issue that always pops is that toning down these units doesn’t leave the army with much.
It’s a very limited army. Nerfing half the units in it puts it in a bad place. Any nerfs would always kind of be a stop-gap that would help the game but hurt the army. Now however GW seems to be pushing out the real fix, a large expansion of the Cathay list, and that’s Grand. So lets take a look at it.
More Grand Cathay
The fix is coming in the new Arcane Journal The Breaching of the Great Bastion. This book takes the action back to Cathay itself and pits defenders of the Great Bastion against a Chaos invasion. It’s cool to see Cathay get more fleshed out this way. It’s also interesting to see them expanding the narrative beyond the narrow confines of the Old World area of the Old World. Maybe this can give hope to Lizardmen and Dark Elves of Lustria and Naggaroth?
This book promises to come with a decent chunk of lore and the usual missions and stuff. The meat of it seems to be profiles for all the new units, a revamped Grand Army list that includes them and a new army of infamy. There isn’t any mention of new magic items etc, but then again they don’t really need it. I know some people will be annoyed that Cathay is spread out over 3 books now, and that is a bit unfortunate. On the other hand I’m just happy the army is getting pushed out. Some new factions have waited years before getting a 2nd wave. That’s not the case here.
Grand Cathay Units To Plug The Gaps
Cathay was missing a number of important units to fill roles, and it looks like this is getting addressed. The Astromancers are going to give the faction a wizard that can actually go into units (aside from human form Miao Ying). That’s pretty big, especially as right now Cathay (outside of ring spam) kind of sucks at magic.
The army also has noticeably been missing any kind of ranged infantry. Now it’s getting three. Crane Gun Teams are the heavy long ranged option. They were one of the options I noted Cathay could get back when the army first came out. I’m sure no Skaven players are jealous.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got Iron Hail Gunners. Rather than a few high damage shots at long range, these guys are all about lots of weaker shots at close range. They are an interesting choice as short ranged shooting isn’t always amazing. I do wonder if they will get the detachment rule which could be pretty cool.
Last of the new ranged units is the Peasant Levy with Bows. These are going to be cheap mid-ranged ranged troops. The army was missing not just ranged troops, but cheap/low quality units, and this is really filling those gaps.
Lastly we’ve got Peasant Levey with Spears. Again this is filling out the much needed cheap infantry slot for Cathay. Right now Cathay core choices are basically one unit of Jade Warriors and then 1-2 units of Lancers to hold objectives. There is very little diversity. This really opens that up with more options.
An Expanded Army is Good
All of this is going to do a lot to expand the army and give you a lot more options of how to build things. There are still more units that will likely come out, I’m surprised at no Jade Crossbows, but three ranged units is a lot. You now have a ton more options in how to build an army. Yes, it does lean a little bit gunline-y, but you can also build more combat oriented. Not having to build around the same like 4 units is great and gives casual players a ton to do. This is what the army needed and its great to see them getting it pretty quick.
Will GW Fix The Army?
Of course all of this is only going to really work if they also fix the existing army. My hope is they’ve been delaying putting out a big Cathay FAQ until this book came out. It is the perfect time to fix some of the really broken things that Cathay has, and adjust magic a bit to make it better for them. If they don’t do this then the new units, unless they are also super bonkers, will kind of get ignored for more Lanterns and Cannons. However if they can tone down the couple of busted things and not make the new units OP then the army will be in a pretty good spot. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
Let us know what you think about these new Cathay units, down in the comments!
