‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – The Breaching Of the Great Bastion Adds Much-Needed Diversity To Cathay

Take a look at the new Warhammer: The Old World, Grand Cathay Arcane Journal: The Breaching Of The Great Bastion.

In less than a year we’ve now gotten three books dealing with Grand Cathay and building out their list. With this third book, The Breaching of the Great Bastion, the army finally feels in a good place and like its a real and pretty complete force. While there are certainly more units and things that could be added to Cathay, it does feel like it’s a lot more balanced of a faction now. This is also likely the last Cathay focused book we will get for a bit (though we could be surprised). So today lets take a look at what the book adds.

Grand Cathay – New Units

The main thing this book adds is handful of new units to the army (4-6 depending on how you want to count them). These fill some gaps in the army line up and really help it feel more rounded. Now every Cathay army might not just be the same 4 units. Let’s take a closer look at these new units first.

Astromancers

The first new unit the army gets are the Astromancers. You can get a regular Astromancer or a Supreme One. And these are just your basic wizards, with regulars being the “hero” type at lvl 1-2 and Supremes being the “Lord” type at lvl 3-4.  They can take High Magic, Battle Magic, Illusion and Elementalism as well as the Cathay Lores. They get MR 1 and the Elemental Winds rule.  Astromancers can also be mounted on horses. That’s about it. Now this unit does fill a need Cathay had. It gives them access both to cheap wizards and ones that can go in units. However they are a little boring, being just basic wizards, the same as Empire ones and not having any special rules or anything cool. Still, Astromancers will get the job done.

Peasant Levy

Next up we’ve got the Peasant Levy. These fill the role of cheap troops, both ranged and combat in the army, and are great for that. While they are one unit with the same stat line, realistically you’ve got two units here. You can either arm them with Long Spears or Warbows. Both are free, sticking the unit at 4 points a model, or 5 with light armor (not worth it). With spears these are a pretty bog standard cheap ranked unit. They have Horde and Warband (though not, despite their name, Levies) and are fine. Their spears let them Fight First and in an extra rank. That might seem good, but they are also WS2 and only S3, so even a bunch of attacks won’t do a ton. You can also pay for ambush.

Alternatively you can give them Warbows to make them a very cheap shooting unit. They can also take skirmish for free. This is only something you’d want to do with the archers I think, but since they are BS 3, it makes them a pretty viable light and cheap skirmish unit. Since Warbows are based on the users S you could also try to get cheeky and cast Might of Heaven And Earth on them to give them S4 shooting. Overall both of these do fill a niche in the army. I think the skirmishing archers are going to be pretty ubiquitous, while I’m not sure the spear versions will see a ton of action.

Crane Gunner Teams

< Crane Gun Teams are up next, and we already had a pretty good guess at what these guys could do. They’ve got Crane guns (36 inch range, S6, AP -2, armor bane 2, cumbersome and move or shoot). With their big shields they get a 3+ save from the front. They have BS 3 and 0-1 per thousand pts can buy reserve move and/or ambush. I don’t think Ambush is at all worth it as it costs you at minimum two rounds of shooting. Reserve Move on the other hand does make them a lot more mobile.

Crane Gun Teams clock in at 16 pts each (+2 pts for reserve move) meaning they are pretty cheap. However you really have to match them up against Lanterns. Assuming you aren’t buying reserve move you can get 8 Crane Gunner teams for the cost of a base Lantern. They will have a better save (from the front at least), a lot more wounds and 3 more shots. On the other hand the Lantern is more mobile, has better BS and, maybe most importantly, can draw LOS much better. Now of course you can take both, but they are generally drawing from the sameish pool of points. It’ll be up to you which you like best, but I bet Lanterns aren’t going anywhere.

Iron Hail Gunners

Lastly we have the Iron Hail Gunners. These were another unit we had a good idea of what they might do. They are you basic human stats with Iron Hail Guns. They are BS 3 and capped at 4-12 models. The unit can also be in open order or skirmish. Iron Hail Gunners start at 12 pts and for 2 more pts can buy Gunpowder Bombs. This doesn’t really seem worth it to me given that it only slightly changes what they can do. This is a unit that put out a good amount of shots, but isn’t super accurate or strong. Still as light skirmishers to get in the way and cause issues they can be fun. Overall like pretty much all of the new units they do a job decently and don’t feel broken.

Updates To The Grand Army

The book also makes some changes to the Grand Army list for Cathay. These are mostly to add the new units in. Astromancers of both types go into heroes (with Supremes competing with Shugengan Lords, Gate Masters and Lord Magistrates as 0-1 per 1000). Peasants are core and both types of Gunners are Special.

There are a few other changes however. Jade Lancers are no longer 0-1 per 1000 pts in core, but not 0-1 in core if your general is a Gate Master or Keeper. This shuts you out of taking 2 units as your core.

In addition the two war machines are now 0-2 per 1000 pts rather than 0-3.  Elemental Winds has also been changed to do nothing on a roll of 1-2, Yang on 3-4 and Yun on 5-6. This change should affect all armies giving it a bit of a nerf.

Warriors of Wind & Field

You’ve also got a new Army of Infamy in the Warriors of Wind & Field. This is a more shooting/peasant focused list. It loses the ability to take Dragons and Shugengan Lords. Jade Lancers also go to Rare with Sentinels, while Warriors are Special, save for 0-1 per 1000 pts.

Meanwhile Peasants and Iron Hail Gunners are core and Sky Lanterns move to Special. You can also take Badlands Ogres as mercenaries. This is a pretty heavy shooting list with the potential for lots of Crane Guns and cheap peasants.

Speaking of Peasants they get a number of buffs in the army. You can upgrade 0-1 per 1000 pts to have Move Through cover. You can also separately upgrade 0-1 per thousand to have Reserve Move and Scouts. In addition Peasants do get disrupted by terrain and can also pick which die to use when Falling Back In Good Order.

Lastly Lanterns get a buff with one time use abilities that can make nearby infantry better in various ways. Overall this is decent army that could be viable. However I think given that so far its unaffected by any of the army list nerfs, that Jade Fleet is likely going to remain the go to competitive list for Cathay. But for those seeking more fun lists there are now a lot of great options.

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