‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – All The Other Units Grand Cathay Might Get
For you Warhammer: The Old World fans, Total War: Warhammer III gives us a lot of insight into the other units Grand Cathay might get.
Grand Cathay is coming to the Old World. This is a pretty exciting development as its the first really new army we’ve had in twenty years for WFB/TOW. We’ve should be pretty hyped about this, and we are! However as it stands right now the announced army list is a little thin. While it’s pretty in line with a lot of other GW releases these days, it’s a lot less units then the other armies have to pick from.
Of course Cathay will almost certainly get more units! We might get more announced for the release. If not then we can be pretty sure at some point the army will get another big wave to flesh it out. But what other units could they get? Well, Total War: Warhammer III can actually give us a pretty good indication. In that game Cathay has a very fleshed out list, so lets take a look at what we might see.
What Has Already Been Announced
The following units have already been announced for Cathay-
- One big mounted generic character type – Shugengan Lords
- One other character type – Gate Masters
- One named hero – Miao Ying
- One close combat infantry unit – Jade Warriors
- One heavy cav unit – Jade Lancers
- Two Warmachines – Great Cannons and Fair Rain Rockets
- One Chariot? Centerpiece Flyer – The Sky Lantern
- One big centerpiece monster – Cathayan Sentinel
We also known that Maio Ying can seemingly upgrade Jade Warriors into Celestial Dragon Guards. In addition the Sky Lantern can be fielded as it’s own thing or with a magistrate. However this list is pretty thin and very combat focused, so what else might they get?
Melee Infantry
We’ve actually already got the bulk of the Melee infantry options. There are only two others that aren’t known to be coming to TOW. The Peasant Long Spearmen and the Ancestral Warriors. Now, the Ancestral Warriors are kind of a thing you summon, and mostly just look like Jade Warriors. They are also kind of rare in the game so they are likely the kind of thing we see as an alt-unit at some point, but not a high priority. Peasant Long Spearmen on the other hand are a more important units and act as the cheap light infantry. If we ever get them I’d bet they come as a dual kit with archers.
Ranged Infantry
In Total War, Cathay is actually a bit of a ranged faction, with a lot more ranged infantry units than melee. So it’s a but shocking that they haven’t announced any ranged infantry units for the faction so far. The ones they can pick from are:
- Celestial Dragon Crossbows
- Crane Gunners
- Iron Hail Gunners
- Jade Warrior Crossbowmen
- Nan-Gau Grenadiers
- Peasant Archers
(This is leaving out any Regiments of Renown/alt weapon options for the same unit). Now I don’t think we will get all of those, 6 ranged infantry options is a lot and more than almost any other army gets. I would think that Jade Warrior Crossbowmen are the most likely, followed by Peasant Archers. After than maybe one of the black powder options, Crane Gunners are pretty cool, but really who knows.
Melee Cavalry
With Jade lancers coming there are only two other melee cav units, or cav units in general, left. Peasant Horsemen and Great Longma riders. I think we might, and should see both of these. Peasant Horsemen give the army a nice light cavalry option which is always nice. Great Longma Riders… well they are cool flying heavy cav. We saw how well that’s gone for Pegasus Knights, so it will likely be really good for the army! The game overall… we will have to see!
Monsters
With Terracotta Sentinels already coming there are four other Cathay monsters that we could get:
- Jade Lions
- Jet Lions
- Great Moon Birds
- Celestial Lion
Any of these are units we could see and go around doing monster things. I think the most likely is a dual Jade/Jet Lion kit. The Guardian Lions are pretty iconic and I think we will see them sooner or later.
Weird Units
Cathay also has a few kind of odd units that don’t fit neatly in the other categories:
- The Sky Junk- a bigger version of the Sky Lantern with more firepower.
- Onyx Crowmen – flying crow people that claw you. Think furies or harpies.
- Wu Xing War Compass- a big support unit on a cart.
- Zhangu War Drums- another big support unit on a cart.
I think of these the most likely to be is the Sky Junk. It was already kind of teased for TOW a while ago, with some art. Moreover it’s a big expensive cool model they can sell. I think giving Cathay two big flying units like that also makes them really unique and sets them apart, kind of like the Khardon Overlords of TOW. We might also get some sort of dual kit to build the drums/compass, but those kinds of support units have always been kind of iffy in TOW/WFB.
Characters
There are also plenty of characters they can still bring over, though again I doubt we will see all of them. For named ones we have Zhao Ming, The Iron Dragon and Yuan Bo, The Jade Dragon. (Saytang the Watcher is also technically an option, but more far out there). Most faction get at least two named heroes, so we might well see another one of those. However since they are pretty big models, as they can change into dragons, we might also not get them for a bit. On top of that there are still plenty of other hero types we could get: Alchemists, Astromancers, Caravan Masters and Lord Magistrates (not as part of a Sky Lantern) are all other options and we are likely to see them and variations of the other characters with different mounts etc. over time. All in all there are still plenty of units to be ported over, and that’s not even getting into Regiments of Renown or Mercs! It wouldn’t even shock me if Cathay was a backdoor way to get more Ogres into the game…
Let us know what units you want to see Grand Cathay get the most, down in the comments!
