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Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: JollyBob on 27 March 2025, 07:38:48 AM
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The Old World is releasing the Army of Grand Cathay:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/luce8te0/bring-harmony-to-the-old-world-with-the-armies-of-grand-cathay/
I'm not really sure how I feel about that...
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I suppose they do look the part, but I'm not convinced by the paintjobs. IMHO they should have gone with a red and gold theme, but that may just be me. Perhaps that's my lack of contact with Chinese culture outside of take-away restaurants ::)
Because it does seem they've gone with a mostly (completely?) Chinese influence, while there are quite a few very old miniatures in the fantasy line that hint at a more Japanese inspiration (Hoshi Komi in Bloodbowl for instance), so hopefully they will delve into that direction as well for future releases.
But then there's also Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Korean and Mongolian sources, to name a few. They might have been better off taking a page out of GCT Studio's Bushido playbook. That setting cleverly combines all matter of Asian influences into a single fantasy setting without making them look out of place...
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maybe they'll be allied/specialist troop units - mounted archers for Mongols, etc
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Yeah, all that.. :)
Plus I don't like how they've gone with that blocky modern warhammer style for everything, where I feel things should just be a bit more... elegant?
The one thing I do like, mind, is in the artillery crew, the old guy pulling the cart full of ammo on his own. That is a lovely characterful piece, but I would love to have seen it done by the Perry's...
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although thinking about it, the mongols are probably the local Chaos tribe...
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There are a lot of things they could have done with a Cathayan army but ignored all that in favour of producing a 'Great Wall' film influenced Warhammer army.
Well, perhaps when Mantic do a version we might see a slightly different take on things.
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I am surprised they passed up the opportunity to include Terracotta Warrior figures, but I don't dislike the style they have used there. It does look like I imagine a "fantasy Chinese" force to appear although there need to be crossbows, lots and lots of crossbows.
I can see the lantern balloon being a popular choice for painting competitions.
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I am surprised they passed up the opportunity to include Terracotta Warrior figures, but I don't dislike the style they have used there. It does look like I imagine a "fantasy Chinese" force to appear although there need to be crossbows, lots and lots of crossbows.
I can see the lantern balloon being a popular choice for painting competitions.
I was expecting more of a terra cotta army look, but its a bit more subtle I suppose, which is nice. I like what they did.
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They've been planning the faction for some time, it's based on the work they did with Creative Assembly in Total War: Warhammer 3 where they introduced Grand Cathay as a faction. So if you want to see what might be coming in future out just check the unit roster ;)
https://totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Grand_Cathay_unit_roster
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although thinking about it, the mongols are probably the local Chaos tribe...
Traditionally, the Mourngul tribe of hobgoblins takes that slot, no? Hobgobla Khan and all that.
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I am surprised they passed up the opportunity to include Terracotta Warrior figures, but I don't dislike the style they have used there. It does look like I imagine a "fantasy Chinese" force to appear although there need to be crossbows, lots and lots of crossbows.
I can see the lantern balloon being a popular choice for painting competitions.
They do have terracotta warriors - they're just 50 foot tall.
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what an amazing range!
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Because it does seem they've gone with a mostly (completely?) Chinese influence, while there are quite a few very old miniatures in the fantasy line that hint at a more Japanese inspiration (Hoshi Komi in Bloodbowl for instance), so hopefully they will delve into that direction as well for future releases.
The Japanese-inspired miniatures in Warhammer are not from Cathay, they are from the Japanese-inspired land called Nippon FYI
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I'll agree with some others here- I like that they went for a more grounded looking army with mostly human troops rather than a "Terracotta warrior" theme. I think that sort of thing sounds perfectly cool, but it'd fit AOS more than the Old World in my opinion :)
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This army is based on the Computer Game that is set in the old world of Warhammer. The Cathay faction release in that game was quite popular, and so GW is hoping to grab and convert some computer gamers I'm sure.
It's pretty cool, but the figs are so so so highly detailed, it's too much I think for me personally. It kinda breaks the old world vibe I feel, though the figs are great. I may just use my Renegade Miniatures Warring States era figures though.
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There must still be a few of us alive who remember the 'Men of the Orient' army from the early rulebook.
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It's pretty cool, but the figs are so so so highly detailed, it's too much I think for me personally. It kinda breaks the old world vibe I feel, though the figs are great. I may just use my Renegade Miniatures Warring States era figures though.
I agree with this - they have that Very Late WFB/Age of Sigmar look, which is apparently extremely popular based on the lamentations I've seen from people around the nerd-net wanting new sculpts for all the re-released stuff (much of which is more to my tastes to be honest, though I had secretly hoped for the earlier generation of Empire state troops to come back).
The overall Cathay design is good, but I'd prefer something a bit more down to Earth to match the earlier WFB stuff. I notice as well that all the new releases have been hit by the typical scale creep - so I bet these lads are massive. Why they have added figures to the older factions that tower over the re-released stuff I'll never know!
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It's pretty cool, but the figs are so so so highly detailed, it's too much I think for me personally. It kinda breaks the old world vibe I feel, though the figs are great. I may just use my Renegade Miniatures Warring States era figures though.
Whenever I build a GW kit, I am usually burnt out by the time I've finished my test model lol. Each individual model is always some huge project, unless you just cheat ;D So I've got a lot of 1 man squads/units from a bunch of armies hehe. Its just too much for most people I think, but the model count doesn't even allow for the rationalization of it.
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I Like the look of the army. The lantern looking balloon is my favourite.
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Doesn't do anything for me, but I didn't expect it to. I do feel bad for anyone starting an Old World army though - as these will be modern GW/AoS priced, and nothing like the discounted prices you get on Old World re-boxed units.
Amusingly all this Old World stuff (our local gaming group is playing a ton of Warhammer fantasy based stuffed using alternate rules) for this big Adepticon release didn't catch me. I love beastmen, but I hate the huge model in the battalion box, so I'll probably pass on those. I love old Wood Elves and hate the later stuff - which seems to be mostly what is present in their battalion box.
So...I guess I should be happy. Saving myself a lot of money. My local store does 25% off Old World and with an extra cash discount, this has been the first time in years that I've bought GW products, at approaching "sane" prices. So, fortunately I guess I won't be starting another army unless I go for another 3D printed one.
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I quite like the look of this forthcoming army. Hopefully more units will follow.
The floating lanterns are excellent, and the artillery (and especially their crews) are very characterful.
Fortunately, Wood Elves and Beastiemens I havein abundance already.
-Michael
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I think they look absolutely fantastic and if I was going to play Old World and buy a new army it would 100% be these. It may be a mishmash of various fantasy Chinese-ish Oriental bits and bobs but then that's what Cathay was always meant to be. They'd be a nightmare to paint with all that detail, but if I had younger eyes and the patience I used to have, I'd be bang up for the challenge. I think it's great that they are trying something different rather than just rehashing all the old Warhammer races in different ways. And it's actually nice to see a different human army rather than just more weird Chaotic beasties...
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There must still be a few of us alive who remember the 'Men of the Orient' army from the early rulebook.
I remember the Army of the Great Orange Simca. Never built one though.
I do like the look of the army (not that I'm ever going to buy it). I wonder if you could use it for the old lists.
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I did not think they'd go all in on a new faction like this - I really thought the Old World reboot would look like the Necromunda reboot, which made big promises early doors about covering lots more stuff from the setting - but then we just got small allied parties to the existing factions.
I agree with guitarheroandy - these look fantastic, especially the balloon and the weapons teams. The line troops do look overly detailed, but if some of it is separate parts on the sprue there may be no need to glue it all on.
I'm old enough that the re-released stuff mostly leaves me cold, it is from an era I thought was a step or three down from the glory days. If anything was going to get me into Old World, it'd be something like this: a faction from the fluff back in the day that never really had miniatures before, now being done well.
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They look great but not sure I want to spend ?500 on everything in the faction.
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I might buy the Lantern air balloon for a VSF game, which is an awesome model, but i expect it will be rather too exhorbitantly priced. I could see gripping a few Jade Warriors used to reinforce a Tong skirmish team in pulp games, if cheap enough. I?ll wait until i can get to a sale bin or a swap.
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It's pretty cool, but the figs are so so so highly detailed, it's too much I think for me personally. It kinda breaks the old world vibe I feel, though the figs are great.
Thirded - they don't feel like 'Warhammer' to me and are far too detailed for line infantry (in painting terms lol)
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I remember the Army of the Great Orange Simca.
Named after Andy Jones' car
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca
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Named after Andy Jones' car
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simca
Guys, that's Nippon, not Cathay. Have some cultural sensitivity here please and don't mix up these two drastically different cultures just because they're on the other side of the old world >:( ;D
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Guys, that's Nippon, not Cathay. Have some cultural sensitivity here please and don't mix up these two drastically different cultures just because they're on the other side of the old world >:( ;D
Quite. Or you'll be sent to the Pagoda of Tsien-Tsin to explain yourself to the five masters!
Cathay has been mentioned, referenced and had a lot of material published in the Old World stories, novels and fluff over the years - a lot of the Clan Eshin mystique and abilities were drawn from their presence in Cathay as well as the aforementioned Tzeentch presence.
Are GW going to ditch all of that for all-new and retconned fluff?
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For what it's worth I think these are pretty good looking miniatures- I don't play The Old World (though in our group we still play in the old world, just using a combination of homemade, out of print, and other games' rules), and as our campaign has ranged to many locations, it's not inconceivable that someone would end up in Cathay or running into Cathayan forces.
That said, while I'm sure the price tag on these would make buying an army a bit of a stretch, the thing that will probably keep me from indulging in a small number of models is likely the scale. Generally I'm not a stickler for scale, and I incorporate a good number of oversized Reaper minis alongside smaller NorthStar and older Warhammer guys, but for some reason I feel like having a whole unit of seven-foot swordsmen or something would feel like too much.
I'm tempted to get the book, just to see how or if they are able to blend the Celestial Dragon Emperor bit into the existing lore in a way that makes some sense. Of course we've generally had more fun making up our own branches of the Warhammer World, so there's that issue of "it's hard to unread something," especially if it contradicts something you've enjoyed. Case in point, I found the map of Albion in the "Storm Warriors" book to be way cooler than the Albion campaign setting map which felt kind of flat. We got around this by saying both of those maps were in world, and both wildly inaccurate, but I'd hope they find a way to tie in the lore that feels like it fits.
Anyway... we'll see how the minis look once they're out. Wargames Atlantic is doing a Warring States Chinese army that will likely make a cheaper (and closer to 28mm) alternative.
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Releasing a brand new army, with a brand new army look, alongside re-releasing arguably the least attractive plastics GW could possibly release for the other armies is such a baffling decision. Those Bretonnians and Orcs are basically the 5th edition starter set.
They look good, but I have been put off by the overly detailed and overly heroic nature of present day GW releases. Guess I am no longer the target audience. :)
Happy though for those who have been waiting literal ages for a Cathay army.
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could it possible be a money spinner.......surely not?
new army when armies people already have get confimed to the 'legacy' list/pile to get no new love
shock horror