What about Cathay?

[ilovecookies1]

Does anyone know/think GW will release a full army and codex for these guys? I've heard rumors that they might be working on it. Fluff wise and story wise Cathay does play a decent role in the Warhammer world.

[Prince_Asuryan]

No, I don't think they will. And they shouldn't.

There's enough armies out there that are in dire need of a rewrite, they don't have time to release a new book.

[ilovecookies1]

Is it true that ogres and skaven are getting re-done?

[Aerendar Valandil]

Rumors on Cathay have there been for ages - as have there been on Norse. They have never been substantiated. Apart from the rather bad position of GW during the present crisis - WHAB is in serious trouble - and GW's positioning upon the core games, I think GW will not add a new army, certainly not a third (in effect fourth, when counting DoW) human army.

However, if you would like to play cathay, there nave always been lists circulating on the net and historical Chinese and Japanese (and even Korean, Thai, khmer and Tibetan) exist on the market.

[Chracian]

Here is a very good fan produced army book for cathay. IMHO it's at least as good as the ones GW sells:

http://www.warseer.com/files/Warhammer- ... Cathay.pdf

[draxynnic]

Rumors on Cathay have there been for ages - as have there been on Norse. They have never been substantiated.

Actually, the Norse seem to have been officially made part of the Chaos Mortals list, albeit on the lower end of the scale when it comes to Chaos weirdness.

[Aerendar Valandil]

Correct, I guess - making their appearance as an independent list even less likely.

[Prince_Asuryan]

Here is a very good fan produced army book for cathay. IMHO it's at least as good as the ones GW sells:

http://www.warseer.com/files/Warhammer- ... Cathay.pdf

I direct you to this subtle ripping apart of said book: Here

I agree it's well put together, but the book is far from good in terms of balance.

[Musashi]

Your link doesn't work, and this fandex is very well put together.

I have no idea how Cathay is run in Warhammer, but that was not the way I imagined it.

[Prince_Asuryan]

I agree it's well put together, but it's very overpowered and unrealistic.

The fact that they make EVERYTHING in the book amazing fantastic to a degree that's a tad ridiculous makes the army really complex and powerful. Couple of examples I'll steal from my link:

Our Swords Are Made Of Cool

Cathayan Longswords:
Cathayan Longswords are wondrous blades created by the finest artificers of the world of elf-silver and dwarfsteel, bathed in magical saps and balanced to feel
almost weightless in the hands. These finely crafted swords can be used either one handed or two handed. One handed they count as hand weapons and two
handed they give the user +1 weapon skill, +1 initiative and armour piercing.

(I know there's a precedent with the Ogres, but that was for flavour for the Maneaters - and most importantly, the size of a person. But no, clearly any sword made east of India Zharr-Naggrund is made of monomolecular-edged super-steel and makes the Smiths of Vaul break down in tears just looking at it. Dwarf and elf smiths who somehow manage to equip their troops with those standard weapon types clearly aren't up to the same standard as short-lived Cathayan humans using plain steel and a big mallet)

Our Men-At-Arms Are Special

Devotion
Lowborn are utterly dedicated to the Emperor and his Magistrates. If a
Magistrate or lord Magistrate is in the front rank of a unit with
Devotion, they become stubborn. If, for any reason, the Magistrate
leaves the front rank, they lose stubborn

(Is the entire nation brainwashed? Bretonnia's pretty feudal, and even the Empire's only renaissance: all humans in the setting have a healthy respect for their aristocracy. But somehow if you're Cathayan it allows you to transform your cheapest core choice into a Stubborn anvil).

Our Horses Are Special

Crushing Charge
Noble Warhorses are known for their thirst for battle and ability
to aid their rider. They rear and smash their weight down upon
their foes, adding their own weight to the momentum of their
rider’s blows. On the turn they charge, Noble Warhorses give
their rider a +1 bonus to their strength.

(These are just regular good horses. Bretonnian warhorses are explicitly bred from elven stock and don't have anything this good).

And we can go into magic items and the Ying-Yang thing, and that's stupid as well.

[Musashi]

Perhaps references to Cathay should be replaced with Ulthuan.

Seriously, I agree it is overpowered, and TBH, doesn't feel Chinese. It can be argued that Warhammer is not meant to represent cultures directly.

[whirlwind]

I suppose it is a matter of opinion but I see Cathay as an army of quantity not quality.

To me they would be more numerous and cheap than the Empire but inferior in equipment and training. An Imperial Guard of Warhammer Fantasy? lol.

They would have the potential for some elite forces and decent magic and a unique 'chinese dragon' who is weaker in stats but ethereal (chinese dragons are spirtual creatures rather than of the flesh) I would love to see the Shaolin 'rip off' monks they mention in some of the fluff.

I can just imagine this massive force with swathes of firepower and legions of peasant troops being supported by mortars, rockets and cannons. Bung in some warrior monks, Kung-Fu movie style Martial Artists as heroes and I would be in heaven lol.

Also it is worth remembering they are very old allies of the High Elves

[Allerion]

ethereal dragons?

um... NO.

cause if they were, it would mean a virtual auto-win for the cathay general. normal dragons are hard enough to kill in experienced hands, and then only letting a handful of units in the game wound them? no thank you.

meh, kislev before cathay.

[~Milliardo~]

I've never really been bothered by a lack of Cathay or Nippon list. The Empire List contains equivalents of almost everything you could want in either army - Samurai become Greatswords; State Troop Spearmen become Ashigaru or any Chinese infantry equivalent you want; Rocket launchers become... well, Chinese rocket launchers (hua cher? sp?), etc - the problem then only lies in finding or converting miniatures to represent them, and Perry Miniatures does a pretty good job of that.

[Musashi]

You need fluff and rules to create ambiance.

[oscar1492]

i seriously doubt that GW will ever release a cathain army simply because their is not enough fluff or demand for another army. also they need to do up some army books like prince asuryan said. they MIGHT (and thats a massively big might) bring out a for fun list in like white dwarf or something but i dont reckon that they would ever bring out a full army let alone models.

[~Milliardo~]

You need fluff and rules to create ambiance.

Then do a re-write. I've re-written the High Elf book to fit my army better. I wrote original fluff for it that ties in with the existing stuff, and although I haven't changed any of the rules, I've re-written their explanations.

[Musashi]

Interestingly, I think it's possible to tweak the HE range and rules to do a Nippon/Japanese army, problem is Ninjas.

While you'd think that with the chariots you could do the same with a Cathay list, it seems unlikely, since they would presumably be more horde like and certainly wouldn't have either high initiative nor ASF.

[~Milliardo~]

Although I don't really think I'd want to do a human army with elf rules, why not use Shadow Warriors for ninja?

[Musashi]

Assassinations.