Cathay The Breaching of the Great Bastion 3 min breakdown

Looks like the nerfs to Grand Cathay are coming in waves.

Either that, or GW actually listened to the community. We’ve got nerfs to both cannons and Shugengan, but also some new, fun units.

In this post I’ll explain everything in 3 minutes. Let’s get to the good stuff.

Grand Cathay Army Composition Update 2026

What’s changed in Grand Cathay army composition compared to before?

First off, as far as the army’s general rules go, everything stays the same.

But army composition has changed in a few ways.

Big nerf to Grand Cathay characters

Massive change: Gate Masters now share a slot with Shugengan, Lord Magistrate, and Supreme Astromancer. So out of all these character options, you can only pick one per 1000 points.

I think this is a really good change.

It prevents people from spamming Shugengan and Gate Masters, like they used to.

It also prevents people from coming up with new broken combos by limiting the new Supreme Astromancers.

Changes to Cathay Core units

When it comes to Core units, peasants are obviously a win… but there’s also a nerf: only one unit of Jade Lancers can be Core now. It’s no longer one per 1000 points ONLY IF your General is a Gate Master or a Gate Keeper — characters that used to be kind of overshadowed by the Lord Magistrate and Shugengan.

Here’s an important detail: Shugengan are Leadership 9, Lord Magistrates are Leadership 9, but Gate Keepers are Leadership 8.

So what does that mean?

It means that if I want to run a Gate Keeper as my General to unlock Jade Lancers as a Core unit, and I also want to include two Shugengan, or a Shugengan and a Lord Magistrate, I can’t — because my commander would have lower Leadership.

So basically, if you want Jade Lancers, you’ll end up having to take a Gate Master, and therefore you’re sacrificing certain character combinations.

Grand Cathay Special units

As for Grand Cathay Special units, there are no limitations at all on either of the two new units: Crane Gunner Teams and Ironhide Gunners.

The usual dynamics still apply: if your General is a Shugengan, a Sentinel can be a Special unit; and if your General is a Lord Magistrate or a Strategist, a Sky Lantern can be Special.

But there’s an interesting nerf here: you can no longer include three war machines per 1000 points, only two war machines per 1000 points.

Is that enough of a nerf to the Cathayan cannon?

I don’t know — but it feels like it’s heading in the right direction.

Barely change: Rares, allies, and mercenaries

Rare units stay exactly the same, and so do mercenaries.

Allies have changed in one specific way: alliances with The Empire stay exactly the same. But it looks like they’ve fallen out with the High Elves, because that alliance used to be Normal and now it’s Uneasy. And with Bretonnia and the Wood Elves, the alliance used to be Suspicious and now it’s Uneasy with both.

Those are all the organizational changes. Now let’s go through the new units and what they change, one by one.

The new Cathay wizard — will he see play? The Astromancer

The Astromancer of Grand Cathay is basically a mix between a High Elf wizard and an Imperial wizard. From the High Elf they took Toughness 3 instead of 4, and they also took Leadership from the High Elf, because both the big and the small version are Leadership 8. The small Empire wizard, however, is Leadership 7.

It also has the same magic lores — and I want to highlight that it gets access to High Magic, as well as Illusion, Battle Magic, and Elementalism.

What it shares with the new Empire wizard is that it has Magical Attacks and Magic Resistance (1). It has access to fewer lores, because it loses Daemonology, Dark Magic, and Necromancy.

And since it’s not a High Elf, you have to mention that it doesn’t have the “re-roll one failed cast per turn” rule. But is that rule worth the points difference between the two?

It’s a 30-point difference, from 125 to 155 — which is exactly what the magic item costs that lets you re-roll one cast per turn.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

So yeah: you might like it more or less, but it’s not massively different from what already existed in the game.

As for the Cathayan horse — the only mount option for the Astromancer — nothing changes. We already knew what it looked like: Movement 7, 30×60 base, it has Counter-Charge but not First Charge.

I don’t think we’re going to see Astromancers on the table, because they share slots with the other strong characters and they’re heavily restricted.

But you know what we ARE going to see?

Peasant Levy: Cathay’s new mass unit

Peasant Levy are Leadership 5, or 6 if they have a unit champion, with Warband and Horde (so they effectively sit at Leadership 9). We’ve already seen that kind of thing before with units like the ever-popular Night Goblins, or Bretonnian peasants.

They cost 4 points, like the Bretonnians, and they have the same statline. The real difference is their gear.

Basically, they have two options: one is melee with a long spear that Strikes First, and the other is shooting with a bow.

They can also buy light armour, which I would never pay for — because going from nothing to a 6+ save isn’t worth it. Almost everything in this game is going to strip that armour anyway, so you won’t feel it. What you will feel is that if you’re running a unit of 35, you’re suddenly 35 points down for balancing out any magic items, for example.

And I see people complaining a lot about the “Strikes First” part, but realistically it only matters against very specific units — like light troops charging them in the front. Against a lot of other things, Weapon Skill 2, Strength 3, and no AP means it won’t matter much unless you’re stacking spells or something.

This “giving spears Strikes First” thing could set a precedent. And honestly I hope GW realised that basically nobody uses spears, because anyone with spear + shield is using the hand weapons + shield most of the time to get Parry.

So spears add very little, and maybe they’re trying to make them more appealing. Giving every spear Strikes First feels like a good way to do that — but this might not be the best unit to test it on, because at the end of the day they’re just peasants… and it’s kind of sad watching peasants swing before an Elf.

Anyway, option two: they can take bows and be Skirmishers. That’s really interesting. They can help you hold objectives and shoot from there without putting themselves in danger. Their bow isn’t a short bow — it has 24″ range.

And at the end of the day you can buy 20 of these for just 80 points.

Because as Skirmishers, they don’t get that rank bonus that boosts their Leadership.

Unlike other armies, these peasants don’t have a limit on how many units can swap Close Order for Skirmishers.

What is limited is giving them the Ambushers rule — but it still seems insane to me, and something you can really abuse by running two dirt-cheap units that can also be huge, because they have a minimum unit size but no maximum.

They’re cheap, they’re useful, and they let you destroy baggage trains, take objectives, and threaten enemy shooting units and war machines.

It’s really interesting. We’ll see how the meta adapts to it.

Ironhide Gunners are more 40k than TOW

This is a shooting infantry unit of 4 to 12 models. When I first read it, my first thought was: please don’t be Core. My prayers were partially answered — they’re not Core in the Grand Army of Grand Cathay.

They have Weapon Skill 3 and Leadership 7, but otherwise their statline is basically the same as peasants.

They cost 12 points and carry a shotgun with Move and Shoot and Multiple Shots (D3). That means even if they march, they can still shoot.

If they don’t move, they’ll be shooting on 4+ in most cases, because they don’t take penalties for long range or multiple shots. The only likely modifiers are cover and Move and Shoot.

Strength is only 3, but they have AP-1 and can put out a volume of fire that feels like Warhammer 40,000.

Minimum unit size is 4, maximum is 12.

They can also buy bombs for +2 points per model, Strength 3, no AP, 12″ range.

The real advantage? They can Stand and Shoot from any distance.

Do I think it’s worth it? No. If you already have the shotgun, I would never pay the extra 2 points.

Crane Gunner Teams

Cathay’s Crane Gunner Teams can either cost less or cost the same as Skaven Jezzails depending on upgrades. They can buy Reserve Move and Ambushers.

They have a 3+ save against shooting and a 2+ save in melee, and their “tower shield is a shield,” meaning they can Parry.

They have Armour Bane (2), Leadership 7, and no unit cap.

Rat jezzails get Warband, +1 to flee rolls, Movement 5, and +1 Armor Piercing instead of Armour Bane (2).

They look better than old jezzails — but old jezzails weren’t being played.

Bolt throwers vs jezzails

Three jezzails cost roughly the same as one bolt thrower.

48″ range vs 36″ range.

Same Ballistic Skill.

Three shots at Strength 6, AP -3 vs one bolt that loses Strength through ranks.

And don’t forget: the bolt thrower doesn’t have Reserve Move. The jezzails do. If they don’t kill what’s about to charge them, they just step off the hill and disappear.

Compare them yourselves.

I have to say: every Grand Cathay change they’ve released since they started handing out more powerful magic items, I’ve liked. I think it adds variety and makes the game better. The real issue isn’t that these jezzails are broken — it’s that similar units in the game right now are just very bad.

See you in the next one.

Cathay Update: Another NERF? The Breaching of the Great Bastion