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¿Army of infamy that is ACTUALLY good? Cathay Warriors of Land and Field

With the new Arcane Journal, not only have new units appeared, but also the second Army of Infamy for Grand Cathay, the first being the one introduced in Dawn of the Storm Dragon under the name “Jade Fleet“, which went by without much impact.

However, this one truly has the potential to compete with the Grand Army of Grand Cathay, for a couple of solid reasons.

Let’s break it down in under three minutes.

CATHAI the old warrior analyis

The Army of Tactical Peasant Specialists

Before diving into the army’s special rules, let’s first explain what this Army of Infamy is actually based on.

It’s supposed to be an army built around core troops and peasants. In fact, this army has four special rules. Three of them directly affect peasant units, and one affects the entire army.

Let’s go through them.

Special Rules of Warriors of Land and Field

The first three that affect peasants are:

Warriors of the Field: this means that no peasants suffer disrupted due to difficult or dangerous terrain.

On top of that, one unit of peasants per 1,000 points may pay a fixed cost of 20 points to gain Move Through Cover.

Warriors of the Land: allows all peasants, when they Fall Back in Good Order, to choose whether to keep the highest die or the lowest die.

This is probably the least relevant rule in the army, because now we move on to the two most interesting ones.

Warriors of the Wind: allows one unit of peasants per 1,000 points to gain Reserve Move and the Scout deployment rule, by paying two additional points per model.

While the previous rule gave a fixed cost for the entire unit to gain Move Through Cover, this one is more limited, since if you want a very large unit, paying for Scouts and Reserve Move can become very expensive.

I think this distinction by Games Workshop is a smart move.

Discipline of the Dragon: the army’s best rule

This rule is HUGE. And it opens up some very strong combinations.

There’s a rule that affects Sky Lanterns. This means that in this army you can very likely create a very interesting combination of Scout Sky Lanterns alongside Scout peasants, securing one or several areas of the battlefield from the very start of the game.

It will look more like a Wood Elf army than a peasant horde.

The rule states that every Sky Lanterns you include, as long as they are not engaged in combat, may take a Leadership test and, if passed, activate one of these strategies.

There are three different strategies they can activate, but each Lantern can only activate one of them per game, and only for a single turn, until the start of its next turn.

Important: unlike a typical banner that forces you to test using the unit’s own Leadership, here there is no restriction stating that you cannot use the General’s Leadership. So a Lantern with Leadership 8 near a General can test on Leadership 9.

Depending on which strategy the Lantern activates, all units within 12 inches — not just peasants, important, all Grand Cathay units — will gain one of the following three effects:

First, Defiance of the Dragon. The unit becomes Stubborn, and if it was already Stubborn, it becomes Unbreakable. Unbreakable is a rule with a lot of potential. In fact, I wrote a post about it, which I’ve linked here.

This allows us to have Sky Lanterns that are Stubborn, since they lost Unbreakable.

Jade Warriors, as a Core unit, Unbreakable.

And Jade Lancers, Unbreakable as well.

This can be really powerful.

The second option is Strength of the Everlasting Empire. While this strategy is active, no cavalry or infantry model can be wounded on a 2+. In other words, the best they can be wounded on is a 3+.

The final option is Fury of the Falling Blade. This only affects regular infantry and gives them +1 Movement and allows them to re-roll charges, flee rolls and pursuit rolls.

This does not affect Jade Warriors, because they are heavy infantry, not regular infantry. On the other hand, Peasant Levy have Warband, so they already re-roll charges anyway (and with their spears, what they usually want is to receive the charge).

So who does this really affect? Jezzails and Iron Hail Gunners.

I don’t think this one will be too relevant. The most important is clearly the first one, which affects any unit and can completely disrupt the opponent’s battle plan and any calculations they made about winning combats, pursuing, overrunning and so on.

Now let’s move on to army composition, which is another key point that makes this a truly powerful Army of Infamy.

cathay lanterns the old warrior

Army Composition of Warriors of Land and Field: the real nerf

When it comes to characters, you cannot take big Shugengan. None.

There’s your nerf.

The rest of the characters are exactly the same as in the regular army.

You can include as many minor heroes as you want, with no limitation.

For major heroes — Lord Magistrate, Gate Master and Supreme Astromancer — you may only choose one of these per 1,000 points, so they compete heavily with each other.

Core Units: where the army shines (25%+)

Although there is a limitation that does not exist in the Grand Army, it doesn’t really matter, because you must include at least one unit of Peasant Levy, and they are really good, so I don’t think anyone will mind taking them.

Compared to the main army, there is no way to unlock Jade Lancers as Core, and in fact Jade Warriors may only be taken as Core one unit per 1,000 points.

Personally, I’d say that’s more than enough from a meta perspective, and it’s also very thematic to limit them in this way.

The real jewel here is that Iron Hail Gunners, the peasant shotgun units, are Core. That means you can spam them as much as you like.

As I mentioned in the other post, the maximum unit size for them is 12 models, which is more than enough to optimally hold an objective.

If you want to know what this unit does, as well as the other new units, I’ve linked the post where I explain it.

Special Units (50% of points)

Sky Lanterns with no limitation whatsoever.

It might seem very strong not to have a restriction, but I don’t think anyone will spam them too much considering the nerf they received in FAQ 1.5.2. If you don’t know what that is, I’ve linked the post where I explain it in detail.

On top of that, one unit of Jade Lancers may be included as a Special unit — only one — and the 0–2 per 1,000 points war machine limitation that the Grand Army already has also applies to this Army of Infamy.

Rare Units

The remaining Jade Lancers, aside from the one unit that can be taken as Special, and the Sentinels.

That’s it. One line. No need to drag it out when there’s nothing else to add.

Can this army really compete without Shugengan against the Grand Army?

Personally, I think yes. The advantages are strong enough to compensate, especially now that you can no longer include 3 Shugengan but only 2 at most, and they also share slots with the other major characters.

So now, in this Army of Infamy, we might actually see Astromancers, who I believe are overshadowed in the Grand Army by the Shugengan.

Another advantage is that there is no benefit for including a Gate Master.

With less competition at the top character level, running double Lord Magistrate hurts less, or a Lord Magistrate and an Astromancer, or even double Astromancer. It makes more sense here than it does in the Grand Army.

That’s all the changes, aside from being able to include 20% of your points in mercenaries, such as Ogre Bulls from the Orcs & Goblins Arcane Journal, a unit I’ve never seen played in any game, casual or competitive.

PLEASE, I ask you to share this or any other post you think could help your community, whichever you believe will help them the most.

See you in the next one.

Any error in the post, feel free to reach out at theoldwarrior@theoldwarrior.com.




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