Warhammer Army Project/Cathay

Cathay: Warhammer Army Project, 8th Edition Tactica

Created by Mathias Eliasson, this project was a homebrew attempt at giving many of the nations and factions that never got Armybooks of their own (and those left behind and never got one in 8th Edition) such a thing.

It should also be noted that Eliasson is constantly updating his work, so don't expect this page to stay current forever. As of now: I'll be using the most current Cathay Armybook he has as of mid-July, 2016. If anyone wishes to actually update this page and the items that need it later on, go ahead.

Why Play WAP Cathay

Cathay has some of the strangest gatherings of units from any Armybook. They have anything from flaming horses, titanic automatons forged from brass, animated statues called Foo Dogs, all the way to wandering 'knights' riding giant toads...oh...and monks that can kick in people's shit with just their fists! They also have their own version of the Imperial Guard's orders called Stratagems as well as a really cool Lore system with effective spells. And lets face it...you LOVED Dynasty Warriors and want to see if you can recreate some of its best moments (a single warrior holding a bridge by himself comes to mind). So beat the drums, wave the flags and send in your low-born infantry to die by the thousands for the glory of the Emperor!...that sounds oddly familiar...

Army Special Rules

• Iron Discipline: Units with this special rule double their combat result bonuses that come from having extra ranks. What does this mean? Take your low cost units with a high model number to maximize their efficiency in close combat, and perhaps a few expensive(ish) units to do the same. Simple as that.

• Auxiliaries: Units with this rule don't cause Panic for those units that don't have this rule. You also can't field more Auxiliary units that you do other Core Choices that don't have this rule. However only three units have this rule. Nothing big, but *shrug* it's something.

The Lore of Yin & Yang

• Lore Attribute: Equilibrium A Wizard gains access to both Yin & Yang's versions of a spell when they are rolled. However every spell that is successfully cast must be from the other energy type, otherwise the Wizard rolls a miscast on the roll of ANY double. This means you get a larger pool of spells, but it also means you won't have the same freedom of being able to cast a spell whenever you want (well you do...but it comes at very great risk, and risking something like this on your Level 4 Wu Jen Lord isn't something you'd want to do).

• Signature for Ying: Ancestor's Courage An augment with 12" range, lasts until the caster's next Magic Phase and has a Casting of 8+. It gives Stubborn and Immune to Psychology to the single target unit. Want a unit to hold its ground? Trying desperately to keep an area under your control? Drop this on the holding unit.

• Signature for Yan: Warrior Incarnate An augment with 12" range, lasts until the caster's next Magic Phase and has a Casting of 8+. Gives the chosen unit Frenzy and Hatred. Pushing an advantage? Want to give your unit that little extra edge they need?...you know what to do.

-Both signatures are essential, basic but almost never useless, except on units not intended for CC.

• 1st for Ying: Sapping of Will A hex with 18" range and Remains in Play and has a Casting of 5+. It gives the target unit Always Strikes Last and -1 to their Weapon Skill....What? You're telling me for a 5+ Casting I can turn a quick, elite enemy unit into a bunch of snails who hit with the skill of a militiaman? WITH REMAINS IN PLAY!?...I'll fucking take that shit for every battle I'm in.

• 1st for Yan: Strength of the Heavens An augment with 12" range and Remains in Play and has a Casting of 5+. It gives the target unit +1 Strength and Magical Attacks....GOOD GOD! How am I ever going to find someone that's willing to go against me with this kind of magic potency?!

-I mean...do I really need to tell you how useful this shtick is?

• 2nd for Ying: Absorbing Chill An augment with 18" range and has a Casting of 6+. Enemies that are attacking the augmented unit suffer -1 to their To Wound rolls. Make your basic infantry that much more difficult to deal with or protect your more important units...what? You wanted something more profound? More insightful? It's a basic but excellent spell, there's no secret to using this spell, JUST USE IT! SPAM THIS SHIT!

• 2nd for Yan: Flames of AzureAn augment with 18" range and has a Casting of 6+. The target unit gains Flaming Attacks and enemy models in base to base contact suffer Strength 3 attacks with the Flaming attacks special rule. These count towards combat res. Okay, this one isn't BAAAD, but it's definitely more situational than its counterpart. The Strength 3 hits aren't worth the cost by themselves. Put this on a ranged unit you think is going to be trapped in combat by a unit that has the Flammable special rule in the near future, or even just a ranged unit that can target a Flammable unit. Just don't waste your dice on using this for those Strength 3 attacks...use something else.

-Somewhat more specific spells used for more specific situations (at least the Flames of Azure one). But both are worth it when used properly.

• 3rd for Ying: Blazing Phoenix A Direct Damage spell with 8" range. All enemy units within the range suffer D6 Flaming Strength 4 hits.

• 3rd for Yan: Call of the Dragon A Direct Damage spell that is put on the Wizard, the Wizard can make a Flaming Breath attack at Strength 4.

-Both of these are direct damage dealers. Blazing Phoenix is for multiple, close enemy units surrounding the Wizard. Call of the Dragon is more useful for a single unit...simple and straightforward.

• 4th for Ying: Bereavement of Life Magic Missile with 24" range and a Casting of 9+. Causes 3D6 hits. After rolling for how many hits you have and rolling again, every result of 6 you get for these die results is a wound with no armour saves allowed. Wit 3D6 hits, you're sure to get a few, but other spells can do a better job against hordes as well as basic infantry. This is a gamble spell that, for most of the time, wouldn't be worth it. Against high Toughness units, high Armour Save units and even just individual Lords/Heroes/Monster would be good targets for this.

• 4th for Yan: Resurgence from Death Augment with 12" range and a Casting of 9+. Gives the target unit Regeneration (5+) until the user's next Magic Phase. Eh, okay but this is probably the "worst" spell in this lore (which definitely says something). Other spells in this lore (Absorbing Chill) would probably be better than this for survivability...though this one is better for high Toughness units/models where the enemy is going to be wounding you on a 6+ either way.

-Slightly less versatile than the other pairs before it, but they still have good uses and shouldn't be labeled as useless.

• 5th for Ying: Shroud of Darkness Hex with 18" range and a Casting of 10+. The unit affected by this will have its line of sight limited to 8" until the start of the caster's next Magic Phase. They also can't declare charges, cast spells at or shoot targets outside the range. Holy hell, this spell has a wide amount of use for it. First is the obvious; essentially neuter an elite, ranged enemy unit *cough* WOOD ELVES *cough* or those uber dangerous Magic Users (that use spells that can be affected this anyway) *cough* SLANN MAGE PRIESTS *cough*. Or use this to severe an enemy unit from their General and his Inspiring Presence or a BSB and his "Hold Your Ground!" rule. This will also help against shock cavalry coming for a big impact (Bretonnians will hate you for this...and call you an honor-less cur to boot). The only thing this wouldn't help SO MUCH with is Artillery since you'll have to wade across the field to get to them...and by the time you get there, they'll probably have already done their work. Nevertheless, this is an excellent spell. USE IT, DAMN YOU!!

• 5th for Yan: Path of Light An augment with 12" range and a Casting of 10+. The target unit immediately moves 3D6 FORWARD as if in the Remaining Moves sub-phase. Notice the word forward...that means that this is just an "advance quickly" spell that lets your units get places fast...not really for redeploying or shifting. If your highly aggressive, you'll like this spell...otherwise you'll find minimal use of it. Still, not a bad spell to have (especially for how many spells Cathay armies CAN have).

-I see good synergy going on with these spells. Experiment with these together and see if you can't make some tabletop magic to happen.

• 6th for Ying: Earth Eruption Direct Damage spell with 18" range and a Casting of 12+. Place a small template within the range. Models at least partially covered by the template suffer a single, S4 hit, per model. Those completely covered by the template instead take S6 hits with no Armour saves allowed. An interesting spell...hm...since it's small you'll most likely want to use this against non horde units and non-Monstrous Infantry units (since you'll get few hits to begin with...and most Monstrous Infantry have T4 or higher). You'll probably have to find a happy medium of small enough bases, expensive enough models and high enough armour save without high Toughness to make this spell fairly efficient.

• 6th for Yan: Meteor Rain Direct Damage spell with 24" range and a Casting of 12+. Place a marker within the range and roll 2D6. The results of those 2D6 is the radius for Meteor Rain. ANY unit within the radius takes 2D6 S4 hits. Again, this one is bit of a tricky to use properly since the range is dependent on a 2D6 results and how many hits you get are based on a 2D6 results...this is a gamble spell, make certain you know this. I see this being most useful against many, packed, small, fairly low Toughness, units. There's little effective use for this elsewhere.

-Interestingly enough, these are the least effective spells in terms of universality and literal effectiveness.

The Art of War

External Links

The Project's website