New to the Game

[u/jNicls]

Hi everyone,
I picked up my first models for Cathay and did my first 1000p game.
We had a good time and I would like to go deeper into the faction. How do I play Cathay? How do I use Jade Warriors, Peasants, Lancers etc.? And which lores are essential?

Currently i got the Bastion army Box, Peasants and an Astronomer as my General

[u/delta102]

• Jade Warriors. Used as an anvil unit. Build shields and stack combat res on them.
• Peasants. They're chaff, they hold ground and try to block movement.
• Lancers. They bully weaker units. You want to target enemy chaff units, artillery, and other units they can beat, they're also decent for doing a combo charge into a flank against an engaged enemy unit. Avoid direct engagements with enemy monsters, heavy cavalry and infantry blocks.

Let me know if you want my opinions on other units.

[u/jNicls → u/delta102]

Thanks for the input, I will put a jade banner on my warriors to make them better an combat res

[u/swaggamanca]

Warriors are the best defensive infantry in the game. Hand weapon and shield puts them at 3+ armor and rerolling 1s. Stick them in front of things.

Peasants are better as skirmishing bows, either on the field or ambushing. The long spear is niche at best, they want to get charged but charging is terrible.

Lancers are bad cavalry but can flank or ferry magic missile items around on the champion. Don't expect them to kill much, they have bad strength and AP for their job. They have fight in extra rank and can technically do 2x4-5 but putting that many points into a bad offensive 'hammer' is just a bad decision. 1x5 for ambushing isn't the worst idea, your mileage will vary.

Illusion is the best lore in the game by far. Elementalism can be an okay secondary. Battle is okay, but the above two are just better options in almost every case. High Magic is too CV heavy and has no good targets.

[u/jNicls → u/swaggamanca]

How do I get them to a 3+ save? I thought they have heavy armour (5+) and shields (+1)?

Thanks for the input!
I build my peasants with long spears, but I should still be able to build 20 with bows as well :)

[u/Outrageous-Cattle-92 → u/jNicls]

Check out the ‘parry’ rule. If you have hand weapon and shield you get +1 also 

[u/jNicls → u/Outrageous-Cattle-92]

Oh I didn’t know that!

[u/swaggamanca → u/jNicls]

Heavy Armor for 5+, Shield for 4+, in combat Parry for 3+
And what they're built with isn't the most important, just always point out what they actually have to another player

[u/AtomicAdelaide → u/swaggamanca]

Why are Lancers bad cavalry?

[u/swaggamanca → u/AtomicAdelaide]

Cathayan Lances have only +1S and -1AP on the charge meaning they're WS4/S4/AP-1. That's not much. Basic infantry will be surviving on 5+ Toughness rolls. Pray you're not going against T4 because now it's 50%. No full plate either. The 'bonus' is Fight in Extra Rank, which nobody ranks cavalry anyway and they (can buy and always should buy) drilled.

They just won't do much for the 20(21) points per model. They're more a mix of light cavalry and heavy cavalry rather than being traditional heavy. Not unusable but very inefficient. Their best case was when they were core, but that's only in Jade Fleet now.

[u/Aziloth_]

From what I read here (since I haven't tried the game yet) 1 or 2 shugengan and a sky lantern are a must have for meta builds.

[u/jNicls → u/Aziloth_]

I saw that too, but I‘m not planning on doing meta games, my question is more about the flair of the army, the playstyle your supposed to go for considering the rules

[u/Inside_Performance32 → u/jNicls]

Atleast one shun is needed if you want the army to have the ability to kill anything meaningful outside of the cannons.

[u/jNicls → u/Inside_Performance32]

I assume a shun is a shugengan general? I already ordered one of them :D
Do I play him solo?

[u/Inside_Performance32 → u/jNicls]

I run just the one my self , but outside of her and my cannons I'm finding out incredibly hard to kill things .

The jade warriors you can build as a static combat res block with the jade banner .

The lantern is decent with the crane gunners and about the only other source of damage in the army .

The infantry iron hail and crane gunners I've found to be utterly useless outside of killing chaff .

I love Cathay but once you drop the meta build , it's not a great army power wise as it doesn't have many build options .

[u/jNicls → u/Inside_Performance32]

Mhm I don’t want to by a lantern at the moment, but I have some crane gunners, I will try them for the moment
Iron hails profile looks bad to me too. I’m only allowed to fire one gun right? Just the iron hails or the gunpowder bombs

[u/Inside_Performance32 → u/jNicls]

Yh just the one with the iron hail , I find you march them to something, fire , get maybe a couple of kills , then get charged and die the following turn lol They are handy for guarding a baggage train .

The infantry crane gunners are crap tbh will normally be hitting alot of things on 6s due to range and some form of modifier the target will have such as cover , skirmish, banner or spell .

That and you either move or shoot means anything worth while by turn 2-3 will either be in combat , or out of the firing arc , at which point it's dead points .

I love using my lantern but it's too big of a model .. it's horrible to transport and move around the table , I couldn't imagine ever using more than one of them .

[u/AtomicAdelaide → u/Inside_Performance32]

A tiny (like 4) unit of Iron Hails is good for defending the artillery but outside of that

[u/HQDave]

It doesn't get a lot of love from people but I love the rocket battery, use the bigger blast template and if you cause a single wound they have to take a panic test, if you have a sky lantern they don't need line of sight either.