For decades, Grand Cathay existed in Warhammer as a rumour.
It was the great empire beyond the Mountains of Mourn, the distant land of silk, gunpowder, dragons, strange magic and impossible cities. It appeared in side notes, old background fragments, traveller’s tales, roleplaying material and scattered references, but rarely as something players could actually collect, paint and place on the tabletop. Cathay was less a faction than a promise: proof that the Warhammer world was larger than the Empire, Bretonnia, Ulthuan and the Badlands.
Now, in Warhammer: The Old World, that promise has finally become an army.
Grand Cathay is one of the most interesting developments in the return of Warhammer Fantasy. It is not simply another revived army from the 1990s or 2000s. It is a faction that long existed in the background, was expanded dramatically through Total War: Warhammer III, and has now crossed back into tabletop form. Games Workshop has described Grand Cathay as having existed in the margins of Warhammer Fantasy for almost as long as the setting itself, before being developed into a full faction with Jade Warriors, Jade Lancers and Grand Cannons arriving in Marienburg from war junks sent west to aid the Empire against Chaos.
That makes Cathay feel both old and new at the same time.
A Faction Built from Old Rumours
The most fascinating thing about Grand Cathay is that it does not feel like a random new addition. It has roots.
Warhammer has always worked best when its world feels like a medieval map full of half-truths: “Here be dragons,” “beyond this desert lies a kingdom of monsters,” “travellers speak of cities no man in Altdorf has seen.” Cathay belonged to that tradition. It was the great eastern civilisation that Old World merchants, scholars and adventurers knew only imperfectly.
Games Workshop’s designers have said that when they began developing Grand Cathay properly, they went back through old Warhammer material to gather earlier references rather than simply inventing a replacement from scratch. The result is a faction that tries to reconcile decades of scattered background into something playable.
This is important because The Old World is, at heart, a nostalgia project — but nostalgia alone can become stale. Grand Cathay offers something different: the excitement of discovery inside a setting many players thought they already knew.
For veteran fans, Cathay answers an old question. For newer players, it offers a fresh entry point into rank-and-file fantasy gaming. For hobbyists, it provides an army that is visually distinct from the European medieval and Renaissance influences that dominate much of the Old World.
The Celestial Dragon’s Empire
In the current background, Grand Cathay is ruled by the Celestial Dragon Emperor Xen Yang and his consort, the Moon Empress. It is presented as the mightiest human empire in the World of Legend: ancient, magical, ordered and deeply shaped by the idea of harmony. The Dragon Emperor and Empress are not merely rulers with dragon symbolism; they are dragons who can assume human form, ruling from Wei-Jin, a capital city that floats in the sky.
This instantly separates Cathay from the Empire of Man.
The Empire is quarrelsome, provincial, religiously divided and politically messy. Bretonnia is feudal, romantic and cruel beneath the chivalric surface. Kislev is hard-bitten, frontier-facing and heroic in a tragic way. Grand Cathay, by contrast, is presented as an old civilisation near the height of its power: organised, wealthy, magical and confident.
That confidence gives Cathay its own tone. It is not a desperate human realm trying to survive in a hostile world. It is an ancient empire that believes it understands the shape of the world better than anyone else.
And that makes its arrival in the Old World especially interesting. Cathay is not coming west as a band of mercenaries or refugees. It is coming as a great power, with its own agenda, its own sense of superiority and its own understanding of Chaos.
Why Is Cathay in the Old World?
This is the key question for the setting.
If Cathay lies far to the east, why are its armies fighting in the Old World at all?
The answer lies in the timeline of Warhammer: The Old World. This is not the age of Karl Franz. It is an earlier period, before the Great War Against Chaos reshapes the world. At this point, Cathayan merchants, diplomats and military escorts are not completely unknown in major Old World ports such as Marienburg. Games Workshop’s background notes that Cathay is connected to the Old World through Kislev and the great routes across the steppe, routes that later become far more dangerous or closed off after the Great War Against Chaos.
That is a clever piece of setting design. It allows Cathay to be present without breaking the older Warhammer world. In the later “classic” era, Cathay is distant and mysterious. In The Old World, the connections are still stronger. The map is more open. The future has not yet narrowed.
This gives Cathay a reason to appear in campaigns against Chaos, in Marienburg, in Kislev, in the Empire, or along the routes of trade and diplomacy. It also gives players room to imagine Cathayan expeditionary forces, embassy guards, dragon-led armies, merchant fleets, and military missions sent west for reasons known only to the Celestial Court.
The Army on the Tabletop
Grand Cathay is the first completely new faction released for Warhammer: The Old World, which makes its tabletop identity especially important.
The first wave established the army around disciplined infantry, heavy cavalry, artillery, magic and centrepiece constructs. The Grand Cathay Battalion contains 30 Jade Warriors, 10 Jade Lancers and two artillery pieces that can be built as either Cathayan Grand Cannons or Fire Rain Rocket Batteries.
That immediately tells us what kind of army Cathay is meant to be.
This is not a horde army. It is not a loose collection of monsters. It is not a fragile elite force. Cathay’s core image is the ordered battle line: armoured Jade Warriors standing firm, lancers waiting for the decisive charge, artillery roaring from behind the line, and magic flowing according to the will of the Dragons.
Jade Warriors are described as the core of Grand Cathay’s standing armies, equipped with fine weapons and armour, while Jade Lancers are elite cavalry recruited from their ranks. The artillery reinforces the idea of Cathay as a technologically sophisticated power, with Grand Cannons and Fire Rain Rocket Batteries coming from the forges and artificer traditions of Nan-Gau.
This makes Cathay feel like a true state army. It has institutions. It has doctrine. It has professional soldiers. It has logistics. That is very different from many Warhammer armies, which often feel like tribal hosts, feudal levies, undead processions or monstrous warbands.
Harmony as a Rule and a Theme
The most important Cathayan idea is harmony.
In the background, harmony is philosophical, political and magical. On the tabletop, it appears through rules such as Will of the Dragons and the Elemental Winds. Will of the Dragons lets certain units re-roll failed Panic tests in specific situations, representing the professionalism and loyalty of Cathayan soldiery. The Elemental Winds represent Yin and Yang, giving different bonuses depending on which wind is strongest during the turn.
This is a good example of rules supporting theme.
Cathay should not play like a random pile of efficient units. It should feel coordinated. The army should reward planning, positioning and the careful use of magical support. A Cathayan general should feel less like a barbarian warlord throwing warriors forward and more like a commander trying to preserve balance across the battle line.
That does not mean the army is passive. Cathay has cavalry, artillery, monsters and magic. But its identity appears to sit in controlled force: advance when the time is right, hold when required, and let harmony turn discipline into battlefield advantage.
That is a strong concept for a rank-and-file game.
The Visual Appeal
Cathay’s visual design may be its greatest strength.
The army has to do several things at once. It needs to evoke Chinese imperial, mythological and military influences without becoming a direct historical copy. It needs to look like Warhammer, not a generic fantasy China. It needs to sit beside Bretonnians, Tomb Kings, Orcs and Chaos Warriors without disappearing. It also needs enough internal variety to support a full miniature range.
So far, the design language is promising. Games Workshop’s designers have discussed using motifs of longevity, harmony, octagons, dragons, and twin-tailed comets, adapting Chinese-inspired symbolism into Warhammer’s own visual language. The yinyang-inspired Cathayan harmony symbol, for example, is reworked through twin-tailed comets to tie it back into the wider Warhammer setting.
That last point matters. Good Warhammer design is rarely subtle, but it is usually layered. The best factions are not just “historical culture plus fantasy.” They take real-world inspiration, distort it through the logic of the setting, and produce something recognisable but strange.
Cathay’s statues, lanterns, dragon-headed artillery, disciplined infantry and celestial symbols all help it avoid feeling like a simple import from another game. The Cathayan Sentinel, for example, is not merely a big monster. It is a towering animated statue, part terracotta army, part magical construct, part Warhammer centrepiece.
That is exactly the kind of thing this faction needs.
Cathay as a Hobby Project
From a hobby perspective, Grand Cathay has enormous potential.
The army invites strong colour schemes: jade green, lacquer red, imperial yellow, deep blue, white armour, bronze artillery, terracotta constructs, black-and-gold banners, or regional schemes tied to different provinces and dragon rulers. It also offers painters a rare combination of clean infantry blocks and ornate centrepieces.
For traditional Warhammer players, Cathay offers the pleasure of ranked units with a very different silhouette. Jade Warriors in formation look nothing like Empire state troops or Bretonnian men-at-arms. Jade Lancers give the army cavalry presence without borrowing the knightly language of Bretonnia. Sky Lanterns and Sentinels add verticality and spectacle.
The army also has strong narrative modelling potential. A Cathayan expeditionary force in the Old World might have weathered banners, foreign campaign markings, hired guides, Ogre crewmen, Kislevite allies, Marienburg baggage, or trophies from battles against Chaos. A force defending Cathay itself might look cleaner, more ceremonial, and more tied to the Great Bastion.
The 2026 expansion wave also makes the faction feel less narrow. New additions include Peasant Levy, Crane Gunner Teams, Iron Hail Gunners and Astromancers of the Celestial Court, broadening the army beyond the original focus on Jade Host elites and centrepiece models.
That is encouraging. Cathay should not be only jade-armoured professionals and magical statues. It needs peasants, specialists, gunners, wizards, regional troops and oddities. The more social layers the range gains, the more believable the empire becomes.
The Great Bastion and Future Possibilities
The most exciting thing about Cathay may be what remains unexplored.
The Great Bastion alone could support years of campaigns. It is Cathay’s vast northern defence against Chaos, and the background places Miao Ying, the Storm Dragon, as its great defender. Earlier mapping articles described the Great Bastion as stretching across Cathay’s northern border against Chaos and the Hobgoblin Khanates, while Zhao Ming, the Iron Dragon, guards the western trade routes and the Ivory Road near the Warpstone Desert.
Recent background has pushed further into Cathay itself. Arcane Journal: The Breaching of the Great Bastion expands the lore of the realm, including the Northern, Western and Imperial Provinces, the Astromantic Court, the Wu Xing Compass and the many threats facing Cathay, from Chaos in the north to the Monkey King in the south.
That opens many doors.
We could see armies themed around the Great Bastion, the western provinces, the Celestial Court, the Sea Dragon’s fleets, or internal rebellions. We could see more constructs, regional troops, Monkey King-related forces, caravan guards, border armies, or even narrative campaigns about Cathayan armies fighting their way across the steppe toward the Old World.
The danger, of course, is that Cathay becomes too large for The Old World’s current focus. Games Workshop has already suggested that while Grand Cathay is vast enough to be almost a setting of its own, the focus of The Old World remains the Old World itself.
That is understandable, but also a little frustrating. Cathay is so full of possibility that it naturally pulls attention eastward.
Grand Cathay matters because it changes the emotional shape of Warhammer: The Old World.
The return of Bretonnia and Tomb Kings was powerful because it restored lost armies. Cathay is different. It does not simply restore the past; it expands it. It reminds us that the World of Legend was always bigger than the parts that received army books.
It also gives The Old World something it badly needs: a sense that the setting can still surprise us.
That is important for a revived game. If The Old World becomes only a museum of classic Warhammer Fantasy, it will please existing fans but struggle to grow. If it uses the old setting as a foundation for careful expansion, then it can become something more durable.
Cathay is the test case. It shows whether Games Workshop can add something new to a beloved world without making it feel alien to that world. So far, the answer is yes.
Grand Cathay feels like it was always there — because, in a way, it was. It was waiting beyond the mountains, beyond the maps, beyond the footnotes.
Now the war junks have reached Marienburg, the Jade Warriors have formed ranks, and the Dragon Emperor’s armies have entered the Old World.
For Warhammer, that is a very good thing.
