This update changes the following:
- Iron Disciple makes units count as having one more rank than normal for the purpose of combat resolution. In addition, they have the Fight in Extra Ranks (1).
- New army weapon: Three Eyed Gun (triple barrel rifle). Can be used by Field Engineers and Dragon Lancers.
- Fire Lance can be used multiple times, is an upgrade to spears for Dragon Lancers.
- Warlord renamed to General.
- Duizhu renamed to Captain.
- Clarified that Wu Jen may use Lore of Light.
- Strategists may be mounted on warhorses.
- Wu Xia is a Hero choice, works as an anti-character unit.
- New Core Unit: Levy Infantry. Can have shields, spears, halberds. May upgrade to light armour.
- New Core Unit: Levy Bowmen. Have bows, can swap for crossbows, repeater crossbows or javelins. Can have shields and light armour.
- New Core Unit: Imperial Bowmen – armed with bows, crossbows, handguns or repeating crossbows. Wear light armour, can upgrade to medium armour.
- New Core Unit: Light Cavalry (native Cathayan light cavalry, armed with short bows, javelins or spears).
- Imperial Infantry have WS3, Ld7. Can have shields, spears, pikes, halberds, bows, crossbows or repeater crossbows. May upgrade to medium armour. WS3, Ld7.
- Dragon Lancers can wear heavy armour.
- Steppe Archers now called Steppe Nomads. Shields cost 1 pt. Have bow instead of short bow, cost 14 pts. May re-roll the dice to see what distance they move for any pursuit or flee roll.
- Hill Tribesmen may have two hand weapons. May replace shields with short bows.
- Monkey Warriors do not have quarterstaffs, have dodge (6+), T3, A2. 6 pts.
- New Special Unit: Siege Crossbow (normal Bolt Thrower).
- New Special Unit: Flying Crow (Rocket Launcher that fires using the large template, S3, flaming attacks)
- New Special Unit: Catapult (regular stone thrower)
- New Special unit: Ogre Mercenaries.
- Emperor's Guard renamed to Imperial Guard, 9 pts.
- Swordsaints renamed to Dragonblades (as Swordsaint is the English translation of Kensei, which is Japanese rather than Chinese). Have S3, 11 pts.
- Nightblades renamed to Shadowblades. Have throwing weapons instead of light armour, cost 10 pts.
- Bastion Chariot renamed to War Chariot. Have two different version; one with 2 horses, T4, W4. Another version have 4 horse, T5, W4. Does not have scythes by default.
- Foo Dogs renamed to Temple Dogs (as they were called in 3rd ed). Are War Beasts, Animated Constructs, Unstable. Have W2, T4, 5+ natural armour, 25 pts.
- Terracotta Warriors can have full command groups and choose between shields, spears, halberds, bows or crossbows. Have WS2, S3, 5 pts by default.
- Fire Bombs inflicts D6 Hits, have flaming attacks.
- New Rare unit: War Wagon - a mobile fortress pushed by Infantry.
- Dragon Cannon can fire either normal cannon balls or exploding ammo.
- Fire Arrow renamed to Fire Rocket Cart. Is S4, 120 pts.
- Pixiu has W4, cost 150 pts.
- New Special Character: Hua Gongzhu (based on Mulan and Pingyang)
- Xen Huong renamed to Pu-Yi, who is mentioned as the Emperor in Oglah Khan's lore (which it set recently in the lore). Pu Yi was also the last Emperor of China, so rather fitting. Is no longer a "Dragon in human form", but can cast the transformation of Khadon spell through his magic item to transform into a dragon. Have the Celestial Dragon Armour, making him Immune to Flaming Attacks and gives him a 5+ Ward save. 350 pts.
- The Monkey King does not Fly or create clones (this was based on the real myth, but does not really fit with Warhammer lore), gains Dodge, and is at -1 To Hit instead. Have WS6, T4, I6.
- Huan Bei renamed to Guan Bu (being a cross of Guan Yu and Lu Bu). 130 pts.
- Chu-ye Xian renamed to Zhuge Yi (being a cross of Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi). 1+5 pts.
- Zhao Fei renamed to Zhao Bei (being a cross of Zhao Yun and Lui Bei). When taking Leadership tests, all friendly units with the Iron Disciple special rule within 12" of him may roll 3D6 and discard the highest result. Zhao Fei's Armour gives him +1 Toughness, and any successful To Wound rolls against him must be re-rolled.
- Dalan-Tai's Outrider rule means the unit can use Fire and Flee without loosing Swiftstride. He must be accompanied by a unit of Steppe Nomads.
- Stratagems requires the unit who uses it pass a Leadership test.
- The Impregnable Tortoise: The unit adds an additional +1 to their armour saves against missile attacks from any direction.
- Fixed Brush of 1000 years: Every time the bearer succeeds in casting a spell from the Lore of Yin and Yang and rolls any duplicate dice (except 1's), he may choose to make a Leadership test at his own, unmodified Leadership. If this test is successful, every duplicate dice counts as a 6 for the purpose of the Ultimate Power rule. If the test fails, the spell counts as having been Miscast.
- HD cover.
- Added headings.
- Added version number.
-Corporals and Sergeants in the Levy Bowmen have 2 attacks instead of +1 BS. Also, calling them Bowmen is a bit of a misnomer, maybe call them Marksmen, which isn't associated with any particular weapon.
ReplyDelete-There's nothing saying that the Elite War Chariot is crewed by, well, the Elite. Maybe make their charioteers have 2 attacks each or WS5? They could also only be available to Captains, General and Special Characters to represent that they are reserved fro the elite.
-The Stormhurler Crossbow is called a Siege Crossbow in its little box detailing its statline.
-Dalan-Tai grants his Steppe Horsemen the ability to re-roll the dice when fleeing or pursuing but Steppe Horsemen can do that by default.
-Hua Gongzhu is Cavalry by default when she should be Infantry by default.
-Is there any reason why Zhao Bei and Hua Gongzhu can't ride an Elite War Chariot, Qilin or Pixiu?
-Maybe Tian Shi should have the option to ride a Warhorse? Also, why only warhorses for Wu Jen?
-The Captain War Chariot costs 100 points instead of 80 points.
-Since Strategists can now ride Warhorses, maybe give that option to Zhuge Yi as well.
-Wu Xia fight on foot and are characters. The Spear option is something that gives no benefit.
-Imperial Cavalry have a typo. Their weapon options say "A The entire unit"
-Dragon Cavalry having the options for bows and three-eyed guns being mutually exclusive with the melee options doesn't make much sense. They are clearly melee heavy cavalry judging by their stats. The missile options should either be separate from their melee options or taken away and the three-eyed gun given to the Imperial Cavalry.
-With Dragon Cavalry getting access to Heavy Armor, the higher Imperial Guard and Dragonblades should get the same.
-Temple Dogs are still Monstrous Beasts in the Army List. Maybe make them a 3+ unit size as well since that's the typical size for things of their point cost per model (like Ogres).
-Maybe War Wagon crews could choose between bows, crossbows, repeater crossbows and handguns.
-The Flying Crow doesn't have the "Flying Crow" special rule in the army list section.
- WS4 is already elite by human standards. It was not only ridden by "characters" either, but more often high-ranking soldiers or nobles (which would include basic knights).
Delete- Zhao Bei and Hua Gongzhu would lore-wise just fight on horseback. Most special characters cannot choose mounts at all.
- Tian Shi and Zhuge Yi are intended to be infantry.
- Spears get bonuses against cavalry and when charged.
- They are based on Korean and Sung heavy cavalry, sometimes which used those weapons options instead of melee weapons. Could make bows combinable with melee weapons though.
- Imperial Guard and Dragonblades are intended to be medium infantry, the cavalry was the most highly armoured in the Chinese armies. The heavy armour option is mainly there to allow a Cataphract option, which did not really fight on foot.
- As Warbeasts, it makes more sense for them to be 5+, just any cavalry.
- This is more based off history, where they only really used crossbows. There is not enough room to fire bows, and handguns would be a bit too noise to really use in such a crowded space.
Some other things I forgot:
Delete-If Hill Tribesmen, Steppe Nomads and Monkey Warriors are Expendable then Mercenary Ogres should be as well.
-Have you considered Repeating Crossbows for Imperial Cavalry?
Not a big fan of iron discipline. It seems a bit too strong to have all units in your army attacking from one more rank - elves have this with 2 or three units, and they are said to be the most elegant and dextrous beings. knights being able to attack from 3 ranks makes bretonnian knights obsolete. spearmen for 4 points with the option on a 3+/4+ armour save (making them 7 points with spears) results in an unnaturally buff unit for those points... id suggest giving them one of the two things, rank bonus on top or attacks from more ranks, not both. seems a bit much when they have the special traits of different armies combined in one... (high elves, bretonnia, skaven...)
ReplyDeleteI am considering dropping the fight in extra ranks rule for them, as it is essentially a free special rule atm. Otherwise they might need a points increase, yes.
DeleteLiking the change to the Iron discipline Mathias. It is far preferable to just a big static CR buff across the board. Since the army isn't very heavily armoured, or super-powerful on an individual basis (those with acces to Iron Discipline), I think it will work well.
ReplyDeleteWish I could get to play against Cathay a few times to test it out though. :-)
Just as an afterthough though, you could perhaps stipulate that Iron discipline did not work when counter-charging, due to the more unorganized response of such an action, which would take some of the edge of the cav potentially becomming a bit too good vs other cav, comparatively speaking in terms of points etc. Just a thought.
Fight in extra ranks does not apply when charging anyway, so no issue there. But I am considering dropping it and just keep the +1 rank bonus.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOffcourse not. My mistake. A bit rusty in terms of rules these days. :-/
DeleteMathias:
ReplyDeleteI noticed something I did not quite like. The Cathay Reåeater Crossbow nad the Druchi one are named the same, but are totally different (and should be imo). Just a naming issue in other words.
Don't think this is much of an issue since they appear in different books. Many units have "Spearmen" etc with different stats. "Cathayan Repeater Crossbow" is a bit of a mouthful. Otherwise the Dark Elf one should also be renamed to "Dark Elf Repeater Crossbow" as well.
DeleteAnother thing:
ReplyDeleteThe lore attribute for Ying and Yang seems a bit unclear.
If the caster successfully casts a Ying spell and choses a Yang spell next,but fails to cast it successfully, can he try to cast another one (...in the next phase...?) or does he have to go back to Ying and so on? Is this only within one phase or over the whole game?
Also, does the lore attribute mean the caster gets double the spells he normally would or does he have to stay within his limit?
DeleteSeems a bit odd that a mage would have double the spells at their disposal. You could easily spam an enemy with spells if you have, say, 7 power dice plus 2 channeled, but the enemy only has 4 ban dice... statistically you would need two dice to ban one power die... cathay magic phases could be a little overwhelming.
I might be completely wrong as i am not perfectly familiar with magic in this edition, but it seems a tad over the top.
That's over the whole game as it does not mention anything else.
DeleteThe caster gets double his spells, yes, but he is more limited in which spells he can cast overall. In 9th ed, you will probably find you have more spells available than you have dice to cast them, so having multiple spell as such is not that overpowered.