Devote Yourself! Warriors of Wind and Field

Grand Cathay’s second wave arrived last week for Warhammer: The Old World – bringing a ton of exciting new units and Armies of Infamy. Today, we’ll be going over a good starting list for the Warriors of Wind and Field out of The Breaching of the Great Bastion.

Army of Infamy – Warriors of Wind and Field

The Warriors of Wind and Field represent the levied men and women outside of the Cathayan professional army – benefitting the units of Peasant Levy. It adds four extra special rules for Cathayan armies to play with.

• Discipline of the Dragon gives Sky Lanterns three options of a once-per-game ability affecting all friendly Cathayan units within 12″.
  • Defiance of the Dragon makes all units in range Stubborn – and if they were already Stubborn they become Unbreakable (insane!)
  • Strength of the Everlasting Empire forces To Wound rolls of 2 to automatically fail against infantry and cavalry type units.
  • Fury of the Falling Blade gives all regular infantry +1 to Movement and rerollable Charge, Flee, and Pursuit rolls.
• Warriors of the Field shows the expertise of the peasants in traversing the land they cultivate – units of Peasant Levy never become Disrupted by difficult or dangerous terrain. Along with that, 0-1 unit of Peasant Levy per 1,000 points can gain Move through Cover for +20 points.
• Warriors of the Land benefits Peasant Levy units when they (inevitably) fall back, allowing the player to choose choose which die to discard when making a Flee roll as part of a Fall Back in Good Order.
• Warriors of the Wind gives 0-1 Peasant Levy per 1,000 points Reserve Move and Scouts for +2 points per model.

Outside of the Renegade Crowns, I think this is the largest number of rules given to an Army of Infamy up to this point – and they all range from decent to pretty great! Discipline of the Dragons gives a very unique purpose to the Sky Lanterns who recently got the nerf bat. Giving Unbreakable to units of Jade Warriors and Jade Lancers is incredible, even just for a single turn. The other two strategies are good as well, and they are stackable if multiple Lanterns are close enough together.

Warriors of the Field and Warriors of the Land are both okay rules – not being Disrupted by terrain is a big plus when you want to run a huge blob of Peasant Levy with spears, and having a choice in how far they fall back could help your line stabilize a little better if they manage to survive the onslaught.

Warriors of the Wind is the biggest piece making the Peasant Levy a true annoyance. 0-1 per 1k with Reserve Move and Scouts for just +2 is amazing value, especially when any Peasant unit can go into Skirmish formation for free. You won’t just have multiple Sky Lanterns up close to your enemy – you’ll have multiple units of skirmishing Peasant Archers planted on Strategic Locations as well.

Warriors of Wind and Field at 1k

Supreme Astromancer, Lore of Yang, Wizard [Level 3 Wizard], General, On foot, Tome of Spellcraft, High Magic – 155
15 Peasant Levy, Warbows, No armour, Skirmishers, Reserve Move, Scouts, Peasant Elder (champion) – 98
15 Peasant Levy, Long spears, No armour, Peasant Elder (champion), Standard bearer – 73
20 Jade Warriors, Shields, Heavy armour, Stubborn, Jade Officer (champion), Standard bearer – 212
6 Iron Hail Gunners, Iron hail guns, Light armour – 72
Sky Lantern, Iron hail guns, Gunpowder bombs, 4+, Sky Lantern bombs – 150
Cathayan Grand Cannon, Grand cannon, Light armour – 130
6 Crane Gunner Team, Crane guns, Light armour, Tower shields, Reserve Move – 108

This list uses a majority of the models from the Defenders of the Great Bastion box, along with a Sky Lantern and box of Jade Warriors – making it fairly affordable.

You have a strong ranged section with the Iron Hail Gunners, Peasant Archers, and Crane Gunners – with the Peasants being Core and large enough to secure Strategic Locations. The Jade Warriors are able to move up into the center of the battle with the Supreme Astromancer, locking down any opposition with their defensive special rules and buff spells.

The Grand Cannon gives the Multi-Wound support that every army needs along with the Sky Lantern to use the Discipline of the Dragon strategies. Losing the Lantern would spell almost certain doom for the army if it is brought down before using a strategy.

Hopefully this cheap army entry gives you the push necessary to devote yourself to the Celestial Dragon!