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More Cathay unit design talk

I'm excited for this new range. I'll probably only end up picking up a cannon as I'll use it in my bretonnian exile list. But I'm excited they're expanding the range.

 Shakalooloo wrote:
I love how all the war machine crew have alternate poses save for the pointing and shouting one, who refuses to change!

I am almost positive they used one set of minis and hot-swap the alternate parts.
The paint is the same. There are hints of gap at the shoulders.
So the "Pointer" doesn't get any alternates, or they didn't set the model up to have the swaps.

Does anyone know the European prices for the range?

 herjan1987 wrote:
Does anyone know the European prices for the range?

How much do you have?

Now double that.

Now triple that number.

Somewhere around that range.

I made a scale comparison of the new Jade Warriors… they‘re quite chonky boys and girls! I also have the high-res sprue images and all build options for the kits in the Cathay Battalion: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/06/review-grand-cathay-battalion/

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 herjan1987 wrote:
Does anyone know the European prices for the range?

How much do you have?

Now double that.

Now triple that number.

Somewhere around that range.

Sentinel €105

Sky Lantern €125.00

Gate Masters of the Celestial Cities €41.00

Shugengan Lord on Great Spirit Longma €51.25

Also praise be Games Workshop! You can only buy one reference cards per one order! Not just the cards you only buy one from everything in one order!

Prices are a bit lower than I was expecting to be honest.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Prices are a bit lower than I was expecting to be honest.

You were expecting the sky lantern to cost north of £100?

More the Sentinel, going off the Mega Gargant prices for AoS.

I can get it from Element for £64 which feels….oddly reasonable.


I mean, it’s still Not Cheap. But £64 still feels alright to me.

 Shakalooloo wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Prices are a bit lower than I was expecting to be honest.

You were expecting the sky lantern to cost north of £100?

The cost of materials for the tooling, the level of detail etc.. etc.. And of course we are dealing with GW, how they are gauging they prices. For me it will depend on they price individual kits for the battalion units.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
More the Sentinel, going off the Mega Gargant prices for AoS.

I can get it from Element for £64 which feels….oddly reasonable.


I mean, it’s still Not Cheap. But £64 still feels alright to me.

Well it depends, where you live, but the way I see it that the Sentinel is in the ballpark of Nagash sized models, then I can barely justify the price.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
More the Sentinel, going off the Mega Gargant prices for AoS.

I can get it from Element for £64 which feels….oddly reasonable.


I mean, it’s still Not Cheap. But £64 still feels alright to me.

Mega has like two sprues of head, arms, weapons and general accessory options. This guy looks like it's just the head and arm positions/blade options. So that will be a big part of it.

I really like the range and the battalion box is a pretty good deal, but the balloon is too expensive for what it is.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
More the Sentinel, going off the Mega Gargant prices for AoS.

I can get it from Element for £64 which feels….oddly reasonable.


I mean, it’s still Not Cheap. But £64 still feels alright to me.

The Mega-Giant kit makes, what, five different models each with very different weapons? A lot less plastic in there, I'm sure.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 stahly wrote:
I made a scale comparison of the new Jade Warriors… they‘re quite chonky boys and girls! I also have the high-res sprue images and all build options for the kits in the Cathay Battalion: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/06/review-grand-cathay-battalion/

Can the Warriors be built without the holsters?

Billicus wrote:
I really like the range and the battalion box is a pretty good deal, but the balloon is too expensive for what it is.

About the balloon it is overpriced and it is not. You have to take into account, that you can make and extra 17-20 pound character ( Magistrate or Strategist depending on your fancy ) aswell. That said they are together and priced as one, so yes you have to make the decission yourself.

The Sentinel and the Balloon are a $60 and $80 kit respectively, and GW went ahead and helpfully doubled the price.

You know, to make it harmonious.

 herjan1987 wrote:

Billicus wrote:
I really like the range and the battalion box is a pretty good deal, but the balloon is too expensive for what it is.

IAbout the balloon it is overpriced and it is not. You have to take into account, that you can make and extra 17-20 pound character ( Magistrate or Strategisst depending on your fancy ) aswell, That said they are together and priced as one, so yes you have to make the decission yourself.

Oh that does help a bit, good tip.

 BorderCountess wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
More the Sentinel, going off the Mega Gargant prices for AoS.

I can get it from Element for £64 which feels….oddly reasonable.


I mean, it’s still Not Cheap. But £64 still feels alright to me.

The Mega-Giant kit makes, what, five different models each with very different weapons? A lot less plastic in there, I'm sure.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 stahly wrote:
I made a scale comparison of the new Jade Warriors… they‘re quite chonky boys and girls! I also have the high-res sprue images and all build options for the kits in the Cathay Battalion: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/06/review-grand-cathay-battalion/

Can the Warriors be built without the holsters?

The holsters are on little straps that peg into a gap in the Warriors‘ belts, so it would involve some cutting or remodelling the gaps with green stuff.

GW stopped selling green stuff and is only selling liquid green stuff now. The Old World stuff would benefit from green stuff tremendously.

Cathay Battalion sold out on the GW store in the US (and may have sold out in the UK/EU as well, folks are reporting inability to purchase them even though it shows in stock). Sounds like a successful new faction launch!

Nothing seems to have shifted on the UK/EU site apart from the dice and book strangely. Also been watching a few reviews (Warhipster mainly) and apparently the kits are kinda crappy to actually build.

Seen some reviews, everything is monopose without option except for command models.

The most interesting one is for the infantry they made 3 sprues but 2 are identical except for the numbers

So basically standard normal modern day GW models - which we'd 100% expect from a brand new army designed by GW today.

 kodos wrote:
Seen some reviews, everything is monopose without option except for command models.

Thats not accurate - jade warriors can swap sword and board for halberd.

chaos0xomega wrote:

 kodos wrote:
Seen some reviews, everything is monopose without option except for command models.

Thats not accurate - jade warriors can swap sword and board for halberd.

Shugengan Lord on Great Spirit Longma has also head swaps for both rider and the beast. Also the Sentinel and Sky Lantern has two alternative build.

Out couriosity I checked the general and BSB kits and here is what I found:

Grand Cathay €41
High Elves and Orcs and Goblins €35
Empire of Men €23

So yeah small price creep is real.

How long does it typically take for units in the battalion to be available separately or even just previewed individually (i.e. showing the sprues) on the website?

I think thats varied a bit IIRC, but not more than a month or two

 warboss wrote:
How long does it typically take for units in the battalion to be available separately or even just previewed individually (i.e. showing the sprues) on the website?

If you're just wanting sprue pics of the units in the Battalion, can I direct you to stahly's post that I've quoted below?

 stahly wrote:
I made a scale comparison of the new Jade Warriors… they‘re quite chonky boys and girls! I also have the high-res sprue images and all build options for the kits in the Cathay Battalion: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/06/review-grand-cathay-battalion/

Have I been inattentive, or have we not had rules previews for Cathay?

I don't recall seeing any yet - probably showing up this week or next, I'd imagine, with this last week having covered the design process & some of the background.