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Anyone know much about the Empire and their trade with the Cathayan Empire? It gets mentioned several times and I believe a story was written about it at some point but if anyone has info that would be much appreciated. I was looking at the map and trying to figure out how they even got over there, sea seems really long and overland is rife with danger and getting over the Mountains of Morn seems a chore.

Yeah, it was a story in WD when Ogre Kingdoms had just hit the shelves. Trade with the east is, in fact, a land route mostly (the silk road)...

Some dudes have made a Mordheim supplement based on the eastern trade route, that should provide you with good info.
Here's a link: http://cianty.ashtonsanders.com/btb/home.html

I think it's essentially what the silk road was from Europe to China back in the day. Do some research and you'll probably come up with everything that GW did. Nothing really original.

On a more positive note, I found a rediculusly well-done Cathay-themed army done in the theme of the Chinese epic "Battle of Red Cliff" a while back. The guy did all his own sculpts and the models actually look like the characters from the Dynasty Warriors game. I'll try to find it.

powerclaw wrote:I think it's essentially what the silk road was from Europe to China back in the day. Do some research and you'll probably come up with everything that GW did. Nothing really original.

Taking a class about the Silk Road in Uni is what sparked my interest in what GW did in the first place.

It was a whole class dedicated to just the Silk Road?

Cathay and the Silk Road have been in the GW background for a long time, and I think when they were originally conceived the lands to the East weren't as deadly as they are now. I mean, trying to get a caravan past the Ogre Kingdoms and the Orcs and Goblins strikes me as near suicide with the way the setting is written now.

IIRC The Silk Road has always been quite unsafe in GW fluff, it leads through the Badlands and Dark Lands infested with Greenskins and Chaos Dwarves, you need to cross a few mountain ranges, which are notoriously hazardous... AFAIK it's always been like that, adding the ogre kingdoms to the world is only a slight increase in the dangers involved.

in RL the silkroad wasn't so safe either I suppose (brigands, mongols etc)

WarWizard91 wrote:It was a whole class dedicated to just the Silk Road?

yes, it covers a time period from about 9000BC to present

Isn't the majority of trade with Cathay and the East done by Tilea? According the the Dogs of War Army Books (5th ed) Tileans Ricco and Robbio explored east to prove the world was spherical and discovered and set up trade routes with Cathay. I think they also seemed to prove that the Warhammer World is flat. The Empire trade in turn with Tilea.

Howard A Treesong wrote:Isn't the majority of trade with Cathay and the East done by Tilea? According the the Dogs of War Army Books (5th ed) Tileans Ricco and Robbio explored east to prove the world was spherical and discovered and set up trade routes with Cathay. I think they also seemed to prove that the Warhammer World is flat. The Empire trade in turn with Tilea.

This. Tilean city states do a lot of trading with cathay and further east. They act like a good broker between The empire, the most eastern dwarf holds and the far east. ( This subject comes up regularly in the Brunner book collection )