Grand Cathay Preorder Kits Spotlight Peasants, Gunners, and Astromancers

Grand Cathay’s preorder wave finally shows what this army wants to be on the desk

Grand Cathay’s standalone preorder kits do something a lot of launch waves never manage: they make the faction feel like an actual army, not just a hero and a promise. The mix of Peasant Levy, Iron Hail Gunners and Crane Gunner Teams, and Astromancers of the Celestial Court tells you exactly where the hobby energy is meant to go, from rank-and-file repetition to ornate magical showpieces.

That matters because Grand Cathay has been framed from the start as a small, elite force in The Old World, one built around harmony and units that work in concert. Warhammer Community’s preview tied these reinforcements to the defense of the Great Bastion under Chaos attack, and it specifically described Cathay as relying on a massed peasant levy backed by guns and wizards. For painters, that is the good stuff: a faction identity you can see immediately in the model range, with enough contrast between unit types to keep the army from blurring into a single visual note.

Why this preorder feels different from a simple character release

The reason this wave stands out is that it is built around support pieces and troops, not just the flashy centerpiece. That is usually where a faction either becomes a joy to collect or starts to feel like a display-only idea. When the rank-and-file are strong, the army stays satisfying long after the first character is finished, because the project keeps asking for clean color discipline, repeated iconography, and small moments of variation across a whole force.

Goonhammer’s earlier Grand Cathay Arcane Journal review had already pointed out that Games Workshop was hinting at more Cathay material down the line, and this preorder cycle makes that expansion feel concrete. The standalone kits are listed to ship on or after May 16, 2026, so this is not a vague future tease anymore. It is the moment where the range stops being a first impression and starts looking like a full painting project.

Peasant Levy: the best box for batch-painting momentum

If you want the cleanest entry point into the faction’s visual language, the Peasant Levy box is the obvious place to start. It builds 20 plastic miniatures, and that number alone tells you what kind of hobby session it invites: repetition, speed, and a strong core recipe that can be carried across an entire unit. Peasants are where unified cloth tones, weathering, and simple but effective basing schemes do most of the work.

Warhammer Community describes the Peasant Levy as the common people of Grand Cathay, the broad base of the realm’s defense. That gives the unit a very practical hobby role too, because common troops are where you can establish the army’s color identity without burning out on hero-level detail. If your ideal weekend is a tray full of models that reward discipline and consistency, this is the box that turns that impulse into visible progress.

Iron Hail Gunners and Crane Gunner Teams: the most varied painting project in the wave

The Iron Hail Gunners & Crane Gunner Teams kit is where the release starts to flex. It builds 12 Iron Hail Gunners and 8 Crane Gun Teams, so you are getting two related but distinct visual jobs in one package. That is ideal if you want a unit that still feels cohesive while giving you multiple ways to push contrast, pose variation, and equipment detail.

Warhammer Community’s lore note makes the split especially useful on the paint desk. Iron Hail Gunners carry heavy blunderbusses and can fire in ranks to repel cavalry or fight in cities, while Crane Gun Teams are meant to pick out heroes and monsters with accurate long-barrelled rifles. That distinction gives the box two different painting rhythms: the Gunners lean into armor, metal, smoke-darkened hardware, and rank discipline, while the Crane teams invite sharper attention to weapon shape, targeting gear, and more deliberate focal points.

For a hobbyist who likes small details to pop without committing to a full character project, this is probably the sweet spot. It is also the box that most clearly reinforces the army’s battlefield identity, because you can see the Great Bastion defense story in the models themselves: massed close-range fire on one side, surgical long-range shots on the other.

Astromancers of the Celestial Court: the character kit with the most presentation value

The Astromancers of the Celestial Court are the easiest kit in the wave to imagine as the centerpiece of a display shelf, a command group, or the focal point of a completed force. The kit builds 2 Astromancers, one mounted and one on foot, plus a crowman familiar, which immediately gives you more than one way to approach the project. That dual build matters because it creates both a display character and a more grounded tabletop option from the same box.

Warhammer Community says Astromancers are the primary wizards of Grand Cathay, drawing on the Winds of Magic slowed by the Celestial Dragon. That lore practically asks for richer color transitions, more contrast in cloth and armor, and a little extra care on base texture and effect work. If the Peasant Levy box is about efficiency and the Gunner kit is about variety, the Astromancers are about finishing touches, the kind that let an army’s magic users feel distinct without drifting away from the rest of the force.

The crowman familiar is a small detail, but it is exactly the sort of detail that can make a character kit feel memorable on the desk. It gives you one more surface to experiment on, one more chance to break up the main silhouette, and one more reason the kit feels tailored to painters rather than just players.

Which kit gives you the strongest hobby return

The best choice depends on what kind of painting session you want the preorder to unlock. The Peasant Levy box gives you the strongest batch-painting value and the cleanest foundation for a Grand Cathay army. The Gunners box offers the most varied painting experience, with enough texture and role contrast to keep the work interesting. The Astromancers kit gives you the highest character payoff, especially if you want a model that feels like a centerpiece rather than a chore.

Taken together, the three kits show why this release wave feels so important. Grand Cathay is not being built as a faction of one model type or one visual trick. It is being built as a full army with peasants, blackpowder specialists, and magic at the center, and that is the kind of release pattern that turns curiosity into a real project on the hobby desk.