Impression : Upcoming Kensei faction: Katai Empire (Patreon)

*All images in this article are taken from the Official Kensei Facebook page.

Recently Zenit miniatures announced an upcoming new faction of its wargames, Kensei and Torii: Katai Empire, and even teased some WIP models. 

While I don't play Kensei/Torii, more Chinese exposure in the wargaming scene is always welcomed. On top of that, the Katai Empire is based on the Ming Dynasty, a period that I am very interested in, and the models actually looks promising, hence this impression post.

What is in the name?

"Katai" is a derivation of the name "Cathay", which is itself derived from  "Khitan", the name of Khitan State a.k.a. Liao Dynasty and its people. The name Cathay was used by Marco Polo to refer to north China only, while south China was known as "Mangi" or "Manji". For a long time, the Europeans believed that Cathay was a mysterious land located south of "Great Tartary (Mongolia and Manchuria)" and north of "China (Ming Dynasty)". It was not until 17th century that Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci discovered the fact that "Cathay" and "China" were in fact one and the same.

While not a particularly imaginative name (unlike "Hymukai" for the not!Japan in Kensei lore), the name is easily recognisable without being too obvious.

What about the lore?

Since the faction has yet to be released, little is known its lore. Based on the teased information, Katai Empire is the first land to be discovered by the Hymukai people after the event known as "The Awakening". 

How did they bypass the not!Korea and discovered not!China first is anyone's guess, however since Hymukai is actually a peninsular connected to a larger continent (unlike its real-life counterpart), this does not seem too implausible.

Are the models historically accurate?

Some are okay, but for the most part, no.

I tend to give a lot of leeway for historical accuracy in fantasy games (for example, see my opinion on For Honor's Tiandi). However, unlike For Honor's over-the-topness, Kensei/Torii are designed to be semi-historical and more grounded in the real world. Up until Zenit Miniatures' Wako vs Namban expansion they had done a pretty good job at making their models believable and "look the part", but unfortunately Katai Empire models can't hold a candle to Zenit's previous works as far as historical accuracy is concerned.

That being said, given the scarcity of accurate information, both within and outside China, I can't say I blame them. At the very least, Zenit's Katai models are not tainted by the abysmal Osprey illustrations as far as I can tell, and that alone makes their fantasy range better than 95% of historical Ming ranges on the market. Also keep in mind that these models are still WIP, so there may be rooms for future improvements as well.

Impression on various teased models

At the moment only a few unpainted models are teased, just enough for me to formulate some opinions about them. I will probably write another impression article when good quality images of painted models become available.

Spearmen/Qiang Warriors

These are presumable the rank-and-file infantry of Katai Empire. They are mostly fine, I guess, although I personally prefer kettle hat-type helmets for foot soldiers, and think that those sleeves on their armoured coats unnecessary. I like the length of the spears but also think they are too similar to Japanese yari. Chinese spears are generally socketed and have lozenge or leaf-shaped spearheads, while Japanese yari are often tanged and have straight spearheads.

Due to low resolution I can't really tell whether they are wearing brigandines, lamellar armours, or some kind of padded armours. I really hope they are brigandines, though.

Elite Archers/Elite Gongjian

I have conflicted feeling about the decision to depict these archers in mail armours, mostly because I feel that mail armour is overrepresented, and I do not have the faintest of idea on how to properly depict generic mail-clad Chinese warrior in a historically accurate way.

I like the bows though, they look like Ming Kaiyuan. On the other hand, these archers could use some bow scabbards. 

"Xian characters/heroes"

Presumably, these characters made up of the optional "fantasy" part of Katai Empire, i.e. taken from Xianxia genre. I like this approach, although none of the characters actually look like they belong to that genre.

Since these characters are not individually named, I will just dub them with my own nicknames instead. From left to right: Tang berserker, trident general, eunuch, sword-and-board, and Guan-yu.

Tang berserker: Despite my nickname, he is most definitely not a berserker.

Helmet with strong resemblance to animal head is mostly a Tang Dynasty (and Qing Dynasty, but that's another story) phenomenon, but Kensei is always slightly anachronistic, so that's fine with me. I don't like his gigantic thick belt though. It looks like something that a sumo wrester would wear, not a Chinese warrior.

Trident general: My favourite model so far. His helmet could certainly use some improvements, and I don't like the padded armour under his lamellar, but otherwise this is IMO the best Katai model so far.

Eunuch: He sure does have some kickass moustache for a eunuch. Maybe the model is meant to represent the fantasy version of Zheng He/Cheng Ho?

Anyway, the reason I call him a eunuch is because of the hat. The model's hat is highly reminiscence of San Shan Mao (三山帽, lit. 'Three mountain hat'), a hat that was almost exclusively associated with eunuch during the Ming period. 

(In case you are wondering, this is how Zheng He is usually depicted.)

On top of that, his two piece coat-and-dress outfit is highly unusual among Chinese men (but quite common among women), and I am pretty confident that his shirt is not just inaccurate, but flat out erroneous.

Sword-and-board: I like this model a LOT and really hope that Zenit miniatures produce him as troop, rather than as character. His shield though is inspired by ancient Han shield, which is really unfortunate, as I would much more prefer a Ming period round shield or pentagonal shield.

Guan Yu: He's a freaking Guan Yu, what's not to love?

That's it for now. I shall wait eagearly for future Katai Empire updates, especially since there are no cavalry yet!