Warhammer Grand Cathay hype and important elements to consider when designing a fantasy Chinese army (Patreon)

Happy Chinese new year!

As it turns out, Grand Cathay has been confirmed as one of the starting factions of the upcoming Total War: Warhammer III! Much joy to be had.

With that being said, while I am very stoked by the news and have high hopes for Creative Assembly, I also understand that it is very difficult to make a Chinese-themed fantasy army "feels" right. So I put together a list of opinions/suggestions/references (or wishlist?) as a rough guideline. It should be noted that this list is not setting-specific, meaning that (hopefully) it is applicable to any fantasy setting.

Yes please!

The strategist

The living and literal embodiment of the adage "the pen is mightier than the sword", no Chinese-themed army will feel complete without a few strategists at its helm. These squishy but sharp-minded war leaders are a unique feature of Chinese-themed army.

Keep in mind that in a fantasy setting with magic, a strategist should be distinguished from generic wizard/spellcaster (I literally can't stress this enough) by either using special abilities like stratagems and battle arrays (see below), or failing that, at least a different kind of magic. Some particularly gifted individuals can be both though.

Giant war drum/war drum array

Although military musicians and battle drums were used by nearly all cultures/historical armies, giant, horizontally-arranged war drum/drum array mounted on raised wooden platform is particularly associated with the Chinese. The beating of war drum is as iconic to Chinese war movies as blowing of war horn to Western ones, so this one is a must-have.

Multirole cavalry

One thing I dislike about many historical/fantasy war game titles is that cavalry units are often forced into the dicthonomy of heavily armoured shock/melee cavalry ("knights") and unarmoured skirmish/ranged cavalry ("mounted scouts" or "horse archers" etc.), which in my opinion is quite boring and unimaginative. There's more to cavalry tactics than skewering people on lance pole and harassing arrow shower. What about close range power shooting? What about shoot then charge? What about shooting WHILE charging? 

Chinese cavalry (as well as most Eastern cavalry and even some Western cavalry) were just as skilled in the art of sword, mace, glaive and lance as they were with bow and arrows, which allows them to fulfill multiple roles and adjust to different tactics.

As a side note, with the notable exception of Song Dynasty, most significant Chinese dynasties like Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing were pretty cavalry-centric (high cavalry-to-infantry ratio for a given military campaign), even though infantry still outnumbered cavalry in total numbers. 

Wuxia

Why yes, because everybody was kung fu fighting!

Joke aside, Wuxia can be a great addition to any Chinese-themed fantasy army. In their most basic form, wandering swordsmen fulfill the role of lightning fast and extremely deadly auxiliary infantry, relying on dodges, parries and deflections rather than heavy armour for personal protection. The Incredible wealth of Wuxia literature also opens up nearly limitless customisation options such as assassins, poisoners, beastmasters, puppeteers, gadgeteers, healers, cultists, and even sonic attack/mind-controlling musicians.

Keep in mind that due to their social status, Wuxia characters almost never found themselves in the position of army leader. As auxiliary, they should not outnumber the generic rank and file, or take over roles that are supposed to be fulfilled by them.

"Supernatural" battle array

Warfare in the fascinating world of Classical Chinese Novels often involve complex battle arrays that are less military tactics and more feng shui applied to warfare. While seldom explicitly treated as magical in-universe, they can nevertheless bestow seemingly supernatural qualities to the armies performing them ranging from misdirection to invulnerability (which translates to buffs and debuffs in game terms). This makes battle array a great and unique addition to any Chinese-themed fantasy army, especially as part of the repertoire of the strategist's abilities.

It should be noted that battle arrays as described in classic novels are closer to pre-battle deployment (i.e. van, main, rear, wings etc.), rather than battle formations (i.e. hollow square, line, flying wedge etc.). They are actually not as crazy as you might think.

Use with caution

Exotic animal/mount

Most fantasy armies will have access to a few exotic beasts of war or mounts inspired from mythology and folklore for the coolness factor. However, just because some fantastic beasts are drawn from the same mythological source doesn't mean that they can fit together thematically. For example, a warrior king of a medieval fantasy kingdom may ride to battle on a majestic griffin or a Pegasus, but never a Cerberus, even though all of them are inspired by Greek mythology.

Since a Chinese-themed fantasy army will almost always feature a heavy dragon motif, it is advisable to just give it Chinese dragon and other creatures closely associated with dragon, such as Qilin and dragon steed, instead of some random monsters from Classic of Mountains and Seas that no one has ever heard of.

Staff-swinging magic monkey

Although the Monkey King is one of the most popular and enduring Chinese cultural symbols, his status as a powerful but mischievous monster, rebel-turned-Buddhist monk, and main star of his own story will make him a difficult fit in most human-majority armies. Even with severe nerfing, such being is generally too powerful and intelligent to be tamed/enslaved by mere humans, too alien and unpredictable to lead them, too proud to play second fiddle to someone weaker than him, and too rebellious to submit to someone stronger.

Panda

Giant pandas as a popular Chinese cultural symbol only takes root in the relatively recent past, which makes them difficult to fit into fantasy settings derived from older Chinese myths without sticking out like a sore thumb. Moreover, pandas are generally viewed as peaceful, soft and cuddly, and more than a little derpy, all of which are very undesirable qualities as far as "army" and "warfare" are concerned. This makes an army that includes panda in its roster or worse yet, an army of pandas, hard to be taken seriously.

Shaolin warrior monk

Although historically Shaolin Temple did maintain a number of warrior monks, and at times even sent out warrior monks to war, warrior monks were few in numbers and generally served as auxiliary troops supporting a larger military campaign. When designing a Chinese-themed army, care should be taken to not make them too spammable or take over roles that are supposed to be fulfilled by the rank and file.

Personally, I prefer to limit them to either a customisation option of Wuxia (see above), or a variant unit of one.

Xianxia Immortal/Swordsage

Xianxia characters tend to be overpowered, but if done well they can still be a great addition to a Chinese-themed fantasy army. They can be distinguished from Wuxia by being, well, "magical", as well as being primarily ranged combatants (they usually rain swords on their enemy). In general it's better to use video games, TV dramas and movies as reference as these tend to be less absurd than cultivation web novels.

(A small trivia: Xianxia as a literary genre actually predates modern or "new school" Wuxia. The progenitor of Xianxia genre, Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu, was written in 1930-1948, and is itself a part of "old school" Wuxia genre. The novel series was so influencial that all major "new school" Wuxia writters/founders like Jin Yong, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng were heavily inspired by it, so it can be considered the precussor of "new school" Wuxia as well. On the other hand, age of internet Xiuzhen/Cultivation genre is merely a malformed offshoot of Xianxia, overdosed with cocaine and social Darwinism.)

Yin Yang and Wu Xing

One thing I disliked about Total War: Three Kingdoms is that the developers try to shoehorn the concept Wu Xing/Five Elements into nearly every aspects of gameplay just for the sake of it. Just because something is inspired by Chinese culture doesn't mean that one should stick Yin Yang and Wu Xing to literally everything.

Terracotta warrior

The aesthetics of Qin Dynasty and terracotta warriors generally clash heavily with that of the later dynasties, so unless the fantasy army specifically draws inspiration from Qin period, it is better to just leave the terracotta warriors (or terracotta warrior-inspired units) out completely. However, if they must make an appearence in a setting that is inspired by later period(s), it is better to depict them as long forgotten ancient automata or undead that are hostile to the currently living Chinese-themed faction, rather than as part of its army roster.

From a "in-universe power balance" standpoint, large scale use of military automata (or golems, constructs, robots, or whatever) in a fictional setting can only be justified if at least one of the following criteria is met:

• The overall technology or magic level of the setting is high enough to allow widespread use of automata by everyone, thus preserving power balance.
• One particular faction has a very significant leg up in technology/magic over its peers, which explains why only that faction has exclusive access to automata. This is usually balanced out by the fact that such faction tend to be portrayed as a fading power that is forced to use automata to supplement its dwindling numbers, or a relatively weak "new kid at the block" that tries to leveage the advantages of automata so that it can compete with older, established powers on a more even ground.
• The automata are themselves a faction, either because their creators are dead/missing, or they rebelled against them.

A "fantasy China" generally won't be the most technologically advanced or magically attuned faction of the setting to justify having exclusive large scale access to automata, and is large and populous enough to do fine without it.

Chu Ko Nu

Did you know Chu Ko Nu was only used for the grand total of one time in Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, and only as trap? That's the extent of its significance in the story.

Crossbow never enjoyed the same prestige as jian/sword ("The Gentlemen of Weapons"), dao/sabre ("The General of Weapons"), qiang/spear ("The King of Weapons") and gun/staff ("The Ancestor of Weapons") in Chinese culture. As such, when adapting "peasant" weapon such as Chu Ko Nu into a fictional setting (where rule of cool is more important than historical accuracy) so as to represent the specialty of a real world culture, it will need a little extra help in the coolness department. Giving Chu Ko Nu to a bunch of grunts that can be easily slaughtered will only make the already unimpressive weapon even more lame, and when the ICONIC weapon of a faction is perceived as lame, something has definitely gone very, very wrong. 

In short, Chu Ko Nu is fine to include in a Chinese-themed fantasy army as an interesting gimmick, magic item, or in the hands of "cool" units such as assassins or gadgeteers. However, giving it to the grunts (or worse yet, replacing normal crosbow with Chu Ko Nu) is unquestionably an absolutely awful design choice.

Avoid these

Japan

Reminder that samurai, daimyo, shogun, ashigaru, rōnnin, sōhei, ninja, kunoichi, geisha, rikishi/sumo wrestler, kannushi/shinto priest, miko/shrine maiden, onmyōji, yamabushi, shugenja, oni, tengu, kappa and yuki-onna aren't Chinese.

Not that there's anything wrong with creating a fantasy faction based on a mashup of several real world cultures (it's fantasy after all). However, for the most part China has neither an iconic warrior class/tradition/culture (such as knight and samurai), nor an especially memorabe mythology/pantheon (the Celestial Bureaucracy is called BUREAUCRACY for a reason). Carelessly throwing together elements from other cultures into "fantasy China" will, more often than not, lead to added elements heavily overshadowing the Chinese base, eroding its identity and uniqueness rather than adding to them.

Dynasty kitchen sink

I have already ranted about this in my impression of Katai Empire range, but there's no harm in repeating myself. Yes, randomly mixing bits and pieces from multiple dynasties/eras into one faction always results in a jumbled mess of suck. 

It should be noted that this specifically refers to aesthetics and theme, rather than technological level, magic, or in-universe strength of the faction. It IS possible to design an aesthetically coherent "fantasy China" with steampunk gadgets or crazy magitek.

Overplay the spiritual and mysticism aspect

Aloof mysterious sifu that speaks in riddles and teaches enlightement has no place on the battlefield. Military men should be, and tend to be, earthy and no-nonsense.