Tips and Tactics for Battle Monks of Cathay

Hope this is the right place for this post.

Hi I'm new to posting to the forum but I've been lurking for a while.

Myself and a small group of 3 are going starting a campaign in Mordheim for the first time (not for lack of trying), none of us have played before. I've played small games of 40k many years ago with a dark eldar witch army so I think I should have a good shot of getting into Mordheim (Small groups of bad-ass close combat witches).

I was looking through the warbands and the Battle Monks of Cathay really jumped out to me.
I was wondering if I could get some feedback on a starting list and maybe some tactics to playing with them, there doesn't seem to be much up on the net that I can find.

Here's my list:
(all assumed to have free dagger)

Emissary                           60
-Crossbow                         25
-Sword                             10

Officer                              40
-Sword                             10
-Shield                              5

Dragon Monk                      55
-Staff                               15

Dragon Monk                      55
-Unarmed

Dragon Monk                      55
-Unarmed

Warrior Monk                      35
-Fish-Hook Shot                  10

Warrior Monk                      35
-Fish-Hook Shot                  10

Soldier                               25
-Sword                              10
-Bow                                 10

Soldier                               25
-Sword                              10

9 units
500gc used
Rating 122 (I think)

My plan would be to keep a warrior linked with a dragon, have the dragon charge and hopefully have the warrior trip the enemy with the fish-hook.
Keep the emissary and the bow soldier out of the way for cover and have the dragon with the staff and the officer bopping about wooping ass.
Is this a viable plan?

We'll be using a couple of base house rules as well:
-Light and heavy armor half price
-Light armor gives 5+
-Heavy gives 4+
-Off hand weapon gets a -2 to hit

We'll only be using grade 1-2 warbands and so far I'll be against Tomb Guardians, Norse(maybe) and the last is undecided.

Sorry for the large post and thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

The list looks okay to me. But I'm rather unsure about the changes to armour, it seems way too overpowered to me. Your monks will definitely suffer in later games.

A brave choice to go for tomb guardians, I'll be intrested to hear how they worked out.

The house rules aren't really set in stone yet, but from what we've seen is that changing the armor to be better balances the game a little, are we wrong in that?  
Any tips on playing as the monks?

Alroth wrote:

The house rules aren't really set in stone yet, but from what we've seen is that changing the armor to be better balances the game a little, are we wrong in that?

Have to agree here: I'd pick one of your changes. Either buff the armour save, or reduce the price - not both!

Fair enough, I'll talk to the lads about it.
Now that I think about it, it does really screw me if I do go with the monk warband.
The question is whether or not people actually play them or not. I can't seem to find hardly any mention of anyone having used the monks in a campaign. Definitely no tips to using them.

Alex wrote:

A brave choice to go for tomb guardians, I'll be interested to hear how they worked out.

Yeah the guy who is screwed is the Tomb Guardian player.  Unless he is using the Khemri website list and not the awful TC list.

I am curious what the changes in armor are supposed to balance?

As for the Battle Monks, they are a relatively new warband for an out of production game written for a specific campaign setting for that game.  The number of players you have to respond is a fairly small pool, so it might be awhile before one sees your post and responds.

Here are some threads that might be of interest--
https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t6980-battle-monks-of-cathay-skills-question?highlight=Battle+Monks

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t6833-battle-monks-styles?highlight=Battle+Monks

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t3723-hs-battle-monk-for-btb?highlight=Battle+Monks

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t3570-btb-dragon-monks-chain-sticks-and-fish-hook-shot?highlight=Battle+Monks

https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t1413-ippan-shu-and-monks?highlight=Battle+Monks

Those House Rules are overkill. Admittedly, armor in Mordheim is pretty lacking, but you guys have affected an 180 degree turn when all that was needed was a small buff.

@von kurst
The other fella's using the khemri list, he just likes the idea of mummies and skellies.
Thanks for the links, I've read them and they were a little helpful in my warband unit choice(peasant's are a waste).

@skaerkrow
We just were putting some ideas down after reading some stuff on the net about armor being underpowered and dual wield being overpowered. I see what you mean about the armor overkill, we'll prob just go with half price armor.

The main thing I'm looking for with this post is long term tactics. How will they fare in the campaign with no magic or shooting skills, as well as a small pool of hs

Thanks for the feedback

Afraid I can't comment on Battle Monks as I've never seen them played.

On the armour house rule front, I've found that giving shields +1 to armour save in close combat makes them a more viable choice, and then stacking armour with that can get you a pretty good armour save.

In the campaign I'm currently running, we've also house ruled Strength modifiers so S4/5 are -1 to save, 6/7 are -2 to save, 8/9 are -3 to save and 10 is -4.

I've seen a lot more armour being bought as a result of this (okay, half of that is my own Chaos Dwarf warband, but still, other players have been picking armour up for their important models).

Thanks for the tips on the shields, I'll talk to the lads and see what they think.
None of us are the power gamer type but if the dual wield is the best option (as it is in the basic rules) everyone's gonna go for them so we're trying to give an incentive for the other options.