Witch Hunters

Witch Hunter Captain

The leader. Can't be replaced by another (except by promotion). He has a very strong selection of skills to chose from.
Some people don't care if the leader dies, but unless you want a promoted zealot to become a hero, I'd say "Keep him out of harms way". Easiest to do by giving him a crossbow and using him to support the 'real warriors' from far away. If the enemy can infiltrate or you otherwise are afraid of getting charged, then assign him 2 warhounds as bodyguards.

Suggested equipment:
At start: crossbow, sword mace.
When the money allows: helmet, heavy armour (exchange for gromnil armour as soon as one can be found after but buy heavy armour first), elven cloak, crossbow pistol, exchange the mace for a pistol or a brace of pistols if your group count a brace as one missile weapon choise.

Warrior-Priest

NOT the spell-caster! Spells are only used by those tainted by chaos. We, the Chosen Ones, use Prayers. And Prayers can't be stopped by anything that woks (only) against spells. Isn't this nice?
His selection of skills suggest that he is to be used in close combat, but until he actually gets some skills (after he has every useful spell = all of them), those skills are a no-no. I gave mine Priest a crossbow and told him never to move more than 5 feet from the Captain when I started my warband. Later on he has been allowed to move around with some bodyguards. This was mainly because he got the spell 'Hart of Iron' and we do fight a lot of undeads. With some increases in Wounds, Attacks and/or WS, the priest can be usefull in closecombat, but I find him too weak for close combat from the start and too valuable to risk in a fair fight.

Suggested equipment:
At start: Crossbow.
When the money allows: helmet, mace, sword, heavy armour, exchance mace with pistol.

Witch Hunter

Nice stats and skill-selection. The downside is all those starting experience as you can count on starting any campaign with the highest rating and thus getting kicked around every time that 'surprise attack' scenario comes up.
These people can be used as gunslingers or brawlers. I prefer to do some of each, especially early in the campaign where the money are small and the hired bows are not in our camp. I used one as a shooter and two for close combat from game one.

Suggested equipment for a gunslinger:
At start: crossbow.
When the money allows: sword, mace, heavy armour, exchance mace with pistol.

Suggested equipment for a brawler:
At start: sword & mace.
When the money allows: helmet, heavy armour, crossbow-pistol/ and a pistols.

Flagellant

Close-combat-monster and fanatical too. Not very much to choose from in the equipment-department but he really doesn't need anything beside a heavy weapon. Possibly the best henchman-type in the game. To top that, a lot of his stats are maxed out from the start, so you have excellent changes that you will get at least on roll of +1WS/BS after you have raised both these - in other word you can choose yourself. I thought about what to raise 1/10 second when the 3th seven was rolled on the promotion chart and then chose +1W.
Get one of these promoted to a hero and give him Combat/Strength-skills and watch the monster grow.
The weaknesses are: Expensive when you add his weapon; Only 5 allowed including anyone promoted to heroes; Can't/won't use any ranged weapon or armour. A flagellant hero can however use Lucky Charm and he will need to be lucky sometimes. I recommend as many of these as you can afford (after getting every hero and 2 warhounds).
For me the only weapon to use is the flail. Why strike last when they charge, and why only get +1 S when you can get +2 S at the same price?
Flagellants will become the cornerstone in your fighting against Undeads and other warbands that rely too much on Fear, as they are fanatical (passes every Ld-test - interesting as a flagellant-hero can become stupid (no effect thou) and frenzied).

Suggested equipment:
At start: Flail.

Zealot

Poor fighters no matter how shining weapons you give them.
Flagellants are better in close combat, warhounds are cheaper/more expendable and better at fighting too. And any shooting are done by the heroes, the Elf and our little Cook.
Unless playing entirely on ladders and ropes where warhounds can't get around, I would shoot any zealot that tried to get into my warband.
The only other reason to have one of these kids hanging around is that the Captain has been careless enough to get killed and are replaced. One flagellant hero is great, 2 is a problem so the next one should be a zealot. A zealot hero and a flagellant henchman are much better that a flagellant hero and a zealot henchman. Remember that there can be a maximum of 5 flagellants in the band.

Warhound

Very good in the start of a campaign and still useful later on as screening elements. They are cheap, thus expendable, and so fast that they can get get to where they are neded
They can hold their own against almost any kind of henchmen, and a hound will at least prevent an enemy hero from charging straight into a Witch Hunter. Fill the band up with warhounds and feed them any zealot trying to get into your band.

Hired swords/bows

We are the Chosen Ones and can win anytime because Sigmar fights on our side. We can however benefit from employing those that fight for money. But as the Chosen Ones, we need to see deeper that the common warleader. What we need is those extraordinary people that can give us that 'something' that are more worth than a sharp blade.

The Cook

I call the halfling scout a cook as I love that scene in Under Siege where Steven Segall say "I'm just a cook" (he's a ex-SEAL).
To the point: get this one as soon as you either has 3 flagellants or need some extra gunslingers. He comes nearly at no cost as he isn't counting when selling wyrdstone, and besides he allow the warband to get that 13. member. This ability will be his greatest asset later in the campaign.

The Elven Ranger

In my book the next gunslinger to hire. He cost a bit, but I figure that as soon as you have your warband up to 12-13 regular members and most of your equipment (forget all those elven cloaks and gromnil amours just now), he comes in handy. Not only does he rule the streets from high up in the church tower, but his Seeker-rule equals another 5-10 gc income after the fighting is over. Especially when you have a flagellant henchmen-group with a lot of experience. The trick here is trying to get the result 'Prisoners' as you will then get a free flagellant. Very nice trick.

The ogre

A formidable henchman that can stand up to a lot of punishment as well as deal out his own share of it.
I have recently added this one as I got the result "Returned Favour". Normally I would never have hired him as I believe he wants too much gold to join. I have kept him for 3 fights because we was up against an undead warband and then his fear-causing and 3 wounds makes a nice roadblock my heroes can hide behind. But he is too expensive as long as there is equipment that are wanted, so we told him to get lost. The cute elf will just have to find us another ogre to play with next time we need something big in size.