Equipment || Skills || Prayers || Starting a Warband || Tactics || Campaigning || Conclusion

The witch-hunter's warband can only have up to 12 warriors. This is their main disadvantage, as most warbands can take up to 15. No worries: we will see further-on how they can compensate. Note that this has no implications to the number of heroes they can take: a leader and 5 other heroes, just like any other warband.

Heroes

Henchmen

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Special here, are the separate equipment lists for the 2 types of henchmen (warhounds can't take any equipment).

Witch hunter's equipment

With hunters and warrior-priests choose equipment from this list. It offers a choice of standard close combat weapons: dagger, mace/hammer, axe, sword and double-handed weapons. This is not a great selection, but at least it allows the efficient sword/mace or sword/axe combo. Somewhat special is the selection of heavier missile weapons: crossbow, crossbow pistol and pistols; not the cheapest gear, but very useful. Witch hunters can take about any piece of armour available.

Zealot's equipment

Zealots have their own specific equipment list, just for them. They can take the same close combat weapons as their more heroic battle-brothers, but they can also take spears. With an armour selection of shield, helmet and light armour, this makes them a fair defensive force. They can also take bows or short bows for missile weapons, but considering their poor skill, it is not worthwhile.

Flagellant's weaponry

Flagellants too have their own equipment list, which is by far their main weakness. They can only take a close combat weapon: flail, morning star or double-handed weapon...and that's it, no ranged weapons, no armour!
This implies that your flagellant can take only 1 weapon, and thus only get 1 attack; this because the morning star if difficult to use, and the other are 2-handed. It also implies that the morning star is a useless choice, as flagellants can't take a shield or buckler anyway, so you are better of taking the flail for the same cost, but offering +2 (instead of +1) strength in the first round of combat.

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Witch hunters are well bestowed with skills. Their captain can take skills from any of the basic skill-lists. The witch hunter heroes are almost as good, they only lack the skills to put their strength to better use. The warrior-priest is least talented in comparison: no speed skills or shooting skills.
There is no special skill list for the witch hunters, but promoted henchmen can take any 2 of the basic skill-lists, as they choose.

This leaves many options for your warband, allowing you to focus on certain skills, specializing the entire group, or diversify your warband by choosing different skills, fitting the particular purpose of each warrior. Witch hunters can improve their skills with missile weapons, putting their powerful crossbows and pistols to good use, potentially making them the best ranged fighters of the basic warbands - second only to mercenaries. The warrior-priest doesn't really need the shooting skills, rather focusing on prayers instead. But we'll see more about this in the campaigning section.

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The prayers used by the witch hunter priests are the same as those used by the sisters of Sigmar. With the witch hunters however, it is the warrior-priest who uses them...and the priest can be replaced - as opposed to the sister's matriarch, who can't be. Seeing most prayers require their user to be close to the enemy in order to be effective, this makes them much more useful for the priest. Still, the prayers are somewhat less powerful than most other spell-lists.

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Witch hunters get the usual 500 gold crowns (gc) to spend on their starting Warband. Let's look at an example of how you could go about composing your starting warband.

First, it's a good idea to take as many heroes as possible, to maximize income and experience gain. Witch hunters can take only 5 to start with, and at a very fair price. Captain, warrior-priest and 3 witch hunters cost you only 175gc. Arming each with a sword and mace will cost you another 65gc. This already provides a solid core for your warband, and still 260gc left to spend on up to 7 more warrior-slots.

We have already seen how each type of henchman is very different from the other, and the character of your warband will depend much on their selection. Warhounds are cheap and excellent for fast attack, zealots will strengthen your defense, flagellants add punch and never suffer from psychological effects (such as fear).
You can't miss with warhounds, especially if you're still tight on gold, so we'll take the maximum of 5 for only 75gc. This leaves plenty for 2 flagellants with flails, 55gc each. That fills all the slots, so we'll leave zealots for another day.

This makes for a complete warband of 12 warriors, requiring at least 4 out of action to take rout-tests. And still, there's 75gc left. You can spend this on a crossbow (25gc) for your captain, who has the best ballistic skill, and hire a halfling scout (15gc), allowing 1 more warrior to join, which we'll make a zealot with spear and shield for 35gc. Or you can buy a brace of pistols (30gc) for the captain, and hire an elf ranger. I would suggest this last option, as it adds extra fire-power and speed to the warband.

Size: 12   -   Rating: 128   -   Starting gold: 5gc

Whatever variation you take, witch hunters can start out with a very strong warband indeed.

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In many respects, witch hunters have much in common with mercenaries. This will be noticeable in the coming sections.

Formation

Tactics will depend much on the composition of your warband.
A defensive player will have zealots, covering front or flanks with their spears, or defending buildings while ranged fighters search for higher grounds.
An offensive player will have flagellants, probably combined with warhounds. Both will be at the front, flagellants just behind whatever cannon-fodder is fielded. Once the enemy is close enough, they can pounce them, knocking down their opponents to be finished of by who-ever follows. Fear-causing opponents? Get your flagellants on top of them! They will not be as frightening once they bite the dust.
Warhounds are ideal for a fast sweep. You should have at least 2 of them, were it just to sacrifice them for a voluntary rout. Try to keep them near your captain, so they can benefit from his leadership. And remember that they are animals, meaning they can't search buildings, or achieve most other objectives. Moving the pack somewhat in front of the warband puts them in a good position to act as cannon-fodder, intercept enemies, or dash out for an attack.

Positioning your heroes is a bit of a dilemma. They can get good ranged weapons, and witch hunters can get shooting skills, so it is very tempting to put them in vantage positions with a crossbow. However, while a good archer can down many opponents, it is much less likely to get them out of action than in close combat. Thus many experience points may get lost due to henchmen getting most kills. In that respect, getting pistols for your heroes may be a better choice than crossbows.
Note that both captain and warrior-priest are expendable. You can hire a new warrior-priest if he gets lost, and while you can't re-hire a captain, he is reasonably replaced by a regular witch hunter. Your warrior-priest makes best use of his prayers in -or near- close combat, so make use of him if you can. Your captain is somewhat more valuable at first, with his superior skills and leadership value; move him in with the pack of warhounds, being well covered by them at the same time. Alternatively, you can send your warrior-priest along with the pack, providing support with the Hearts of Steel prayer.

Engaging the enemy

Witch hunters should fair well against almost any kind of opponent. Their wide selection of equipment, skills and hired swords makes them a pretty versatile warband. On the topic of engagement, there are only few notes to make. Worst enemies may be those that vastly outnumber them (e.g. skaven), or those that are particularly strong on defense.

Use your warhounds the best you can. Losing them is not so bad: they are cheap, can't lose equipment, and they don't have experience that might get wasted otherwise. You'll find that many efficient strategies will be along the lines of "release the pack - after them!". Do note that your warhounds can't reach spots you need to climb onto; there are plenty of alternatives for witch hunters though, either having another warrior climb up, or shoot whoever's up there.
Flagellants -and ranged fire- should play a key-role in your strategy whenever facing a considerable amount of fear-causing creatures.
Don't forget the burn the witch! ability of witch hunter heroes and their captain, which gives them an edge against spellcasters; but then again not so much that you should take risks with them. Use their shooting skills to your advantage, but don't allow it to weaken your combat strength; their ranged fire-power is good, but still too small to base your strategy on.
When outnumbered, it may be better to stay on the defense. Use the environment as cover: getting on higher floors, or even simply standing with your backs to the wall. You'll find that pistols are a wonderful thing in such situations!

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Early battles

A starting witch hunters warband is pretty strong compared to other starting warbands, especially when taking plenty of warhounds. Take a look at the starting a warband section for some suggestions. As you gain more wealth, you may prefer other warriors, to take better advantage of the 12 warrior slots you have.

If at first you're clearly outmatched by your opponent: sacrifice 2 warhounds, and take a voluntary rout. This at least will leave you with few losses and some extra experience and gold for the next battle.

Hired swords & special characters

This is were witch hunters can find some compensation for their smaller warband. Note that hired swords do not count towards your maximum warband size. And they can take all of the hired swords in the rulebook, except for the warlock - or any other spellcaster for that matter. Of the special characters, they can take Aenur and Johann. Especially the halfling scout is of interest, because he allows the warband to take one extra warrior in excess of the maximum size. The ogre bodyguard is a good choice, because he is fast, and has fairly low upkeep for his worth. Likewise for the freelancer, if you use the optional rules for mounted warriors. Hiring an elf ranger is advisable if you want to strengthen you're ranged fire support, and augment your exploration potential, which is only average for witch hunters.

Advances

There is no special skill-list for the witch hunters, but they do have access to most of the regular ones. Note that 3 of the academic skills are not available for witch hunters, because they concern spellcasters.
Both witch hunters and captain can take shooting skills. For those handling a crossbow, the nimble skill will allow them to move while shooting. The other archery skills will be of interest if your hero concentrates on shooting, otherwise combat oriented skills are probably more useful. When handling pistols, the hunter and pistolier skills should be considered.
If warhounds play an important part in your strategies (and they probably will), you'll want the battle tongue skill for your leader, to extend his leadership influence by 6", encouraging his pack as they charge forward.
The priest should focus on defensive skills first, to keep him on his feet, able to put his prayers to good use. Step aside allows an extra save in close combat, and resilient will effectively increase his toughness. Fearsome will keep him from being charged; while not as impressive as the armour of righteousness prayer, it's effect is at least permanent.

Promoted henchmen, zealot or flagellant, can take any 2 of the basic skill-lists.
Zealots have no particular profile, though shooting is not exactly their thing. Combat, strength and/or speed are the logical choices for them.
If a flagellant promotes to a hero, you may want him to take the combat skill-list. This will allow him to take weapons training, so he can take any close combat weapon he wishes, instead of just the flail or double-handed weapon. You could do the equivalent with the shooting list, but flagellants are clearly close combat fighters, and will not put their fanatical ability to good use at range. The strength skill is most suitable for flagellants really. If you plan to stick to a flail or double-handed weapon for your flagellant, I recommend not taking the combat skill-list, but take the strength and speed skill-lists instead. Sprint and lightning reflexes will improve his flexibility in engaging fear-causing opponents, while unstoppable charge will increase his chances of inflicting a hit, so you can apply his awesome strength more likely. If handling a double-handed weapon, the strongman skill is an absolute must.

Spending gold

Witch hunters are not the best warband to gain wealth. Their exploration is average at best, and typically they have more hired swords nibbling away the profits. Fortunately, they start out strong, and should be able to win more battles, especially early in the campaign. Smart tactics can direct the majority of your losses to the warhounds pack, which is cheap to replenish.

Swords, maces/hammers, axes, pistols and the occasional crossbow will be the chief armament of your heroes; spears and flails for your henchmen. All of these weapons have a good value for price ratio. If you manage to get excess gold, you should be getting armour. Remember that your warrior-priest doesn't need any special skill to wear armour.
Of the miscellaneous items, the halfling cookbook is worth considering, allowing the warband to take one extra warrior, just like the halfling scout does; this effect is however not cumulative.

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