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[Tack]

Yeah my first few playthroughs have been along the 'one of every weapon and specialization!' line, and then I realize that my 2h's are arrowbait and my knife guy is functionally useless.
I think I need to actually switch to forest of spears or something if I plan on upping the difficulty or lowering the mercy.

[Majestic7]

I don't use 2h weapons other than polearms, but I think each weapon has their thing. Even knives - they are good with stab mastery, high initiative and overwhelm. I have to say I don't use many weapon abilities other than stun and spearwall, though.

[Yoink]

Hahaha, shortly after posting that I took a caravan mission where we were attacked not once but twice, and on a fairly short journey as well. The first attack we fended off whilst only losing one expendable twerp. The second... well, half my band died and half of the survivors are gruesomely crippled. Fun times.
Well, at least the priest doesn't have to be the odd one out with his brain damage anymore.

I swear, my 2h weapons can't hit for shit, but when enemies use them they splatter my guys through shield walls and everything without issue. At least I stole the guy's pike after we finally killed him. Maybe it's more useful than the ones I had.

[Mephansteras]

Pikes will be better at hitting, yeah. They have a bonus to hit. Same with normal spears. As do swords, and crossbows over bows. It helps to mouse over the attacks available with a weapon on the character screens to see what they do.

In general:
Spears have a high chance to hit and low damage. Great for fending off foes and my go-to weapon for anyone with bad melee skill.
Swords have a bonus to hit and decent damage. Solid weapons for any enemies not wearing armor.
   Two handed swords are good for hitting multiple enemies at once. Best used as a backup if you're fighting enemy archers, though.
Cleavers do bleed damage and can decapitate foes. Solid weapons, though their only real niche that I've found is against zombies to keep them from getting back up.
Axes do high damage, bonus damage on head hits, and can take out shields. Probably the best 'default' weapon in the game since they are good no matter what you're fighting. Two-handed axes are murderous with very high damage, but not usually worth it against enemies with bows. Long Axes are one of the best polearms in the game.
Flails are decent damage and armor penetration, ignore shields with their main attack, and can be used to specifically focus an enemy's head. Best weapon in the game against bandits, in my experience, since they nullify raider's shield walls and many bandits don't bother with helms. Good way to get free armor.
Hammers are the best at bypassing armor and destroying it. Great against a lot of late game enemies, not really needed before that. And the armor damaging part actually kind of sucks early on when you're strapped for cash.
Maces don't do great damage but have decent armor penetration. They sap an enemies fatigue when you hit them and have a stun attack. Best if you have the specialization, in my experience. Solid weapons.
Daggers are for assassination. Usually a backup weapon I use to take armor that I want, due to the puncture ability that ignores armor. If you don't damage the armor it'll almost always drop as loot. Great for well armored raiders, bandit leaders, and other well-equipped humans. Also very fast if you specialize in it, which can allow for 3 attacks a turn. Not generally a main weapon.
Billhooks are good single-damage polearms that can be used to pull enemies out of position. Note that moving an enemy will remove things like shieldwall and repost and I think in the latest update staggers them.
Bows are the longest range weapons in the game and can fire multiple shots. Poor against armored targets, great against enemy archers.
Crossbows have good armor penetration and a bonus to hit, but can only fire once per turn. Good against armored targets and for loading then moving around the field to shoot next turn for positioning.
Thrown Weapons have short range but high damage. Best used like long range polearms.

Hopefully this all helps.

[Ai Shizuka]

^ good weapon summary.

Only a little note to add about billhooks. Their main feature, imo, is not the pull skill, but their damage against armor, surpassed only by hammers.
My polearm guys always have quick hands and bag&belts, so they can switch to the best weapon for any given situation. Not sure if it's still viable with the recent change to B&B, but I guess a backup polearm won't be much of an issue.

[Majestic7]

Doesn't carrying extra weapons reduce your maximum fatigue? That is the only reason I don't have all my shields guys carry a spare shield.

[Mephansteras]

Bags and Belts used to nullify that, but they changed it so it doesn't do as much for two-handed weapons after the patch. Still, I'm a fan of any twohander having a shield to pull out as an option against archers. And, of course, all my archers should have some sort of backup weapon. Usually a polearm of some sort, so they can be useful at night or if they run out of ammo without having to be on the front line.

Either way, bags and belts is still useful. And you can always have shield guys carry a backup buckler, those take almost nothing even without bags&belts. I often have mine carry a dagger and buckler so they have replace their shield and swap to 'can-opener' duty when I need them to.

[Yoink]

Thanks for the summary! A lot of good info there, especially on flails- I had no idea they ignored shields like that.
I think I saw something on their lash attack about "can sometimes get around a shield" but I didn't pay much attention. With blunt weapons I've mostly been sticking to maces. I'll have to dig that one proper metal flail out of my stash.
I also have this one guy with an evil grin and a bloodthirsty backstory whom I let run about murdering folks with a cleaver. Let him have his fun, y'know? Cleaver or no cleaver he's one of my only reliable fighters.   

When you mention "specialisations", is that referring to something later on in the level-up perk "tree"? 'Cause I don't think I've made it that far yet.

[Blaze]

Flails are great if you're running into the 2spooky crisis like I am. They cancel out the bonus of shields (But not the extra points granted by shieldwall), which is greatly supplemented by backstab.

Does anyone have any idea whether lindwurms and unhold are affected by poison? I've been taking quests that have them and luckily my 5 archers generally make mincemeat out of groups of 1-2 of them. I have loads of venom glands so I'm curious if those are useful.

[Hotfire90]

Yep, those are the weapon specialisations, they provide good bonuses in addition to reducing the fatigue cost of skills which is vital in a prolonged engagement.
Also as a tip, you don't have to pick a perk from the highest available tier in order to unlock the next tier of perks, just selecting a perk unlocks the next row of perks.

Flails are great if you're running into the 2spooky crisis like I am. They cancel out the bonus of shields (But not the extra points granted by shieldwall), which is greatly supplemented by backstab.

Does anyone have any idea whether lindwurms and unhold are affected by poison? I've been taking quests that have them and luckily my 5 archers generally make mincemeat out of groups of 1-2 of them. I have loads of venom glands so I'm curious if those are useful.

I haven't used the poison yet, but Unholds should be be affected by it, not that it'll help too much since even the weakest Unholds regenerate 60 health every turn.

[Man of Paper]

Right now I'm in my most successful run by far. I'm on Day 146 with a rotating crew of 17 mercenaries. I still have my original 2-hander starterbro, and out of the three he was the only one without positive starting perks, or any at all. My lineup right now consists of 2-3 spearbros on one flank with the 2-hander on the other end and 4 or so assorted sword-, cleaver-, axe-, and flailbros mixed between them. My backline has two polearms, one with a long axe positioned behind the second spearbro and the other the standard bearer who secures the other flank of the two ranged units (crossbros and/or throwing weapons) between them.

I tend to use my spearwall and position that flank in a way to funnel the enemy into the hardier troops. Often the only means of getting through the spearwall now that my guys are levelled is with shieldwall, which is why my longaxebro hangs out there. It also lets me keep my Standard Bearer/Sergeant more centered since I shift the backline a few spaces to the flank. The center of the front line is meant to slog through the enemy while the 2-hander plows through the flank.

The set-up generally works very well, and I have enough options and flexibility with the center troops to adapt to whatever enemy I may be going against. And while ranged units are always good to have, I've started to keep mine at a minimum, as I've had very bad luck with Necrosavants cutting them down once they get levelled. It's actually how this run lost the starting crossbro.

[Sindain]

I haven't used the poison yet, but Unholds should be be affected by it, not that it'll help too much since even the weakest Unholds regenerate 60 health every turn.

I'm not sure if there is a new poison in the DLC, but traditional goblin poison doesn't actually do damage, instead it reduces the AP a unit gets each turn. I would actually imagine its very effective against low number armor-less enemies like Unholds.

[Yoink]

Just fought my first rival band of mercenaries and was surprisingly successful, losing only poor old Ottmar the pikeman to a disgustingly lucky shot from their one archer, and then... forgot to hit the 'loot all' button. -_____________-

Pretty sure this is the first time I've done that. They had some good shit, too. Damnit.
Well, to look on the bright side: at least now I don't have to decide who gets what out of that pile of fop helmets, kite shields and chainmail!

* Yoink puts on a brave face.

Edit: are zombies bugged? If you kill the necromancer, no more zombies. Seems like pretty basic logic, right? Apparently not.
Also AoO are still the bane of my existence... or at least my enjoyment of the game.

[Mephansteras]

There is a setting to auto-loot. I suggest turning it on to avoid that very situation.

And, no, zombies aren't bugged. Any time you are fighting zombies they always have a chance to rise up again. Killing the Necromancer just prevents him from rising/boosting them in addition to their normal ability to come back.

[Tack]

I personally quite enjoy AoO, if only because orcs are tough to kill and (moderately) easy to terrify.
Nothing more satisfying than hearing their retreat noise and then watching them vainly struggle to escape the cleavers.