Starting Waband: Witch Hunters

Welcome back to the Serene Annihilation campaign!  Over the coming days, I will be reviewing all four warbands which are taking part in this campaign.  First up: the Witch Hunters!

+++THE WARBAND+++

Witch Hunters are a challenging warband.  They lack the resilience of the Undead, the raw power of the Possessed or the versatility of mercenary warbands.  I was never a fan of the Witch Hunters; I always believed them to be under-powered.  It wasn't until I actually played a Witch Hunter Warband that I realized how amazing they are.

To start with, I hired all five heroes - a Witch Hunter Captain, 3 Witch Hunters and one Warrior Priest.  This, I knew, would maximize my income.  I built the models first, then armed them.  This campaign is about character, not about competition - so my warriors were armed with what I thought looked good, not about what was effective.

Here is the starting list for the Witch Hunters

HEROES
====================
Witch Hunter Captain: Increase Mathers
Pistol, Sword (75 GC)

Warrior Priest: Jasper St. Claire
Sword, Hammer, Heavy Armor, Helmet (113 GC)

Witch Hunter: Prudence
Crossbow, Hammer (53 GC)

Witch Hunter: The Hoodsman
Crossbow, Mace (53 GC)

Witch Hunter: Brother Thelonius
Two-Handed Hammer (40 GC)

HENCHMEN
====================
2 x Flagellants w/ Flails (110 GC)
3 x War Monkeys (45 GC)

TOTAL: 499 GC

+++WITCH HUNTER CAPTAIN: INCREASE MATHERS+++

Increase Mathers is my witch hunter captain.  He is armed with a sword, pistol and helmet.

+++WARRIOR PRIEST: JASPER IRONS+++

Jasper St. Claire is my Warrior Priest.  He is armed with Heavy Armor, a hammer, a sword and a helmet.  Of course, he rolled Armour of Righteousness as his prayer, largely negating his armor save.

+++WITCH HUNTER: BROTHER THELONIUS+++

This guy is one of my favorites.  Thelonius is a straight kit-bash with no green stuff.  His legs are from an Imperial Guard tank commander, his torso from a Catachan Heavy Weapon trooper, his arms from the same, his head from the old Empire Pistolier kit.

 +++WITCH HUNTER: PRUDENCE+++

Prudence is not a particularly specific individual.  At the end of the day, no one knows if she is even a she.  He/she wears an iron mask - perhaps to cover up horrible scars?  And he/she has long, red hair.  Prudence is a bit of an enigma - even to her companions - doubly so because she never speaks.

+++WITCH HUNTER: THE HOODSMAN+++

I decided that two heroes with crossbows would be extremely important to the survival of my warband.  The Hoodsman was based on the look of the old witch hunter models with cowls, or the old Necromunda Red Redemption models.  During the course of the campaign, he was dropped and the tip of his hood broke off so that now he does not have the really pointy hood he once had.

+++FLAGELLANTS+++

Most of my heroes were fairly expensive, leaving little for henchmen.  For my starting warband I purchased two flagellants with flails.  I purchased them as separate henchman groups in order to increase my chances of one of them becoming a hero through "The lad's got talent..."

+++WAR-MONKEYS+++

I didn't have any models for war hounds, but I did have a bunch of monkeys!  To start with, I used three monkeys.  They are incredibly cheap and fast, really helping balance the tables against some of the more powerful warbands.