One hand
>Spears: early they are main line and even late they are useful, they are low cost, high accuracy weapon with zone denial, that work greet with Overwhelm. unique spears can be really nice
>Swords: arming swords are pretty good and can be easily looted in good amount from bandits, good dmg, accuracy low cost, mid game mainline is sword and board
>Axes: usually do not bother early because low tier axes have low shield crushing power and no accuracy, pretty solid weapon - overall it do well against all enemies but not really great
>Flails: mostly I do not bother, they can be easily looted and used to farm early bandit armor or used against no helmets orc warriors but they work good only with specialization or high accuracy character, RNG dmg and they are mediocre at best, not big fan
>Cleavers: mostly ignore them, they are annoying to fight against but not really great, orc named weapon have best damage per attack so if you want high damage singel target duelist this is your choice, high cost to use as they are heavy
>Daggers: great sidearm, anyone carry one rondel if I can afford them, good to farm armors and great work with specialization and overwhelm as you can use 3 attacks with low costs, but overall do not recommended making a dagger assassin as they do not work well against undead
>Picks: antiarmor weapon, that's all, not big fan as they usually extra fast drain fatigue
>Maces: solid weapon, have stun and tire enemy, good with Overwhelm as enemy tire faster than you when you hit him with mace, good secondary weapon(for stun), rather support weapon but can be useful
Two hand
>Swords: easily best weapon in the game thanks to solid dmg, good accuracy and AoE attacks, with good perks and base stats 2 hand swordsmen are real killing machines
>Axes: single target weapon, not big fan even if they work great, amazing damage but much less utility and flexibility than swords, much worse survival rate
>Cleavers: meh do not use
>Hammers: great weapon, even if costly to use, need specialist to really shine, as it stagger enemy it work well with Overwhelm and synergy well with Overwhelm based company, good in crushing armor or controlling enemy access
Polearms
>Pikes - good for rookies as it have accuracy bonus but overall its not to good
>Billhook - solid antiarmor weapon
>Long Axe - decent overall weapon
>Scythe - ugly but has AoE, pretty devastating in right hands
Ranged
>Bows: best range, best rate of fire, overall designated marksman weapon, good for sniping on long range or close combat support(Overwhelm is another bonus)
>Xbows: less range, less rate of fire, allow wearing better helmets or armors , have accuracy bonus and it better pierce armor, they are better early and for hybrids characters as you do not need that high Ranged Attack to make them effective, still some rare xbows can be real monsters
>Thrown weapons: not big fan of this, I see working specialist and universal(massed) but do not find them appealing(that was before recent reset equipment changes but still), can be useful in weakened enemy but you need to field them in big numbers, great support(for shieldmen) for your archer company
In short:
>Beginning: Spears(and Shields),Maces
>Early: Spears, Swords, Maces, Pikes, Xbows
>Mid: Spears, Swords, Maces, variety of polearms, xbows/bows,2 handed swords
>Late: Spears, swords, 2 handed swords and 2 handed hammers, bows
Occasionally field 1 handed hammers if needed. And daggers or maces for all. Also NETS
