Builds that worked for me

[Maloney]

Vet difficulty. Human.

Starting line up, Urtuk Hunter, Assassin, Warmonk
Hastening and Slowing strikes on the assassin. Light foot on the warmonk.
Could have taken or left the warmonk. if i had my time again i might try a footman instead. Everything was about the assassin and it worked well. I've since read he's good on map1 and i'd pay that. focused a lot on speed control as the build reflects.

Urtuk. drew strong v swords. Primary leeching crits, improviser, critical awareness, ranged support. Crit machine that feeds crits to all your other troops. Whatever utility you like for the fight after that. Bleed, Weakening, Pushing, sharp eyes, immobilizing all good picks for the right enemy. Strongk.

Assassin turned werebeast axeman. OP af.
Strong v Armor. Primary Feast & hastening strikes. Game would have been way harder without this guy. Between mass killer, hastening strikes, murdering sense and patience he had crits forever, jumped around like mad, got 3 turns to everyone's 1 and usually killed 2 opponents per turn. Also good as a human, but not OP.

Warmonk. decent.
strong v ranged. Primary Brilliant mind, feast, round strike & health pumps. Birdy, Rage and stunning blow honourable mention. trigger revitalizer and god's blessing as often as possible for survival. Flip things into holes and slow everything that wont.

Valdor Shieldbearer. Fun.
strong v armor. 3 armor slots, 1 weapon, 2 absorptions and 3 in the pocket. This guys plays himself. Crit counter, round strike, protection, retaliation and agi buffs. focus swap to hastening and improviser to feed more speed to the werebeast. late game added the valdor punching muto. there must be a million ways to play this guy. and if i do play again it would be with these guys.

Guardian. solid.
Strong v weakened. Mockers mark, lightfoot, protector. these guys are good decent tanks. ran 2 before finding the VSB. No great DPS but good to fight around.

Priest. felt like i needed it.
strong v who cares. health pumps. he's the only healer so you use him. in hindsight you might be able to play without him but it would take some planning and i wasn't up to the task first run. Lead, light foot and 4 move squares make him good for way more than just healing though especially vs ranged enemies that let you switch another unit into touch before coming back in with lead.

[Swaliant]

On desolation, I had priest as Urtuk, a shielder and a berserker (classic combo), footman with soldier perk luckily, warmonk (he's done wonders with stunning blow and lethal blow mutators), and a hunter. Thanks to the battle hardened treat and in addition to my game exp from previous difficulties, I was able to beat the final boss.
So don't hesitate from making the classic combo of shielder and berserker. Mutators I recommend for absorption: Feast for everyone, protector and crit counterstrike for armored ones, light foot and stalwart are both necessary for everyone.

[mobilefortunes]

The weaponsmith is like fine wine, you'd be surprised how good he can kill with enchanted weapons.