For archers it is deffinatly the dwarven crossbow and i give them a two handed weapon so they can handle their own close range and 2 dwarven bolts so they don't run out of ammo. For knights It would sound smart to give them either a bow/sword combo or a lance/sword combo but that makes them terrible close range because the AI doesnt understand how to SWITCH THEIR DAMN WEAPONS, but I digress. If you want a infantry unit I would reccomend just giving them the best weapons and armor you can find because I try to make my units look similar as if they are a part of a seperate faction, so I dont just mis-match my equipment and go for a theme that I set myself. If you want lancers I would suggest that you go for light cavalry and a lance with shield and a one handed axe or weapon that does bonus damage to shields so that the cavalry can break through lines easier. I also find it useful to give archers heavy armor so they can be used as a sort of all-purpose infantry that can take a hit from shock cavalry (especially against the Reich. I havent played with the hired units enough to tell you if you can get the aroulo leaf bombs but if you can use those for whatever unit is able to use them and just fill their inventory with them and give them a two hander or a shield so that they can replenish ammo in a siege. The placing of equipment doesnt matter in the case of lancers because they will just use whatever primary weapon they have and a shield (if you have one equipped on them), so that leads to some units holding a lance and some holding other weapons, but if you have cavalry with bows they will be classified as horse archers and ALWAYS use the bow first (I believe).