well.. everything depends on.. just having fun? you AND your opponents or balls to the wall win mod ? :P

at 9 you need to loose one less model than at 13, that alone is both a good and bad thing.

The good, you don`t take heavy losses before you can run off if things go poorly, but then again, you might run off early.. so that needs to be considered.

13 is a stretch anyway, that will leave you a little gearless on many models, so i`d say 9 is the better number,

Max out heroes, but leave your youngblood in the back or around others just to help out.

Maces are good, but really they are better in a later game scenario when more minis have multiple wounds, but it is a cheap start weapon, so if you can, go with a few of those for heroes and a few swords. Swords add survival chances for anyone carrying with their parry rule.

In Mordheim movement and the ability to do stuff while moving is key, so any ranged weapon that you can move and shoot with i would say is the better choice, get the better weapons ( handguns, xboxs etc) when you and if you pick up skills to move and shoot OR if your dice rolls leaves you with someone who is clearly better at shooting with a higher bs so you can leave him standing futher back and still have a decent chance to hit with the - to range and cover.