A few thoughts on Ramos...
The list that I've been playing with uses 8 models, and usually nets between 9 and 14(ish) activations per turn. Everyone can agree that with his low DF, and wk speed Ramos simply can not be an effective front/center brute force. Everything you've read so far in this thread about Ramos being a support master is almost completely true... I think he makes a much better reactive support master.
My list is Ramos, a Brass Arachnid (team mvp by far), 1 swarm, and 5 single spiders. This nets 4 extra soulstones, for a total of 6. (30ss)
typical strats...
For starters, I like to give my opponent targets. It usually works out much better then letting them choose for themselves. I like to use the large number of actions to limit the amount of interaction my opponent has for the first few turns, allowing me to control how the turn goes once my opponent is out of activations. I like to open with Ramos, using Scavenge under fire to attempt a spider, as well as going for a creation on the first turn (netting and extra activation or 2). There simply is no reason to move him at this point... you want your opponent to get tangled up with your other stuff. If the creation was successful, I activate that next, moving it up, front and center. If not, the single summoned spider moves instead. I've found that opponents will try to shoot it down, or will position themselves to avoid it. 4 single spiders then move up 4 inches in a diamond formation (all in base to base) one at a time. The front 3 go defensive, the 4th one makes a swarm. The swarm goes next, moving itself in front of the other spider. At this point, I have a creation or a single spider 10 inches up, a swarm 8 inches up, a single spider 4 inches up, and I still have a swarm, my totem and 1-2 spiders to activate. I've used 7 activations. Based on my hand, I try to give reactivate to the unmoved swarm at this point, so it can be set up for a 12 inch run/scatter, or a 16 inch run. (I like to use this model to go for sabotage... scattering and then having the newly made spiders perform (1) interact after separating next turn) If I can get really lucky with my reactivate, I'll try to hit Ramos as well, for another salvage/spider/creation/arc screen attempt.
The rest of the game is spent trying to keep swarms in melee, and relying on their self healing abilities and Ramos to keep them above 5 wounds for the extra + to dmg. It's a good game if you can get a third swarm going as well, off of summons. Use reactivate as often as you can! I know it's 11+ of tomes... You should be able to cheat it every other round, and if you just cast it off the top, you will sometimes get it... It is amazing on the swarms with their ability to get 4 attacks off per activation. If Ramos is safe, then freely burn stones to summon spiders. Without taking deck contents into account, it's almost a 50/50 gambit without cheating.
Ideally, this will all cause your opponent to become a tangled mess in the middle of the board. This worked very well in my match ups against the Ortegas, and Marcus. Unfortunately, I was paired against Lilith twice on Sunday, and this strat simply doesn't work against the heavy "come to you" lists. As mentioned before, Ramos is fragile. His low Df score means your opponent will almost always be able to cheat their dmg. Even with his healing abilities, Ramos will only stand up to 4-6 hits (even using soulstones to reduce dmg) For this match up, (and similar) I will be trying to keep a swarm and a single spider back to play bodyguard. Lilith is tough to work around, I found Ramos in h2h on the 2nd turn both games due to the nephlim carry ability. The only advice I can give, is try to do as much as you can to Lilith on the way in, and focus on her once she's there. Trigger Paralyze off the swarm if you can, or Grip from Ramos. Arc screen becomes very important as well.... Get in as much dmg as you can asap, and keep up with the healing!
This list was very fun to play with, but I think it will be flawed against the melee rush crews. In the future, I intend to start with Ramos, Totem, Alyce, a swarm, and 2 singles. (3 extra stones) This will drop my activations a bit, but the extra cards will make reactivate and summons a bit smoother, and Alyce will provide a much needed bodyguard for Ramos.