Kega

Sorry, I might've worded that poorly. The feikorp rule applies when a model is hired as a mercenary via the mercenary rule, not just when it has the mercenary type. They can hire a feikorp guy and a ronin because neither of them are being hired as mercenaries. Afaik, the only model that the Viks can hire with the mercenary rule is performers, which would prohibit them from hiring freikorp.

The freikorp rule only applies when you're hiring them as mercenaries. Since the Viks aren't hiring them out of faction they aren't mercenaries.

I think it might be better if, rather than always working on a negative flip, the red joker could be cheated in despite negative flips. This would mean that hard to wound still isn't going to protect you from getting crushed by the joker, but your opponent would have to spend a valuable resource to do so, and multiple negative flips wouldn't be a double edged sword. Another solution might be to remove the extra damage flip and just cause severe damage which ignores armor and spirit so it's less bursty and more symmetrical with other defensive abilities.

Based on this thread- http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?12964-McMourning-amp-Master-surgeon-heal-himself&highlight=surgeon I'd say a model is always within range of itself

2 wounds. Page 44 of the Rules Manual states "Models can only suffer as many wounds as they have remaining"

Spirit sheath doesn't transfer damage, it applies the entire effect of a successful attack to the seishin instead of Kirai. I'd assumed that this meant you elect to spirit sheath after the resist flip but before spell resolution, so I'm confused about what's actually stopping you from using it here.

Would like some clarification on the timing of spirit sheath. The wording on the card seems to imply that the effect is transferred before it's begun to resolve, in which case none of the seishin would have taken damage yet.