Upgrading a Viktoria List

[Serigala]

Starting with a Viktoria starter set (Vik, Johan, Taelor, Bishop) I have now added 4 Ronin.

I have proxy-ed a Convict Gunslinger for a game or 2 and am trying to decide which of the usual suspects (Gunslinger, Misaki, Hamelin or Hans) I should be adding. I play all factions with random Strategies and usually at least 1 Scheme.

One factor I am considering is models which have triggers which don't use Masks. Pretty much everything uses Masks, meaning that they can be in pretty short supply.

Looking at Convict Gunslinger and Hans (who both have Ram triggers); I can see they have application, but the Viks, Ronin and Johan all have guns so the crew as a whole isn't short of shooting. As all the models are at their best in melee, this makes the shooting of these two potentially less useful once the rest of the models are engaged. I would imagine that they might be best utilised just behind the melee line picking off Masters who are lurking in the backfield but haven't tried that yet, as I have used CG to shoot in turn 2 and 3 meaning that he is too far behind the lines to reach far beyond the inevitable melee clash without a turn or two of additional movement. Maybe Hans with 16" range would be more effective in this role.

I can see potential for combining Hans and the Gunslinger together as the basis for a Control card disgard strategy. And either could be useful in a defense role against Breakthrough or with Holdout (which I find one of the easier Schemes to score).

On a related note:

How have people found running the Viks in a brawl without an additional master? Is it reasonable to just take the 10 Soulstones and use them with multiple Ronin to keep the Viktorias coming back? Or does this leave them too underpowered and playing catch up from the start?

Interested to hear the ideas and experiences of others...

[Sliver Chocobo]

From what i know, take out Johan, your not using MS&u members so you cant use his full potential, also you need some Ronin (a least 2) from looking at this crew a Convict Gunslinger would be of better use than Hans

[Gremlin Swarm]

You could, if going for the extra 10ss in a brawl, take 2 Convict Gunslingers. (Can't do this in a scrap, though.)

That'd be a good amount of potential lead flying around. (Gotta love Trigger Happy--at least if it's on your side.)

If you do take Hans, it'd be a good idea to have a fairly quick model to run interference/block for him. (Keep him from getting mugged, in other words.) You'll also want to keep an eye out for an opportunity to actually take out a model with Headshot. Alternately, he does draw fire/attacks, so you could use him to occupy opposing models for a bit while others of your crew go after an objective. He's not as tough as other models when doing this, but it can work.