M2E+Viktoria+of+Blood

== toc
 * Viktoria of Blood, Outcast Henchman**

=__Overview__=

Victoria of Blood is the counterpart to Viktoria of Ashes, and will only be seen in the company of her sister (for whom she is a free Henchman) or leading a crew on her own. The Uninvited ability prevents her from being hired in other crews.

Many of her abilities revolve around the Sister Characteristic, which is possessed by herself, Viktoria of Ashes, Vanessa, and the Student of Conflict.

=__Mobility__=

Much like her sister, Viktoria of Blood is quick, with a Walk speed of 5 and a very high Charge speed of 8.

Blood's Flight of Dragons action also provides her and the other Sisters fighting an enemy with a degree of mobility, giving them a free attack against the target (with a +flip on their damage) followed by a 6" push in any direction. This action is similar to the Dragon's Bite action on Viktoria of Ashes, which does the same thing in reverse, allowing all Sisters within 6" of a target to place themselves next to the target and then take a free attack (with a +flip on their damage again).

When combined with the Sisters in Spirit action (found on the Sisters in Spirit upgrade and the Student of Conflict), the Viktorias are very mobile models.

=__Offense__=

The Viktorias are some of the most deadly models in the game, and Blood is probably the most physically dangerous of the two sisters. Her only attack is the Paired Masamune Nihonto, which has a very high **Ml** 7, a respectable 2" range, and a very good damage profile of 3/4/6. Furthermore, Blood gains a +flip to her attacks, making an already very accurate attack even more likely to connect.

As if she wasn't deadly enough, Blood also possesses a pair of free actions, each one revolving around the distance between her and other friendly Sisters. The Falling Star only works while Blood is within 2" of another friendly Sister, and it grants all such friendly Sisters (including herself) +1 **Ml**, bringing up to an absurd **Ml** of 8.

The Lonely Path, in contrast, only functions while Blood is more than 6" away from any other friendly Sisters, but it grants her a +flip to all her damage flips, which is quite impressive given the +flip she already gains on her attack flips.

Like her sister, Blood possesses the Whirlwind trigger, which allows her to take an additional attack action against every enemy model in range except the target. Hitting this trigger can allow Blood to quickly clear the board of every enemy model around her, especially if she uses Whirlwind multiple times in a single activation (though her Whirlwind attacks are prevented from declaring any triggers themselves).

Viktoria of Blood also possesses the Flight of Dragons action, which allows all Sister models within 2" of a target to immediately take a 1 AP melee action against the target (with a +flip on their damage) and then push 6" in any direction. Flight of Dragons is a 2 AP action, making it a bit of an investment, but it can be very devastating against a single model to have multiple Sisters hit it in a single activation and then push away to safety. If you hit the Whirlwind trigger on these additional attacks, it won't gain the +flip to damage from Flight of Dragons, but it will result in a very high number of attacks against clustered enemies.

Note that while Flight of Dragons only allows Sisters within 2" of the target to make melee attacks against it, Blood can use the action from up to six inches away, giving her an (albeit expensive) method of allowing other Sisters to attack and push away from the target even if Blood herself isn't involved in the fight.

Finally, while within Line of Sight of Viktoria of Ashes, Blood gains Melee Expert, granting her one additional AP that can only be used on melee attacks.

=__Resilience__=

The Viktorias are glass cannons, with an extreme amount of offense and very little in the way of defensive abilities. First and foremost, both Viktoria of Ashes and Viktoria of Blood only have seven wounds each, making them individually very fragile.

Blood does have a fairly high Defense and average Willpower, and her Fate's Pariah ability gives her a +flip on any Willpower or Defense duels she makes...but only if she has four or more cards in hand. Once she dips below four cards, she loses these bonuses (or rather, they transfer to Viktoria of Ashes via her Fate's Chosen ability, which does the same thing for Ashes, but only when she has three or fewer cards in hand).

Viktoria of Blood also possesses a bit of innate healing in the form of her Into the Fray ability, which grants her a healing flip the first time each turn that she kills a model during her activation. Because of her Fates Entwined ability, whenever Blood makes a healing flip (for any reason), all friendly Sisters in play heal the same amount. This allows Viktoria to function as a sort of healer for the other Sisters, albeit one that only heals via murdering things. Into the Fray only works during Blood's activation, though, so it won't trigger at other times (such as when making free attacks via the Dragon's BIte action of Viktoria of Ashes).

=__Upgrades__=

Mark of Shez'uul is probably the most popular upgrade for Viktoria of Blood, as it allows her melee attacks to ignore Armor, Hard to Wound, Incorporeal, and Hard to Kill. This makes her attacks all the more likely to kill her target, which in turn makes it more likely for Blood to trigger Into the Fray to heal her Sisters.

Sisters in Spirit gives Blood the ability of the eponymous ability, allowing her to place a friendly Sister within 6" into base contact with her. This is a very handy upgrade for helping the Sisters to move around the battlefield, but generally speaking, it's usually a better fit on Ashes than Blood.

Sisters in Fury brings a casting action that grants all friendly Sisters the Furious Loyalty Condition, which increases the damage of their melee actions by +2. This jumps Blood up to a very alarming 5/6/8 damage spread, which - given her accuracy - is usually enough to kill just about any model in the game. Unfortunately, you really want Blood to be using all her AP to attack while this ability is active, so it's usually best to give this upgrade to another Sister and just let Blood reap the rewards of their successful castings.

The Synchronized Slaying upgrade is similar to Sisters in Fury, in that grants Blood an action that gives all friendly Sisters in play a +flip to their attacks. Much like with Sisters in Fury, it's usually best to cast this spell with a different Sister to allow Blood to reap the full benefits of the action, but the Accomplice that comes with the upgrade still makes it a valid consideration.

Blood can also purchase the Howling Wolf Tattoo, which does little for herself but instead supports her crew, allowing friendly Mercenary models to take the Flurry or Rapid Fire actions without discarding a card. Furthermore, she can discard the upgrade at the start of her activation to make another friendly Minion within 8" of her a Sister for the rest of the turn, which can be helpful in conjunction with her various Sister-related abilities and actions.

Oathkeeper is another good upgrade for Blood, as being able to discard it for a turn of Fast means that Blood can become even more deadly to her enemies, or just reach combat all that much faster. With the Blood Lines ability from Viktoria of Ashes giving her Melee Expert, a fast Blood can make up to four attacks in a single round, each of them with a potential Whirlwind trigger to hit other models around her. A fast Blood is a very good thing (for you, but not for your opponent).

Scramble can also be useful for increasing Blood's Walk and Charge speeds, but the real benefit of this upgrade in the Unimpeded it grants her, allowing her to charge heedlessly through severe terrain without being slowed.

Finally, Tally Sheet allows Blood to draw a card whenever she kills a model. Blood is very good at killing things and generally wants cards in her hand to fuel her Fate's Pariah ability, so this upgrade is very good on her.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

Unless she's leading a crew of her own, Viktoria of Blood will almost always show up alongside Viktoria of Blood. She's a free Henchmen, and the two of them were designed to function alongside each other, so why //wouldn't// you take them together? Because of this, it may be worth reading over Viktoria of Ashes' page to get a feel for how the two of them function as a single master in two bodies.

Blood is a melee model, so getting her into melee as quickly as possible is usually a good thing. Take care not to bite off more than you can cut into small pieces, however, as both of the Viktorias are rather fragile. Careful activation order can make the most of Blood's Into the Fray ability to heal Ashes or the other Sisters in her crew, but you can also accomplish the same thing by having another model heal Blood (or Ashes or Vanessa) to heal your other Sisters. Freikorps Librarians are very good at this, and Vanessa is more or less built to do this exact thing with her healing tactical action.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on how close Blood gets to her other Sisters. There's a 2" to 6" dead zone where neither of free actions will give her any benefit, so you'll usually want Blood either hanging out near her fellow Sisters or far away from them, acting on her own.

=__Leading a Crew__=

While Viktoria of Blood can lead a crew, it's probably not the best idea in the world. She's a fragile model and loses quite a bit of her Sister synergy without Viktoria of Ashes, though she can reclaim some of it with the Student of Conflict or Vanessa in her crew.

Strategies and Schemes
Blood is very good at anything that requires murder, death, and killing, so schemes such as Assassinate, Murder Protege, and Make Them Suffer are all schemes she can do very well with.

Building a Crew
A crew without either the Sister of Conflict or Vanessa is going to have a hard time getting the full use of out Viktoria of Blood's leadership, as most of her actions revolve around the Sister Characteristic in some manner or another. Still, even if you don't have another Sister in her crew, Blood can still use The Lonely Path every turn to give her a +flip on her damage, making her quite a lethal model to face down. The Survivalist upgrade can help to mitigate some of her fragility while she's leading a crew.

=__Playing Against Viktoria of Blood__=

The Viktorias are fragile, but Blood is capable of healing not just herself when she kills a model, but also every other Sister in her crew. Fortunately, this is only once per turn, but it can still add up very quickly.

When possible, try to take out Blood while her hand is at three cards or less, otherwise she'll have defensive bonuses from her Fate's Pariah ability, making her that much harder to take down. Doing so after she's already activated can keep her from activating and healing via Fate's Pariah, and anything resistant to melee attacks - such as The Drowned - can slow her down long enough to mitigate her crazy damage potential.

Try not to bunch up against Viktoria of Blood; her Whirlwind trigger is quite capable of making short work of an entire crew if they're clustered together, so don't give her the opportunity to do so.

Above all else, don't panic when you see the sort of damage that Blood can toss out! In all likelihood, she //will// kill anything she gets into melee with, so don't expect to tarpit her with heavily armored or incorporeal models (especially if she has the Mark of Shez'uul upgrade, which lets her ignore the most common defensive abilities in the game).

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