Awesome strategy! My Annabelle is lucky if I remember to deliver food to her cell. Guess I need to bite the bullet and level her up.
@Wilkopuppy - you answered your own question with regards creating holes in walls, timing - the hole must exist before gunners select their target (since as you've observed their pathing appears to be calculated at the same time as target selection). However I do agree with you it is frustrating that gunners do not have the consistent ability to select and fire at targets over walls - I too believe they should be able to do this.