There’s a Big Difference Between Proper Dead and Mostly Dead

So, first off, spoilers for background ahead! If you’ve been following the Guild Ball background releases over the last couple years, you’ll know that Ghast got, uh, a touch murderised back in the Season 2 background. His untimely demise was an unfortunate result of one of our developers (for the sake of privacy in this difficult time, let’s just use his initials: JP) letting our lead writer Sherwin know that Ghast was his favourite character. This is a rookie, fate tempting mistake up there alongside saying things like “Well I hope the weather stays nice for the barbeque at the weekend” or “At least things can’t get any worse” and Sherwin duly punished JP by brutally murdering Ghast by means of a Mortician-seeking bear.

However in Guild Ball, as the title says, dead doesn’t mean dead, particularly in the Mortician’s Guild. Since being hurriedly shuffled off the mortal coil, Ghast’s been spending his days around his old haunts, just generally hanging around with his old mates. Now Gaffer has come to the Mortician’s Guild, Ghast has taken the opportunity to further press his way closer to the physical world once more by haunting Gaffer, constantly whispering in his ear. Gaffer might think he’s going mad, but we’re sure he’d be thoroughly relieved to find out he’s just being haunted by an unhappy spirit.

Probably.

Guilty Feet Ain’t Got No Rhythm

So with the theme in mind that Ghast is reaching through the veil and influencing Gaffer’s actions, let’s look at the front of his card. Statline wise, Gaffer was the oldest member of the Free Cities Draft by some margin, so we leaned into the Coach playstyle for him. As a result, his stats aren’t quite as good as some of the young whippersnappers he was training with. His stats are distinctly below average, with a 3+/1 defensive profile, MOV 5”/7”, and a 2/6” KICK. He can also only take a maximum of 3 Influence each turn. His playbook’s also nothing to write home about, featuring a generally uninspiring collection of results. But hey, this model isn’t one you bring for his personal contribution to the fight...

Since he is an aforementioned Coach model, his support abilities are...well pretty phenomenal, if we’re honest. His first Character Play is called Careless Whisper. It’s a range 4” play that puts a whisper token down on an enemy model. Friendly Mortician models gain +2 TAC when attacking the target enemy model until the enemy model receives the taken out condition. That’s extraordinarily powerful, it’s the first Character Play in the game that has an effect that carries over into the next turn. This allows you to set up a key model on turn 1, and you know that they’re going to stay set up until they get taken out. +2 TAC is an amazing swing, making all of your attacks more reliable and adding damage or more effects.

His second ability, Red Fury, is one we’ve seen before on Veteran Rage, the Union captain. Allowing a friendly model within 4” to immediately make an attack is...well, spectacular. Casket fluff the last attack and miss the Casket time? Let him welly some more attacks in! Ghast need to KD an enemy model at short notice? Let that big saw thing fly, baby! Literally any model in your team that is engaging an enemy model in melee that has a more efficient playbook than Gaffer? Go for it! This is a fantastic get out of jail free card, but it also allows Gaffer to effectively use other model’s playbook instead of his own. He can make his own attacks if he wants...but frankly he doesn’t really want to.

Finally on the front of his card, he only has 16 HP. Coupled with his below average statline, while his offensive support abilities are exceptional, you are going to have to work to keep him safe.