Hobby Update: Undead Ghouls and Ghast

Back in 2021 and 2022, I hobbied up a bunch of Undead on round bases. The idea was to use movement trays, and thus have a nice multi-system army. That idea is still loosely appealing, but has been tempered a bit in the intervening years. 

All the Ghouls.

I am not playing any other games these days. I like Kings of War, and have liked the few games I have gotten in with the Undead. Some of the multi-system stuff will persist and will be covered soon, but the bulk of those generic Undead units are being officially moved over into Kings of War and stuck on the usual unit bases. First up on that front are some Ghouls!

A troop. Led by an old Ghoul King.

These were hobbied up in late 2021, and I was just having some fun with the skin tones and washes. I was doing these up as two troops, and five minis was going to be a little light on a unit base, so I stopped by an online shop and picked up two more older Warhammer Ghouls, and one newer one, to be a Ghast. With ten of the thirteen minis painted up already, these just needed some unit bases and were all finished up very quickly.

The other troop.

Ghoul seemed to be very popular back in 2nd Edition and could still have some utility in 3rd. Troops seem like the best way to take these, as cheap drops to swiftly grab objectives, since they are not Shambling, and can move at the double. If you aren’t utilizing their speed though, I think Zombies and even Skeletons could edge them out for spots in most lists. They have a role in the roster, but it does seem to be a little niche.

Old and new.

I wanted to hobby up the Ghast just because I wanted to check it off of the army roster. It’s good to have options! The mini I received was random, from a newer GW kit, but I like it overall. Ghouls and weapons are a fun idea, and the mini depicts a female ghoul, which is a neat twist as well! The only downside is that it is victim to GW’s over-engineering, and I was gluing parts of torsos and legs together to build up the model. Even that isn’t all bad though, as the arm slots fit much nicer and cleaner here than on the older models.

The new Ghast.

Crunch-wise, the Ghast is an intriguing pick. It’s got a good number of attacks, and decent offensive stats. They have Lifeleech 2, but that doesn’t really keep them in fights if they get wavered, and at 12/14 for Nerve, they are more the throwaway beserker style of hero. You can upgrade them to give an Aura TC1 to themselves and Cannibals… but I think to get the most out of this you’d want to run the Ghouls as hordes or as part of a distinct Ghoul-centric battle group. It’s neat, it’s fluffy, I want to try it… but I think the hero slots for the Undead are just too precious and competitive to spend on a Ghoul Ghast most of the time. 

Still, it's good to have options, and we'll try to get these on the table sometime and see what Ghouls are all about. More Undead units coming soon!