I ain’t afraid of no…

…Ghost!

On to the new model from Ashes and a model that immediately wormed his way into my lineups.

8ss cost and 5s across the board is ok? But he is attuned and hard to wound so he’s not that simple to remove as perhaps you first think. He also has our first example of Final Veil.  This is a very prevalent ability in Revenant (revalent?) that means every time a model is killed within 6” he heals 1. This is another example of an ability in the keyword that doesn’t say enemy, you think it does but it doesn’t. And between Corpse Candles, Mindless Zombies and Ghost Lights being sacrificed for the good of the cult this triggers quite a lot and with the way the aura rules work because of the models being impacted by board state change any and all models within 6” of the model killed with this rule will heal. I probably could’ve worded that better. Genuinely surprising how often this comes up and keeps your models safe.

His last two front of card abilities are centred on Ghost Lights, which I will cover shortly, one in terms of one of the ways he summons them (by discarding a card) and the other being the granting of pos flips when models utilise Ghost Lights as stones.  Both of these auras are quite small, the summon being only 3” and the POS aura being only 5”.  This does mean that whilst he is ostensibly a support model he has to be quite tightly positioned compared to some others.  Discard a card for a stone is a trade I’m pretty willing to make (spoiler alert, Ghost Lights are stones with activations. Well not quite, but you’ll see).  Principally I've found the POS aura mainly useful for the Ghost Eater himself but this might be because I principally use stones for damage mitigation that said I have used Ghost Lights to add the Crow on R2s fan the flames ability for the kidnap and gotten a pos flip for my troubles, which depending on what The Whisper’s Intuition shows me can be very useful. On the Ghost Eater himself I have stoned for the Mask on his ranged attack as I’m a fan of that trigger, more on that shortly.  It is worth noting that whilst Ghost Lights are Mindless they do still have 0” engagement so it is entirely possible to summon them in to deny Strats & Schemes even if they don’t activate.

His attacks then. The melee attack exists. At stat 5 it is not really what I want from an 8ss model and nor is a 2/3/5 dmg track but I will absolutely take the Crow trigger to Exorcise summoned models, especially as I can stone for it and get a pos flip for my troubles should I wish. 

That said, his ranged attack I’m a much bigger fan of. Stat 6 and a 12” range makes it very relevant in Rezzers especially as it ignores friendly fire. It attacks WP so even in cover your opponent is not getting the benefits of +1 DF (they will still get the neg flip to dmg mind) and if he stones for a trigger he’ll get a pos flip to negate concealing, and he makes his own stones. This is a good gun. 2/3/4 is not a spectacular damage track but the two triggers are very relevant. The Crow lets you generate corpse makers from relevant targets and Mask lets you (at the cost of killing a Ghost Light within 3” of the target) slap your opponent with either Injured2 or Burning4! Yes. FOUR. When relevant both of these conditions can be super useful. Reliable, reliable, useful gun on a support model?

Finally his two bonus actions, one heals him (and can maybe draw a card) and one heals friendlies. A few things of particular note with his Instil Youth action: this is the same heal that Yan Lo 1 has and has such more synergy with the Ancestor/Retainer keyword as it can heal one additional HP and remove a condition on a target with a Reliquary upgrade, perhaps of more significance is the Tome trigger which allows you to knock 2hp off a friendly and get another Ghost Light.  If you have a 6 of Tomes in hand especially in early turns I find this very worthwhile and between Final Veil and the number of your own models you sacrifice that 2Hp is quickly recovered.  What might not be so obvious is that this heal is locked purely to friendlies, a lot of heals in Rezzers are “living only” or “undead only” so having one that isn’t subtype locked is a useful thing to be paid attention too.  As such I’m really curious about using Ghost Eater OOK as well, especially in keywords with varying subtypes like maybe Kirai? Warrants experimentation. 

I’ve mentioned them a lot already, as I don’t think you can realistically talk about one without the other:

The most significant thing on these models is that they can refund the expenditure of Soul Stones. They don’t count as a Stone (which is what I kinda said above) you have to have one to use to refund. Be aware of this, I have been caught out by it in the past. The stats are terrible, they’ve less Hp than cost but they are Incorporeal at least. In general though keep them within 3” of a model that can use stones to kill them (triggering Final Veil on any model with it within 6”)  or within 2” of R2 for her Enkindle the Cult ability. Synergies everywhere!

I’ve never used their melee. I don’t imagine I ever will, but it is there.

They have two more actions, and I find whether or not it’s useful will depend on which keyword you’re playing them in. 

Ancestor’s Light is completely useless in Revenant unless you’ve brought an Ancestor into your crew and it has died. Otherwise it’s main use will be in Ancestor/Retainer to move Reliquary upgrades around which in YL2 will draw you a card. I imagine that’s very relevant, I’ve never played YL2 but I am giving him a run out soon so will find out.

What is super relevant in Revenant is Path Of Ashes. If they’ve survived a turn and if an enemy model is stood in a pyre marker (chances are pretty good there) they can give an enemy model within 6” Burning +2. Whilst they’re only stat 4, the enemy will be on a neg flip due to already standing in fire. This is a beautiful throw away activation attack. You’ve also got a small chance of handing out Adversary (Ancestor) but I don’t think that’s as relevant.  Personally I prefer Ghost Lights die on the turn they’re summoned so it’s rare I get to use Path of Ashes but it is great when I do.  Why do I rather they die? Largely I don’t want to give up Pass Token/Activation control. I’m already probably giving up some pass tokens because I want to be killing enemy models, and I don’t want to tip the balances too much, especially with Corpse Candles and maybe Mindless Zombies too. I can think of one turn where I gave up 11 pass tokens and I don’t want to do that often. 

So in conclusion I am a big fan of the Ghost Eater as both a support model (Heals and Stone generation) and as a very relevant gun that once per game usually makes an impact.  Do be careful against any crew with Assassin as Ghost Lights and Corpse Candles etc) all make very viable targets to give your opponent Fast. 

That and my last tip would be to pay very close attention to Final Veil auras. There’s nothing quite like stoneing Dmg from an opponents attack, killing a Ghost Light and healing half your crew in the process. Backbreaking.