Weekly Waffle #406 – It’s Always Casket Time
20th December 2025
For this week’s weekly waffle I’ve stayed with the morticians, which I have to say even for a grinch like me feels a little odd with Christmas right around the corner. It’s been a very odd week with lots of last minute things. Be that work things that absolutely have to done this week or the world will end. Despite the fact no one is going to be there to do anything with it. Or those last minute things that have to be done for Christmas. Although I think we are only feeding a large regiment and a small army this year.
But dispute all of that I have managed to get some painting in this week. Although to be fair it has been a little bit of a struggle on the mojo front. I don’t really know why but I have found it hard to really motivate myself this week. Bits that I could have finished quite quickly have seemed to take for ever. Whole mini sessions where I’ve just stared at things wondering what I’m trying to accomplish.
But I’ve managed to crack on and have another mortician ready for the table top. And what a miniature. Casket is for me the one who scrams mortician more than any other. The coffin goes a long way but I’m going to show my age again here and say he just reminds me so much of the early days of the undertaker from American wrestling. Just such a dark and brooding character. And i think casket feels much the same.
There isn’t really a lot to say about how I painted him that I haven’t already covered so I’ll get straight in and let you have a look at him.
You can see more Guild Ball miniatures at my gallery here
On the gaming front it’s fair to say that some players inspire awe. Some inspire fear. And then there’s Casket, who inspires a sort of nervous laugh, followed by the realisation that if you’re not careful, one of your star players is about to spend the rest of the game buried six feet under.
Casket is the Morticians’ enforcer. The big man with the big box, who doesn’t so much play football as he does drag his opponents into a hole and slam the lid shut. He’s not elegant like Obulus, he’s not frenetic like Cosset, and he’s not theatrical like Brainpan. He’s simple, brutal, and inevitable.
When Casket arrives, one phrase echoes across the pitch: “It’s Casket Time.”
Casket is, quite literally, the coffin-bearer of the Morticians. In a guild obsessed with death, he is the one who ensures that death has a place. His role isn’t subtle. He doesn’t whisper like Obulus, or stitch like Scalpel, or scheme like Silence. He carries the box, and into the box the dead must go.
He’s depicted as a tragic, almost pitiable figure. Unlike some of the Morticians who revel in cruelty, Casket’s more of a doomed servant. He carries the coffin because someone has to. The guild needs a big, strong man to do the heavy lifting, and that’s his role.
But pity doesn’t make him less terrifying. If anything, it makes him worse. A man who carries a coffin because he must, because it is his fate, is a man you don’t want to cross paths with.
On the tabletop, Casket is the Morticians’ big, slow bruiser. He’s not flashy, but he’s brutally effective at his job. His toolkit is designed to do one thing better than anyone else: remove enemy players from the game.
That tool kit consists of Casket Time which is his legendary ability. If Casket takes out an enemy model with this up, that model is effectively buried for an extra turn, denying your opponent their influence and their presence. It’s one of the most powerful tempo plays in the entire game.
Then we have Big and Tanky: Casket isn’t easy to shift. He soaks up attention, draws resources, and forces opponents to commit heavily if they want to bring him down.
Control Elements means that between knockdowns, pushes, and his sheer base size, Casket exerts board control that makes him a nightmare to play around.
And finally we have Not Subtle: Unlike most Morticians, Casket doesn’t deal in trickery. His plays are obvious, but that doesn’t make them any easier to stop.
Casket is all about threat projection. Set up the box. Get him close enough to a valuable target, pop Casket Time, and force your opponent to scramble. Or get him to Soak up some attention. While opponents deal with him, your more fragile pieces (Cosset, Silence) can work in relative safety. And don’t forget to Control space. With his tankiness and knockdowns, he locks down areas of the pitch that opponents would rather avoid.
He’s not fast. He’s not flashy. But he’s reliable. And when the time comes, he’s devastating.
Playing against Casket is a test of patience. You know Casket Time is coming. You know he wants to bury your captain or one of your key hitters. The question is: can you stop it?
The best answers are control and avoidance. Don’t let him get into range of a juicy target. Use pushes, dodges, or disruption to keep him lumbering after shadows. If you let him set up, you’ve basically handed your opponent a free turn’s worth of advantage.
That said, ignoring him isn’t always an option. Left unchecked, he’ll grind down your team and eventually find his mark. Sometimes, the only solution is to throw resources at him early and hope you can take him out before the coffin lid slams shut.
Casket reminds me of that gamer who lives for the moment. You know the type. They don’t care about the steady grind, or the efficient play, or the subtle incremental advantage. They care about that one big combo, that one highlight reel move that everyone will remember after the game.
And when they pull it off? They’re insufferable. They’ll remind you of it for weeks, months, years afterwards. “Remember that time I Casket Timed your captain? Classic.”
Casket is built for those players. He’s a walking setup for the story. And whether you’re the one delivering the coffin or the one desperately trying to avoid it, you’ll remember the moment.
Casket is the Morticians’ executioner. He doesn’t scheme, he doesn’t trick, he doesn’t seduce. He just brings the box, and once the box is there, someone’s going in it.
On the pitch, he’s the Morticians’ big man, tanky, controlling, and capable of swinging games with a single activation. In the lore, he’s their coffin-bearer, the tragic figure who embodies the inevitability of death.
He might not be subtle, but he doesn’t need to be. Because in Guild Ball, few things are more iconic than shouting across the table:
“It’s Casket Time!”
So with the morticians progressing, and I am going to finish them all off, my mind has been straying. We have Christmas next week, so I hope you all have a great time, whatever form that takes, and then thoughts will stray into that new year. Lots of good intentions and plans for wonderful projects. And I’m no different.
But I am going to try and rain in my enthusiasm a little. Next week I’m going to have a break and will be in the new year with a bit of a retrospective look back over 2025 to clear the decks for the new year. I have a few projects lined up already. Finishing the Morticians being the first and then in no particular order I have some Blood Bowl, Carnivale and some Necromunda, kind of.
So I have things lined up to run straight into the new year without too much Change. But I am thinking of doing a little bit more next year.
One thing I’ve found this year is that I have made loads of notes for potential projects. Be they painting or kit bash ideas. But I just know I’m never going to get round to doing them. So my idea is to share some of these with you in the hope they may inspire one of you to try something new.
I know that my sound a bit “conceited” but I’ve get a lot of ideas from what others have done. So I thought it might just spark an idea in someone else.
Anyway that’s all I have for you this week. I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas & New Year for those of you who celebrate. If you don’t then I hope you all have a fantastic week and I look forward to seeing you all back here at the same time in two weeks for some more weekly waffle.
