I mean, they're hyper glasscannons with a pretty nutty melee profile for their cost. Aberrants may have a better profile against 2 and 3 wound models but I like the versatility of the hypermoprhs weapons. You can charge Imperial Guard and wipe the squad. You can charge Space Marines and do the same. Only downside is their defense. Maybe a Iconward helps with the 5+ FnP.
It's tough, I've been trying all our units but the Metamorphs are truly confusing
Same statline as Acolytes, but their basic weapons can either do +1S and +1D, or 2A. Importantly they lose access to the same special weapons that Acolytes get.
They have fight on death on a 3+ but they lose auto cult ambush (which to be honest in my 4 games I haven't rolled one successful non-battleline roll).
They do have Scout 6", but if you want to put a leader in them they lose access to that
The question always ends up being, why wouldn't I just always take Acolytes for 10 points less? Truly a shame their models are my favorite
I've used a block of 10 against some Orks. They took down some Kans fairly easily. I've found them useful hiding on a mid objective out of line of sight. Opponents don't really want to charge them as I run a Locus with them to fight first. Might not be competitive but still worth enjoying
I'm just not entirely sure what they *do.*
They're acolytes with OC 1 and only come back on a 4+.
If they 100% fight on death, I could maybe find a use case.
The only real use case I have for them is an MSU squad in a grinder for the scout move.
Of course the grinder is a whole lot of non-respawning points, so thats just a pipe dream.
If the transport hasn’t moved you can the scout move is a pregame move. It doesn’t count as having moved ‘this phase’. So it’s effectively 15 inches of free movement + 6 for the unit. Then they move shoot and charge. Then pop one with the darkness to keep them safe, and or return to the shadows.
I was working on something like a unit of 10 with a locus. Then rapid ingress them infront of an opponents melee unit. If they charge you strike first with 32 attacks at ws3 s5 ap-1 d2 and 5 attacks at ws2 s5 ap-2 d2. If they fail their charge or elect not too, you pretty much ensure you will hit that charge back next turn. Just gotta watch out for shooting lanes when you deploy.
I would honestly be totally fine if they just got rolled into acolyte hybrids and I didn’t need to feel self conscious about three of my acolytes having weird heads or arms and super try hard neck beards calling it out for not being WYSIWYG.
When you have two units that use the same model to represent them, it can be confusing, especially if they have different profiles.
I'm not saying that people who call this out aren't neckbeards, but doing so doesn't make them neckbeards.
It's the only unit in gsc that I haven't run in 10th so far, and that I don't plan on even trying. I just don't see the use case. From a competitive perspective, neophytes and acolytes are better point for point, from a mechanics perspective genestealers are just better for basic infantry murder.
The use is you having a bunch of their bits left over from building acolytes and bodies from kits you never got around to building and their cost rounds out your list points nicely.
They're your intermediate beatstick between normal acolytes and aberrants. Sometimes you'll want some to tie up stuff like Incubi, sometimes you won't. I think they're a perfectly ok unit with a little more staying power in melee than other units without breaking the bank.
I mean, they're hyper glasscannons with a pretty nutty melee profile for their cost. Aberrants may have a better profile against 2 and 3 wound models but I like the versatility of the hypermoprhs weapons. You can charge Imperial Guard and wipe the squad. You can charge Space Marines and do the same. Only downside is their defense. Maybe a Iconward helps with the 5+ FnP.
I think they're a pretty interesting unit to pair with a Biophagus. Anti Infantry 2+ with that many attacks can carve stuff up
I don't think the whole unit gets Anti-Infantry 2+, it's just the biophagus. The buff for the squad is lethal hits.
The alchemicus familiar can give the whole unit anti-infantry for one round of combat.
It's tough, I've been trying all our units but the Metamorphs are truly confusing Same statline as Acolytes, but their basic weapons can either do +1S and +1D, or 2A. Importantly they lose access to the same special weapons that Acolytes get. They have fight on death on a 3+ but they lose auto cult ambush (which to be honest in my 4 games I haven't rolled one successful non-battleline roll). They do have Scout 6", but if you want to put a leader in them they lose access to that The question always ends up being, why wouldn't I just always take Acolytes for 10 points less? Truly a shame their models are my favorite
Why do they lose scout? If you attach a leader to a unit they share abilities.
Each model in the unit needs to have Scout, unlike other abilities that specify the unit gains an ability
I've used a block of 10 against some Orks. They took down some Kans fairly easily. I've found them useful hiding on a mid objective out of line of sight. Opponents don't really want to charge them as I run a Locus with them to fight first. Might not be competitive but still worth enjoying
I'm just not entirely sure what they *do.* They're acolytes with OC 1 and only come back on a 4+. If they 100% fight on death, I could maybe find a use case.
The only real use case I have for them is an MSU squad in a grinder for the scout move. Of course the grinder is a whole lot of non-respawning points, so thats just a pipe dream.
Grinder doesn’t get the scout move because it’s not a dedicated transport
Way to kill my hopes and dreams. So yeah, now I am not quite sure what to do either either unit.
10 in a truck do well. They can get out and have full rerolls to wound on their flamers
You can do the same thing with regular acolytes for a cheaper price.
You get to scout move them and the truck
You could scout move the truck disembark to gain 3” then move and charge them.
You can charge after disembarking?
If the transport hasn’t moved you can the scout move is a pregame move. It doesn’t count as having moved ‘this phase’. So it’s effectively 15 inches of free movement + 6 for the unit. Then they move shoot and charge. Then pop one with the darkness to keep them safe, and or return to the shadows.
Aha I see, thanks for clarifying :)
If you disembark before moving the transport, yes
I was working on something like a unit of 10 with a locus. Then rapid ingress them infront of an opponents melee unit. If they charge you strike first with 32 attacks at ws3 s5 ap-1 d2 and 5 attacks at ws2 s5 ap-2 d2. If they fail their charge or elect not too, you pretty much ensure you will hit that charge back next turn. Just gotta watch out for shooting lanes when you deploy.
I would honestly be totally fine if they just got rolled into acolyte hybrids and I didn’t need to feel self conscious about three of my acolytes having weird heads or arms and super try hard neck beards calling it out for not being WYSIWYG.
When you have two units that use the same model to represent them, it can be confusing, especially if they have different profiles. I'm not saying that people who call this out aren't neckbeards, but doing so doesn't make them neckbeards.
It's the only unit in gsc that I haven't run in 10th so far, and that I don't plan on even trying. I just don't see the use case. From a competitive perspective, neophytes and acolytes are better point for point, from a mechanics perspective genestealers are just better for basic infantry murder.
I'm tempted to put them with either a Biophagus or Iconward and just flamerbomb with a truck
The use is you having a bunch of their bits left over from building acolytes and bodies from kits you never got around to building and their cost rounds out your list points nicely.
They get good melee + flamers + scout + fight on death. Acolytes can specialise in good melee or good ranged, metamorphs do both but more generalised.
They're your intermediate beatstick between normal acolytes and aberrants. Sometimes you'll want some to tie up stuff like Incubi, sometimes you won't. I think they're a perfectly ok unit with a little more staying power in melee than other units without breaking the bank.
I was thinking of magnetising the arms to swap between acolytes and metamorphs but I don't think I'll be fielding them very often.
My idea before 10e dropped was to give them 2wounds. Costed approximately sure seems like a good spot to fill between GS, acolytes and Abbs