Metamorphs

Metamorphs. Less claws than genestealers, less chunky than aberrants. So what role do they have to play in the latest uprising?

Metamorphs have always been an interesting unit, able to pivot in a variety of directions. They’ve also had a bit of a defensive feel, with their fight-on-death rules making them a very useful screening unit that can still hit back fairly hard. A quick glance at their datasheet suggests they’re going to continue in that multi-purpose role, but is that going to be an asset or leave them floundering behind other more specialised units?

• Baseline damage output (unit of 10) - strike: 12 Guardsmen, 7 Marines, 2 Terminators

• Baseline damage output (unit of 10) - sweep: 19 Guardsmen, 3 Marines, 1 Terminator

• Bolter-shots to kill (unit of 10): 45

METAMORPHS

Obvious things first – with upgrades currently free, you should always take hand-flamers over pistols. They have the same range, strength, AP and damage, but the flamer has d6 shots that automatically hit. It’s just better. And I’m pretty confident that an icon is worth giving up a model’s worth of shooting too.

Beyond that, metamorphs don’t really get options. The leader comes with cult weapons (which combine the best bits of the two metamorph mutation options, so there’s a slight incentive here to go with multiple small units to maximise the number of leaders we get). Everyone else gets metamorph mutations, which now come with two attack modes. This is an upgrade over previous choices, as we can now make target-specific decisions during the game, rather than having to anticipate in the list-building phase. We’ll usually want to make use of the strike option into multi-wound targets, with sweep a useful secondary choice into 1-wound hordes.

Back to those hand flamers. Of the three formerly-elite option we have, only the metamorphs make use of the shooting phase. Assuming we did take the icon, nine hand-flamers (averaging 3.5 hits each, or 31.5 hits in total) would take down around 10 or 11 guardsmen, probably 2 marines, and might injure a terminator. It's not game-changing firepower, but means that under favourable conditions, a single unit of 10 metamorphs could kill off around 30 guardsmen or (with slight fortune) 10 marines. Which is not terrible. It's situational, but pushes their potential damage output into GEQ and MEQ significantly ahead of either aberrants or genestealers.

Defensively, metamorphs are pretty weak – a good round of shooting from a full-strength tactical squad has a fair chance of wiping, or at least crippling, a 10-metamorph brood. We really don’t want to get shot at with these guys. To that end, they have also gained the Scout USR, allowing a 6” move into cover (or up the board). Helpfully, this comes after we know who is going first. And moving up to screen is an option too, as we’re pretty okay with getting charged, with two-thirds of the unit likely to fight anyway, even if they die first.

BIOPHAGUS

The Biophagus gives the unit Lethal Hits, and a once per game Anti-Infantry 2+. Applied to our strike attacks, lethal hits alone lifts us to 8 dead marines (an increase of 1); with anti-infantry in effect, it becomes 9 marines (annoyingly, lethal hits works against the anti-infantry boost as it bypasses the wound roll altogether).

ICONWARD

The Iconward offers a defensive buff – 5+ FNP. That equates to needing 66 bolter shots to wipe out the metamorphs (instead of 45), which is helpful but still leaves them feeling pretty fragile. [The Magus brings something similar, but it only works against psychic damage, so it’s less good.]

LOCUS

The Locus makes his unit Fight First. This is a valuable skill, but slightly less useful with metamorphs, who have Savage Amalgam. But fighting first is still good, because we’re much better off killing a unit before they kill us, even if we can fight on death. And if we are using metamorphs in a skirmishing or screen capacity, the Locus makes them an even less inviting prospect to charge.

PRIMUS

Finally, the Primus brings full rerolls to hit to the party. That’s a significant bonus for a combat unit, and pushes them to 24 dead guardsmen, 9 marines or 2 terminators (with a third taking wounds). The Primus himself adds a further 3 guardsmen, 1 marine or a wounded terminator to that total, so there’s a reasonable chance of taking out a full squad of marines (or absolutely blending guardsmen).

Both the Biophagus and Locus can be added to the same unit as the Primus (again, though, it’s still a very fragile unit). Primus and Locus makes metamorphs very difficult to charge, as we’ve got a fair chance of swatting aside anything shy of terminators, or at least heavily compromising their combat ability.

Combining the Biophagus with the Primus produces the highest level of damage output. Using marines as our target again (with full rerolls to hit and lethal hits), we’d kill 11 marines with the metamorphs, another with the Primus and maybe one more with the Biophagus, for 13 in total – that’s almost double what the basic brood can do on their own (although we have almost doubled the cost of the unit to do it, so…)

COMPARISON

Let’s add metamorphs to our ongoing comparison – we now have all three of our formerly-elite combats units to look at. 20 metamorphs come in at 320, making them slightly cheaper than the other two options (20 genestealers cost 360 points; 10 aberrants cost 330 points). How do they stack up against each other?

• 10 aberrants kill: 17 Guardsmen, 11 Marines, 7 Terminators

• 20 genestealers kill: 44 Guardsmen, 11 Marines, 4 Terminators

• 20 metamorphs kill: 38 Guardsmen, 14 Marines, 4 Terminators

Remember, these are the baseline numbers, before adding any leaders or other enhancements. So just as a basic unit, metamorphs have carved out a niche as marine killers, combining volume of attacks with two-damage weapons. And usefully, they can flex into guardsmen too, not falling far short of genestealers in that regard, and way ahead of aberrants.

• Bolter-shots to kill 10 aberrants: 405

• Bolter-shots to kill 20 genestealers: 180

• Bolter-shots to kill 20 metamorphs: 90

Of course, the downside is that metamorphs have very little in terms of defensive anything. Bolters could mow down 90 metamorphs in the same time it took to kill 10 aberrants. They are incredibly fragile, to the point where we just won’t want them to be seen by anything until they’re in combat; indirect fire is going to be a real problem for them, I think.

CONCLUSION

Genestealer Cults internal balance strikes again (somebody somewhere is either getting very lucky, or is putting a fair bit of thought into this). Defensive issues aside, metamorphs slot neatly in-between genestealers and aberrants as our best MEQ-killing option. Even with their lower AP, the combination of lots of attacks and 2-damage weapons is a potent one.

From a purely theoretical standpoint, it feels like their ideal role is to use Scout to push forward into LoS-blocking cover, and then loiter as a combination screen/counter-charge threat – charge into them, and you risk taking loses and ending up stuck in place; get too close, and you risk getting charged yourself (especially if we run with a leader who is also a Focus of Adoration).

There’s an argument for buffing up a 10-model unit with leaders and enhancements – massively increasing damage output without really increasing the footprint is ideal for a unit that wants to stay out of sight as much as possible. And whilst they’re fragile, so are the other units that most of our leaders can join. We want to play more cautiously with metamorphs – they don’t automatically drop into Ambush when they die, so are less of a throwaway unit than their acolyte cousins – potentially, that makes them a better home for a leader.

Equally, a basic unit of ten (with flamers and icon, because why not at this point) has a lot of utility – they can pick off small units of marines (or large units of lighter infantry), regenerate losses, and could happily sit on a sheltered mid-board objective daring the enemy to come and take it. And even if they do die, half the time they just come straight back.

I suspect that metamorphs are going to be trickier to use well than genstealers or aberrants, who can either soak up fire, or move quick enough to avoid it. Metamorphs have neither of those tricks, and so will really benefit from careful positioning and good timing. But then, no-one ever said that Cults were the easy option.