Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Genestealer Cults (section)

===Elites===
*'''Purestrain Genestealers:''' They're not your normal Genestealers, these guys aren't shat out from Tyranid Hive fleets so they aren't as mutable as their Hive Mind cousins, nor do they get access to Broodlord squad leaders. But here they have 3 attacks base, ''Stealth'' and a [[Awesome|5+ Invulnerable save]], which is exactly what Genestealers needed, no joke. All for the same cost as Tyranid Genestealers, making them out to be the  poor cousins. What's not to love? Lots of S4 AP5 Rending attacks at high initiative.
**They can only be joined by the Patriarch, and this is NOT a bad thing. Primarily because what he does will synergise with them anyway, but he also confers ''Furious Charge'' on all of them while attached. Now who doesn't love the thought of 100 ''(squad of 20 with Scythes)'' S5 rending attacks on the charge? Thats before you factor in psychic buffs and other overlapping rules.

*'''Aberrant Hybrids:''' Quite costly for what they do, costing nearly as much as a basic terminator but with a 5+/5++ 2W instead, but if Cult Ambush is good (i.e. you roll a 6), they can work out. However, in a codex lacking lots of good ways to deal with AV14 vehicles and the like, you may want to include some hammer dudes in a Subterranean uprising. If your Patriarch is running Biomancy then it may be worth picking these guys up. Endurance can give them a 4+ Feel No Pain which the Iconward buffs to a 3+, with Furious Charge given by the Iconward you're also now hitting on S9 on the charge, and throw in Might From Beyond courtesy of the Magus to knock them up to S10 with Rage to turn this unit into a battering ram for when you really need a target unit dead, though this requires some luck with rolling Psychic Powers. However, a 4++ FNP will only go so far, and any S8 weapons+ will wipe this unit from the board with very little difficulty.

*'''Hybrid Metamorphs''' Acolytes with sharper teeth. They get the Metamorph weapons, which due to the wording of "A model equipped with...", lets them combine profile bonuses with the effects of other weapons (predominantly your Rending Claws). The unit can "mix-and-match" weapon upgrades in the unit as you wish. While you "could" use it for weird rule interactions (For example equal mix of Talons and other upgrades would allow the unit to strike across two different Initiative steps, while maintaining an improved "majority" weapon skill)[you have icons for that], in practice you should keep it simple.
**By default, each Metamorph starts with a Metamorph Talon, granting +1 WS for an effective WS 5. You "can" replace your Rending Claw with a second talon, but you probably don't want to. Why? Because +1/+2 Weapon Skill isn't that great when you can have normal Acolyte squads with a Cult Icon getting the same thing; while the difference between WS5 and WS6 is largely academic when most non-character units in the entire game tend to sit around WS4. 
***That said, there is one edge case where a pair of talons might be really solid; against GEQ hordes. A squad of 10 metamorphs with a pair of talons and a banner can reach WS7 (WS8 if used in brood cycle and within 6" of another unit), which is enough to make any WS3 model hit them on 5+. 10 of these guys with twin talons are pretty darn cheap, the talons are still AP5, and (provided someone else eats the overwatch) they can charge into a 50 strong guard blob and do pretty well chewing through them while minimizing the number of attacks they take in return. Still definitely less utilitarian than the other two options, but potentially very good at that one job.
**In practice you will probably want to stick to Claws: The improved damage output means you're wounding Marines on 2s while the difference between S4 and S6 is dramatic the moment your opponent brings an Knight or any other Super-Heavy Walker. Without Crushing Claws, 1 in 18 hits will result in a HP loss vs a Knight, while the Claws make this 1 in 6. 
**Lash Whips grant an effective +3 Initiative, which is more than enough to strike first in practically any engagement, and considering that your models are as flimsy as Eldar Guardians, even if you can comfortably wipe out an enemy squad in one fight sub-phase, avoiding a simultaneous combat means you can reduce how many wounds you inevitably take. If you're running the Metamorphs in a Brood Cycle, they'll probably have access to a Furious Charge Bubble anyway, thus mitigating some of the impact of not taking the Claws. Of note is that a Leader with Bonesword in this formation would make 5 S5 AP 3 attacks at I7, with potential WS 6, each 6 to-wound denying FNP to a Wraithknight/Surge on top of inflicting an automatic D3 wounds. You're paying an extra 30 points for the privilege however.

====Ghosar Quintus Broodkin====

*'''The Brothers Aberrant'''
**Just 4 Aberrants with pre-set weapons choices of two picks and two hammers.
*'''The Purestrain Princelings'''
**Two Purestrain Genestealers with -1A at 2 points more than you would theoretically pay if you could legally take a unit of two with the base unit, which you can't.
**Come with stock equipment (so no second close combat weapon), and manage to keep ''Infiltrate''.
**Lose both ''Brood Instinct'' and ''Hyper-reflexes'', but gain ''Hit & Run''.
***Note that they ''can'' be joined by non-Patriarch ICs, due to the loss of ''Brood Instinct''.