Leviathan Siege Dread tactics

[Flint13]

Even after your gaming group agrees on how exactly they want both augury scanners and drop pods to work, unfortunately 6 grav guns probably won't kill a Levi with its 4+ invulnerable.

[helterskelter]

 

 

Flipping things round slightly would grav guns and augury scanners give you pause for thought when choosing deep strke locations?

 

Think 3-6 grav guns (on 1-2 15 man breachers squads)

They would, as they can quite "easily" strip off HP/ immobilise the dread.

 

But the difficult terrain doesn't bother it.

 

Then again - even with 6 Grav guns, depending on scatter you are only looking at a couple of hits - then a 4++ invuln on top... Or they may even have to just kill the pod first?

The one super rare choice that could be a reasonable counter in this vein would be the iron hands tac support squad with grav guns and attached apothecary with augury scanner. 10 grav guns would do the business. However super rare.

[Terminus]

Don't underestimate grav guns. All it takes is an Immobilize result and all but Deathblossom Leviathans are sad pandas.

[Flint13]

^Oh that's a good point.

 

Are we talking hypothetical grav or graviton?

[K3nn3rs]

Graviton - still the chance of an immobilised result but I guess not as great as the mechanicum's grav guns

[Lord Asvaldir]

You need a 6, then another 6 to get that immobilized result, plus there's the +4 invul to potentially stop your one penetrating hit. Wouldn't count on that, you're more likely to strip HPs off the leviathan. 

[Terminus]

Just getting rid of the pod and thus negating burning retros so you can charge the damn thing is good enough. Edited October 14, 2016 by Terminus

[K3nn3rs]

Don't get me wrong - it's not a specific

anti- leviviathan tactic. Just a useful counter to a unit already including in my list.

 

Tank hunting IF heavy support weapons squad with lascannons and an augury scanner would be a better option....

[01RTB01]

Don't get me wrong - it's not a specific

anti- leviviathan tactic. Just a useful counter to a unit already including in my list.

 

Tank hunting IF heavy support weapons squad with lascannons and an augury scanner would be a better option....

10 man missile squad didn't scratch mine when it landed. My leviathan knows no fear.

 

Leviathans are the most survivable thing in the list imo with Spartans a close second.

[Slips]

Well, yeah, Krak Missiles aren't really the best thing to kill it since they cant even attempt to get an Explodes result with Ap3.

 

But with Lascannons? That single 6 that gets through his 4++ and bye bye! Its something you should ALWAYS keep in mind when using Non-Super-Heavy beasties like this and the Spartan.

[helterskelter]

Thing is you need weight of good strong dedicated fire/cc attacks and the accuracy to go with it. And for that you need to splurge a similar number of points if not more.

So we're talking squads supplemented with rules and buffing consuls like the IF and iron warriors having the heavy support squads/havocs. Anything that comes with tank hunter neat.

Then adding MoS for the BS buff, or if you have good ballistic skill adding the siege breaker. A divination libby is a good assist but you have to luck out on the powers.

It all adds up.

Even primarichs who can fight it weigh in at the same cost if not a bit more.

 

More tactical solutions may be a key in damage mitigation by having your lines spaced enough that the dropping lev can only really deal with 1 thing for 2/3 turns After it drops or drown it in a tarpit that can be sacrificed thus leaving the rest of your forces free.

[Guiltysparc]

Ya, I'm not afraid of lascannons with the levi...statistically you're going to strip hull points way before you get the explodes. Assuming front/side armor shots and a BS4 shooter, you would need 24 lascannons to score the 4 unsaved glance/pens to kill it and in that volley of 24 would would get only 0.2 explodes results. It's something that can happen, for sure, but as a leviathan commander you should be feel safe with the math and play him like the unstoppable murder machine he is, lol.

[Slips]

Thing about statistics is just that, theyre the average chance of something happening.

 

We're talking about RNG here so, while the mathematical chances of something occurring are pretty low, you're bound to see them since the dice we use only has 6 faces.

 

I mean, I saw a Spartan with Dozer Blade immobilize itself on turn 1.

 

I'm not saying its always going to happen, but always keep it in the back of your mind that, if you do actually Deepstrike your Leviathan near some Lascannons, that its a Possibility.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Slipstreams

[Guiltysparc]

Oh sure, and not to downplay that, but from a strategic or tactics standpoint you are better building around stats with some minor tweaks to account for the aberrant events.

 

I was more just saying that the leviathan is a pretty tough dude.

[depthcharge12]

I'd be more worried about the dang thing getting immobilized than destroyed. If the Levi gets immobilized, it loses a hefty chunk of its abilities.

[m0nolith]

I'd be more worried about the dang thing getting immobilized than destroyed. If the Levi gets immobilized, it loses a hefty chunk of its abilities.

Very true.

If that thing is coming in a pod, you should make every effort to keep it in CC. Imobilizing it will hurt it a lot.

[Charlo]

 

I'd be more worried about the dang thing getting immobilized than destroyed. If the Levi gets immobilized, it loses a hefty chunk of its abilities.

Very true.

If that thing is coming in a pod, you should make every effort to keep it in CC. Imobilizing it will hurt it a lot.

 

One cool feature of the Death-blossom I suppose.

 

Slightly less of an issue.

[Flint13]

One big point to keep in mind though, is that if a dread is immobilized, he can't pivot to shoot.

 

Being limited to that 90° angle of fire can be infuriating :lol:

[Charlo]

Yeah I did think that, but if you land in some sort of corner to your enemy you'll get a decent field of view...

[AlphariusOmegon108]

So for my list I am thinking:

 

One leviathan with  two storm cannons thingies (magnetized to also have twin melta lance?)

two leviathans with grav bombard and the cutty claws thingies

all have the phospex discharger

 

then have them walk around or infiltrate (Alpha legion), how does this sound? Meh? Okay?

[Terminus]

Can't infiltrate as they don't have Legiones Astartes. Walking with 18" guns is bad.

[Lord Asvaldir]

Only Leviathan I'd ever consider walking is the double storm cannon build, which I'd rarely take because I find the two other gun choices are more appealing. 

[depthcharge12]

Having watched some batreps and gotten some games in, here are some anecdotal takeaways:

 

1.) Forget about assault unless your opponent is an assault army too - Rarely have I seen a Levi actually get into combat, and if it does, it usually goes nuclear after.

 

2.) Drop pods aren't necessary, and usually a points drop. See above with assault, also, if your dread gets immobilized (more likely than destroyed) you've pretty much just neutered 300+ points. Also, not all your weapons are ignores cover, so your enemy will get a cover save from the pod too.

 

3.) 18" isn't claustrophobically close. More than likely your "short range" weapons will be in range T1 as your opponent will be moving forward lest they have a car park.

 

4.) Phosphex is cool and can obliterate a Primarch bodyguard squad, but good luck getting to that point. Using it to kill 5 tactical marines is a bit of a waste when you have Scorpii and such. At 300+ points, you should be focusing it on heavy tanks and the like.

 

 

At the risk of being turned into a servitor, I'm considering using a Levi with one melta lance arm and grav bombard arm WALKING in a DA Ironwing list. It'll gain fear and tank hunter, so if it does get into cc, S8 will be more than enough against anything short of an entire chainfist brigade (you know who you are).

 

I have a Spartan and Fellblade in the list so I'm not too concerned with it getting nuked first turn as if it did, there are some nastier things on my list that'll get their job done.

 

Again, with objectives playing a large role in my gaming community (War of Lies is BAE), the enemy will be coming to me.

[RandomMarine]

I can see that working due to target saturation at higher points at 3k I usually the ferrus star in spartan on one edge of the board and a foot slogging talon of box dreads(barebones) and a Leviathan on the other but at lower points level walking a Leviathan up the board will just get it killed before it earns any points back

[depthcharge12]

I can see that working due to target saturation at higher points at 3k I usually the ferrus star in spartan on one edge of the board and a foot slogging talon of box dreads(barebones) and a Leviathan on the other but at lower points level walking a Leviathan up the board will just get it killed before it earns any points back

Yes I'm playing around 2500-3000 points +/- Titans sometimes.

 

Watch the 30kgaming channel as they did a 1750 point game where the TS player had a Levi walk up the board and last 4+ turns. Not saying it always happens, but good tactics should not be dismissed.