Leviathan Dread load out

[Skidman]

Hey guys,

 

I'm not sure if this is the right place or not but I was wondering what the going consensus on what the best load out is for the leviathan dread. Mine just arrived in mail and the only weapons that Forgeworld still had on their site at the time I ordered were the storm cannon, grav bombard, and the melta lance. Im asking more in the sense which weapon load outs have the most synergy together. I plan to magnatize so that when other weapon options come available but having never actually played the game I'm curious to as to what makes the most sense together in hopes that one day I do get to play an actual game of 30k

 

thanks in advance

 

Kidman

[m0nolith]

Melta Lance + Drill + Phospex + Dreadnought Drop Pod.

[N1SB]

Congrats on your order, Brother.  I remember when I got my 1st Leviathan.  It feels good.

 

This was a personal choice for me, but I went with 2x Grav-Bombard with Armoured Ceramite (edit - and Phosphex, I forgot to mention that) to provide anti-Terminator support to my line Troops.  My meta was quite Terminator-heavy, indeed, most people played 30k for their fancy Legion-specific Terminators.

Edited October 8, 2020 by N1SB

[Chaeron]

Mine is equipped with a Drill and a Claw - with the intention that when it is used the Dread Drop Pod puts the cargo somewhere that forces my opponent to deal with it pretty swiftly! 

 

Looking forward to utilising that in an Orbital Assault list for sure. 

[sarabando]

2x storm cannons for all the shots.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Drill and claw is what I'll be equipping mine with I think.

[SkimaskMohawk]

The best load out is pretty much the grav bombard, phosphex, siege drill and volkites. In a pod. It's the most flexible and least list dependant; your drop allows you to engage with shooting and follow up with melee threat in the subsequent turns, while also preventing any tar pitting. The melta lance instead of the bombard is next, but it means the leviathan really excels against vehicles and has a harder time with infantry units in cover. Storm cannons are a waste.

 

The most synergistic loadout is the melta version, since you can safely start shooting tanks with high to mid strength guns and just focus on that.

 

The grav loadout means you want to hit infantry and take opportunities to clip vehicles with the blast to potentially soften them for other ranged shooting. It's not as straightforward, but it is the best loadout.

[Mogsam]

I love/hate the grav and the drill. Makes them nails in combat and the grav weapon is absolutely insane vs terminators and jetbikes. Lost lots of jetbikes to deep striking leviathans with grav.

[Rejects of Anvilus]

I have one with Grav, Phsophex, and claw, and another with melta, phosphex and drill. Both are good and always seem to get their points back. If(when) i get a third i will go for double storm cannn for all the ranged love.

[GodEmperorOfMankind]

The best load out is pretty much the grav bombard, phosphex, siege drill and volkites. In a pod. It's the most flexible and least list dependant; your drop allows you to engage with shooting and follow up with melee threat in the subsequent turns, while also preventing any tar pitting. The melta lance instead of the bombard is next, but it means the leviathan really excels against vehicles and has a harder time with infantry units in cover. Storm cannons are a waste.

 

The most synergistic loadout is the melta version, since you can safely start shooting tanks with high to mid strength guns and just focus on that.

 

The grav loadout means you want to hit infantry and take opportunities to clip vehicles with the blast to potentially soften them for other ranged shooting. It's not as straightforward, but it is the best loadout.

 

 

Why are storm cannons a waste? Asking for a guy that's running storm cannon and Drill

 

Also OP said his options were limited to  storm cannon, grav bombard, and the melta lance

 

And everyone here is suggesting drills

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

 

The best load out is pretty much the grav bombard, phosphex, siege drill and volkites. In a pod. It's the most flexible and least list dependant; your drop allows you to engage with shooting and follow up with melee threat in the subsequent turns, while also preventing any tar pitting. The melta lance instead of the bombard is next, but it means the leviathan really excels against vehicles and has a harder time with infantry units in cover. Storm cannons are a waste.

 

The most synergistic loadout is the melta version, since you can safely start shooting tanks with high to mid strength guns and just focus on that.

 

The grav loadout means you want to hit infantry and take opportunities to clip vehicles with the blast to potentially soften them for other ranged shooting. It's not as straightforward, but it is the best loadout.

 

Why are storm cannons a waste? Asking for a guy that's running storm cannon and Drill

 

Also OP said his options were limited to storm cannon, grav bombard, and the melta lance

 

And everyone here is suggesting drills

Well I was answering what the best loadout is for a leviathan in general.

 

Storm cannons are a waste because you've just invested almost 300 points into a model in your heavy support slot that cant kill a rhino in cover with one of them. It cant explode any vehicle. It can't deal with 2+ armour. It can't hurt av 14. It doesn't ignore cover.

 

You might as well spend the ~280 points on an autocannon heavy support squad and be able to kill that rhino in cover. And be able to get range.

[Spagunk]

Because I'm BA, I have one that will run with dual storm cannons and chest mounted assault cannons . I personally don't look at effectiveness as my top attribute but rather what I thought would look cool. Dakka-Big dread being very tempting from a "rule of cool" perspective.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Spagunk

[Gorgoff]

Because I'm BA, I have one that will run one with dual storm cannons and chest mounted assault cannons . I'm personally don't look at effectiveness as my top attribute but rather what I thought would look cool. Dakka-Big dread being very tempting from a "rule of cool" perspective.

Imagine all the spend shells around that thing.

Sweet baby Jesus I love that.

[MegaVolt87]

I would argue that much dakka against 2+ save infantry like termi's would be fine. You would be surprised how many ones can slip through taking saves. Just because you aren't playing 40k doesn't mean street sweepers are any less useful. 

[Gorgoff]

I would argue that much dakka against 2+ save infantry like termi's would be fine. You would be surprised how many ones can slip through taking saves. Just because you aren't playing 40k doesn't mean street sweepers are any less useful.

And I'd argue granting your opponent no 2+ armor save at all is better than hoping him to fail it.

[MegaVolt87]

 

I would argue that much dakka against 2+ save infantry like termi's would be fine. You would be surprised how many ones can slip through taking saves. Just because you aren't playing 40k doesn't mean street sweepers are any less useful.

And I'd argue granting your opponent no 2+ armor save at all is better than hoping him to fail it.

 

 

My apologies, I seem to be doing HH wrong as I am not spamming pie plates + Instant death weaponry and taking a balanced mix of weapons types in my list instead. How many phosphex producing units should I be taking to play my IW's "properly" etc. 

[Gorgoff]

 

 

 

I would argue that much dakka against 2+ save infantry like termi's would be fine. You would be surprised how many ones can slip through taking saves. Just because you aren't playing 40k doesn't mean street sweepers are any less useful.

And I'd argue granting your opponent no 2+ armor save at all is better than hoping him to fail it.

My apologies, I seem to be doing HH wrong as I am not spamming pie plates + Instant death weaponry and taking a balanced mix of weapons types in my list instead. How many phosphex producing units should I be taking to play my IW's "properly" etc.

I don't have any phosphex and no Leviathan.

The question at hand is whats the best loadout for one though.

Of course you can take a Storm Cannon.

But is it the best loadout out?

No.

Is it a good gun to shoot terminators?

Hell no.

It's a "Ok, I'll shoot the terminators, then." weapon but it's main purpose is something else.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Gorgoff

[Cadmus Tyro]

 

 

The best load out is pretty much the grav bombard, phosphex, siege drill and volkites. In a pod. It's the most flexible and least list dependant; your drop allows you to engage with shooting and follow up with melee threat in the subsequent turns, while also preventing any tar pitting. The melta lance instead of the bombard is next, but it means the leviathan really excels against vehicles and has a harder time with infantry units in cover. Storm cannons are a waste.

The most synergistic loadout is the melta version, since you can safely start shooting tanks with high to mid strength guns and just focus on that.

The grav loadout means you want to hit infantry and take opportunities to clip vehicles with the blast to potentially soften them for other ranged shooting. It's not as straightforward, but it is the best loadout.

Why are storm cannons a waste? Asking for a guy that's running storm cannon and Drill

Also OP said his options were limited to storm cannon, grav bombard, and the melta lanceAnd everyone here is suggesting drills

Well I was answering what the best loadout is for a leviathan in general.

Storm cannons are a waste because you've just invested almost 300 points into a model in your heavy support slot that cant kill a rhino in cover with one of them. It cant explode any vehicle. It can't deal with 2+ armour. It can't hurt av 14. It doesn't ignore cover.

You might as well spend the ~280 points on an autocannon heavy support squad and be able to kill that rhino in cover. And be able to get range.

I see your point here, but I would disagree that storm cannons are a waste, they may not be “optimal” but they are not a waste. Your comment about spending the points on a heavy support squad to take out light transports instead of dropping a leviathan is a little over the top.

 

I run a Levi in a pod with phosphex/drill/volkites/storm cannon. I don’t drop a leviathan in someone’s back line, purely for its first round of shooting. I have found over time that the storm cannon provides a more balanced approach. Most infantry squads are embarked in transports on turn one (especially those of any value such as terminators), so ive found Infantry targets are generally minimal. Secondly, not many infantry squads survive shooting from a phosphex discharger, adding grav flux on top of that seems overkill.

 

Where the stormcannon has excelled for me, is VS light vehicle squadrons (Backfield artillery), complementing the volkites, or adding additional wounds to infantry units decimated by phosphex. It’s also the most useful option I’ve found against mechanicum opponents, particularly castellax/Thallax.

 

Using a leviathan to crack AV14 is not an efficient option, your Melta lance load out has a low probability of destroying a vehicle turn 1, and then you are dependant on you opponent staying within range turn two as you footslog towards him. There are better options for cracking AV14.

 

Cadmus

[Bung]

Stormcanon Looks the best of the shooting weapons. I bought 2 and plan to use magnets for the sexy dual Stormcanon loadou.

[SkimaskMohawk]

@megavolt the math shows that 2 storm cannons gives you an average of 1.4 failed 2+ save per volley. That's an average of 4 rounds of shooting to kill a min squad of terminators. They're really not good at killing 2+ armour. It's not "fine" .

 

@cadmus tyro I'll admit that the comparison was a bit over the top, but it was more to display the value between units; the 1 storm cannon Levi and 10 autocannon devs are the same point cost, adding a pod certainly changes what the Levi can do and how it's used, but then you also have another 100 points to be used in a comparison. And unfortunately without a pod, the storm cannon is going to be used to shoot at light vehicles.

 

And I hear you about the drop-levi being a multi turn threat. I personally don't burn the phosphex turn 1 unless I can use crawling fire to maximise on a side squad.

 

Shooting artillery armour is a good use too, but I feel that when you combine the volkites and possibly fist melta, the lance still gives you the ability to kill the same vehicles while of course having the higher threat range. You can still hull point out a jinking speeder or an av 11 piece of armour the same way as a storm cannon. The storm cannon does net you better results against the mechanicum multi-wound models until the thanatar.