Spotlight: Leviathan

The Leviathan is one of the most polarizing warjacks in Mk3 Cryx.  In Mk3, in addition to gaining the quality of life upgrades of every other warjack, it swapped ROF 1 and Reload (2) on its gun for a straight-up ROF d3.  This has caused several discussions and arguments as to whether or not the Leviathan is reliable enough to use and whether potential overperformance can make up for potential underperformance and wasting focus.  I think the focus is in the wrong place: Regardless of its shot number uncertainty, it performs functions that no other non-colossal Cryx jack can do and that makes it one of the most valuable heavies in the Cryx arsenal.  Read on and learn to love the d3.

Stats and Abilities: The Leviathan is built on the Cryxian Crabjack chassis, notable for its defensive similarities to the Cygnar Ironclad/Defender chassis.  12/18 with 30 damage boxes is by no means tanky, especially for 16 points, but it can take a hit and keep standing.  It also comes with Pathfinder, Amphibious and Steady, which increase its defensive potential by allowing it to take advantage of all sorts of terrain and hold onto its defensive bonuses.  Its MAT and RAT, however, are inferior to its Cygnaran counterpart.  MAT 6 and RAT 5 are workable stats, but they aren’t impressive.

The Leviathan is capable in melee, sporting a P+S 17 open fist.  It’s a STR 12 jack, so it may occasionally win a strength check against throwing a heavy and it’s a nice little option to have against a caster.  SPD 5 with a 1″ melee isn’t going to be alpha striking anything though.  You need to force the enemy to come to you, which leads into the discussion of why you really bring the Leviathan as well as what makes or breaks it as a useful model: The Spiker.

The Leviathan’s Spiker is a RNG 13 POW 13 weapon with d3 shots a turn.  It also sports Burst Fire, making it effectively POW 14 against medium based models and POW 15 against everything bigger.  This weapon is fairly comparable to the Cygnar Defender cannon (RNG 16, POW 15 RAT 6).  The Defender has the edge in all respects on a shot-for-shot basis, but the Leviathan has a 66% chance of getting more shots.  Something I feel needs to be stressed is that the Leviathan is the only warjack in Cryx that can put out multiple high-powered shots at an extreme range.  The Kraken has the range, but not the power.  The Sepulcher has the power, but not the range.  And nothing else in the world of Cryx warjack guns even has anything comparable.  Thus, the Spiker has a unique function in Cryx: Extreme-range engagement with enough power behind it to potentially compromise an enemy heavy.

How to use it: First, let’s talk about managing the d3 shots.  If you’re absolutely counting on getting 2-3 shots on a given turn, you’re probably not in the best situation.  The trick is decide on primary and secondary targets before activating the Leviathan.  To always assume that you’ll get one shot, while the safer bet, undervalues the warjack and can lead to non-optimal play.  The better play is to have multiple targets in mind and have a backup plan for every target after the first.  Ideally, the first target is something only the Leviathan can reach out and touch.  If you’re using the Spiker to try to straight-up kill something at that extreme range and counting on the shots you need to do that, your backup plan might consist of a second Leviathan.

Regardless of how many shots you roll, a Leviathan is at peak efficiency when it needs to boost damage or accuracy, but not both.  If you’re shooting solos, you’re looking at the latter, while shooting heavies requires the boosted damage.  RNG 13 gives you a great deal of flexibility to aim as well.  As far as allocating focus and the fear of “wasting focus” on the idea that only one shot will be fired, just remember that focus is a measure of extending a caster’s influence on the tabletop.  If you really need to reach out and touch something at 13″, most Cryx casters don’t really have a mechanism for that aside from arced spells.  Don’t hesitate to fill up your Leviathan.  Unless your caster is in danger or you need a critical boost elsewhere, you probably won’t miss the extra focus point.  That said, I find that it gets along just fine with 2 focus, allowing it 2 boosted attack or damage shots or one fully-boosted shot most of the time.

The Leviathan can do a lot of damage, but another great function of it is that it forces commitment by the opposing army.  RNG 13 (18″ threat) is objectively long and it packs enough power, particularly at 2+ boosted damage shots, to force enemy heavies to commit.  It’s also just heavy and dodgy enough  (terrain permitting) to compete or win a gunfight against similar platforms, forcing a foe to approach your melee army.  And, of course, it can range out and eliminate certain support pieces that might be out of reach without committing an arc node.

Caster Pairings: Any caster with ARM debuffs can make excellent use the Leviathan.  Parasite or Curse of Shadows on a large, low DEF target means that the Leviathan can hit like a melee heavy, but from a safe distance.  A Mortality caster is even better, as the Leviathan is now no longer required to eliminate a target to deal lasting damage.  A single boosted high-damage shot under those circumstances may be enough to take a jack or beast out of the fight entirely.  There’s a reason the weapon is called the “Spiker”.  It works well with a wide variety of casters who want to draw in opponents or damage heavies from great range, especially in pairs, but it requires some potential focus investment to get the most out of it.  That said, there are a few casters in particular that almost never leave home without one.

Denny1: Yes, she makes everything good, especially guns (look for a dojo on shooty Cryx archetypes soon), but when Parasite and her feat allow the Leviathan to hit heavies at POW 18-20, usually in conjunction with a DEF debuff, that’s something special.  One big weakness plaguing many shooty armies of all factions is that most of them can’t truly shoot down armor, but those casters with the tools and guns to do just that (eliminate heavy armor at range) make up some of the best shooty armies in the game.  Denny1 with Leviathans can join the ranks of Kara Sloan and Artificer General Nemo in that regard.

Denny3: The perils of over-allocation are completely ignored when you can just fill it up with souls.  A Denny3 Leviathan will typically be at full focus the entire game, can take advantage of Mortality to virtually permanently disable enemy heavies before the battle lines even clash, and can still pop a Scourged enemy caster, making it very much a triple threat that’s valuable against a wide variety of targets.

Mortenebra1: Overrun and Interface.  Interface allows you to use the Leviathan as a pure shooting platform and utterly avoid wasting focus, using as much or as little as you need depending on that d3 roll.  It’s also the longest range way to reliably trigger Overrun, as a double boosted shot (free with Sacrificial Lamb) will kill a wide variety of board targets and allow your dedicated melee jacks to get into the scrap with very little other investment.

So, is it good?: It can do things in Cryx that no other model, mercenary options included, can do.  This makes it exceptionally valuable, even if its performance is sometimes dependent upon the whim of the d3.  It’s one of those great models where its threat is often just as important as its performance, forcing your opponent to adjust to it given its great threat range and powerful shots.  It was Cryx’s very first crabjack, as well as the faction’s first gun that exceeded an 8″ range, and there continues to be nothing else like it in the faction.  The Leviathan is one of the faction’s best non-character heavies for the options it affords and, unless Khyribdis is really good, it will probably remain Cryx’s premier crabjack for years to come.