Editing Dreadnought (section)

===Leviathan Pattern===
{{anchor|Leviathan Pattern}}
[[File:Leviathan_Dread.png|300px|thumbnail|right|Having a [[Neckbeard|fatter body]] does not negate you from tearing shit up. ]]
AKA, the Hulkbuster Pattern. Unlike other patterns, the Leviathan was apparently designed in secret on Terra instead of Mars. It is also said to take just as much resources to manufacture as an Imperial Knight. Despite the fact that it looks like it has considerably more mass than a regular Castraferrum dread, it is still ''nowhere near'' the size of a Knight. Therefore the subsystems used in its construction must either be very difficult to manufacture, and/or the raw resources used to make them are very rare and difficult to acquire. Of course, this is the same the approach that the Imperium uses for much of its finest wargear.

Also there's an issue with Leviathan putting an immense pressure on the pilot's brain, slowly killing him unless the sarcophagus is only hooked to an active dreadnought for short periods of time with long periods to recuperate and heal. [[Hrimthursar|Some]] Legions gave their pilots that time, others let them burn down when the situation demanded extended deployment, and when Horus Heresy started escalating with higher and higher stakes every next battle, even Salamanders started sacrificing their "honored dead" to Leviathans with alarming frequency. In modern 40k, however, most loyalist chapters try to preserve the pilots they put into their Leviathans (Red Scorpions even put their former Chapter Master into one), while Chaos marines just make their Leviathans daemonically possessed, which solves both brain degradation and typical dreadnought madness from the lack of sleep problems, as well as the problem of maintaining ancient tech no one understands any more, as possession somehow gives Leviathans ability to repair themselves by sacrificing the souls of people they kill.

In any event, the Leviathan is a specialist siege dreadnought, like an enhanced Ironclad variant, but like the Deredeo it comes with its own unique weapons not found anywhere else. By default, it begins with two [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Claw|Siege Claws]] with built-in [[meltagun]]s that have a 50% chance of causing d3 extra wounds on a successful To Wound roll. These can be replaced with [[Miscellaneous Weapons#Leviathan Siege Drill|Siege Drills]] for Armourbane, and it also has two torso-mounted [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamer]] that can be swapped out for [[Volkite Caliver]]s if you REALLY need that blob of infantry dead. While it's a beast in assault since it gains 2 HoW attacks and +1 I on the charge, it's equally vicious if kitted out for shooting- its ranged options are a [[Leviathan Storm Cannon]] (S7 AP3, Heavy 6, and Sunder with a range of 24"), the [[Cyclonic Melta Lance]] (Range 18" S9 AP1 Heavy 3, Melta) or a [[Grav Flux Bombard]], which acts like 30K's Graviton Weapons in that affected targets need to roll either at or under their Strength at 2d6 or be wounded (if infantry) or roll 3d6 for armor penetration (for vehicles), taking DOUBLE the number of Hull Points it would normally take if it penetrates successfully- and either way, the Large Blast leaves behind difficult/dangerous terrain for the next turn. Either of those can be further supplemented with a one-use Phosphex Discharger so enemy blobs can make like Fallujah and eat a dose of Willie Pete, and can also take a pack of three [[Hunter-Killer Missile|hunter-killer missiles]] for a little bit of long-range [[Rhino]]-popping. Its Reinforced Atomantic Shielding gives it a 4++ invulnerable save against all sources, but also increases the radius and Strength of an Explodes! result on the vehicle damage table by D3 (like damn near everything [[Forge World|FW]] makes that has an invuln) so be careful there. It's potentially a blessing in disguise if you're charging into the midst of the enemy, but don't expect it to take down [[Titan]]s in its dying throes.

A few of these still serve in the 41st millennium, though they lose out on several of their options (volkite calivers and phosphex discharger). This also ties into its status as a Relic of the Armoury, as these things are so unreliably kill-crazy that they are only sent out on the Chapter Master's direct say-so. The reason why this is so is unknown, but clearly even the loyalists aren't exempt from their pilots devolving into unhinged madmen. Some suspect this is due to the still poorly understood technologies that went into the dread's creation. As for Chaos Dreadnoughts, their pilots have often been alive since the Horus Heresy and are just fucking nuts regardless.

Loyalists have the prefix of "Relic" while Chaos Leviathan are "Hellforged." Besides how they look, they differ in the [[Original character, do not steal|names of the weapons]] they can take.

For [[Zone Mortalis]] it should probably be said that the Leviathan Dreadnought is possibly the most terrifying thing in the entire world to deal with in tight, narrow corridors. Its two Heavy Flamers gain Shred and Rending by default in Zone Mortalis, and its default Meltaguns mean it can just vaporize any other walkers it comes across. This thing becomes the pinnacle of destruction whenever playing with the Blip Rule, as your opponent won't even know where the fuck it is.

Since it comes at 260 points base, you could easily just bring three of these, an HQ, and two scout squads to snag objectives. Just let the Leviathans become mobile platforms of absolute destruction that cause everything that walks around the corner to experience critical existence failure within the span of a single assault phase.