There is no peace amongst the stars, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

The time we have all been waiting for is here and Leviathan, the launch box for the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000 is almost up for pre order! Games Workshop sent us a free copy to unbox, paint up and check out on the site, and so in this post we’ll be digging into the contents of the set, taking a look at the new models for the Space Marines and Tyranids, seeing what the story is with the Leviathan Chapter Approved card deck and seeing what you get for your money with this massive new launch box.

If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy of Leviathan through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself money too! If you enjoy our content, then we also have a Patreon now live where you can help support the site and get access to some cool exclusive content!

As you can imagine, there’s a lot to talk about with the 10th Edition of Warhammer 40k – so this time round we’ve split our review into a couple of different articles and videos.

To accompany this article we have a full unboxing video that goes through all the contents along with some shots of the finished Space Marines and Tyranids painted up by the Sprues & Brews team. You can see that just below or over on YouTube

Our look at the Core Rules is already live here and takes you through how the new game plays, what is different and what you need to know about new edition of the game

We also have a separate article and video going through Crusade games and the Tyrannic War supplement that is included within the book contained in the Leviathan box. If you are into narrative play you’ll want to check out that post here and the video just below!

But for this post, let’s lift the lid on one of the most anticipated releases this year, Leviathan.

Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan Unboxing

Can you believe it’s been 3 years since the 9th edition of Warhammer 40k burst onto the scene with the awesome Indomitus box? Chock full of Space Marines and Necrons, Indomitus was launch box for the edition, heralding in the latest rules along with two small armies, and it’s safe to say it was very popular with it flying off the shelves and leading to Games Workshop having to do a made to order run in order to keep up with the demand.

Fast forward 3 years, and we now have the launch box for 10th Edition “Leviathan”. So what exactly is a launch box? Is it a starter set?

Well, Games Workshop tend to use the “Starter set” label for boxes that are designed to introduce new players to the game – these tend to have a playing surface in the box, include dice, and have a “learn to play” booklet that talks you through the initial steps to learning the game. If you think back to the 9th edition launch, Indomitus was followed by a trio of starter sets across a range of price points that are all aimed at people looking to dip their toe in the hobby.

Leviathan on the other hand is a “Launch Box” and is pitched as being a way of Warhammer 40,000 players to pick up two armies along with a limited edition book and a collection of other goodies. While I do recommend people new to the hobby to pick it up to, I do have to stress that it doesn’t contain dice, measuring tools or a “get started” guide – so for beginners there will be a slightly steeper learning curve than the dedicated starter sets that I am sure will follow some time after.

So what is in the box?

Well when you first slide the lid off the box you are greeted with a stack of sprues to build up two armies – The Space Marines and the Tyranids

These models are all push fit and so do not require any glue, but don’t let that put you off, as they are absolutely fantastic and stand up against some multi part kits. One thing that interested me here was the makeup of the sprues. If you cast your mind back to the Dark Imperium box, we had the various miniatures scattered across mixed sprues, however with Leviathan most of the units are contained within their own sprues. There are a handful of units that are on a mixed sprue of two units, and it seems that these are units that are not in the Combat Patrol boxes, so will perhaps be getting multi part kits as a standalone release.

It’s worth noting that while the rules for every single Warhammer 40k unit will be free to download from Warhammer Community, the box doesn’t actually contain any physical cards, and instead just has some basic profiles in the back of the instruction manual.

Tyranids

For the Tyranids you get two sprues of Termagants making a total of 20 of them – these are made up of paired bodies and legs, and then all bodies can accept all of the arms (though some fit better on some bodies than others due to head position) – this allows you a little flexibility in how you put them together. These guys are not a million miles away design wise from the previous Termagants, however they look much sharper and are a piece of cake to put together and paint! From a rules point of view their OC of 2 means a big horde of them should be able to lock down an objective, and they can dance around the enemy in the movement phase due to their ability to move D6 inches if an enemy model ends a move within 9″ of them.

The Termagant sprues each contain a base of Rippers too, and these can be put together in a couple of different combinations too making it possible that a squad of them has slightly different looks to them too – My one criticism of the box here is that rippers have a minimum unit size of 3, but you only get two in the box. I’m sure most existing players will have some already kicking around, but it does mean that ideally players will want to pick up a 3rd sprue of Termagants in order to build a legal unit. From a gameplay point of view rippers halve the OC of units they are engaged with, making them a great way of stealing an objective from under someone’s nose. While the Rippers have 0 OC themselves, when used in conjunction with a big unit of Termagants they make a great combo!

Von Ryan’s Leapers are a cool unit that look like a smaller version of a Lictor – they are on terminator bases and come 3 to a single sprue and are dripping with personality! I’d love to be able to do a full “first wave” Tyranid force made up of Leapers, Lictors and Genestealers – so I hope we get more kits in future to make this a possibility! In the rules these act as a counter charge specialist, having the ability to use the heroic intervention strat for 0 CP means they will be able to join fights that they are near, and the Fights First rule will make your opponent think twice about charging a unit that has them lurking nearby

Next up we have the Barbgaunts. These are not initially what they look like at first glance if you are expecting a massive anti tank gun – rather they are more a disruptive unit that are used to reduce the move and charge of units they hit. I really like this as again adds some fun synergy to the army

Another new infantry kit added are the Neurogaunts. These are tiny little critters led by a larger Nodebeast and in game they gain the Synapse keyword while they are in synapse range of something, basically making them alien wifi extenders!

The Pschophage is one of the two big monsters in the Tyranid side of the box and is a horrific gribbly alien that eats psykers then exhales the remains as spores that enhance the Tyranid swarm through the vents in it’s back. The model has very few parts and goes together really quickly – Just make sure to clean the parts properly, as if you don’t have the pieces just right you may end with a small gap running down the centre – though some glue or scraping it with a moldline remover should sort this out. In the game this hands out Feel No Pain to nearby units, and gets bonuses if fighting units below full strength – so soften up a target unit and send this forward to finish it off. It also gets Anti-Psyker 2+ making it the dedicated Psyker killer of the army.

The second big kit for the Tyranids is the Screamer Killer.

Games of a certain age will remember the classic Screamer Killer from 2nd Edition 40k, and this is a fantastic recreation of that model with a modern aesthetic. This is one of my favourite models in the box and I really hope that we get a multi part kit that builds one too, as I’d like to have a couple in my army with different poses. From a rules point of view it hits things in combat like a truck, but also has a ranged attack that forces battleshock at -1, making this really good for shutting down objectives as it charges into something.

Leading the Tyranid force is the Neurotyrant, a new psychic leader beast that looks really cool with echos of the old 2nd edition Zoenthrope. While not perhaps as hard hitting as a Hive Tyrant from a combat point of view, this brain bug has some army enhancing abilities. Firstly, units it leads (Which can be Neurogaunts or Tyrant Guard) get bonus to hit and wound – This could potentially be pretty good, especially if you pick up some Tyrant Guard to run alongside him! Next they can unleash the shadow of the warp once per game – this causes every single unit in your opponants army to make a battleshock check at -1! You could really ruin plans here and with an unlucky roll allow you to walk up and capture all their objectives.

Finally we have the Winged Tyranid Prime, this is the second leader for the Tyranids and I have to admit he is a bit of an odd one in the context of this box. He can only join units of Gargoyles or Tyranid Warriors, and you dont actually get any of them within this box. And even joining a unit of Tyranid Warriors seems odd as you lose out on this speed and flying. I suspect we may get some Shrikes when the codex comes out, which would then make this a really cool character to bring along for games! He’s really good too, giving the unit he joins sustained hits, so fingers crossed we get some more units he can join when the codex drops!

Space Marines

First up for the Space Marines you get two sets of Sprues that build a total of 10 Infernus Squad. You can actually choose to build this as two units of 5 or a single unit of 10, with an alternate build for the squad leader if you decide to go for the 10 – rules wise these guys are armed with flamers and can force battleshock on a unit they shoot at, making them great for flushing things off objectives.

We also get a new unit of Sternguard, and these are actually contained on the same frame as the lieutenant and Biologis, so I suspect a full multipart kit will be following them. These push fit models however are ace, upscaling the models to be the same size as Primaris Marines while still keeping their classic aesthetic. One thing that Leviathan has done great is taking classic kits and modernising them, and the Sternguard are a great example of this. Sternguard have the ability once per battle to shot again if they destroy a unit with shooting, which could be used to finish off a squad then target something else.

One of the kits that people have been very excited about are the new Terminators, and I have to say these guys look absolutely gorgeous in the flesh! Nicely detailed, all the flavour of the originals but now looking great standing alongside other recent Space Marine models! I’m really excited to see if the Chapter specific Space Marine Terminators get the same treatment. They have some nice tricks in the new edition such as being able to place a teleport marker anywhere on the battlefield at the start of the game and being able to use Rapid Ingress for free to appear next to it. They also get to ignore all negative hit modifiers.

It’s not just the Tyranids that get some awesome huge models in the box, the Space Marines get another reinterpretation of an old model in the Ballistus Dreadnought. This is the old classic lascannon and missile launcher dread reinvented as a Redemptor Dreadnought, and it looks glorious. There’s been times when I’ve had to do a double take as it really does look like a bigger version of that old kit, and again the fact that this is a push fit kit really shows what magic Games Workshop can do with plastics now. This thing packs some great weapons, and actually gets to reroll hits if the target is not below half starting strength. Combined with the rerolls to wound from Twin Linked makes this a great way of popping open targets.

The set also includes 4 characters – First up is the Captain in Terminator Armour who just looks so cool. Jay has painted his up to go alongside his Ultramarines, but I’m looking forward to getting a Leviathan Box on release and painting up a Dark Angels First Company Deathwing force, and I think this guy would look great leading them. He has a really nice rule that once per turn allows him to use a stratagem on a friendly unit for free, even if it has already been used this turn!

He is joined by a Librarian in Terminator Armour, and this model has such a dynamic pose and will absolutely need his own squad of terminators to lead – I have a feeling a lot of people will be picking up Terminators to go all out on these. Psychic powers have changed somewhat in 10th edition, with this guy essentially handing out passive buffs to units he joins such as Feel No Pain against psychic attacks and giving the weapons of the unit he joins the sustained hits rule. Both flavours of Terminator characters can only join Terminators (of all varieties) but you cannot put them both in the same squad.

It wouldn’t be a Space Marine box without a new Lieutenant, and this guy is really cool with his Tyrannic War aesthetic. interestingly, this guy doesn’t lead a squad but instead has the Lone Operative rule giving him some safety as he skulks around the battlefield. He gets to make a normal move when the enemy gets within 9″ of him and also can designate an objective on the battlefield to allow your nearby units to reroll wounds of 1

The final character in the box is the Biologis, and like with the Tyranid Prime he is an odd one as he cannot be attached to any of the units in the box (He can attach Aggressors, Eradicators and Heavy Intercessors). He has a cool ability that changes his OC to 9 once his unit kills an enemy in melee, and he also gives his unit Lethal Hits.

Also included in the box is a sheet of transfers covering a host of Space Marine chapters

Leviathan Rule Book

Also inside the box is the hardback Leviathan Rule Book – This is an interesting one as it’s exclusive to this box and contains 200 pages of background and hobby information, including details of every Combat Patrol available along with lore and images of painted models. This has been in every “big book” version of the rulebook since the game came out, but what is new here is that the core rules themselves are separately numbered so that if and when Games Workshop publish them in another form (For example as an online document or as a softback slim version in battle boxes) then any page references will match up across all versions of the rules regardless of what version you have.

This is a great idea and makes it much quicker to look things up – this is also boosted by having an index in the front and back of the book.

I’m not going to go into the rules here, as we have a full article focused on just the rules here – so check that out if you want to learn more about how 10th edition plays!

Also included in the book is a full Crusade supplement “Tyrannic War” – this is the first Crusade supplement for the game, and will later be released separately, but is included within the Leviathan book as an extra. I love this, as Crusade is what excites me most for 40k and the inclusion means that I have one big book with all the various ways to play in a single book – Again I’m not going to go into too much detail here as we’ve written a full Tyrannic War Crusade article which you can find here

As ever the Rule Book is gorgeous and filled with art, both old and new, lore and background that really gets your hobby juices flowing to start a new army.

Chapter Approved Leviathan Cards

The last thing contained within the Leviathan box is a set of Chapter Approved Leviathan Cards. This is the new Matched Play content for 10th Edition and replaces the old system with something closer in flavour to the old Tempest of War cards, but designed from the ground up for Matched Play games

Contained within the pack are the full rules for playing Chapter Approved Battles, a set of 6 card objective counters and enough cards for two players to play a mission from a single pack – there’s no need here for each player to have their own deck, which is a nice touch as means players can get going with the contents of the box without having to source another set.

If you have played Tempest of War this will be very familiar, basically a random map is generated, then a mission (These follow the basic themes of missions from previous editions), a mission rule is generated (these add new rules or gimmicks that are in affect during the mission and act as a way of a random element that the player will need to account for during the battle)

Then each player picks if they want fixed objectives or fluid tactical ones – basically you have the option of having the same two secondaries for the entire game and be able to score them every turn, and they will never change, or choose to only be able to score a secondary once, but it is replaced by a different card once scored giving you some tactical flexibility. It’s great that players get both options, and decent players will know the missions that are within this deck and be able to adjust their strategies to account for them

The other new thing introduced here are Gambits – These are hard to score objectives that can be taken at the end of the 3rd battle round – if you do take one you can no longer score points from the primary mission, however you score lots of points if you manage to do the Gambit against the odds. This is a really nice way of adding a difficult catch up mechanic for players that have fallen far behind in the first few turns, and still gives them a way of staying in the game.

The deck system seems much more elegant than the old one, and I hope it doesn’t get bloated down over the edition with unique decks for each race for example – I’d rather then just have a new core card deck that is used by every faction every 6 months. That would keep things fresh for tournament players, and also give casual players a wide range of different card decks they can choose to play through if they so wish

Summary

So what do I think of Leviathan and is it worth the £150 price tag?

Games Workshop have always done a great job and excellent value launch boxes that give players an exciting way of getting involved with the launch of an edition. I may be a little biased here as a fan of Tyranids, but this box has two fantastic armies that can easily be expanded into a full 2000 point force. If you are a Space Marine player who picked up Indomitus then the Space Marine half of Leviathan can be combined with the Indomitus force to make a full army.

As for the Tyranids we get a nice mix of updated versions of old models, nods to some ancient models and a selection of brand new creatures to field against your foes. Like with the Necrons before them, Games Workshop have used this opportunity to refresh the Tyranid range and bring it up to date in line with new releases. I’m excited to see what is in the future for both factions, as we will no doubt be getting more models alongside their upcoming Codex releases.

The contents of the box will be available separately in the future, but you get a large discount in Leviathan if you want both of the armies in it. Some (but not all) of the models on each side are in the Combat Patrols that will be released after launch, and just those two boxes would cost a total of £190, and you wouldnt even have every model in Leviathan. Add on top of that the expanded rulebook containing the first Crusade supplement and the card deck and you are getting seriously good value for your money in this set! now obviously your millage may vary and Space Marines and Tyranids are not to everyone’s tastes, but I’m sure a lot of people will be starting new armies for at least one of the forces here.

Leviathan is an excellent box, and I can’t wait to see what everyone does with it in a couple of weeks once it is out in the wild!

Stay tuned to Sprues and Brews throughout June as we have lots of content coming up for 10th edition including looks at each faction, the Combat Patrol rules and our first 10th Edition Battle Reports!

Warhammer 40,000 Leviathan is up for pre order 10th June and is released Saturday 24th June

Games Workshop provided a free copy for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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