3/5 stars. The rules are average.
Background.
One of the first of the Word Bearers to fully embrace the new religion after the Censure of Monarchia. Zardu is described as fiery and fervent in his beliefs, and has handily shackled a pair of unfortunate battle brothers to his own will over time -- the so called blade slaves.
Strengths.
Zardu is a master of the legion that comes packaged with his pair of blade slave meat shields. Zardu himself is armed with an AP2 weapon that also has force associated with it. This is solid. His psychic discipline is unique in the game and gives him access to an ability to cancel reactions (nice!) as well as an assault 4, 36 inch range pinning and shell shock weapon.
His warlord trait is mixed though. He gets to select 3 units and give them enhanced movement and S+1. But there's a downside. Those units must test Ld every turn of suffer perils of the warp. Overall its not the best warlord trait, but at least it is fluffy. The stat line meanwhile is fine for a praetor, and he comes with armour that give a bonus to combat resolution and sweeping moves. This is solid.
The blade slaves are no slouches in combat either with access to AP3 and Brutal 2. With 3 wounds each and feel no pain, they should provide good meat shield cover for most things short of vindicator shots.
Weaknesses.
Fundamentally, I can't help but feel there are better HQs to select. Zardu has a nice miniature and its no surprise to see him as a core character. He's just not offering much that other front line characters bring that I would favour, and the warlord trait is decidedly mixed.
Overall.
I think Zardu has his placed as the HQ of a corrupted army, and as the forefront character for a melee charge. Beyond that, I actually don't like him too much. The one time I saw him on the battlefield, I dealt with him through a combination of precision shots and pie plates. His blade slaves routed shortly after. Its a bit of a shrug from me - he is fine overall, but just not the first choice I think.
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