Zardu Layak – The Crimson Apostle, The Thrice Born, The Binder of Souls, The Voice of the Unspeaking. Many are the names of this dark warrior of the 17th legion. Though not as widely known as the dark apostle Erebus, Zardu Layak is a warrior whose name is a byword for infamy both on and off the table…
Background
Zardu Layak’s true name is now lost, but it is recorded in his legions lore that he was once an officer of the Ashen Circle, a terran by birth, and a devout destroyer of all that pertained to false superstition and errant creed. He oversaw the burning of a hundred temples and countless tomes of lies in the Emperor’s service. That was until the Word Bearers’ brutal censure by their ultimate master.
As Lorgar led his legion into the wilderness after their punishment on Monarchia, Layak was contrite and ashamed, soul sick and loast, and quickly a fervent convert to Erebus’ and Lorgar’s new teachings in which he sought solace, but even this did not fill the void within him. So it was that when he began to receive visions in which he believed his Primarch spoke to him directly, he concealed them from others for fear his shame had driven him mad. In those visions the golden skinned apparition of Lorgar bade him to reconsider his work, not to burn the books and lore he encountered but to read them, covet them, to search in them for the hidden truths that the Emperor had not wished his sons to know.
Word upon word, rune upon rune, glyph upon secret glyph was a new creature born, a creature who named himself from the Book of Lorgar, using the ancient practice of Sortilege, as Zardu Layak, ‘Eater of Wsidom’ but who came to be known more swiftly by his legion as the Crimson Apostle for his fiery raiment and the scalding blood in which he daily daubed his armour.
Assigned to the Chapter of the Ochre Gates as its apostle by Erebus, who sought to channel his fervour, Zardu Layak quickly proved more than a mere voice of the first chaplain. Soon the chapter began to seek missions of its own, away from it parent legion for long stretches and each time it returned it was further changed. Like a cancer, Zardu Layak had embedded himself deeper into its carcass, so that after a time, the Ochre Gate was no more and now the chapter of the Unspeaking stood in its place, with Zardu Layak its de facto master.
Though Kor Phaeron was disquieted by the Crimson Apostle’s growing power, much of which he would keep hidden until the atrocity on Calth, Lorgar pronounced himself pleased by Zardu Layak and his devotion to the word of the Primordial Truth, assigning the Unspeaking and their master to command a key assault at Calth, though so changed had they become that complete concealment was needed for them until the hour came to strike.
(From The Horus Heresy Book 5 – Tempest, page 250, Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2015.)
On the Table
Zardu Layak is a HQ choice for the Word Bearers legion and his unique history gives him a wonderfully diverse range of skills and talents on the table.
Looking at the statline, its a centurion level for the most part. WS 5 is run of the mill for an astartes hero as is BS5. S 4 is again the norm though a T of 5 is a nice bonus for those one on one engagements. 2 wounds is on the low side for an astartes hero typically and 3 would have been much more welcome. Initiative of 5 is another norm for his class on the table but its the base 2 attacks that really is disappointing. Yes he has 2 close combat weapons but one of them is two handed so he won’t be the combat machine other legion heroes are. Leadership 10 is expected as is his armour save of 2+.
Rules wise, its quite a long list – Independent Character, Master of the Legion, Legiones Astartes Word Bearers, Daemon, Binder of Souls, Zealot, Reign of Fire (warlord trait) and Psyker Level 2 (pyromancy or malefic). Most of these are straight forward and common to most 40k players so lets just look at the couple that are interesting.
Master of the Legion allows the legion to choose from a select group of specialisations in the way they can deploy and the units they can select. This is common across any of the significant HQ choices as well as the primarchs. The key thing is that you may only have 1 model with this rule per 1000 points of your army.
Daemon is a big deal for a number of reasons. First, he gains the special rule Fear from this which has quite an impact in the 30k setting where the legions have yet to learn no fear. The second bonus from this rule is a 5+ invulnerable save, making it possible for him to take hits from missile launchers and las cannons and take little to no damage, especially when combined with a 2+ armour save and a toughness of 5. Lastly, as a daemon, he can use Malefic psychic powers with much greater ease and a far lower chance of perils of the warp while doing so.
Binder of Souls makes Zardu count as a Diabolist for the various rules pertaining to his legion, its rites of war and so on. On top of this, units in an army containing Zardu may benefit from the Dark Channelling special rule with a +1 modifier. This is fantastic and the chance to end up with Zealot across multiple units should not be underestimated! Lastly, if Zardu is the warlord, this rule allows an allied detachment of Codex: Chaos Daemons may be selected. This is just so massive that the implications can’t be covered completely in just this post but suffice to say, the addition of a detachment of Daemons to the legions is a significant bonus with the right army build.
Reign of Fire is also worth a mention. Its Zardu’s warlord trait and thus only gained when he does lead your army. WHen he does, it allows the Ashen Circle (a word bearers special unit) to be taken as Troops instead of Fast Attack and they also become a scoring unit. They do however have to be given the Dark Channelling rule which is no great penalty!
On the wargear front, he has a nice (if short) list of gear. He carries frag and krak grenades like all good astartes as well as a bolt pistol and wears artificer armour as mentioned above in his profile. He has a couple of unique items as well though and again, its these we need to cover.
The Azurda Char’is is a force staff straight off the bat. +2 strength, AP4, melee, force, two handed. In that regard, its not that interesting. What makes this weapon interesting is once per game he can reroll a single failed test to manifest a psychic power. The implications for this when combined with malefic daemonology can not be understated – especially the summoning power. With such a high warp charge requirement, this bonus once per game could be key to getting this power off.
The Panoply of Flame is the other unique item carried by the Crimson Apostle. It has 2 effects on the table top – the first being that it can once per game be used as a Heavy Flamer in lieu of making one of Zardu’s normal shooting attacks. This is a nice surprise to an unwary enemy for sure. The second effect, and arguably the more important one, is that all models within 12″ that have the legions astartes word bearers special rule add a +1 modifier to their score for deciding their combat results and +1 to their sweeping advance rolls. This really encourages you to get Zardu into the thick of the battle lines where these modifiers can be brought to bear.
Its also worth mentioning that Zardu has the option for a unique unit which he may purchase – the Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves. These 2 warriors are truly fearsome brutes, with stats that make the Gal Vorbak seems pitiful! WS5, BS4 are on par with the Gal Vorbak but S6, T5, W3, I5, A3 per model makes these warriors truly fearsome. Combined with their unique Anaktis Blades (S: User, Ap3, wound rolls of 5 or 6 count as AP2 and inflict 2 wounds) as well as Rage, It will not Die and Daemon and you see a truly horrifying unit.That comes at the price of being limited to just 2 of them and forming a single HQ choice with Zardu when selected. There is some grey area as to if Zardu can leave this unit or if he must stay with them as essentially a character upgrade but to be honest, the power of the Blade Slaves means that you won’t be to stressed if he sticks with them.
How do you use him?
I see Zardu Layak as being used in a couple of ways. His Panoply of Flame would be great in the midst of a huge infantry wall armed for assaults. His many army wide buffs make the army harder to break and his ability to reinforce the units on the table though daemonic summoning is a huge benefit later in a game as attrition takes its toll. Naturally, to maximise his psychic potential, you will see him combined with legion librarians or at least characters with the burning lore upgrade to maximise the psychic dice at his disposal. While Zardu himself would prefer to not see front line fighting, when combined with his Blade-Slaves, he is more than capable of acting as a bully unit to enemy units of the line. He might struggle against more elite or high model count units but for his price with the slaves (just 275 points total) he can easily handle units of comparable value.
Have you faced down the Crimson Apostle and his daemonic allies on the 30k table top? How did he fare? Do you agree with my thoughts on him? Let me know in the comments!