Top 10 Upgrades for Commander Luke

Hey Reader!

We're taking a break from unit reviews today to look at the top ten upgrade choices for Luke Skywalker (Commander version - we'll take a look at Operative Luke in a future post), as he 1) comes in the starter set, so he's pretty ubiquitous, but also 2) because as a force user there's a lot of interesting choices available to you due to force powers, but some of these are traps either because you're Rebels, and don't need the benefits of that ability, or because Commander Luke is the only major force user who doesn't have Master of the Force, so he has to take a Recover action to get those abilities back.

Since Commander Luke has 2 Force slots and 1 Tech slot, the top three are my recommended picks for his loadout. If you disagree, or think another option should be higher, let me know in the comments below!

And with no further ado, let's jump into the list! We'll start with an honorable mention that is situational, but when that situation comes up it's very useful, so I couldn't in good faith place it in the top ten.

Honorable Mention: Environmental Gear

This is a tech upgrade that allows the bearer to ignore the penalties for moving through difficult terrain. It's simple to understand, easy to use, but may not come up depending on the map.

Now there are two nice things about a situational upgrade like this. First, it's only 2 points (per the errata), so if you have to pay for a situational upgrade, 2pts is a perfectly fine amount to pay, especially for a melee-focused character like Luke who really wants to get into things, and doesn't want to have his speed reduced to speed-1 to get to people. So on its own it means this is not a "dud upgrade" like many of the other tech upgrades and a few of the force upgrades: it has a clear place and usefulness on Commander Luke.

But also it's not restricted to a specific kind of terrain: while the image is tied to snow, this applies to all difficult terrain: snow, dense forests, swamps, passable water, sand - anything that might inflict a difficult terrain penalty is covered here. It doesn't solve the problems of impassable terrain, but it helps with everything else.

So if you have 2pts to spare and didn't want to take another tech upgrade, this is a decent option for covering bases.

#10: Saber Throw

Saber Throw: something that lots of Jedi and Sith do as early as the 1980s, and admittedly a really cool option in Legion because it allows you to turn a melee weapon into a Range 1-2 weapon, so you are more dangerous from 12" away than normal. And the rules for it are simple: perform a ranged attack (at half dice) with the lightsaber. Easy to remember, easy to calculate, not overly complicated to use.

And for Luke, this isn't bad: 3 black dice with Impact 2, Pierce 2, Surge for Crit, is nothing to sneeze at, but it has a few issues with Commander Luke specifically. First and foremost, since he lacks Sharpshooter, if someone is in cover, he's losing 1-3 dice from his 3 black dice pool...so even though he has Pierce 2, he's not actually doing more than 1-2 damage, even if we assume that he hits with everything (which is unlikely).

And since he already has a blaster with 2 red dice with Pierce 2, Surge for Crit, at Range 1-2, he's not doing horribly as it is with that weapon (unless you really want to snipe armored targets at range). So you're paying 5pts to get something that is pretty redundant on him, and that's why this really cool card that doesn't need to be refreshed with a Recover action is #10.

#9: Recon Intel

This is a really simple upgrade: for 2pts you can make a speed-1 move before the game begins. As a melee-centric character with a short-range blaster, getting extra movement beyond your deployment zone is really useful for Luke, which is why this card makes this list.

And it's not a bad option; you get effectively 4" of movement (roughly 3" from the measuring tool + your base size), plus potentially some additional movement from the deployment rules, so you have a chance to move up pretty far before the game even begins. And that means you are that much more likely to get in on Turn 1 or 2 instead of Turn 2 or 3.

What holds this card back is two issues. First, it's a one-off ability: you are not increasing your speed to Speed-3, you get a one-time extra move. And while useful, you may find you can't fully take advantage of this depending on the cover/terrain in play.

But the second issue is the points spending: at 2pts, there's a question of whether it would be wiser to just not spend the points and use that toward your bid to choose which player you want to be (Red v. Blue). And if that's the case, you might actually find yourself disadvantaged just to get up to a 4" move out of the deal. So because there is a chance that this doesn't actually prove as useful to you as it could be, we rate it lower.

#8: Jedi Mind Trick

Another classic Jedi ability, this is a free action (regained after he takes a Recover action) that allows him to give a trooper unit (that is not a commander or operative, so unnamed trooper unit) 2 suppression tokens.

And off the bat, this is a useful ability: it pairs well with Rebel access to the Suppressive keyword (via Wookiees, Laser Cannon Teams, etc.), and makes it far more likely you can panic an enemy, which is just as good for a turn as removing them. But more than that, it's a free action, so Luke is still able to do the things you want Luke to do: move up and cut down enemies.

The issue, of course, is that since Luke doesn't have Master of the Force, he can't truly perform this as a free action, as he has to spend an action to regain the ability. So it's really only free on the last turn you intend to use it.

Add onto this the fact that Luke has to be within Range 1-2 of the enemy means that it not only requires you to potentially panic someone that is near enough for Luke to reach in melee (so your opponent might opt to let the unit panic so it can escape him before he reaches them), and its utility is limited for Luke's use specifically unless you pair it with another force ability like Force Push. And that point this 5pt upgrade is more expensive than that because of its reliance on other upgrades. So we place it #8.

#7: Targeting Scopes

Okay, this is I think the second best tech upgrade you can place on Luke, and it's a bit cheesy, but it does technically work. Targeting Scopes do two things for you (even though it seems like it does 1). First, you get Precise 1 on your attacks, so you get to reroll 3 dice instead of 2 when you use an Aim token.

But the second thing it does is exactly what we just mentioned, which is crazy: the wording of Precise does not specify a ranged attack: you can use this on a melee attack, which makes it far more useful on Luke than it would be otherwise. For 4pts (after the errata) you can dramatically increase the odds of Luke doing 6 hits with Pierce 2, which means even if they get cover you're probably doing at least 2-3 wounds to the target. Which is awesome. And for a person who rolls 6 black dice with the lightsaber (so about 3 hits/crits, 3 blanks, on your average dice pool), rerolling 3 dice specifically is something you can take advantage of very often.

The only thing that holds this back from the top three is that Luke doesn't have a reliable way of generating Aim tokens on himself, so you have to invest quite a few points into a support hero/trooper squad within Range 1 of him with Electrobinoculars or something similar to get this to work, so I can't in good faith place it higher. But if you're looking to make Luke a Mega Slayer, this is a good upgrade.

#6: Force Lift

I should start by saying that I love this card, and when playing Jedi I always give it a good look. The ability to 1) place heavy cover on the table when you otherwise wouldn't is good, but then 2) move it to protect your troops, or remove other barricades that are defending opponents, is just crazy good.

And when you're a Rebel force, cover is how you survive: with all non-Mandalorian, non-Jedi units rolling a white defense die, every hit you can block without having to roll a dice is very important. And this gives you one for free, plus the ability to adjust barricades on the battlefield as you go along.

The issues with this card are threefold. First, Luke doesn't have Master of the Force, which means you need to spend a Recover action to regain this ability. So the more you use this card, the less you're doing what Luke is built to do.

Second, the effectiveness of this card very much depends on how many barricades are on the board. If you're not playing Fortified Positions, or if people don't place barricades on the board for you, you may find yourself only able to move the barricade you place at the start of the game. And since you have to place it at Range 1 of Luke, that barricade is likely to be more useful in defending your troops, and not moving up with your advancing elements.

And finally, the benefits of this card can be ignored with Blast and Sharpshooter, so you're not adding a guaranteed benefit to your force. Sure, it's useful against a lot of things, but it's not a guaranteed benefit, and that keeps it from the top of the list, as all of the ones that follow are always useful.

#5: Force Reflexes

When I first started looking at force abilities, this was the first one that I looked at, and I still take it to this day. Not only is it cheaper due to the errata (5pts now!), but you can spend a free action on your turn to get 1 dodge token: great for triggering special abilities, blocking hits, and keeping your Jedi in the fight.

And for Luke this is very important: he's not as survivable as some of the other Jedi/Sith in the game, so keeping Commander Luke in the fight through blocking hits outright is very, very useful.

But there are two issues with this ability. The first, as you can guess, is that he lacks Master of the Force, so he is spending a Recover action to get his free Dodge action, so it begs the question why not just save the points and take the Dodge action every turn. And that on its own is possibly enough to not take it.

But the second issue is that Luke, unlike Han and other Rebel heroes, can't take a training slot, so you can't use dodges to block critical hits, for example. So while it is a way to block a hit, depending on your level of cover and what your opponent rolls, your dodge token may not matter. This places it below the other options above, as all of them have guaranteed protections for the same cost as this card with more reliability.

#4: Force Push

At 10pts this is one of the most expensive force abilities, but it is one of the best out there. I wasn't completely sold on it until I started playing with Tiberius, and wow have I seen the light. For only 10pts you get to perform a (free) irresistible speed-1 move against an enemy trooper unit at Range 1. Even if they're engaged, you can perform a move with that unit.

Now notice a few things about this. First, this makes it a "Force Pull" as well as a "Force Push": nothing specifies that they have to move away from you. So if you want to move someone closer to you to charge them, you can. If you want to move someone away from you so that you can continue moving toward an objective, you can. If you want to move someone off of an objective so that it's left vacant, you can.

And while yes, Luke doesn't have Master of the Force, so he'd need to Recover to use this more than once, 1) he's saving himself an action by not having to take as many Move actions if you move people closer to you, and 2) this isn't something you'd need to use every turn, so you won't actually spend a Recover action every turn. But more than that, the benefits of this are arguably better than what you would get from an extra 2-3 actions for Luke in a game: this 10pt card has Victory Point gains and losses attached to it, so it's worth considering.

It doesn't make my top three for two reasons. First, it is 10pts, and I think you can get more and better options for cheaper, so I put those ahead. But second, and perhaps more importantly, because this card requires Luke to activate to reset it, your opponent can just move other people elsewhere until Luke activates, and then activate the unit that Luke moved to cancel out whatever you did. So while useful, there is a tactial aspect to it in terms of when to use it during the turn.

#3: Prepared Supplies

I think this is the best tech upgrade you can get for Luke: the ability to spend 5pts at the start of the match and effectively increase your resilience by 1 when you really need it, without having to take your turn to perform a Dodge action to protect yourself, you don't have to worry about cover, or pray you don't get targeted by a person with Sharpshooter 2 to avoid taking hits. In my estimation, this is a no brainer: for 5pts you keep yourself on the board a bit longer.

Now some might say, "Centaur: if you can plan to keep yourself safe, why would you need this card? Aren't you wasting 5pts?" No, you're not, and for two reasons.

First, Dodge tokens can be used in melee, which is where 1) Luke wants to be, and 2) cover doesn't apply. So by having a banked Dodge token that you can spend at will, Luke is now able to Aim + Attack each turn in close combat, which is far better than having to worry about whether to grab an Aim token, a Dodge token, etc., when you can get the benefits of both in those critical first and second turns of melee fighting.

But second, and perhaps more so, this is a 5pt insurance for things you can't control. You can't guarantee that you'll go first with Luke to get your defenses up. You can't guarantee that there will be terrain to take advantage of. You can't guarantee that your opponent will roll closer to the average results on an attack. And in all of these situations, if you can pay 5pts (the typical cost of an upgrade) to give yourself a bit more protection for those things you can't control, this is very, very useful.

So I'd recommend taking Prepared Supplies: it might just save your life.

#2: Force Barrier

This might be controversial as a choice over Force Push, and I'll be honest, this one I was also persuaded by Tiberius to start taking, becasue the trickledown effects of this force power cannot be overstated. As long as Luke is near another trooper unit (so doesn't help vehicles), he can cancel either 1 critical hit (which you can't typically block with cover or a dodge token), or up to 2 hits (if you don't see a lot of critical hits).

So between cover, dodge tokens, and Force Barrier, getting hits on that unit is really hard. The alternative is attacking Luke directly, who not only gets a red defense die (so better than the other unit, probably), but also has 6 wounds, so relatively hard to remove.

And while yes, this requires a Recover action to use it again, 1) since you use this during your opponent's turn this is something you don't need to use often, and can reset whenever the unit(s) near Luke are in danger of being hit with big attacks, and 2) the ability to save 2 trooper's lives for 1 action from Luke is very, very good value.

And at 10pts, this means if you save even 1-2 men's lives by using this card, you've made your points back. So I really like this card: it covers the primary weakness of Rebel troopers (low defense) at a reasonable cost.

#1: Battle Meditation

And topping the list, perhaps surprising everyone, is a card with Luke on it! Battle Meditation is fantastic on Commander Luke for several reasons. First, it's not a card that requires you to Recover to use it, so it's something you can do every turn without impacting your action economy. Second, it's useful every turn, because it triggers based on something that is guaranteed to happen every turn (issuing orders).

And the card is simple: when you issue orders with Luke, you can issue one of those orders to any friendly unit on the battlefield, ignoring the requirements of the card. So a few examples of where this would be useful:

Objective Control: You want to issue an order to a unit that is at a far-flung objective, beyond the reach of your commander order range. Instead of leaving their order token in the order pool, you give them an order, allowing you to activate them reliably.

Objective Defense: An enemy unit is approaching one of your back objectives, and you need to get an order to the defending unit pronto, but they are out of your command range. So you give them an order, because that's what they need.

Specialist Command Cards: Don't you hate it when the best card to play specifies a vehicle, core unit, specialist, or character, but you really need to activate someone else this turn? Great news: you can activate them, even though the card doesn't let you normally.

Order Pool Fixing: The best order pools are ones filled with mostly one type of order token, as that means you can mostly guarantee what you'll get when you go to the pool. So if you have, say, 1 heavy support (like a snowspeeder), or 1 commander, or 1 support who is beyond the range of your typical command radius, you can pass an order to them to get their token out of the order pool and fix what results you are likely to get.

And once again, all of these you can do every turn as long as Luke is alive and is issuing the orders (so doesn't work with command cards from other characters, but does work with generic command cards, generic faction command cards, and Echo Base Defender command cards), so it's very, very easy to take advantage of it. Especially since Luke's command cards are not too shabby.

Conclusion

Now keep in mind that for other Jedi (and Sith), this list will change. This is specifically a look at Luke, and Commander Luke at that. But if you're thinking about using Luke, consider these upgrades, as I think you'll get some good mileage from them.

Some upgrades are just not that useful because of what Luke is trying to do (Force Guidance doesn't synergize with him very well because all Rebel units except Ewoks can surge for at least one thing, so how much value are you getting out of giving out surge tokens?). Others just don't work because of what other Rebel commanders offer (Hope doesn't work well because you've already got Inspire on multiple heroes already, so do you need it on Luke too?). But while all of these have a place on a Luke build, I think the higher rated ones will give you more value on average.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I watch the stars, for it is mine to watch." ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian