Customizable Commanders, Part III: The Republic

Good morning gamers,

This is our third post in reviewing the new customizable commanders and operatives for the four factions in Star Wars Legion. We've already looked at the Rebel and Imperial options and today we're tackling my beloved Republic and the customizable Jedi heroes that you can field. If you haven't seen the article yet, you can view it here.

Like the previous article, we'll be looking at the four doctrines provided in the new kit and how that shakes out with the SEVEN different Jedi builds you can have (max of four, of course, since the doctrines are unique . . . some might say max of two, depending on whether you think two of the doctrines are playable). We'll start off with the one that is unique to Commanders . . .

Jedi Knight General with General of the Republic: 110+ pts

Right off the bat, one should note that ALL of the Jedi options are going to be expensive. Before you buy the required doctrines (5-10pts) and the required lightsabers (all free - though I expect that to change in the future) and the basically-required Jedi Training upgrade (5-8pts) and the basically-required Force upgrade (at least 5pts, unless you're leaning into Hope?!?!?!), any Commander or Operative Jedi that you make is going to be pretty pricey. This shouldn't surprise anyone who's seen the non-customizable Jedi, but it's worth pointing out that relative to what we've seen with the Empire and Rebels, this is quite the investment.

Jedi Knight Generals are Commanders with 6 Wounds/Courage 3, which makes them pretty durable and they have great anti-panic bubbles. With 2 Force Upgrade slots and 2 Training slots (only one of which can hold a Jedi Training upgrade), you have a good amount of upgrade options before factoring in any extra upgrade options that your Doctrine/Jedi Trainings give you. The General of the Republic doctrine gives you a Command slot (only way to get one on these commanders) and you also pick up Inspire 1 (fine), Bolster 2 as an action (also fine), and Direct: Clone Trooper (excellent). Doctrine Rating: B.

You could certainly kit out this Commander option to be a fighter, but I greatly suspect that the intent of a General-General like this is to be like . . . well, like Obi-Wan Kenobi (and a cheaper version at that). Bolster 2 would certainly see more use if it was a free action, but Direct: Clone Trooper has a TON of applicability in your lists (you can give orders to Fives + someone else, the Bad Batch, possibly Delta Squad, a Clone Commander choice like Rex or Cody, a critical ARC Trooper squad, etc.) and you probably want that guy to be embedded with his buddies, which is kind of what Kenobi does. You won't be able to use Guardian to shuffle damage off of your buddies, but you can certainly take Force Barrier and reset it every turn with Master of the Force 1 and take other upgrades to help you do damage as you advance. 

I've taken the Twin Lightsabers and Saber Throw to make up for not having Charge or Steady (more on those later), but know that if you wanted to take the Double-bladed Lightsaber to get Charge, you certainly could. This is the one Commander option that I don't think has a particular lightsaber kit in mind - but it's also the one that I think wants the cheapest lightsaber option if some of these lightsabers do go up in price as the game progresses. I've avoided the Jedi Trainings with this build - you could take one, but I don't think this build necessarily needs one. One interesting support option you could do is to take Tactical Acumen (which doesn't have a lot of uses, I think) so you can Guidance a Corps Clone Trooper squad that took Emergency Stims - this would allow you to reset the stims each turn with a free recover action and could help one of your big squads fight for a long time. You'd definitely need to take the Double-bladed Lightsaber for Charge though.

Decision Analysis: this is a support Commander who can be run for less than 130pts (possibly 120pts) and gets you relatively cheap access to orders and Force Barrier OR for 150pts with Force Push every turn. Obi-Wan and Yoda are base 150pts, so to get Force Push on them, you're clocking in at nearly 200pts (and probably over 200pts once you pick up other upgrades). You can get to 150pts with Ahsoka (more on her next) with Force Push, but not with anything other upgrades. All in all, he's a pretty tidy package and a good overall deal.

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: pick any lightsaber you want (or the cheapest), Peacekeeping Mission or Tactical Acumen if you want them, Force Barrier if you're augmenting a gunline or Force Push/Jedi Mind Trick if you're racing ahead, and Saber Throw if you didn't take the Double-bladed Lightsaber. You should also consider taking Trusted Agent if you have an Operative that you want to give an order to (the Bad Batch or Jedi Knight, perhaps).

Jedi Knight General with Jedi Negotiator: 110+ pts

This doctrine trades out the free order token from Direct, the Bolster 2 action that you might not use, and the Inspire 1 that you probably will use but might not make a functional difference to gain a free range attack that has 1 white die (meh), Blast, Spray, and Suppressive. And you get an extra Training slot, which brings you up to 3. That's . . . a lot of Training upgrades that you could take, but in my mind, this also means that this is the doctrine that you use for base-cheap-cost-control. There's really only one upgrade that you need with this guy - maybe two - and the result is that you get a cheap commander who is bringing Master of the Force 1 and at least one cool Force upgrade to the table. By "Force upgrade," I mean one in particular: Jedi Mind Trick. Doctrine Rating: B- with Jedi Mind Trick, C- without it.

I'm not sure if the comparison to Ahsoka Tano is a fair one for either the Negotiator-General or Ahsoka - they're both kind of doing the same things, but they're also not doing the same things. With Burst of Speed and a range-2 Blast/Suppressive attack, taking Prepared Positions on the Commander gives him some very interesting anti-Courage-1 alpha-strike options. Burst could see him sitting on a POI on turn 1 if you can aggressively deploy in your deployment zone and if your opponent has Courage 1 troops that you can double-tap with a Suppressive attack (and maybe others that can be Jedi Mind Tricked each turn), you can actually swing an objective hard with this guy. 

I've taken the Double-bladed Lightsaber because it has Charge and for no other reason - if you want to have a different one, you can (especially if you think you're going to be working the Suppressive angle instead of the damage angle). I will say that I have doubts about how effective this "mind shout" attack is (it's a "Force Shove" that doesn't Shove anyone anywhere, so it seems to me more like I'm shouting into someone's head instead of moving their body around) - this guy might need aim tokens to make it work, though statistically, you're supposed to apply the suppression if you're targeting a unit with at least 4 units in it . . . but never tell me the odds, it'll mess up without aims.

Ahsoka can also take Jedi Mind Trick - and if she doesn't get issued orders, she can actually use the Mind Trick every turn. She's natively very fast, but doesn't have Charge baked into her profile. She's a lot more potent if paired with Yoda, but since you can field her for 115pts, she's pretty reliable at smashing through people - but she's also a lot more vulnerable than the General is.

Decision Analysis: this is an offensive Commander who is going to focus on clearing an objective for you and holding it - and he can do that for a fairly low price. I think this is a perfectly good build for him, but is also the least dangerous of the Commander builds. I also think the Master of the Force 1 keyword on the Jedi Knight General makes this build much more valuable than the Operative variant we'll see later (despite the 20pt increase in cost).

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: Jedi Mind Trick always, you probably always want Peacekeeping Mission for the placement/Reliable 2, the Double-bladed Lightsaber for Charge, and probably Burst of Speed for getting where you need to be (but with Peacekeeping Mission, I do think this is optional).

Jedi Knight General with Jedi Consular: 113+ pts

Jedi Consulars are the first of the doctrines that give your customizable Jedi a free attack action. Steady is a tricky free attack with Jedi, but with Force Blast on the doctrine (3 black dice with Blast/Impact 2) and a bonus Force upgrade for Saber Throw (and the option for Twin Lightsabers so you have a 4 black/High Velocity option when shooting into units with dodge tokens), you can actually get a decent shooting attack out of your Jedi if you really want it. General Consulars will still have two Force slots left, which means you could also do Burst of Speed with the Force Adept Jedi Training upgrade so you can move Speed-3 on Turn 1 and Speed-2 every turn afterwards OR you could take Clairvoyance and Force Adept so you can get full rerolls on your attack/defense results once per round. Whether you want more movement for your shooting or more reliability in your shooting/resilience on defense, this doctrine has a lot of options available to it - and you'd STILL have two Force slots for other things because Force Adept gives you an extra one. Doctrine Rating: B+.

If the comparison between the Negotiator-General and Ahsoka wasn't quite fair, the comparison between the Consular-General and Yoda is definitely not fair. Yes, the Consular is a good 70+pts cheaper than Yoda once everything is said and done (maybe less if you pass on Force Push on Yoda), but my primary reason for making this comparison is the Force Blast/Force Wave range options they have built into their profiles. Yoda can have Relentless once or twice per game when he plays specific command cards and when he does, he can do a 4 black/Blast/Suppressive shot with surge for crit - that's going to be better than the Consular's shot for sure. That being said, Impact 2/Blast has some better match-ups than Force Wave does and since both have Blast, they're pretty decent attack options against infantry in cover, even if the Impact keyword doesn't come into play - and you could have an attack with very similar damage options with the Twin Lightsabers if you wanted it.

Yoda has Force Push, but the Consular-General has two free Force slots, so he could start rivaling Yoda's points cost if he wanted a tactical Force Push option - OR you could run these two together and have two very powerful pieces with Force upgrades coming out of their ears. Something to think about . . .

Decision Analysis: this is a decent Commander who can bring a suite of Force abilities to the table while dealing reliable damage at range against a wide variety of targets. This kind of hero isn't going to rival most 130+ units for damage at range, but he's bringing far more to the table than just damage to your army. I think you still want Yoda for his command cards and other abilities we haven't discussed here, but if you're on a budget (or if you're looking for an interesting character to run with him), a Consular-General isn't a bad option at all.

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: Take Saber Throw and the Twin Lightsabers for range attack flexibility, take Force Adept or Peacekeeping Mission to support your attack options, take Burst of Speed or Clairvoyance if you took Force Adept (take Force Push or Jedi Mind Trick if you took Peacekeeping Mission), and then consider getting additional Force upgrades that you'll use once or twice each game with any remaining points you have.

Jedi Knight General with Jedi Guardian: 115+ pts

This is it - this is the last General option we have and I've got to say, the Guardian-General is the most flamboyant of the attackers. With Charge, surge for hit, and Lethal 1 on his melee weapons coming from the doctrine, this is the best combat version of a customizable Jedi Knight General and it's not close at all. This is also an option that could take the Double-bladed Lightsaber so you also get Tactical 1 in addition to Charge/Lethal 1 from the Jedi Guardian doctrine, but you could also make the standard Lightsaber or Twin Lightsabers work as well for reasons we'll see in a moment. You could definitely pair this with Peacekeeping Mission if you wanted to, but you could also pair it with Master Duelist or Force Adept for the Jump keyword (and probably get some utility out of Critical 1 or exhausting expendable Force upgrades). Doctrine Rating: A.

Not gonna lie, there is no comparison to Anakin Skywalker - and I don't think there should be. Running this guy WITH Anakin (and maybe Ahsoka, thanks to the Associate keyword) could be really interesting and ABSOLUTELY brutal if you also had two Jedi Knights in the Operative slots (more on them later)! I don't know if it would be better to have the Jedi Guardian doctrine on a Commander or an Operative is better, but this is certainly a good option.

Now that being said, while the double-bladed lightsaber is the punchiest of the attack options (a move-move-free-attack will see this guy averaging about 4 hits/crits thanks to Ram before rerolling two dice with your spare aim token (which might get you an extra hit) and then stacking Impact 2/Pierce 2 to the attack total. Anakin almost always gets 5 hits through (especially if he has aim support or extra dice - which he can gain from his 2-pip or 3-pip command cards) and with Pierce 3, that's going to result in more dead troops than the General-Guardian will get - and Anakin might be able to attack multiple times if he can trigger Tempted or if he's played his 1-pip! This is still a very good attack result, but it's not in the same ballpark as Anakin when you factor in all of his rules.

Decision Analysis: this is a good combat attacker, but you really need to lean into Charge to make it work. I also don't know if this is a good upgrade for a Commander option vs. an Operative option. This build is heavily skewed towards offensive combat power - but the boosts you get (sixth Wound, Courage 3, Master of the Force 1, extra Force/Training slots) for the cost you pay (20pts more) aren't really helping your offensive game that much. If you're only taking one customizable Jedi and it happens to be a Commander, pick Jedi Guardian as your doctrine. If you're doing a mix of Commander and Operative customizable Jedi, I think you actually want to give your Jedi Guardian upgrade to your Operative.

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: always take the Double-bladed Lightsaber, take Peacekeeping Mission for the deployment advantages (and the Reliable 2), you probably want Burst of Speed and Force Push to make sure you reach what you want and you fight what you want (but this does increase your cost a lot), and you can take Tenacity if you want a bit more damage once you start taking hits. If you do this, you're pushing 180 . . . which is kind of why I think the Operative variant might be better. Speaking of which, let's look at how the game changes when you have an Operative instead . . .

Jedi Knight with Jedi Negotiator: 900+ pts

The General got a fine rating with this doctrine because he has Master of the Force 1 in his profile. This, added to Jedi Mind Trick, allows you to do a double whammy of 2 suppression against the people near you - this is a powerful way to panic a Courage 2 unit that's already gone or panic two Courage 1 units that have already gone. However you cut the pie, this guy can do a lot for you. Without Master of the Force 1 . . . this isn't a great doctrine and the Operative is really hurting to make things works with a pretty blah shooting attack and an extra Training slot. He is fairly cheap, so we're taking this doctrine to keep our points down - it's the only 5pt doctrine you can take, but for 8pts, you could be a Consular. Doctrine Rating: C-.

I'm not going to do any direct comparisons with these profiles, mostly because I've walked through all of the Republic Jedi options today. The best comparison is to see if this version of a customizable Jedi is better or the same as the Commander variant, since you might want to throw 4-5 Jedi in a list and see how they do! I'm not a big fan of this version, but for 109pts, this guy might be as good as a baseline Ahsoka . . . and they're not competing for the same slot, so you might be able to field them in the same list.

This is also the only build where I'm going to show off the standard single Lightsaber - it's being run with Master Duelist (which it seems to want?) and gives you a slightly-worse version of Obi-Wan's lightsaber with 2 red/1 black/3 white and Critical 2/Impact 2/Pierce 1. I've taken Tenacity because I can and we have Block/Outmaneuver and very little way to get innate dodge support . . . yaye? As I've said above, I expect this lightsaber to remain at a 0pt cost and I expect the others to go up, but as it stands, I think you want this version of your Jedi to remain as cheap as possible and once you've used Jedi Mind Trick twice (once to exhaust it, once again after a Recover action with his 1-pip, POSSIBLY more if Yoda uses Guidance on him, but who's going to do that?), having a reliable weapon is a good thing (though Charge with the double-bladed lightsaber is probably better).

Decision Analysis: this is not a great choice - spend the ~25 extra points and get a Commander if you want this. Alternatively, run this guy with just the doctrine, a lightsaber, and Jedi Mind Trick to get the cheapest Jedi Operative/Commander in the game. Mind Trick + Force Shove is a worthwhile combo in my book, though it's a shame you can't get Steady from any of the Lightsaber options (like you can with Charge). Still, suppression is suppression and having enough of it can swing a game - if you don't have the points for a Commander, consider this guy. Also consider running him leaner than this to keep his points down!

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: Jedi Mind Trick always, you could take Peacekeeping Mission or Master Duelist, the any Lightsaber because it's required, and optionally Tenacity for some extra damage. If you only take the doctrine, Jedi Mind Trick, and a lightsaber, you will only cost 95pts and that's the cheapest unit we're looking at today.

Jedi Knight with Jedi Consular: 93+ pts

Like we said above, this doctrine provides the Steady keyword and a shooting attack that's pretty decent against Armor targets. It can also easily be paired with Saber Throw (which doesn't exhaust) and the Twin Lightsabers, which gives you a flexible attack option into either Armor/Cover or dodge-spam. Consulars will have one Force slot to spare after equipping Saber Throw, so you can get another Force ability if you want, but you can also skip on it and just take Peacekeeping Mission (assuming you haven't take two already) to get Prepared Position, Reliable 2, and Sentinel (which you won't be able to shoot at range 3, but getting a free move is always nice). If you run this guy with just the doctrine, a lightsaber, Saber Throw, and Peacekeeping Mission, you'll clock in just above 100pts, which is pretty good. Doctrine Rating: A-.

I think your Force upgrade options are far more limited with this build than the General variant, but you're also coming in at a much lower cost. This guy is cheap enough that if you wanted a utility Force Push user, you could do it (like we said above, this guy could use Force Push twice in a game just by relying on his 1-pip). Alternatively, you could continue to keep his price low by going with Jedi Mind Trick, making him more of a shoot-and-suppress character instead of a shove-people-around character.

Decision Analysis: this is a cheap Jedi who is mostly going to be a harassing piece that will be hard-ish to kill. For 100pts, you could certainly do worse than 3-4 black dice with Impact 2 and either Blast or High Velocity/Pierce 1 - and with Reliable 2, he's decently reliable on both offense and defense. If you're supporting another power piece, this guy is an excellent addition as a third- or fourth-string hitter.

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: Take Saber Throw and the Twin Lightsabers for range attack flexibility, take Peacekeeping Mission to give you the positioning you want/surge reliability, optionally take Force Push or Jedi Mind Trick if you want to manipulate the board more (but I think these are very much optional).

Jedi Knight with Jedi Guardian: 95+ pts

And here we are again at the best doctrine in the kit - and while I think that statement is generally true of the Jedi Knight General, it's definitely true of the Jedi Knight. Charge is good, surge to hit is good, and Lethal 1 is good. The Double-bladed Lightsaber supports the Lethal and makes your moves with Charge much more meaningful. Doctrine Rating: A+.

This guy can only take four upgrades (unless his Jedi Training gives him more - and I think you want Peacekeeping Mission for its deployment advantages and Reliable 2) and keeping these lean means you can have a 113pt Jedi to support your attack! With the Jedi Guardian/Double-bladed Lightsaber combo, you get plenty of damage after you do a full run, which is awesome. Burst of Speed is the staple Force upgrade for smashy characters, but you could give him a utility option of Jedi Mind Trick or Force Guidance if you really wanted to shave off some points. This guy hits hard and doesn't feel the losses of the General variant as much - mostly because without Master of the Force, you're unlikely to invest in Force Push on this guy (though you certainly could take it instead of Burst of Speed).

Decision Analysis: this is the best combat attacker and is one of the cheapest Jedi in the game. This build supports itself, hits pretty hard, and takes up a slot that doesn't have a lot of contention in Republic lists (unless you're really sold on Padme and the Bad Batch in the same list). If you're taking an Operative Jedi Knight, take this one.

My recommendations for upgrades are simple: always take the Double-bladed Lightsaber, always take Peacekeeping Mission for the deployment advantages (and the Reliable 2), and always take Burst of Speed if you're keeping your cost low (or Force Push for 1-2 uses).

Okay, all of that has been great for theory-crafting, but let's look at how that plays into lists!

Sample Lists

Our first list is a fun Yoda/Negotiator-General list that spams out Jedi Mind Trick/suppression shenanigans alongside the Bad Batch, Padme, some Clone Trooper Infantry (with Medics or the Ahsoka/Shotgun combo), and some bare-bones AT-RTs for a nice and tidy 10-activation list:

• Yoda, Grand Master of the Jedi Order with Force Push, Burst of Speed, and Jedi Mind Trick
• Jedi Knight General, Strong in the Force with Jedi Negotiator, Jedi Mind Trick, Saber Throw, Jedi Training/Peacekeeping Mission, and Twin Lightsabers
• The Bad Batch
• Padme Amidala with Up Close and Personal
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medics
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Ashoka Tano, Jedi Padawan and DP-23 Clone Trooper
• 3x AT-RTs

The list has great order control from Yoda on two turns of the game and is relying on being able to give critical units their orders to make up for the other turns of the game. Supporting all three of Yoda's command cards are a niche-use 1-pip for the Jedi Knight General (he doesn't need the Recover as much as an Operative would, but he'll take the tokens), a niche-use 2-pip for Padme (movement and order control on the Bad Batch is always nice), and a niche-use 3-pip for the Bad Batch (probably played late in the game if they need to get somewhere quickly). By and large, you're leaning into Yoda and counting on his command cards to help you carry the day. The Medics are mostly intended to help "zombie Wrecker" come back on critical turns.

Our next list is a list that I'm particularly interested to try out - it's a 10-act variant of my favorite Republic build of Kenobi-Commandos supported by the Bad Batch, four squads of Clone Trooper Infantry (with a mix of Medics and Portable Scanners), and my favorite Republic units: Delta Squad and two Clone Commandos!

• Obi-Wan Kenobi with Force Barrier
• The Bad Batch
• Jedi Knight, Keeper of the Peace with Jedi Guardian, Burst of Speed, Jedi Training/Peacekeeper Mission, and Double-bladed Lightsaber
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medics
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Portable Scanners
• 1x Clone Commandos, Delta Squad with Offensive Push, Katarn Pattern Armor, and config
• 2x Clone Commandos with Katarn Pattern Armor and config

What amazes me about this list is that it's basically my go-to Kenobi/Commando list without the Special Forces (and no HQ Uplinks on my Commandos - definitely going to miss those) but it adds the Bad Batch, a Jedi Knight brawler, and STILL has Delta and two Medics. THIS IS INSANE! My only regret is that I don't have Padawan Ahsoka (and Fives) in the list, but something's gotta give! Anyone who isn't enamored with the Guardian-Knight build can easily swap him and the Portable Scanners for Padme with Up Close and Personal, Ahsoka and a DP-23 Trooper for one of the Clone Trooper Infantry squads, and an Electrobinoculars upgrade for the other. You could also shift some things around for Fives if you wanted, but I don't know that you need to.

The final list is a silly one - it's a 10-activation Republic list (again), but we're fielding two Jedi Knights (Consular and Guardian, of course), one Jedi Knight General, Anakin, and Ahsoka - five Jedi and five supporting units (in the form of 3 Clone Trooper Infantry and 2 Republic AT-RTs):

• Anakin Skywalker, The Chosen One with Force Push, Burst of Speed, Tenacity, and Into the Fray
• Ashoka Tano, Padawan Commander with Jedi Mind Trick
• Jedi Knight General, Strong in the Force with General of the Republic, Force Barrier, and Double-bladed Lightsaber
• Jedi Knight, Keeper of the Peace with Jedi Consular, Saber Throw, Jedi Training/Peacekeeping Mission, and Twin Lightsabers
• Jedi Knight, Keeper of the Peace with Jedi Guardian, Jedi Training/Peacekeeping Mission, and Double-bladed Lightsaber
• 1x Clone Trooper Infantry with Clone Medic
• 2x Clone Trooper Infantry with Electrobinoculars
• 2x AT-RTs

We have 2pts to spare and I don't know if the random wound you can get back with the Clone Medic is better than the improved damage output of a DP-23 - season to taste, I guess. The Guardian-Knight could also benefit from a Force upgrade (like Burst of Speed), so I could have dropped an Electrobinoculars to get that instead. However you want to do it, this list is about ramming lightsabers through your opponent's units as quickly as possible and hopefully keeping some things alive when the dust settles. The Clones are very much bringing up the rear-guard and the AT-RTs should be able to sit-and-stick to objectives while the Jedi move around to handle things. My son, Gorgoroth, would disagree with the lack of Hardpoint upgrades on those AT-RTs, but I'm a big fan of their base gun and I needed the points elsewhere.

Conclusion

The Notorious Scoundrels came down pretty hard on these upgrades, but I think they're interesting. I will say that when I was building lists, I only took the Peacemaking Mission Jedi Training upgrade (despite talking about others) and unless I was using Saber Throw, my default weapon was always the Double-bladed Lightsaber . . . that probably says something about the balance of these upgrades. :) Hopefully you enjoyed this article - we'll be back in two weeks to close out the articles for the year with a review of the Super Tactical Droid customizable units, and boy is there a lot to unpack there! Let us know what you thought below and until next time, happy hobbying!