Talk about “Main Character Syndrome”…
What can I say about Luke Skywalker that hasn’t been said already? He’s the original farm boy with dreams of bigger things, unafraid to whine about even the simplest of chores all while endangering his family’s property by removing restraining bolts so he can get a better look at the fuzzy picture of a cute girl. A boy who then traveled to a bar with a much older man that he clearly barely knew, then hitched a ride on the back of a modded and tagless drug-smuggling truck, then signed up with violent revolutionaries (to win the heart of that cute girl, his sister) and destroyed billions of credits worth of property while snuffing out the lives of nearly 2 million people including political prisoners and civilian non-combat contractors. And he did all that in like, a day! Despite his questionable judgment, Luke was of course inspired by Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, though it only took one face to win the hearts of Star Wars fans across the world.
If you want to see more Mark Hamill caked in makeup and read some mildly obsolete (soon to be updated) descriptions of canon “accuracy” then look no further than my very first article on this website!
Who wouldn’t follow this man into the depths of space hell?
Originally this was two guides written by Kyle “Orkimedes” Dornbos but the change to 2.6 as well as about a billion other things that have changed necessitated a full re-do, and I figured it was a good time to combine the guides anyway. This guide diverges a bit when discussing the elements of each character but reconvenes when elements are shared, thus I have indexed it:
6 Health and 3 Courage with red saves and Immune: Pierce: For 120 points this is a pretty good innate profile of resiliency, it’s safe to say that he is the hardest single-mini trooper to kill at his cost or below.
Jump 1, Charge, and a 2R3B Impact 2, Pierce 1 melee weapon: Respectable, but Pierce 1 instead of the usual 2 that saber users (even Grievous!) get does hurt. Consider attacking a five person Stormtrooper squad: that is usually going to be the difference between 3 wounds and 4, the latter of which kills that heavy weapon while the former of course does not.
Sharpshooter 1 for a 1R3B Pierce 1 Range 2 gun with Long Shot: This is pretty good for the cost, better than the Inquisitor ranged attacks when we’re talking cheap force-users, and can be used at Range 3 by spending an aim, though to be honest it will only be on rare occasions that doing so is a better call than just moving closer to the target to make them Range 2.
Inspire 2: It’s fine, but since he’ll usually act last it mostly will only matter to rescue units from panicking at objectives
Block: Oof, it’s true that he’ll have dodge tokens fairly often, but this makes him vulnerable to ranged attacks much of the time. On the bright side, he can spend a dodge to get Surge: Block in melee which does help sometimes and means he can consider Tenacity over Into the Fray more easily than his more expensive counterpart.
Force: You only have one slot and you don’t have Master of the Force. Therefore, while Jedi Mind Trick is definitely an option to enable Serve Your Master being used on your opponent I generally prefer Burst of Speed since you can always Serve a friend into the extra attack. Burst will get you into engagement when you need the extra speed to do so. Please do not put Force Push on this guy, that’s a THIRD of the cost of the unit and you won’t likely get it back, you’d be better off upgrading to Operative Luke without Force Push (since he has Disengage). Use of this slot is the only one that I would consider “automatic,” the rest can be used or ignored as points allow.
Command: Likely Improvised Orders since Rebels often have order control issues or perhaps Vigilance to reduce the risk of dodges in his army going to waste.
Training: Tenacity if you want to take anything at all is probably the best choice, Into the Fray is less attractive than it is on Operative Luke since Block can get you Surge: Block on melee defense. Seize the Initiative is another great option if you’re taking fewer Luke commands but want the option to give him a face-up when he begins the turn engaged.
Gear: Prepared Supplies or Recon Intel are both solid choices, the former of which gives you one use of Block when you need it most and the other of which gets you a little closer to the enemy.
This article is getting published before we see Luke’s FINAL, final Legion 2.6 iteration but this is the one character that Atomic Mass Games has confirmed is not getting changed (at the very least not in any significant way).
200 170 165 Points: As you can see quite a bit has changed since this character first released, but the contents of his card (which were impressive enough when we first saw them years ago) have not.
7 health, Deflect, Immune: Pierce, and red defense dice: He is BEEFY. You used to have to work a couple tricks to get constant surge to block on defense at range but with the new deflect rules that’s all free baby. The only downside is that he does not get that benefit in melee innately, which makes for a touch upgrade decision which we’ll touch on in a second.
4 Courage: Good luck panicking or even suppressing Luke. It will take a good portion of your tricks to do so…no…ALL your tricks!
Speed 2, Jump 1, and Charge with a 7 Black attack and surge to crit: Standard Jedi mobility with what is ultimately a slightly above average Jedi weapon since black dice will miss 3/8 of the time. This can be bolstered with Tenacity, however.
Disengage: This is only in competition with Palpatine’s Pull the Strings or Count Dooku’s recent addition of Direct: Trooper for being the best single keyword on a single-mini character in the game. As long as you’re only engaged with one unit, you can just leave. That is nuts!
Master of the Force 1: As above, the only “downside” is that you can’t refresh 2 at once when you have three slots. This means that you won’t be able to use Push and Mind Trick every single round without recovering which you usually won’t have time for.
Force: Ok, I needed to put a different picture above than what I had for Commander Luke but…the first pick is still Burst of Speed; Jedi need to get into melee! After that though I think it becomes more interesting. The first cheap option is Jedi Mind Trick. Not only is suppression more powerful than ever thanks to the 2.6 rules where panicked units at the end of a round can never score, but it enables You Serve Your Master Well and naturally can reduce the number of actions an opponent can take. Other decent options to consider are Force Reflexes to live a little longer and Saber Throw to give Luke a ranged option when he needs it (though admittedly this is not all that common, he’s usually better off moving rather than throwing).
Then of course there is Force Push. In short, I would basically say that if you can cut a naked corps unit to get there then you should just go ahead and do it. There is no upgrade in the game that affects the state like Force Push does, that is not an exaggeration, and its 40 point price tag has not changed this truth at all. Rather, it has made Force Push a “luxury” that only certain units can realistically consider…and Operative Luke is absolutely one of those units.
Training: This is the tough choice I referenced above: should you take Tenacity to hit harder or Into the Fray to get surges against melee attacks? Given that Luke often gets dodges, has 7 health, surges to crit on attack (meaning the extra surges are for defense only), has one super-defense command (Full of Surprises), and another command that often protects him from the likeliest threats (I Am a Jedi), and another another command that squeezes an extra use out of the Tenacity dice (Son of Skywalker)…I think the math shakes out to say that Tenacity is more likely to be helpful. Undeniably though, Into the Fray will give him the best shot at living longer, so the choice is really up to you.
More health: One health doesn’t feel like a lot, but it actually kind of is, especially now that the game is shorter than before. Sometimes your opponent just won’t have the time to take down 7 red defense and Immune: Pierce health.
Master of the force (MOTF): 3force slots: This is huge. Force slots are arguably the most powerful ones in the game, and Master of the Force allows you to recover one for free every turn. As above, both Reflexes and Push are primo on this guy, the more uses the better.
Higher courage: Courage 4 is a big deal, especially on a model that is the most important piece in your list and you want to guarantee two actions on every turn.
Better attack dice and Pierce 2: Op Luke can (with a little bit of dice luck) just plain mulch an opponent’s lines. Commander Luke will never reach those heights, he is a threat but not exactly “Omega-Level.”
Disengage: Don’t like where you are? Just leave.
Cheapness: What’s funny is that when Operative Luke was released he was 40 points more expensive than his predecessor…and yet, after several reductions for both, they are still only 45 points apart. Given that Op Luke will typically get at least 20-ish points of upgrades and the Commander will often only get 10, the gap gets a bit wider still. C Luke can easily be a side-piece, but Op Luke is the most expensive Operative in the game. This pretty much demands being a centerpiece since he’ll very often be more than a fifth of your list’s total points.
Being a Commander: Tied only with Jyn as the highest Courage value on a Rebel Commander, C Luke will make your troops less prone to panic while Op Luke has no time for such things (remember, he landed with an entire strike team on Endor and then promptly wandered off). Also, though rare in the modern game to run only one Commander as Rebels, C Luke alone can fill that requirement while Op Luke will need someone around who actually cares about the lives of those poor Rebel troopers.
A Good, Natural Ranged Attack: Jedi Luke doesn’t bother with pistols. Such uncivilized weapons have no place in the hands of a Jedi Knight. Of course, Op Luke can get saber throw to have a better (because of Pierce 2 and Impact 2) one but that not only costs 5 points but a valuable force slot as well. It also means that C Luke rarely will have to worry about being able to squeeze all the juice out of Son of Skywalker, more on that in a second.
It ultimately boils down to the cost. Op Luke is a slightly better value for what you get in my opinion but not everyone is gonna have 200-ish points to spend on the guy so C Luke is an absolutely fine choice for many lists out there, including ones that have had success in competitive environments in Legion 2.6.
For new players, you’ll technically need a copy of each variety of Luke to have all of these command cards, but between you and me you can just print and sleeve the remainder if you only have one set. The most important thing is to be using the correct mini for a given situation so your opponent doesn’t get confused. Both of these minis are also going to get physical re-releases in 2025 so keep that in mind as well, though again we feel pretty secure with what their unit cards at least are going to do.
It’s a little funny that this card was released with C Luke when it shows Op Luke in the picture, it’s almost like FFG hadn’t planned on releasing a second model of the same character back in the day!
Anywhoooo, do you like attacking twice? This lets you attack twice at the cost of only ONE action. The timing here is the most important thing to point out. The second attack has to be immediately after your first attack. Thus, you CAN move, then move again, then use your free attack from Charge, then use the command card to attack again. What you can’t do though is make a single move followed by a charge, then move again, then attack with Charge again, because you will have passed the window for the command. You gotta do the bonus attack RIGHT after the first one, that’s just the timing window. Does that make it strictly worse than his dad’s new 1-Pip? Pretty much yeah, but that’s what you get when you learn the Force from a retiree in a swamp instead of getting a degree. Yes I know his dad destroyed the sch- WE’RE GETTING OFF TOPIC HERE.
This immediacy requirement is the main reason why some Op Luke players decide to take Saber Throw, it is insurance that you will have someone else to lay some hate on if you pulverize your first target (do know though that while C Luke can shoot twice Op Luke can only use saber throw once even with this command, because at the end of the day that is an ability and abilities can pretty much only ever be used once in a turn). This is also the reason why Tenacity is such an attractive upgrade on both Lukes, two extra reds are even better than one!
As a free action, perform an attack or move action with one of your units or one of your opponent’s suppressed units. This is basically a one-time use of Pull the Strings, except it doesn’t work on characters (that would be kind of silly), it’s a free action, and you can use it on enemy units. Of course, since it wouldn’t make much sense anyway, you can’t ever use it on droids since droids can be panicked but not suppressed. As a fun fact, that means that the legal non-droid enemy unit Luke could target but can never sway is Delta Squad since they have a “-” courage value, assumedly because Sev is a raging psychopath (he’s the one with the blood-smear inspired armor…yeah).
This card combos well with Jedi Mind Trick, which alone provides enough suppression to fulfill the requirement on most legal targets, but if something like say a Fives-shotgun-double squad already has one suppression on it well…that clone player may start quakin’ in their boots! Don’t forget that Jedi Mind Trick is range 1-2, but this ability is range 1 so don’t get too cocky.
Some uses of Serve:
As you can see, there is a lot of utility. If Op Luke already has a suppressed unit to mess around with, he can actually remove up to FOUR units from a POI in a single activation by killing one, mind-tricking another into being panicked, force pushing a third, and using this to make the fourth just walk away.
That’s pretty wizard, as his dad would say.
This is the command Luke players leave behind most often, especially in Legion 2.6 when there is little time for commands that barely affect the game state and order relatively few units such as this. You will likely have a different hero unit (Han or Leia for example) who has a much more attractive 2-pip.
This doesn’t make Luke invincible, but it feels like it sometimes. This is especially good against ranged attacks in Op Luke’s case (surge to block always being on except against High Velocity now) and melee attacks (since he’ll have a dodge from this card) in C Luke’s case. Op Luke of course has one more courage to play with here, but either way, your opponent is going to think about it twice (or more) before they commit to shooting at a guy with all these extra dice at range.
The ability to order 2 units in addition to Luke as well as the Range 3 anti-suppression bomb make this a fairly useful command, though it’s often left behind in its own right in multi-hero lists. It’s a pretty decent command for Round 1 though, being that it gives Luke and 2 others an order while remaining low priority, giving you a chance to go second if your opponent played anything aside from Standing Orders. Just know that if you do so you will lose the suppression dump against anything that isn’t a Krennic list that played Annihilation Looms to start the game. The dodge also gives C Luke a chance to weather a ranged attack with good dice.
This card does two separate, but extremely useful things, with a cost. You can prevent up to two enemy trooper units from attacking, which is potentially very amazing. Luke can’t attack though, which is a very steep cost. If you flub this and play it at the wrong time, you’ve just taken what is likely your most powerful attack off the table for a turn.
This card is great for a “stall” turn, where you want to keep things around Luke exactly as they are for another turn. You can also completely dumpster some really powerful command cards with this, such as And Now You Will Die or Dad of Skywalker This Is Where the Fun Begins/Implacable. If you can time those counterplays you will feel like a boss; but if your opponent calls your play and does something else instead, you will be very sad. Give In To Your Anger is both a natural mirror of this card and a strong counter to it if they are played at the same time (it’s like poetry it rhymes!).
In addition to the primary attack-restricting effect, I Am A Jedi also gives Luke surge/block for the entire turn, which is really good for C Luke who can chill from spending dodges for a turn…and sort of whatever for Op Luke since he’ll have neutered the units that were most dangerous to him in melee anyway, though it does allow him to surge to block even against High Velocity ranged attacks for a turn.
There are basically two ways to run Luke; as part of a traditional Rebel corps-based build, or in an all-in aggro build alongside tauntauns. Ha whoah, even Op Luke has been around a long time eh Kyle?
The original Luke is honestly more of a “member of the team” than a true centerpiece, he just doesn’t influence the board enough to earn such a status when armies are made up of a thousand points. Still, he can obviously still contribute especially with a timely use of I Am a Jedi.
The above list, played by “Tig’tar” won the Mini Legends GT in Val de Loire, France September 2024. Notice how I Am a Jedi and Serve Your Master Well are the only two Luke commands? That’s because those (followed closely by Son of Skywalker) are the two best ones. Notably, Tig’tar took mind trick instead of burst because it enables Serve, which is certainly a valid choice but you’ll likely only get to use it that one time.
Sacré bleu! Two lists from the same French tournament? Perhaps they were attracted to his revolutionary spirit or his known penchant for milk products? Either way, this was the list used by the runner up in that GT, Julien “Gorgork” Villeroux. Now, take note of these commands. Since Op Luke is the centerpiece of this list, Julien correctly (in my opinion) also made him the centerpiece of its command hand, leaving behind his two weakest (My Ally and Return of the Jedi) in exchange for Leia’s 2 Pip and the Bad Batch 3 Pip which are much stronger by comparison. Were it me, I would likely have traded in the officers on the two SX-21 units and Force Barrier (Luke will often be charging in a different direction than the rest of his army) in for the venerable Force Push but he is the one who did well with the list not me, so take that as you will.
I know that was a lot, kudos to you if you read it all! Hopefully, you’ll now know how to deal with a variety of situations with Luke Skywalker thoughtfully, which is honestly more than Luke Skywalker can usually say.
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