Moving along with the final thoughts on the republic faction we have made our way to commander Luminara. She has an interesting ability that I was excited to try out and I think so far she has been the commander that I have had the most fun building lists for and even some fun interaction at the table. Fun commanders dont always transfer over to good commanders so let’s dive in to see where Luminara falls.
Luminara’s ability triggers if you spend 0-1 tokens i.e. fewer than 2. With the ability to ready defense tokens on other friendly ships at distance 1-5 it becomes more important when playing against a Luminar list to coordinate your fire on a single ship to stress out defense tokens. When all firepower is being poured onto one ship, however but because of this extra incentive to coordinate fire Luminara can mess with optimal activation order, let me explain.
On the first attack a ship takes each round it has no tokens to ready and if other ships have not been attacked it really does not care to trigger luminara ability so it can spend them indiscriminately. Because of this particular if Luminaras ships have defensive tech like ECM or Thermal shields it becomes more advantageous if they want to put meaningful pressure on defense tokens to attack with a weaker attack first. For example, if you had a CR-90 and a mc-30 ready to take shots to put meaningful pressure on defense tokens its better to activate the CR-90 over the MC-30 however your MC-30 might not get to get an attack off because Luminara can activate the ship the MC-30 is treating, in short, you have the choice between putting meaningful pressure on defense tokens or getting your big shot off.
This ability to mess with activation order and to get more value from Luminara can be exacerbated when taking a few aces squadrons. Some have said Luminara is not a squadron commander and to some extent they are right, but the list I have had the most success with Luminara are ones that have 4 aces. What this does is it really pressures carriers to activate first, because squadrons attacking your aces can let your ship ready defense tokens while activating a carrier first is a good thing to do I mean alpha strikes are a thing sometimes this can push a carrier into a more vulnerable position earlier in around then it would like to be in. In addition, keep in mind you can trigger Luminara’s ability off of counter-attacks when your squadrons attack squadrons with counter and since counter-attacks are optional you can get cases where your aces attacks and the opponent does not want to counter so your ship won’t ready its brace token. I have even had a case where my small ace group tied up a fairly sizable squad ball because they refused to attack them because my ship would ready its brace token if they did.
Venator II (100)
• Luminara Unduli (25)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Thermal Shields (5)
• External Racks (4)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Tranquility (3)
= 147 Points
Acclamator II (71)
• Thermal Shields (5)
• External Racks (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 87 Points
Acclamator II (71)
• Thermal Shields (5)
• External Racks (4)
• Linked Turbolaser Towers (7)
= 87 Points
Squadrons:
• Kickback (16)
• Axe (17)
• Ahsoka Tano (23)
• Anakin Skywalker (19)
= 75 Points
Total Points: 396
As a side note, I keep coming back to the same four aces with Luminara Axe, Kickback, Ahsoka, Anakin. They are just such a solid and relatively cheap group of squadrons it is hard to beat. Even outside a Luminara list they just work so well.
With all this said it is more important than in other lists to not get double-arched with Luminara. This is because it will be generally best to attack you with the weaker arc first making the spending of most of your defensive tokens not worth it in most cases then get hit by something hard-hitting that will likely force you to discard tokens and thus not letting you get value out of Luminaras ability. The same can be said for two strong attacks, but that should be a bit easier to avoid as even if you take one big attack you should be able to activate that ship and move out of the send big attacks firing arc.
In addition to all this Luminara is very good with redundant defense tokens. So good that she is probably one of the reasons the republic has no ships with natural redundant tokens. However, you have some ships that can get redundant defense tokens such as the pelta can get a second evade this makes it so the pelta with Luminara will pretty much always be able to spend an evade its a ship that your opponent will have to invest way more then they think to bring down and if they do it will likely be a pretty big sunk cost for them. The other is the Venator with local fire control teams two salvos is pretty mean, and can really ruin a squadron lists day as one fighter comes in and hits you, you salvo back another one comes in to hit you, you salvo back and ready the other salvo, it can really chew through a squad ball. This tactic and be a bit less reliable against Sloane, but if Sloane uses an accuracy to exhaust one of your tokens you can always ready it because as per Sloane wording it was her squadron that spent the token not you so Luminara ability will let you ready it making Sloane a lot less treating to you anyway, but if she uses it to strip a token you are unfortunately out of luck.
Venator I (90)
• Luminara Unduli (25)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Mercy Mission (0)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Ordnance Pods (3)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Tranquility (3)
= 131 Points
Venator I (90)
• Clone Navigation Officer (4)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Take Evasive Action! (6)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Ordnance Pods (3)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
= 113 Points
Venator I (90)
• Clone Navigation Officer (4)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Intensify Firepower! (6)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Ordnance Pods (3)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
= 113 Points
Consular Armed Cruiser (37)
• Hondo Ohnaka (2)
= 39 Points
Squadrons:
= 0 Points
Total Points: 396
I also attempted TRC Chargers with Luminara and they are okay, not amazing I did have a few times where they attacked a squadron or ship other than the Charger that had spent its evade to use TRC, but it felt pretty lackluster. Maybe some more practice of different matches up it would be better, but it just seemed like Luminara made little difference with TRC changers other than making the ones that had spent their token an even more important target, and maybe in the right list that is a good thing but I have not found that list.
Venator II (100)
• Luminara Unduli (25)
• Adi GAllia (3)
• Local Fire Control (4)
• Flak Guns (3)
• Reinforced Blast Doors (5)
• External Racks (4)
• DBY-827 Heavy Turbolasers (3)
• Tranquility (3)
= 150 Points
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Clone Captain Zak (5)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
= 57 Points
Consular Charger C70 (45)
• Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)
• Swift Return (3)
= 55 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Parts Resupply (3)
• TB-73 (5)
= 59 Points
Squadrons:
• Anakin Skywalker (19)
• Ahsoka Tano (23)
• Axe (17)
• Kickback (16)
= 75 Points
Total Points: 396
I think Luminara is an interesting choice for a commander, and I would say even good but she is not a plug-and-play commander. Not only does she require certain types of builds to make work she really lives and dies on very Intentional placement of ships double arcs are a disaster for her, but having one ship in one arc and another ship in another arch is where she wants to be forcing an attack on two separate ships lets her use her ability to keep tokens ready. You will also be surprised by the value she can crank out of 4 aces. Having ships with redundant tokens does give her a bit more flexibility and does really let her shine but with so few ships in the republic having access to redundant tokens she starts to feel like as one of my opponents put it a one-trick pony. While she is very good on the super salvo Venators I dont think that is her only place.
However, I dont think that is her only place. She is also very good on defensive vendors that are positioned well to take one big hit exhaust all its defensive tokens then salvo a weaker attack to keep your tokens on your ship. Because of this wanting to spend all your tokens on your frist attack she pairs really well with Adi Galli, and because you want to keep your tokens on your ship having tranquility as a fake redirect for the attack that you will use to ready tokens is very helpful as you can see in on of the list this is used on a super salvo ven II that dumps its redirect for a salvo and leverages Adi Gallia and Tranquility as its always on redirect. however, you don't need it to be a super salvo ven to make it very good.
Venator II (100)
• Luminara Unduli (25)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• SPHA-T (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
• Tranquility (3)
= 156 Points
Venator II (100)
• Adi GAllia (3)
• Ordnance Experts (4)
• SPHA-T (7)
• Electronic Countermeasures (7)
• Assault Proton Torpedoes (4)
• XI7 Turbolasers (6)
= 131 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Parts Resupply (3)
= 54 Points
Pelta Transport Frigate (45)
• Projection Experts (6)
• Munitions Resupply (3)
• TB-73 (5)
= 59 Points
Squadrons:
= 0 Points
Total Points: 400
At the end of the day, Luminari is a good commander that needs some practice to understand how to use well, but some general rules of thumb either have redundant tokens or defensive tech that lets you spend as many tokens as possible on the first attack you take each round that will hopefully be the hardest-hitting attack you will take that round. When possible have redundant tokens to really make Luniari shine. Avoid double arcs at all costs with luminaria it is almost always better to take one heavy-hitting shot than multiple small shots in one activation particularly if you have defensive tech. Use your larger base ships to block in other ships. Put one ship in one arc of a ship then another in another arc if your opponent attacks both one will get Luminara’s ability to trigger for the other. When possible take some ace squadrons. When all your tokens are ready spend tokens aggressively then transition to conservative spending.
All and all I like Luminari good commander and I have fun playing her will she be my go-to commander for the Republic? I am not sure but she has potential and works well with aggressive playstyles and while she can get some great value from a few aces is probably one of the better in not the best squad-less commander options. So if either of those sounds appealing to you give her a try. What do you think of Luminari? What are some lists and tactics you have found her useful in? Until next time have a great week!
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