In Defense Of: Luminara Unduli

 In Defense Of: Luminara Unduli

In an earlier blog post that detailed some tips about making adjustments to your fleet, I mentioned that my good friend Josh had said the following:

"Maybe I'm off base here, but I think it's interesting to really dig in, let's say on a particular upgrade choice. How do you evaluate if it's the best choice for the fleet? Test games against lots of different stuff, in a wide variety of game scenarios, in different objectives, etc? How do you compare it to other choices for the slot, or nothing at all? How can you do efficient evaluation without playing a million games using every possible combination?"

In considering that, I thought it might be interesting (and if not interesting, then fun. For me. Maybe not for you, but definitely for me.) to explore and defend very specific choices by supplying the reasoning behind the choices and doing a deep dive into how I arrived at said choice. As I mentioned previously, sometimes it'll be a choice that went through rigorous testing and sometimes it'll be a choice based almost purely in theory-crafting.

I picked Luminara Unduli because I think she's still mostly seen as a mid-tier, fun-but-not-very-serious commander. And I can appreciate that assessment! I'm still working through her myself, even though it was love at first sight, as she was my new favorite commander from the moment I saw her. I have written about her before, but I think she can lead three different types of fleets. Not fleet archetypes, mind you, but three sort of ranks of fleet. The first is the Fleet That Tries Too Hard.

This is the fleet that builds so hard around Luminara's ability that the user is convinced it'll be impossible to kill it...

Fleet That Tries Too Hard (94/392/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 47: 147)

· Luminara Unduli (25)

· Barriss Offee (6)

· Flag Bridge (0)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Tranquility (3)

· Shields to Maximum! (6)

Acclamator II-class (71 + 14: 85)

· Adi Gallia (3)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Implacable (4)

Pelta-class Transport Frigate (45 + 21: 66)

· Parts Resupply (3)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· Projection Experts (6)

· TB-73 (5)

Plo Koon (24)

Ahsoka Tano (23)

Anakin Skywalker [yrep] (19)

Kickback (16)

V-19 Torrent Squadron (12)

...but it turns out while it's got durability, it can't leverage enough damage to actually be much of a threat. Take a look at the build above, yeah? Lots of ECM and using the defense token of your choice, Parts Resupply helps ensure that ECM can easily be refreshed, Projection Experts can help protect bigger ships, officers and titles, blah blah blah. Cool! But the fleet only has 3 "big" guns: the Venator, the Acclamator, and Anakin in a Y-Wing. Let's start with the squadrons first: Anakin in a Y-Wing with Escort friends is great! But Plo and Ahsoka only throw a blue die at ships while the V-19s throw a black die. Rerolls and odds aside, there's only one bomber in there and only 2 squadrons that can protect said bomber. Anakin can hit really hard, but when you've only got a couple of things that can hurt enemy ships and he's counted as one of your "heavy hitters" in a class alongside your ships, you're probably in trouble. The Acclamator has guns, sure! But it's throwing only 3 red dice from long range, or 3 and 2 if you've got a double-arc lined up. And in this build, there's no dice fixing. There are some extra points in the build, so sure, let's say you add in LTT for a little bit of help. But that's still only a little bit of help. Then it gets 1 blue die out of the front, and then it's a couple of black dice at close range. Without some dice help, you're counting really heavily on your dice to behave in order to hit. And since the Acclamator front arc is only 1 of 2 *big* hits that might come in, it's an easy candidate for the opponent to spend a Brace token. The Venator is in a similar boat: 2 red, 2 blue, 2 black out the front, with 2 red and 2 blue out the side. If you can count on your dice, then sure, it'll hit hard! But even if the Venator and Acclamator both have really strong rolls from their respective front arcs, the enemy still has defense tokens. They also still have healing capabilities, even if it's just a simple Engineering dial or a token to shuffle some shields around. And how many of those turns will you get wherein you land every one of your big shots?

I say all of this only because I do think it's too possible to lean too hard into a gimmick. "You can never kill me! Hahahahaha!!!"

Well, okay. That's great. But can you win the game? Are you tanking and scoring objectives? Or are you just crossing your fingers that your dice will do well by you and win you the game? I think it's a thin hope either way. You *can* objective build around such a fleet, but are they objectives that can score you well enough to win? Are you certain you can avoid one of your ships exploding? Because if that Venator goes, the rest of your fleet might be in a lot of trouble. I think this is the type of fleet that Luminara is most likely to elicit for a little while as people try and strike a balance between building for Luminara and just letting her sort of do her thing to support a fleet that is already strong without her.

Which brings me to the second type of fleet I think we'll see her leading: The Fleet That Won't Quite Die When It Should.

Hell Kite v. 2.0/B (80/400/400)

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Venator II-class Star Destroyer (100 + 28: 128)

· Clone Captain Zak (5)

· SPHA-T (7)

· Electronic Countermeasures (7)

· XI7 Turbolasers (6)

· Tranquility (3)

Charger c70 (45 + 35: 80)

· Luminara Unduli (25)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

· Swift Return (3)

Charger c70 (45 + 11: 56)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Charger c70 (45 + 11: 56)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Turbolaser Reroute Circuits (7)

Anakin Skywalker [yrep] (19)

Axe (17)

2 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (2 x 12)

2 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (2 x 10)

Ion Storm

Planetary Ion Cannon

Intel Sweep

This is a fleet I shared a little while back and one that I enjoy. I'm hoping to get it to the table more often now that Adepticon is over! This hits that sort of middle or average ground with regards to how high a ceiling the fleet has. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't think this fleet build is particularly devastating or will need a specific answer from opposing fleets. For instance, the double-Interdictor-Onager build means that in order to play competitively, players must have a plan for how to avoid eating a first turn Ignition shot at speed zero. This type of fleet won't force such a decision, but I do think it'll be a pain for opponents and require a plan to deal with it. Basically, the Chargers will harass opponents with TRC, ideally refreshing their Evade tokens as my opponent shoots back. The Venator kites along, setting up SPHA-T shots to supplement the Charger fire, and then I've got Anakin and a couple of Y-Wings who can further augment that fire I'm throwing at enemy ships.

I don't think these sort of mid to upper tier fleets will present a problem that requires a specific solution. I think there are a number of ways to address the problems this fleet might present (any sort of squadron presence will help, being able to throw meaningful red dice back at me, coordinating your fire on a single target so you're not splashing damage and allowing me to refresh defense tokens, etc.), so it's not like you have to tailor your fleet based on what Luminara is doing in order to combat her. But I do think it plays to Luminara's strength while turning her defensive ability (refreshing defense tokens) into offensive ones (TRC, brazen positioning). I think in the hands of a skilled player, this fleet can do some work. And I think it's the range in which a lot of Lumi fleets will fall - formidable! Ships and aces will last just a little bit longer than they have any right to, and as a result, they get that last shot off, blowing up a thing they shouldn't have been around to destroy. Or they live just long enough to run outside the range of your guns and that wouldn't have happened were it not for Lumi's ability. It doesn't break the Republic fleet into cheater-y territory, but it does grant an advantage that lets ships and squadrons stick a bit longer than they're meant to, thus changing the math as one is flying this type of fleet or flying against it.

Then there's the third type of fleet that might be some mythical Bigfoot-Holy Grail of fleets, but I'm convinced is out there: YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY HOPE TO KILL ME AS I BURN YOU TO THE GROUND

I don't know what it is or what it looks like, but I'm convinced this fleet is out there in the aether. I think there's a way (or two) for Luminara to punch above her weight and be a real terror. It's sort of been my white whale since CW was released and I'll be back to chasing it in full once I've spent some quality time flying fleets with heavy squadrons. I can't entirely tell you why I'm so convinced she's got an extra gear, but I have been since she was spoiled. Maybe it's the simple nature of her ability? It's cheap, flexible, something you don't need to go out of your way to accommodate...it checks a lot of convenience boxes, and as we know, the more moving parts in a machine, the easier it is to sabotage it. Triggering ACM and HIE in the same attack to do a total of up to 5 bonus damage on top of whatever you rolled sounds AMAZING. Of course it does! But you need blue and black dice on the ship, you need the slots for those two upgrades as well as Fire-Control Team, you need the crits on the right dice, and then you need your prey to cooperate and not mess up any of those blue or black crits.

There are A TON of steps in there with which your opponent can wreak havoc. That combo is infrequently flown because it's generally a lot of effort expended on a very tenuous strategy. Sato, Konstantine...these are commanders that require very specific setups, which means they're easy to disrupt, which means it's more difficult to find success with them. Luminara doesn't ask for a lot in terms of setup. One can build around her ability, but it doesn't demand a lot of the user beyond restraint in spending defense tokens and a range consideration if the token being refreshed doesn't belong to the defender.

And that restraint one needs to show to use her? The math on whether or not it's worthwhile is usually pretty straightforward. I really enjoy Emperor Palpatine as a commander, but his impact is sometimes extremely nebulous. We can't always measure how he affected a game because his value is often in "keeping an opponent honest" by discouraging them from spending a defense token rather than forcing the token to be discarded. Additionally, my attack rolls might be terrible, thus rendering his use rather moot. With Lumi, the trade-off of only using my Redirect instead of an Evade and a Redirect so I can refresh my exhausted Brace is not guaranteed. It's possible that big shot I'm expecting never comes due to a different target gaining my opponent's attention or simply because of a bad roll. But I do know how much damage I will take depending on how many defense tokens I spend and I do know what defense token I'll be refreshing because I'm working on full information there. So when do I use her?

Though I suspect my answer won't be as witty or satisfying!

I think I use her in an effort to change the rhythm of the game to better suit my needs and throw my opponent off-balance. I sometimes think it's an ideal way to set up a reverse fork. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, it's chess-based, and Eric does a terrific job of outlining it over at Cannot Get Your Ship Out (linked here). But basically, I'm threatening two pieces simultaneously so that my opponent has to make a decision as to which one will be sacrificed.

The black Knight is threatening both the white King and the white Bishop. The white player cannot leave the King in danger and as they cannot take the black Knight, they must move the white King, thus leaving the black Knight to eliminate the white Bishop.

Presenting an opponent with such a bad choice dictates the next move your opponent will make. With Luminara present, your opponent needs to consider how they attack you and in what order. It's a little more specific and situational than the example of forking I've outlined above, but stay with me for a second. Let's visit a fleet I've slapped together for Luminara that leans into squadrons.

Amaterasu's Splendor (113/394/400)

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Acclamator I-class (66 + 43: 109)

· Luminara Unduli (25)

· Clone Navigation Officer (4)

· Boosted Comms (4)

· Expanded Hangar Bay (5)

· Nevoota Bee (5)

Victory I-class Star Destroyer (75 + 15: 90)

· Flight Controllers (6)

· Flak Guns (3)

· Flechette Torpedoes (3)

· Ordnance Pods (3)

Armed Cruiser (37 + 4: 41)

· External Racks (4)

Armed Cruiser (37 + 4: 41)

· External Racks (4)

Ahsoka Tano (23)

Anakin Skywalker [yrep] (19)

Axe (17)

2 x V-19 Torrent Squadron (2 x 12)

3 x BTL-B Y-wing Squadron (3 x 10)

Precision Strike

Capture the VIP

Superior Positions

Basic plan upon building this is to send the VSD up the gut, pushing squadrons and helping mow down opposing squadrons to free up my bombers. Nevoota Bee and the Armed Cruisers take up flanking positions. Likely on opposite sides of the engagement, but they can fly together too if that makes more sense. My squadrons are a threat. Anakin can bring down the hammer on some ships while Ahsoka and Axe can tear up some enemy squadrons together with their V-19 buddies. Axe helps protect everyone around him while Ahsoka gets someone to sneak in an extra attack. Unless you've got Flight Commander, your squadrons are activating before your ship can fire. If you're hoping to hurt Nevoota Bee or my VSD after it has spent a defense token but you need to activate squadrons, what do you do? Do your squadrons shoot my aces and risk my capital ships refreshing their defense tokens or do you decide to skip my aces and aim for my generics instead? Or if you don't have my generics, do you skip activating squadrons altogether so that my big ships don't get to refresh their defense token? If you do, you're not shooting Ahsoka, Axe, or Anakin, and all three of them can keep doing whatever they're doing, including spending defense tokens to protect the generic squadrons you're attacking.

Do you see what I'm getting at? It's a more limited version of the fork I've already presented: Luminara's ability forces my opponent down specific choice trees in order to most efficiently attack my fleet. But this path of efficiency is only efficient given Luminara's ability. In any other situation, such tactics wouldn't make a lot of sense because it's leaving my more valuable assets in the field. I am starting to dictate which targets make the most sense for my opponent to attack, and they're the less valuable of my pieces simply so they don't risk triggering a defense token refresh that makes it harder to kill my ships and aces. And the pace of the game is changed because those assets now live longer, whether through Lumi's ability or my opponent's choice to thin the herd before attacking them. It's like dealing with General Grievous when he's piloting a Belbullab, right? He's got Screen which can afford him Dodge all the way up to 3. So you try and thin the herd around him so he can't take advantage of Screen, right? Except he wrecks people in the meantime. Can you really last long enough to thin the herd in order to take him down? Or do you just need to bite the bullet and spend one or two turns more than you planned to shoot at him and kill him? Either way, the pace of the game is being dictated by the player using Grievous more than by the opponent.

To be fair, these examples are microcosms in a larger game. I totally get that. But I think there's a way to expand that strategy to the majority of the playing area. And if you can do that, that's a lot of control one is leveraging over a game. We often try to do this whether we're defining that strategy in these terms or not, right? We sometimes slow our ships to delay engagement because that means fewer shooting opportunities for enemy bombers which means the odds of us winning increases. We see an opening in an opponent's deployment and exploit it by speeding up and engaging before the opponent can correct their formation. We make choices that change the tempo of the game to favor our fleet's strengths and play to our advantages.

Another example: I like Consular Chargers with TRC. The Chargers are very similar to Rebel CR90s. But unlike their Rebel counterparts, they only feature one Redirect instead of two. Do I really want to spend my Evade on offense if I might need it on defense? Do I save it while defending so I can use it for TRC when I next attack? Luminara helps me out here, yeah? But what if I set it up so that I've got other ships in the vicinity waiting to shoot, too? Do you shoot the vulnerable Charger with a spent Evade? Or do you shoot my gunship waiting in the wings and hope you kill it or land an important crit? If you do the latter, my Charger can refresh its Evade and it's suddenly less vulnerable.

If I've got multiple TRChargers, do you attack the ones who have already attacked and are vulnerable, or do you attack the ones that have not yet attacked to hobble their TRC while risking not catching my Chargers that have already activated? Sometimes the choice is obvious and I get that. And more skilled players are less likely to make mistakes in target prioritization. I'm not saying it's bulletproof. I'm saying Luminara introduces a dimension to your ability to control the pace and tempo of the game, and if you can exploit that, you can win a lot more games with her. So I don't think I pick her as my "tanking commander;" Bail and Tarkin probably do that better because they don't care who you shoot when they want to tank. Plo and Yularen buff squadrons and reward good squadron play. Obi-Wan is a good commander, but I don't know exactly how I define him. It's kind of defensive, but it's not exactly that and only that for me. I just don't have a good handle on him yet. But if I want to control the tempo of the game and dictate where and when the action happens while I'm flying Republic, then I think Luminara is my choice. And I think she's got a higher ceiling than we've seen so far.