Now way back when I started playing armada I would play Luke with high hopes.... And he never worked out, ties would just engage him and stop him attacking ships and his points ended up being a bit of a waste.

Now in wave two with a bit of back up from talon, yavaris, jan and the right leader, Luke could be a beast.

Think zombie Luke and first activation nightmare.

Activated by a fighter command to move and shoot.... Talon him back to unactivated.... Then Yavaris end of round and next round yavaris again at beginning ( that's 5 black dice strait to the hull, it's going to kill a small ship ant gut a medium.... He's going to be a bugger to kill with Lord of the zombie hoard as leader and you will have to kill him or he will tear your ships apart.

it all sounds well and good but in reality ive rarely seen luke roll better than a blank result every time hes known as luke "whiffwalker" in my group

I'm with you on this one. I've seen him used to good effect with combos similar to this and he can sure dish out the damage assuming you can keep the fighters off his back. As I like to say .... Luke sure likes exhaust ports...

As you indicated, he works great with an Intel blob. He can Escort the Intel ship around just fine (and has his own Brace tokens too) and if there aren't any fighters to worry about, he's a super Y-Wing that shoots through shields quite annoyingly.

For me, Luke CONSTANTLY has his targeting computer off and wiffs almost every time.

I had tried messing around with Luke, D's Pride, and APT torpedo frigates to see how easy if I could skew the system for "through the shield" kills.

It doesn't do much vs. Motti ISD's, which are popular enough to make the build not work as well as I'd like. It wrecks rebels pretty nice if you can double arc the ships.

Honestly, though, Neb-b's with engine techs work better (maybe I don't know how to fly?)

regardless what you do, Luke is ultimately a really sh*tty coin toss

unless you land that 25% hit+crit, he's really not doing much apart from some very situational redirect dodging

but sometimes you'll get (stupidly) lucky and land that crit that strips all shields off of the hull zone with the most shields remaining, and do a potential 6 damage in one roll

Intel is sure helping him a lot, and the introduction of large ships with even greater shield facings somewhat added to his "what shields?" ability. Still, like others said his chances to make that ability really matter for the course of the game are slim at best.

it all sounds well and good but in reality ive rarely seen luke roll better than a blank result every time hes known as luke "whiffwalker" in my group

Agreed, I got four attacks off with Luke in my last game (against capital ships) and rolled nothing but blanks. Four shots in a row.

Eh bad rolls happen. I've had as many bad rolls as good rolls.

IMO Luke is a great all round named squad. Having a 3/4 chance of getting at least a single hit straight to the hull is a huge deal. Especially if you're facing rebels and their weak hulls.

Although a counter point is that the probability of dealing 3 hits in a row is less than 50%.

The best way I've seen Luke played was when paired with a Dodonna's Pride or any other ship that can force good damage through the shields, aiming to kill the enemy ship over time without damaging the shield. Hoping for the hit/crit is very wishful thinking with only 25% chance of happening !

But when you think about the fact that the Dodonna's Pride + Luke can kill a Gladiator in 2 turns without ever damaging the shields in 2 turns, it's a pretty awesome combo.

Another good trick with Luke is when your fleet is focusing on applying damage through a side hull zone with XI7 or gang up smaller ships, Luke can happily "ride the wave" of being stuck in the front zone and not care much if it has 3 or 4 shields remaining as he'll contribute to the damage potential anyways.

All good comment. I'm not so much worried about getting a crit, as with any black dice bomber its a remote but nice chance. I'm playing the expected damage of a number of rolls game...... you can reasonably expect five damage with five black dice rolled with maybe a crit in there. even if you roll sub par you should be looking at three damage. All of which means you are effective taking a small ship out of the game.

So if you play your positions right with tallon and Yavaris you should get three dice in one round then two at the beginning of the next. yavaris can shoot what it likes and if the small ships not dead cus Luke wiffed a couple of rolls ram for an extra damage, which should give you the kill. If the small boys are all moving a bit quick or won't play ball go for a medium, 4 -6 damage still whiffs for them.

Unfortunately for the protagonist of the OT, his main role I find is as a zombie bullet sponge for Jan (paired with actual Episode IV bullet sponge Wedge)

Unfortunately for the protagonist of the OT, his main role I find is as a zombie bullet sponge for Jan (paired with actual Episode IV bullet sponge Wedge)

Strangely I was planning to run him with the zombie king...... Poor undead Luke.

I may get lynched for this but my Luke has been an ACE for me. I mean I haven't kept accurate stats. But I feel like he does good work and then the occasional double hit is so sexy. But I rarely get the blank face. My favorite armada moment was a hyperspace assault with Luke and Keyan and Yavaris. 6 black dice and the shots of my neb b. Very fun. Very very very fun.

I may get lynched for this but my Luke has been an ACE for me. I mean I haven't kept accurate stats. But I feel like he does good work and then the occasional double hit is so sexy. But I rarely get the blank face. My favorite armada moment was a hyperspace assault with Luke and Keyan and Yavaris. 6 black dice and the shots of my neb b. Very fun. Very very very fun.

Well done that man.......