I started "An Equal Footing", as the rebels on tech lvl 5 just to see what heroes are available.

I noticed Obi Wan is there, which was something of a surprise as I thought he'd be dead by this point in the timeline.

Anyway, how do you go about getting Luke as a hero, do you have to pay to recruit him like the empire does with Vader?

What are the prerequisites for Luke in the Grand Campaign?

Obi-Wan is available in Galactic Conquest games because they're not strictly canon but more of a "make your own Star Wars history"-type of thing. You can, "historically" speaking, start a GC game that begins before the Battle of Yavin and stretches into the post-RotJ era, and in this reality Obi-Wan was not killed aboard the first Death Star.

OK, so the GC is not sticking to the storyline of the films. that's good as its allows more freedom.

Any ideas though on how to get Luke in the GC? I'm at tech lvl 5 playing "An equal footing" and can't see an option to get him.

I don't have FoC yet, so I don't know. But weren't there GC maps in the original game where you didn't have all heroes available to you? Maybe it's just that Luke isn't available in that particular GC scenario.

OK, so the GC is not sticking to the storyline of the films. that's good as its allows more freedom.

Any ideas though on how to get Luke in the GC? I'm at tech lvl 5 playing "An equal footing" and can't see an option to get him.

It's a bug. If you fiddle with the tech slider when starting a new game, he never appears (nor does Bel Iblis).

Start a new game and DON'T TOUCH the tech slider - you should be fine.

OK, so the GC is not sticking to the storyline of the films. that's good as its allows more freedom.

Any ideas though on how to get Luke in the GC? I'm at tech lvl 5 playing "An equal footing" and can't see an option to get him.

He shows up some time after tech 5. I don't think it's immediate, but I did notice that he showed up about 10 days or so after I had hit tech 5.