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I had some spare time on my hands, so I decided I'd take a crack at making the stats for a Z-95 headhunter. Rebels don't really have the option of swarming, so, since it's an outdated ship, I thought I would be a perfect fit to allow rebels to swarm. For those of you who don't know, the Z-95 is an EU ship. It's basically an X-wing with 2 wings instead of 4. The artwork isn't mine, it's just some cool classic-era renderings of the Z-95.


So, I figured if a Z-95 would be as cheap as a TIE, I'd have to drop a firepower dice right off the bat. However, simply removing a firepower dice and leaving it at 2 shields didn't seem right, so I dropped one point of shields as well. It has 1 more health point then a tie fighter, but 1 less die in maneuverability. I thought this was a good balance. Given the choice with just stats, I'd still probably take a TIE fighter, but the Z-95 allows the option for torpedoes, which is a real steal at 12points.

For the veteran, I looked at some other pilot skill 5 imperial options like night beast, and I figured that the option to equip a veteran card made up for the lack of any special ability. Although, I think it still may be under-costed by 2 or 3 points.


And the maneuver dial:


Since the Z-95 is an X-wing before an X-wing, the maneuver dial was based off the X-wing's dial, however, since the Z-95 is supposedly less maneuverable, I turned the "1" and "2" banks to white instead of green, and made the "4" Strait a red.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share. Feel free to use these and try them out if you're itching to try out a cheap rebel fighter.


I might make some named Z-95 pilots later. Stay tuned. As always, any feedback is appreciated!

Cool work on making Z-95's for the game!

Along the same lines, I am currently using the homebrew profiles for Z-95's that you can find in this thread on Boardgamegeek, where a fan has made his own material as if it were a real ship pack, with equipment and even named Ace pilots. You could maybe use it for some inspiration. The "final" versions of stuff are about halfway down the page.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/919596/z-95-headhunter-expansion

Well I was beaten to the punch quite handily.

Still, I'll take it as a good sign that the point-values are near identical.

Yep, that's a very good sign . I love seeing folks come up with custom rules for ships not-yet-introduced like this.

Here's my take from some time ago:

 Manchu wrote:
X-Wings are A3 D2 H3 S2, have Focus and Target Lock, and can equip torps and astromechs. The tightest turn it can make is a 1-inch wide turn (green) and at its fastest can move 4 inches straight (white). A Rookie Pilot (PS 2) brings that to 21 points.

I'm thinking a Z-95 should be A2 D2 H3 S1, also with Focus and Target Lock, with missiles upgrades but obviously no droid. It should have a tighter 1-inch bank (white) and its 4-inch straight movement should be red. A PS 2 Pilot should bring it to about 14-15 points.

The good news is, with the relative similiarity between the two ships, I could probably make a Preybird-class Starfighter off of the Z-95 with little modification....

...muhaha.

The good news is, with the relative similiarity between the two ships, I could probably make a Preybird-class Starfighter off of the Z-95 with little modification....

...muhaha

Go for it!

Here are some named pilots. I didn't want to let the empire get all the cool nicknames like "howlrunner" or "dark curse" so, since there aren't that many cannon Z-95 aces, I thought I'd make up some cool nicknames:


I figured this guy would be a smuggler-outlaw irregular type, so i thought the "immune to environment" effect was fitting, if situational. However, looking back, this guy should be on the order of 14 points if the base-cost for the PS1 is 12. I jumbled that up a bit. Originally, I considered another "this unit can move after all other craft", but decided to drop it in favor of something with more flavor. I just forgot to reduce the points to reflect that. Oops.




Since the Z-95 is relatively cheap, I thought I'd make a named "mercenary" pilot who'd probably modded his Z-95 to shoot more ordinance. Since the Z-95 is cheap, I wanted a named pilot that takes advantage of the cheapness to load up on secondary weapons. Still, sinking 8 points into secondaries puts it at 27 points. It is still a cheaper alternative than using 2 craft with 1 secondary weapon each, and you get to shoot at the PS 7. Maybe it's one-or-two points under, because you don't pay for the extra missile slot, but I'm hesitant to up the points because secondary weapons already seem like "pay more, so you can pay more points for a debatibly uselful 1 shot!"

Also forgot to capitalize the "H"

Sandrunner needs higher PS. So far every ship follows a standard system:

PS 1-2 basic pilot
PS 3-4 upgraded pilot
PS 5-7 mid-range character(s)
PS 8-9 elite character(s)

So a PS 3 ship would be the second-tier generic pilot, and a named character would need to be at least PS 5.

 Peregrine wrote:
Sandrunner needs higher PS. So far every ship follows a standard system:

PS 1-2 basic pilot
PS 3-4 upgraded pilot
PS 5-7 mid-range character(s)
PS 8-9 elite character(s)

So a PS 3 ship would be the second-tier generic pilot, and a named character would need to be at least PS 5.

Good observation. I'll up it's pilot skill to match the cost then. I'll lower the veteran pilot in the first post as well. Good catch!

Elite characters often have medalion icons, it may be a good idea to toss them on your vet and named pilots.

 Surtur wrote:
Elite characters often have medalion icons, it may be a good idea to toss them on your vet and named pilots.

Maybe the high-end named one. I wouldn't give it to the low-end one since the lowest PS characters don't usually get elite skills.

A bit of a changelog:
-I reduced the PS of the Veteran Pilot to 3, removed the pilot skill medal, and reduced the points to 14.
-I increased the pilot skill of sandrunner to 5.

Stuff I'm still deciding on:
-Giving either Sandrunner or Claw a medallion.

New card. The only "cannon" Z-95 ace I could find. Ace Azzameen, from that old X-wing alliance game:




Basically, I strapped a permanent auto-blaster onto this guy. He pays two extra points for a perma-blaster and a pilot medal upgrade. I think this guy falls into the Wedge-Antilles like category of "worth it", but because of the low, two-dice worth of damage and overall fragility, I don't think he's outright broken and can be mitigated fairly easily by the opponent. Plus, with two dice, you're not going to down a tie fighter unless you are at range 1.

Still, I realize that his ability adheres to the rebel doctrine of "Get something shooty and let Biggs defend it". In the future, I'll look at the interactions of upgrade cards and other pilot abilities to try to come up with abilities that lend themselves to more unique combos.


That's it for now. Would anyone be interested in me putting together a .pdf of all these?

I'd be interested, yes. I have a group that would probably be willing to try them out and see what happens. One of the guys even works for a SW podcast group and might be able to mention your work.

 kestril wrote:
I think this guy falls into the Wedge-Antilles like category of "worth it", but because of the low, two-dice worth of damage and overall fragility, I don't think he's outright broken and can be mitigated fairly easily by the opponent.

I think you're underestimating the power of the auto-blaster ability, especially one that works at all ranges. You only have two dice, but those two dice are very hard to cancel. Your opponent's only defense (other than hoping for a wasted crit) is to evade every turn, and the action restriction alone is a powerful ability. In many situations you'll average more damage than three regular dice, or even three regular dice with special abilities.

Yeah, running the numbers now I see your point. It's basically 2 un-counterable hits with focus. I think I'll make it hinge on a condition like "if your target has no focus tokens at the start of your attack" --That way, all ships have a defense, plus, since he has a high pilot-skill, most other targets will have not spent their tokens when he fires.But the ability would still be useful for the times when ships acquire stress, or choose a different action, such as a target lock.

 kestril wrote:
Yeah, running the numbers now I see your point. It's basically 2 un-counterable hits with focus. I think I'll make it hinge on a condition like "if your target has no focus tokens at the start of your attack" --That way, all ships have a defense, plus, since he has a high pilot-skill, most other targets will have not spent their tokens when he fires.But the ability would still be useful for the times when ships acquire stress, or choose a different action, such as a target lock.

Or you could go with the standard auto-blaster restriction of only working at range 1. Normal auto-blasters are fine because it takes a lot of work to set up a good shot with them so the high payoff in certain situations is justified. And TBH the all-ranges Z-95 might be fine, you just need to realize that you're putting a very powerful ability on it.

Oh how I miss X-wing: Alliance. I've tried on a few occasions to run it on an old WIndow's version proxy on my computer to no avail. Such an amazing storyline and ship variety.

Love the Z-95s so far, I must admit.

Changelog-
Changed "Correllia's Claw" to "Peregrine" --As a thank you to all the helpful feedback provided.
Added "As long as you have no stress tokens" as a clause to Ace Azzameen's ability --I thought this wouldn't be limiting enough, but then I realized that the Z-95 dial only has two greens, so it will involve some player choice. And planning


Alright. Here's a .pdf of each card! To play these, simply save and print this maneuver dial, and then download the .pdfs! Be sure to substitue another ship's square token to represent the Z-95's firing arc. Any small fighter's will do.



And the .pdfs:
Ace Azzameen
Peregrine
Sandrunner
Veteran Pilot
Trainee Pilot

I like it all except for naming one pilot after Peregrine. His head is already too big. :-P

 Farseer Faenyin wrote:
I like it all except for naming one pilot after Peregrine. His head is already too big. :-P

I just had myself a good laugh.

Maybe you should put him on-tabletop and then shoot him down

If you're looking for another named pilot, Mara Jade flew a Z-95 in the Mysteries of the Sith game.

mightyspacepope wrote:
If you're looking for another named pilot, Mara Jade flew a Z-95 in the Mysteries of the Sith game.

She also flew one in the Thrawn trilogy and the Jedi Academy trilogy.