I just won a really close match with Leeachos and it got me thinking. My opponent didn't clearly have him as a priority target (I was running Kavil and Palob too) so Leeachos was able to lurk and hangout until the endgame, which came down to a range 1 joust with an AP. Then I remembered that I had opportunist, and my opponent had just K-turned.

So Leach had a 4 die R1 attack. I rolled well and smoked him.

In the postmortem I was thinking, "****, 15 points, PS5, AND an EPT? Is he the best Z-95 pilot for the points?"

If not, who is?

Airen Cracken's not bad

Flies different, obviously

Blount. You have stealth device. Not anymore oh and you just got Ioned

The best z95 is the pirate or bandit or tala

Those are the most cost efficient by a mile

Not sure if that qualifies as best but best is A vague term, at best

The most impressive though will probly be LW stim cluster ndru. 8 total dice!

Airen Cracken is the best, hands down I'd say.

Leeachos is pretty awesome for how cheap he is and has an EPT. Only cheaper scum option are the Point Veteran generics in Scyks at 14.

With that said, Leeachos has a pretty underwhelming ability. Running him next to a Crow/RecSpec and throw on Bodyguard, and the guy is always virtually guaranteed to make a more appealing target harder to kill.

Still: Airen Cracken shoots early and passes out free actions in the process. Only 19 points, and even naked (giggity) Old Man Cracken is one of the most useful guys you can have on the field.

N'dru. Tricky to use, but great as a flanker/distraction. You can almost guarantee he'll draw more attention than he strictly warrants.

Bossk? Dunno yet

Blount, for my money. The auto-hit is great against stealth devices and his ability works great with Assault missiles (lots of swarms in my local meta).

Bossk. 6 points, badass ability. N'dru is second, Cracken third.

This ignores the generics, obviously.

Honestly Razzi seems better than Bossk once they're just flying the Pup. Razzi's ability lets her contribute more, since she's not reliant on scoring a crit that gets through for damage in a Z-95. She just needs to use her target lock action. Once Bossk loses that third red die and the upgrades he took, the odds of actually sending that crit through their evade dice are not that great.

Best overall is hartd to judge. Cracken and Ndru are polar opposites but both have a lot of potential to do great things. If swarms were more popular I'd say Blount for his ability to make Assault Missiles work every time.

#1: Bandit Squadron Pilot

#2: Ndru Suhlak

20 point Z-95 Wedge.

Binarye pirate. The right price. And great ps 1.

Named, airem is great of paired up right. Ndru with vi- maybe lone wolf- possibly cluster missiles. Usually cheaper is better though, flank and he'll get a lot of heat.

As a purely position/task pilot, Blount is one of the best in the game IMO.

Cracken (aka Santa Claus) is the Rebel answer to Howlrunner.

Shulak is the best as a pure fighter.

Great responses. I'm still torn on Leeachos though.

His power is meh, especially since he doesn't have too many sources to steal an Evade from (stupid Khiraz would have been perfect) but getting a free focus for him is great for R1 shots, munitions, and as I have found out, Opportunist! Sure that's 4 points, but who's expecting Leeachos to hit you with 4 dice with TL+Focus?

Craken is great for sure. For the points though, he doesn't do it for me. His whole value rests in his ability to a shot per round with that awful dial. Any upgrade you put on him really hurts since he's too fragile to rely on being around for long.

N'dru is great on paper, but he's like fools gold for me. Very shiny but not the value he appears to be.

Blount is in that sweet spot. He's 17 points, PS6 with an EPT and actually has a useful ability. His ability is really about denial more than anything (IMO) which get's in your opponent's head.

I'd say bang for buck, the good Lieutenant is the best competition that Leeachos has for the spot of #1 Ace of the Z-95 fleet.

All the unnamed shmo's are good but calling them the best is like voting a block of Slave Rats for MVP (ok, if they manage to tie up a Thirster all game, they deserve it).

Hmmm, best Z-95? The answer does depend on your favoured playing style.

If you prefer denial, the lieutenant and Leeachos are yours to choose.

If you prefer boosting other pilots I would suggest Cracken.

N'Dru seems like fun, but difficult to pull off. I do like the non-formation flying aspect. I have a tendency to so that, even with ships which should roam freely. N'Dru might be the teacher I need

I've ran N'dru with Lone Wolf and Hull Upgrade in a couple of matches as the last man in a three scum Ace list. Usually a Firespray, Kavil with a blaster turret and then N'dru. He does good work. N'dru's ability is hard to activate if you are running him with 3 or more other ships, but I've never had problems activating him with a 3 squad set up. He's kind of like a mini X-wing but with a reroll ability and a PS of 7. I've had him get bursted in a few games, so that's why I added the hull upgrade. He's not the main piece of course, just a solid, cheap option. Granted, once the Special K comes out and I get an EPT on the Black Sun Ace I might not used him as much.

Leechos hasn't done that well with me. I've played him in three games as a Bodyguard for Palob and he got bursted a lot. I felt super meh about his ability. I honestly wish we had more Scum headhunter pilots to choose from than Lone Wolf guy and Steals from Friends.

I've never run the other two, though I like Cracken on paper a good bit.

N'Dru and it's not that close. So many options. Lone Wolf, Shield or Hull upgrade, 4 Die HSB and my personal favorite the 4 Die 4 Die Cluster Missle. He's just a handful for the small amount of points he costs. He takes practice to fly effectively. I've even run him before at 29 pts with all the upgrades I listed. He can be scary.

None of the named Z-95s are slouches, although I find Kaato's ability hard to justify sometimes. It'd be great on a ship with a more powerful gun.

N'dru, lone wolf, cluster missiles, hotshot blaster and munitions failsafe - 27 points.

Fill the rest of your list with whatever you want but N'dru is key -

either he flanks unopposed and can use cluster missile for a 4 red dice attack with 1 reroll out to range 2, using hotshot for a punishing drive by shot of 4 with a re roll...

Or your opponent focuses on him, so you use him as bait to buy the rest of your list time.

Ps7 means your opponent needs to divert good pilots to get the drop on him, or multiple worse pilots in case N'dru just chews them up.

Ndru with lone wolf and clusters at 23 pts is scary. It would be hard to find a better use of 23 points in the game. I'd take him over 2 APs.

Compare Ndru with hull to a black sun ace. Virtually identical, but Ndru has a better shield/hull distribution and is 3 pts cheaper. Ndru also works better with lone wolf and secondary weapons.

Compare Ndru with hull with a rookie. He gains 5 ps, an ept, swaps torpedoes for missiles, astro for illicit, and is still a pt cheaper with the same dial besides the k turn. And of course synergizes with hotshot and missiles.

N'dru, lone wolf, cluster missiles, hotshot blaster and munitions failsafe - 27 points.

...or (once Wave 7 gets here) N'Dru, Lone Wolf, Cluster Missiles & Glitterstim.

For what it's worth, at 22 points N'dru, Lone Wolf & Hull Upgrade

Effectively gives you PS7, better offence and better defence than a Rookie Pilot for just one point more. No one will want to face him in the endgame.

N'dru, lone wolf, cluster missiles, hotshot blaster and munitions failsafe - 27 points.

...or (once Wave 7 gets here) N'Dru, Lone Wolf, Cluster Missiles & Glitterstim.

For what it's worth, at 22 points N'dru, Lone Wolf & Hull Upgrade

Effectively gives you PS7, better offence and better defence than a Rookie Pilot for just one point more. No one will want to face him in the endgame.

Glitterstim definitely if you want the performance and cut down on his overall points by having a single potent round of attacking.

Though the Munitions failsafe sees at first glance to your opponent as a waste, once they realize that he WILL connect with a 4 die attack before he discards those secondary weapons (pro tip - Hotshot blaster can trigger munitions failsafe), then it ups N'dru's scare-factor.

Bandit and Binayre are the ones I use the most, with Tala a close 3rd. For me, those are the best.

I'm currently testing Binayre spam with Glitterstim and Missiles.

I also support N'dru. Add hull upgrade and he's a 20 point PS 7 X-wing. LW makes him so much better as well.