Some ships are used extensively for competitive play while others are not. I'd like to compare two of the existing ship to find one reason why, then apply that criteria to three of the wave four ships. That may give us a hint which new ships are viable for competitive play.

Attempts at finding points formulas for ships seem to indicate that the action bar does not effect points cost while the value of maneuver dials is hard to figure out. Each point of PS costs 1 point.

TIE Fighters are the mainstay of many lists. TIE Interceptors are considered high risk ships in spite of having one of the best maneuver dials. The main difference between the two is +1 attack for 6 or 7 additional points. The cheaper one gets used but the extra cost is not worth the benefit.

Compare a TIE Advanced to an E-Wing.

The TIE Advanced is arguably the worst ship. From the above comparison between Fighter and Interceptor we learned that +1 attack for 6 or 7 points makes a ship less useful. Add 7 points to the TIE Advanced for +1 attack, substract 1 point for lower PS and you get an E-Wing. (1) So the E-Wing is not as good for competitive play as the TIE Advanced. Which is saying a lot.

The system upgrade may improve the viability of E-Wings. Naked B-Wings are very useful so I would not count on it.

The TIE Defender is an E-Wing with a hull upgrade. So far you hardly see shield upgrades in competitive lists so I doubt the Defender being better than the E-Wing.

Compare X-Wing to Z-95

The X-Wing is a Z-95 with +1 attack for 6 additional points plus hull upgrade. This indicates that the Z-95 is a better choice for competitive play than the X-Wing.

If the above reasoning holds true, which it probably does not, I can see the Z-95 becoming a major contributor in rebel lists while E-Wing and TIE Defender take a back seat.

(1) The difference between three shields two hull and two shields three hull is worth a maximum of one point, probably less.

This is just more speculation on top of speculation. A better dial is so much more worth it then just base numbers to half the players. When you can keep the opponent guessing where you will be, that makes just plain dice calculations no where near as useful (albeit still helpful). So how many ships can you name that will be able to do a stress free ptl TL+boost, to make a crooked k-turn or regain shields with R2D2 while maintaining unpredictable maneuvers? Right now the only ship that will be able to once out is the E-Wing (in set circumstances). I can already tell you the Z will most likely have a dial akin to the hwk but with a k-turn, I'm guessing at a red 1 hard turn as well, so if you just bum rush a enemy then yes, it will be more valuable. I tend to come through the asteroids and face and opponent that can only fire with a few of their ships while my list can fire back in full. So it doesn't come down to " viable competitive" models but more what the figure is worth to your individual play style, only ship that this doesn't really hold true to is the ADV sorry to say.

I agree with Hujoe on this as more speculation at this stage. It's very hard to define a ship as "competitive" when we still don't have the full information. The dial could well be the "make it, or break it" for these ships, but until we've got the full picture, it's just guessing.

And I've stated elsewhere, that there's no such thing as "averages" on dice rolls - some days you're lucky and some days you're not. Lady Luck has the ultimate decision over life and death in this game.

I actually do think the Z-95 will be an extremely useful rebel ship. The low cost, missile boat status of it is the selling point. Swarming is nice but kablooie missiles everywhere, that's even better.