Raptor

Raptor is a squadron type in .

Background
The Raptor utility craft is primarily used for personnel transport and reconnaissance operations. It hosts a suite of electronic countermeasure devices, and can be docked to friendly units to bolster their firewalls.

Overview
The Raptor is a Colonial staple of anti-Cylon warfare, boosting a fleet's defenses against the superior signals technology of enemy capital ships and fighter craft. As such, Raptors have a power electronic counter-measure (ECM) suite to protect allied forces from hacking attacks.

Additionally, the Raptor is the primary troop transport/assault vehicle during combat, used to send Colonial raiding parties to strategic targets, including flagships, bases, and hostage-rescue objectives.

The Raptor also has the ability to disarm enemy munitions, particularly mines, during combat to clear a path for friendly units.

For weaponry, the Raptor does have a series of rockets to damage armor and hull points, as well as ballistic weapons.

Strategy
The stock Raptor is a versatile unit, and one of the few that may be required for specific missions, as it is the only unit that can carry Colonial boarding parties. Once available, player may find that it's offensive and defensive counterparts, namely the Assault Raptor and the Sweeper, to be better suited for engagements with the largest and most powerful Cylon crafts.

As the first of three Raptors available in the game, it is important to master the basic principles of Raptors in combat. First, Raptor abilities can "stack" nicely, meaning two Raptors using ECM defense to protect a capital ship will double its effectiveness and restoration; similarly, two Raptors can double the strength of a boarding party, etc. The only skill that does not stack is disabling mines, as only one Raptor can be assigned at a time -- though using many Raptors will help clear a path more quickly. The second is that Raptors will "reset" once they complete an assignment and return to their launching vessel, requiring the player to manually reassign them. This is in stark contrast to fighters, which will immediately switch to attacking the next closest target on the map.

Against Cylon units prone to hacking, especially the Nemesis, Phobos, and Wardriver units, keeping 1-2 Raptors near key capital ships can be crucial to protecting their critical systems and keeping them in the fight. If using Manticore and Ranger units as scouts or screens, it is advisable to switch the Raptor's role to offensive, and use the boarding parties to soften targets. If used with "stacked" Adamants, a boarding party may help to disable the Cylon unit to line up a broadside attack. While boarding, Colonial marines significantly hamper Cylon effectiveness -- and if the Marines manage to destroy all the ship's Cylons, the unit will be "dead in the water," maximizing the impact and effectiveness of attacks.

Stock Raptors cannot engage enemy fighters; as such, it is wise to provide an escort of fighters during mine sweeping activities. Since mine sweeping can be a lengthy process, stocking many Raptors for those missions can be a plus. Again, players can manually re-task the Raptors to push toward the enemy on boarding duties once they clear a path.

Usefulness of the Raptor when paired with larger Colonial units, such as battlestars (see also: Artemis, Minerva, Jupiter, and Jupiter Mk II) and gunships (see also: Minotaur and Heracles) is varied, as the defensive posture will need to protect against missiles more than hacking, often making the Sweeper a better option for defense, since it can also double the Raptor's mine-disabling abilities.

While Raptors do have rocket pods, they are not nearly as accurate or powerful as their Assault Raptor counterparts; it is wise not to rely on Raptors for offensive power and reserve these for coordinated, "wolf-pack" attacks in conjunction with other units.