Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock/Squadrons

Certain vessels also carry their own strike craft, which can be used to eliminate other strike craft, support and shield their teammates, and hinder the capabilities of enemy warships.

If the situation for a squadron deteriorates, it is possible to send them back to their mothership for repair. Each capital ship repairs at a different rate, and can often take several turns to replace lost members. As long as at least one member of the group makes it home, however, the squadron will eventually be returned to full strength.

In the campaign, a squadron that is fully shot down must be replaced by Tylium after the battle.

Viper Mk I
Vipers are the standard space superiority fighter employed by the Colonial forces. As with the Cylon Raiders and the Viper Mk II, these craft are used for three main purposes: to harass enemy capital ships, to intercept missiles, and to defeat other enemy fighters.

While Viper Mk Is have no cost and are the default fighter, they are often replaced in multiplayer by the Viper Mk II.

Viper Mk II
Vipers are the standard space superiority fighter employed by the Colonial forces. They are notably more effective than normal Vipers, though they sacrifice defensive attributes for greater speed and damage. Mark II Vipers are notably better at intercepting enemy missiles than their Mk I counterparts, with a notable increase in speed. With fewer members in the squadron, Viper Mk IIs are easier to destroy completely, preventing them from making it back to their carrier.

Moreso than the Cylons, Colonial fleets are reliant on their Viper count. Take the extra step to ensure you bring along enough Vipers, especially in multiplayer.

Unlike Viper Mk Is, the Viper Mk II will count against a fleet's fleet point score.

Raptor
While Raptors can defend ships, perform missile interception, and dogfight, they are very poor at it. Instead, Raptors are tasked to perform four important tasks for the Colonials.

Firstly, the Disarm command is used to disarm mines within a certain range of the Raptor. Multiple Raptors cannot disarm a mine faster, so send multiple Raptor squadrons to different mines to disarm multiples simultaneously. The process takes less than a turn.

Raptors are used to board enemy vessels. As soon as the Raptor docks with the target, it puts 50 Marines on the target ship (for a total of 100 if both Raptors make it to the target). The target ship receives a -15% accuracy and -25% subsystem repair penalty. Cylon ships also receive a -25 system energy penalty, meaning they have less power to redirect to their subsystems. The ship's defenders and the boarding party will start taking losses based on the defending ship's Armoury subsystem, and the Armoury subsystem of the Raptor's home carrier. The boarding penalty remains in effect as long as there is at least one Marine on board the ship.

If the boarding party defeats all the ship's defenders, the boarding penalties will simply remain until the Raptors undock, or if the target ship is destroyed. If the boarded ship is destroyed with the Raptors still attached, the Raptors are lost in the ensuing explosion.

Raptors also bolster the firewalls of either their mothership (when docked) or another ship. Each Raptor boosts the firewall of the ship by 40 points (80 points in total for both Raptors). This gives the ship a bit more time to withdraw to a safe location or fly out of range of the Cylon hacking attack.

Finally, Raptors have four light rockets they can use against enemy warships. The rockets do not cause a lot of damage. They are launched as soon as the order is given, so Raptors need to be close to the target to guarantee a hit. If you intend to use Raptors in a boarding capacity, you may as well launch these rockets to deal minor damage to the target.

Vulnerable to enemy fighters and point defence weapons, Raptors must be protected by Vipers. Additionally, use the Move order to get Raptors to attack targets from odd angles, like directly above. Raptors are an excellent balance between the offensively-minded Assault Raptor and the defensively-minded Sweeper.

With a DRADIS range double that of the Viper, Raptors can also be used as a scout. Remember that DRADIS is a cylinder around the Raptor with infinite vertical range; take advantage of this by flying your Raptors extremely high above or below the enemy fleet.

Assault Raptor
Assault Raptors require the Broken Alliance DLC.

The Assault Raptor is an offense oriented Raptor variant. Like Raptors, they are poor dogfighters and missile interceptors, but will try to if ordered.

Assault Raptors have no boarding party, mine disarming ability, or firewall boosting.

Instead, Assault Raptors have access to short range missiles. These missiles do light damage, but are far more numerous than the standard Raptor's rockets and are guided. The missiles have a range of 4 km - the same range as the Assault Raptor's DRADIS range. Depending on the target's movements, however, the missiles may be lost if the target is moving away from the Raptors.

The missiles are launched immediately when the order is given, so fly the Assault Raptors close to ensure a hit.

Assault Raptors also have a Paint Target ability which increases a friendly ship's accuracy against the painted target. The target painter will remain in effect so long as the Assault Raptor is in range. The target painter does not improve the damage done to the target, only the accuracy, so it is less effective against larger ships like Basestars and Battlestars. The target painter can be trained against enemy squadrons, making otherwise less accurate weapons (such as the Taipan) be able to effectively target them.

Assault Raptors have the same 4 km DRADIS range of the standard Raptor, so they can also act as scouts in the same manner.

Sweeper
The Sweeper is very similar to the Raptor in terms of flight characteristics, but is extremely defensive in its purpose. While it can try to intercept missiles and dogfight, Sweepers are bad at this and should not be ordered to do so.

The Sweeper is instead used as a chaff dispenser. Each Sweeper comes with 10 units of chaff. Chaff clouds deployed by the Sweeper are impregnable missile walls that also allow your own munitions through. The clouds last roughly two turns and grow in size until finally dissipating by turn 3. Players who want a continuous shield against missile attack will require at least two Sweeper squadrons.

Unlike the Raptor's rockets, chaff is either toggled on or off. To create a wall, use the Movement order to get the Sweepers to fly in a straight line, dispensing chaff as it goes. Ensure the chaff covers your ships effectively vertically as well, as chaff protection has a limited vertical range. When turned on, Sweepers use three units of chaff per turn.

Chaff requires about one additional turn to grow to a sufficient size to block torpedoes.

Taipan
The Taipan is available only to players with the Resurrection DLC.

The Taipan is a heavy fighter with a light cannon. Designed to target larger enemy ships, the guns are extremely powerful. Taipans are very fast but rather poor defensively, so ensure they are protected by Vipers. Taipans are decent at missile interception.

Taipans are best used in conjunction with Assault Raptors to whittle down the armour of a target. Assault Raptors, using their target painting, can also make Taipans reasonably effective against enemy fighters.

Raider Prototype
The Cylon equivalent to the Viper Mk I, the Raider Prototype is a bulky, heavily armoured space superiority fighter. Like Vipers, Raider Prototypes are for intercepting enemy squadrons, tying up enemy missile attacks, and to harass enemy capital ships. If you have civilian escorts during the campaign, ensure they are protected from these fast moving fighters.

Players will sometimes replace Raider Prototypes with standard Raiders for multiplayer matches.

Raider
Similar to the Viper Mk II, the standard Raider replaces the Raider Prototype as the standard space superiority fighter. The increased speed makes them more survivable in dogfights than Raider Prototypes.

Compared to the Raider Prototype, the Raider has additional speed in exchange for protection. With fewer members in the squad, it's easier for the Raider to be destroyed completely and fail to make it back to its carrier.

Unlike the Raider Prototype, Raiders count against your fleet point limit.

Heavy Raider
The Heavy Raider has one purpose: a boarding craft. Unlike the Colonial Raptor, the Heavy Raider is equipped only with Centurions for the purpose of a boarding action. Heavy Raiders do have guns, but they are poor dogfighters and missile interceptors.

Once a Heavy Raider docks with an enemy ship, it unloads 100 Centurions (each Heavy Raider carries 50). This boarding party clashes with the target's own defenders, with both losing numbers depending on the defending ship's Armoury subsystem, and the Armoury system of the Heavy Raiders' home carrier.

Unlike Colonial Marines, Cylon Centurions will cause subsystem damage based on the number remaining in the boarding party. Once all enemy subsystems are destroyed, the Centurions will remain idle until one is repaired.

Centurions stop taking losses once they eliminate all the ship's defenders. As of the Fleet Admiral update, Centurions no longer destroy ships they have boarded.

If the Heavy Raider undocks from the target ship, the Centurions will leave along with them. If an enemy ship is destroyed with the Heavy Raider still attached, the Heavy Raider squadron is destroyed along with the ship.

Wardriver
Although Wardrivers have access to guns for missile interception and dogfighting, their primary purpose is to act as hacking platforms. Working in conjunction with the Nemesis and the Phobos, the Wardriver can hack enemy ships and work on disabling their subsystems after penetrating the target's firewalls.

The Wardriver also has the same Disarm ability of Raptors, allowing them to disable enemy mines in the fleet's path.

In Multiplayer, the primary purpose of the Wardriver is as a missile defence. While it can attempt to shoot them down with its guns, it can also activate Jamming mode. While in Jamming mode, the Wardriver emits a bubble around it. Any guided missiles entering this bubble have a 60% chance to lose guidance and miss, or even be reflected back to the ship that fired them. Jamming mode has no effect on unguided weapons, most notably mines and torpedoes.

The jamming bubble also affects enemy squadrons, reducing their evasion and speed.

The ability to reflect an infinite number of missiles while in Jamming mode while still allowing your own munitions through is what makes Wardrivers priority targets for enemy fighters.

Scorpion
Scorpions are mobile gun turrets with powerful heavy guns. Though they cannot shoot while moving, and thus make poor chasers, Scorpions are effective enemy capital ships and missiles (though not mines), but are poor at engaging enemy fighters. To deploy a Scorpion, issue it a Move order. Scorpions will take about 2.5 seconds to deploy at the end of their movement order in order to fire.

Scorpions also have guided missiles. While they cause slightly less damage than the guided missiles on capital ships, they share the same targeting rules - such as needing DRADIS identification in order to fire. Each Scorpion fires a volley of four missiles each time.

Scorpions cannot select their own targets via Focus Fire like capital ships, but instead can be issued orders as to what to prioritize: enemy munitions, enemy capital ships, or simply the closest target.

Vespid
Vespids are dedicated bombers fulfilling the same anti-capital ship role of the Taipan. Unlike the Taipan, which uses its guns, the Vespid dispenses a series of bombs either along the top or bottom of the target vessel, depending on the Vespid's orientation when the bomb order is given.

Vespids have no guns and cannot attack at all aside from using bombing runs. Vespids have a limited number of bombs and must be rearmed at their carrier after firing their payload. Vespids manoeuvre along straight lines during their attack runs, making them vulnerable to obstacles like flak barrages and debris mines.