Hunter

Hunter Armoured Car
Hitpoints	100 HP
Turn Units	70
Accuracy	60%
Reflexes	30
Purchase Cost	$60,000
Maintenance Cost	$4,000
Dropship Space	2
Armor Ratings
Kinetic Armor	40
Energy Armor	40
Incendiary Armor	40
Chemical Armor	100
Front Armor	40
Side Armor	35
Rear Armor	25

The Hunter is the first researchable support vehicle available to the player.

Xenopedia Description

The "Hunter" Scout Car is a small armoured vehicle that is used for scouting and fire support during combat missions. It fills the space of two soldiers in the dropship, but is tougher, can move faster and has a longer sight range than a soldier.

The Hunter is derived from the Daimler Ferret armoured car, a vehicle small and light enough to be carried inside one of our Charlie dropships (though there is only space for one vehicle in a strike team). The "scout car" designation is instructive; the Hunter is not a battle tank. Any vehicle light enough to be carried inside a helicopter will have relatively flimsy armour and the Hunter is no exception to this. Nevertheless, it is far quicker to replace a few damaged armour plates after a mission than it is to nurse a wounded soldier back to health, making this vehicle an extremely effective way to scout the battlefield in the hands of a careful commander.

The Hunter is equipped with dual .30cal machineguns, which are powerful but inaccurate. They are better suited to suppressing our foes than slaying them, making the Hunter a useful infantry support vehicle. If you would like to upgrade its firepower, your engineers believe they could refit the turret with powerful explosive rockets instead - however, these are hardly likely to leave much behind for my team to study.

Strategy

The usage of a Hunter in the early game is a hotly debated topic. Suffice it to say you will be sacrificing two soldiers for one support vehicle.

The advantage of a Hunter is primarily due to it having superior action points, hit points and armour to your soldiers, in addition to mounting a heavy calibre weapon. Due to the Hunters armour it can 'tank' more alien plasma shots and will usually end up drawing a lot of fire due to it being an exposed target. A role of the Hunter is to act as a scout, moving ahead of your soldiers to scout the area ahead, then take cover if possible or return fire.

Initially the Hunter has two usable weapons, dual .30 cal machinegun's or two dual Rocket Launcher mounts. Eventually it gets access to heavier alien tech-based weapons that function identically to Rocket Launcher.

The machinegun is good at suppressing aliens and does not suffer from the drawbacks of using a machinegun on a normal soldier, however it is limited to only 120 rounds, effectively only 12 uses, as well as being as inaccurate as a normal machinegun. Machinegun might be preferable in early missions, because it doesn't destroy alien loot.

The rocket launcher is a good alternative to the machinegun. It is easily capable of outright killing most low level aliens and levelling any cover, making it an attractive option. It can also consistently fire twice per turn. Unlike machinegun, it can also consistently get to the entry of the crashed ship, destroying obstacles if needed. However it suffers from having a limited amount of rockets, only eight, as well as it destroying its target and any equipment they were holding.

Despite its good armour, it will not last long against alien plasma fire, and a few good hits will destroy the Hunter. If Hunter have been harmed (i. e. brought to 65 HP or lower), it's better to pull it back and make it act like a supporting unit for the rest of the mission. It's better for a Hunter to get shot once than for a soldier to die, but it's better to let a rookie die than Hunter to be destroyed.

Before sending Hunter on a mission, make sure that it has a clear exit from the dropship, not blocked by the soldiers. This will let it clear any aliens that might spawn right outside the dropship, and will prevent it from accidentally suppressing or harming your own soldiers.

Hunter's frontal armor is stronger than on sides, so, if it can't find a reliable cover in the end of the turn, it should at least face the most likely direction from where it might be shot at.

Hunter is invulnerable to Reapers and can body-block them.

Hunter can crush fences, bushes and other small obstacles, for better or for worse. They can also crush propane tanks safely.

Hunter has questionable benefit of longer vision sight at night and during Alien Base Assaults.

The biggest drawback of Hunter is its cost. A soldier costs $10,000 to hire and and takes $10,000 as a a monthly salary. Hunter costs $60,000 and has a monthly maintenance of $4,000, however, it also requires a Garage, which itself costs $50,000 to build and $12.500 monthly to maintain. This brings the total cost of initial Hunter to $110,000, and its maintenance to $16,500, which means it has to save 11 soldiers plus 2 for every month it's in exploitation to pay for itself. Hunter is relatively easy to keep alive, especially on Insane difficulty, so this goal isn't out there.

While the Hunters price tag is much higher than a soldiers hire cost and it takes two soldier slots, it is the only thing that can consistently survive a few reaction shots during early game, bringing to the table much greater survivability for the rest of the squad. Hunter becomes obsolete by the time the entire squad is equipped with Wolf and Buzzard armors, which outclass its armor and scouting abilities respectively. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference and the availability of good soldiers and weapons.

Manufacture

Research Required	Hunter Scout Car
Manufacture Cost (per unit)	$60,000
Manufacture Man Days (per unit)	40
Manufacture Materials required (per unit)	None

Weaponry

At Start

• 30. Cal
• Rocket

Researched Into

• Pulse Laser
• Plasma Bolt
• MAG Railgun

Trivia

The Hunter is based off the Ferret Armored Car which is used by the British Army

Gallery

30.Cal

Rocket

Laser

Plasma

Railgun

A Hunter Scout Car with a pulse laser aiming at a Sebillian (Note the large blast radius)

Aftermath of a Hunter Scout Car with a pulse laser firing upon a Sebillian (Note the destruction of everything in range and lack of technology to salvage)