Ravagers are an assault unit which cannot do much assaulting. It's high speed leaves riot escorts behind and it is vulnerable to raider attacks.
It is not as cheap as the rover dependables: Scorcher or Fencer, so it cannot be spammed to breakthrough enemy lines. It has limited combat effectiveness because skirmishers can kill ravagers well enough that attacking skirmisher is a risk.
Compare this with the other factories:
Thug is a terrible combat unit, but its high HP/Cost and shield makes it the felon's escort.
Hermit is also terrible but it is cheap and spider factory needs something with HP to go through defended territory.
Knight attacks multiple target types, but it is not cheap. It is not a throwaway unit, but a force multiplier for ronin and reaver, or, when its short range is mitigated, its own deadly unit.
Halberd has short range, but serves as the highest HP unit in the hoverfactory arsenal when closed - the perfect anti-porc for allowing scalpel-mace to go through. Also a coup de grace by simply tanking the damage until it can unload on a factory and caretaker.
Grizzly gives amphbot the range to stay on the battlefield. It is not a unit to be thrown into porc, but a suppport unit for amphbot to slowly attrit the enemy until ducks or bouy can finish them off.
The only other unit which acts like ravager would be minotaur. But minotaur is an ogre escort its somewhat improved range gives tank a way to hit foolish skirmisher, and its sheer HP makes it a win condition when at large enough numbers.
I would argue that ravager needs to have its own role instead of a unit which tries to do combat, but fails at it, tries to be disposable but is too expensive and 'raider like' with speed but gets swarmed.
My niches include:
Cheap HP - Lower cost of ravager further, decreasing other aspects such as damage or speed so it no longer acts as a combat unit, but instead, a hefty chunk of HP that goes through enemy defence. This makes ravager 'disposable'
Skirmisher-Assault - Give it longer range, allowing it to reliably fight skirmisher, nerfing HP, turn rate and increasing damage but decreasing fire rate, so it becomes even more vulnerable to raiders. Makes this for when scorcher can no longer get through, or fencer gets ran over. Gives it the ability to attack defence at longer range, but is no longer cheap HP and instead a unit which fills rover's skirmisher gap.
Super-raider - Make ravager faster with better turn rate, lowering weapon range or HP. This makes ravager a heavier scorcher, that, while it is still engageable with raiders, can escape from them and run over defence with impunity. No longer a unit which tries to engage things at range: It needs to get very close to deal effective damage. Maybe increase projectile speed and fire rate while decreasing damage per projectile. This lets it fight raiders alongside scorcher. Unlike blitz it will not single-handedly take out multiple glaives but it can attack heavier porc than blitz can.
Heavier assault - increase HP significantly, decrease speed significantly and turn rate midly, increase range and decrease projectile speed somewhat, increase metal cost. Becomes closer to minotaur, giving rover a unit which sits on the field and takes a beating whilst providing some fire support. No longer engages raiders or other units, focussing on porc instead. Stops trying to be a disposable unit, and makes rover focus on repairing ravager instead of letting it die.
Any other niches for ravager would be appreciated. The only niches I would say to avoid is a close-range high DPS because scorcher already fulfills that, and riot-assault because ripper is the riot.
Edit: Rewritten for knight to attack multiple target types. It handles small raider attacks fine, can catch some skirms, or every skirm when cloaked, usually fights riots well
