Giant squid

The giant squad is a Soviet anti-ship naval unit in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge.

Background
"Commander, I thought I had seen everything, but this takes the cake."

- Eva Lee

Captured and trained by Soviet scientists, giant squids are capable of grasping enemy ships and crushing them with their powerful tentacles. Since they are usually submerged, they do not appear on radar.

They were used as a line of defense for Cuba to prevent the Allies from reaching their Nuclear Missile Silos there, but failed to stop them. They also were used in an attempt to prevent the American Allied forces from landing in Europe to help the European Allied forces fight in Eastern Europe.

During the Psychic Dominator Disaster, the Soviets utillized a few of these units in a very unique tactic. They deployed the squid ahead of Typhoon Attack Submarines to pinpoint any Boomers and "lure" the Boomer's torpedos from the Typhoon (or any ship being covered). A direct hit from a Boomer can still be tolerated by the squid, provided that they keep maneuvering to dodge the torpedo barrage.

In-game
The best known and most effective counter was the Allied dolphin who were trained for the sole purpose of taking out giant squids. The dolphin's sonic pulse would cause the squid so much pain that it would release ships and try to attack the dolphin, but it would die from only a few sonic pulses so it rarely could reach the dolphin in time.

Yuri's Boomer submarines could not be grabbed by squids, and are instead punched.

Changelog

 * Yuri's Revenge patch 1.001: giant squids can no longer be pulled onto land if a Chronosphere or Magnetron displaces it - in the former case, the squid will be killed, and in the latter it will let go of its target.

Bugs

 * A robot tank entangled by a giant squid may still move. When the robot tank moves inland, the giant squid follows. And upon destruction of its prey, the giant squid will be left stuck in the land region, unable to move.
 * Relatedly, when attacking robot tanks, giant squids use the leftover original tentacle animation that is left in the Tiberian Sun palette.
 * Elite giant squids pursue air units, but they can not hit any air units.

Trivia

 * Though the giant squids are mind controlled, the Soviets can still train them after Yuri's defection.
 * When attacking, the Squid essentially "becomes the bullet" until it reaches and kills the target. During this phase, the Squid is immune to even a Nuke blast and its radiation. This mechanic is shared with both Attack Dog and Terror Drone.

Cameos
Pre-release cameos, in order: alpha, beta.

In order: English, French, German, Korean, Chinese.