Tyranids
The different units have different AI now. The melee try to overpower you by jumping over things and swarming you while the ranged guys will move forward or back to stay in range to hit you but they will try to stay out of range of your melee people as much as possible also. The Tyranids also begin turning the planet against you as they start transforming the planet for takeover. This happens in three phases. The vegetation mutants and explosive spores begin showing up which are basically like organic landmines. Eventually more and more changes will happen demonstrating how you are losing control and they are gaining it. Second Phase is larger vegetation transformation that act like artillery and begin launching explosive spores at you. Finally the third phase, when you know you are in serious trouble, is when the brood nests appear and start constantly spawning Tyranids to attack you.
In Dawn of war 2 Tyranid units will burrow through the ground and pop up to attack. They are even smart enough to find the weakened units in your squad and burrow to attack them specifically. If they think you are too tough they will also burrow into the ground and run away to attack elsewhere.
Since the Tyranid function on a hive mind there are actual ways to turn this to your advantage. Some troops are too low-level to be tied directly into the hive mind so they have to have another, stronger unit, transmit to them from the hive. As this unit needs to be present you can make it a target and seriously degrade the abilities of the dependent units.
When it is destroyed there is first a feedback wave that will stun all the dependent units allowing you to get the jump on them. When they are tied to the hive mind they are actually able to use better tactics and even shoot better. Essentially cutting them off from the hive mind will allow you to wipe them out easier than before. For example if you throw a satchel charge and they are connected they will attempt to dodge or run away. If they are cut off from the hive mind they are too stupid to do so and will most likely get blown to bits.
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137 days ago
Wow! It does look like they busy over at Relic. This finally looks like the RTS game we have all been waiting for. I know have been screaming for features such as not having to win every battle, automatically targeting the weaker units, and destructible environments for years. Plus it looks like that animation system is going to open up a lot of really interesting possiblities as far as gameplay goes.