Alien Behaviour

"Alien Behaviour" refers to the automatic actions Alien Units can take under some circumstances. The circumstance that normally triggers an Alien Behaviour action is that a Blip Token is revealed due to an action taken by a Hero Player. The Overmind Player makes any choices that are required as part of the Alien Behaviour action, and if an Alien Unit lists two or more Alien Behaviour actions, the Overmind Player chooses one of them.

There are five different Alien Behaviours:

• QUICK SHOT. The Alien Unit may make a Shoot attack, at a penalty of -1 (using one less Combat die).
• PROTECT. The Alien Unit will immediately move towards the nearest Alien Unit and stop once they become Adjacent.
• RUSH. The Alien Unit must move 5 Squares towards the closest visible Hero. If this ends with the model being in Melee Combat, it can make an immediate Melee attack at a penalty of -1 (using one less Combat die).
• TAKE COVER. When the Alien Unit is revealed, it can immediately move to any Green Square or Building within 5 Squares.
• TERRIFYING PRESENCE. The Alien Unit makes a Fear Attack against all Heroes that have this Alien Unit within Line of Sight.

Aside from the instructions explicitly given for the Alien Behaviour, and additional decisions regarding how to perform the action is decided by the Overmind Player, including what path to move along and how to resolve ties in requirements.

Blip Token

Blip Tokens are the form the Alien Forces initially take when they are deployed on the Mission Map. The represent a "radar echo", and are marked by facedown tokens with the downfacing side showing which Alien Type it is. The Alien Forces also gets two Decoy Tokens each Mission, which are small drones without combat ability.

Whenever a Blip Token enters into a Hero's Line of Sight, the Blip Token is flipped over, and the corresponding Alien Type Model or Models are placed on the Mission Map. When a Decoy Token is flipped over, it is taken off the map, and no Model is placed.

A Blip Token is also flipped over and revealed if anything in the game would cause damage to it, or needs to know any of its stats other than Movement. The Movement stat for a Blip Token is 5, no matter what type of Alien Unit it actually is.

The Alien Forces can also explicitly flip over and reveal one of their Blip Tokens as an Action when activating it.

When a Blip Token is revealed either due to the actions of the Hero Players, or by the actions of the Overmind Player if the revealed Alien Unit is in Shoot attack range of a Hero, it triggers an Alien Behaviour action. (This point is confusingly described in the rulebook, and confusingly clarified in the FAQ...)

If the Blip Token was revealed because something was about to cause damage to it, apply the damage to the revealed Alien Unit instead.