Martian Menace

The Martian Menace is part of the Invaders agenda. They were released as part of the Rise series and received supplemental content from the I Chomp NY and All Your Base sets.

These diabolical visitors from space have come to harvest Earth’s inhabitants and resources for their own insidious plans.



Story

 * Filthy, lying, cheating Martians! This will do down as the greatest con in the history of mankind!
 * -General George Norman, Chief Executive of G.U.A.R.D.

For as long as man has gazed at the heavens, silent alien observers have looked back. Unbeknownst to humankind, Earth has proven a particularly favorite subject of study over the past several centuries for the indigenous inhabitants of our nearest plenary neighbor, Mars.

Mars, long since depleted of resources and reduced to a barren desert of red dirt, cannot provide the necessary sustenance for the Martian species. Seeing the error of their ways much too late, the Martians have looked beyond their home for new resources and, conveniently, found Earth right around the cosmic corner.

The Martians possess technology and methods of space travel that humanity will not discover for generations, but they lacked the capacity for a full-scale invasion of a neighboring planet when their own environmental apocalypse fell upon them. Starvation had taken its toll on the Martian population by slowing industry and depleting their military. The relocation of their species required patience and planning.

The plan required the vast majority of surviving Martians to enter suspended animation while scientists and engineers constructed a fleet of ships and vehicles capable of conquering the Earth. Meanwhile, scout teams observed Earth, and harvesters mined the planet for resources to fuel the military effort back on Mars. Unfortunately, time was not on their side, and human technology developed far quicker than anticipated. Decades flew by between advances in the Martian military machine, and every year, humans developed greater power.

The Martians could no longer hide after the Roswell crash in 1947. In an effort to control the progress of man and gain inside intelligence, the Martians came forward to the governments of the world's leading nations and traded technology for resources, all the while steering humanity's progress in just the right directions to ensure its eventual vulnerability. This more open relationship sent more resources back to Mars and productivity vastly accelerated. Shortly after the turn of the century, the Martians removed their soldiers from stasis, said goodbye to Mars once and for all, and mobilized their fleet.

The invasion of Earth has begun.

Series 1: Rise

 * Ares Mothership
 * Deimos-9

Series 2: I Chomp NY

 * Phobos-7
 * Tharsis-5

Series 3: All Your Base

 * Galaxius-4

Series 1: Rise

 * Hunter
 * Power Pod
 * Saucer
 * Vanguard

Series 2: I Chomp NY

 * Marauder
 * Reaper

Series 3: All Your Base

 * Despoiler
 * Nullifier Pod

Series 3: All Your Base

 * Arsia Outpost

Faction Strengths

 * The Martian Menace is the one of the best factions in the game at gathering Power Dice, through easy access to Amplify, Power Gorge, and Explosion, as well as monster abilities that gain Power Dice efficiently, like Super Rampage, Radial Attack, and Multi-Shot.
 * The Martian Menace is very good at blast attacks, with many units having long range, debuffs like Sniper, and useful triggers like Explosion or Power Gorge. Their standard unit, the Vanguard, also has an innate Boost Dice, making them very useful at blasting on their own or as part of combined Blast Attacks. Many of their monsters also boast long range and useful blast triggers, with Phobos-7 being the prime example.
 * The Martian Menace is extremely mobile with the majority of their units having either Flight or Hover, and the remaining ones having Climb. Their monsters are similarly mobile, with only one monster (Phobos-7) being completely devoid of movement abilities.

Faction Weaknesses

 * The Martian Menace are one of the worst factions in the game at brawling, as out of all the Martian Units only two can even make brawl attacks. Even those two units (the Reaper and the Despoiler) are not very good brawlers and this can cause severe problems against brawl-heavy forces like Terrasaurs, Planet Eaters, or the Subterran Uprising.
 * Martian Menace monsters tend to be fragile, with fairly low defense scores and averaging between ten and eleven total health between both forms.
 * The Martian Menace's large number of flying units and monsters make them very vulnerable to the Anti-Air ability.
 * Four out of the eight Martian Menace units have a defense of two and no ability to gain Cover, making them very easy targets for enemy attacks. They are one of only two factions not to have a 4-defense unit (excluding the Voltron factions).