MARS ATTACKS: Now a Full-Fledged Wargame!
In only a year after the Kickstarter ended, MARS ATTACKS gets an all new expansion ruleset, and full army construction rules – let the battles begin!
Take it away Mantic:
“Mars Attacks – The Miniatures Game is the crazy game of Martian Mayhem. Traditionally, you’ll play through the scenarios in the boxed game and expansions, telling the story of Greenville whilst adding various troops to your collection (like the Giant Martian Robot!)
Now, with the World War expansion book, there’s another way: Epic Battles.
Building an Invasion Force
Epic Battles will be familiar to traditional wargamers.
Unlike the campaign, each player is free to build their armies from a Force List – a detailed list of every miniature in the Mars Attacks range. The size of your force is dictated by the Points Value of the game you are playing. You may only want to play with a few squads of Martians in a 150 point game, or take advantage of the mutant bugs and great miniatures in the rest of the range and play a 400 point game. Either way, an Epic Battle gives you the freedom to pick and choose the type of army you want to play with, and the size of the games you want to play making big battles possible!
To get started with Epic Battles, you need to agree a points cost with your opponent and which side you want to play. Once you’ve got that, it’s time to pick your force.
To help you build your invasion force – or defending human army to save Earth! – there are two Force Lists in the rulebook, as well as examples of Martian armies you can build. Furthermore, we’ve also put together some great army sets, like this Large Martian Army:
So, how does this army translate to the tabletop? Well, here’s a 700 point army list based on the force you can see above, with the Science Division mad doctor Gorl taking charge of proceedings (and don’t forget, there’s no assembly (save the vehicles) making getting this force on the tabletop very easy!)
Example Martian Invasion Force List:
2 Saucers with Heat Ray 64 pts
6 Stealth Martians 48 pts
2 Stealth Sharpshooter 34 pts
2 Stealth Unit Commander 50 pts
6 Martian Marine 48 pts
2 Martian Marine with Rocket Launcher 36 pts
2 Martian Marine Unit Commander 56 pts
5 Science Division Trooper 30 pts
1 Science Division Engineer 14 pts
1 Science Division Unit Commander 14 pts
1 Science Division Trooper with Heavy Blaster 13 pts
1 Gorl + Wrex 30 pts
2 Bug Handler 64 pts
1 Robot Unit Commander 55 pts
16 Martian Grunt with Disintegration Rifle 80 pts
2 Martian Grunt Unit Commander 42 pts
2 Martian Grunt with Freeze Ray 22 pts
700 pts
Of course, you can play whichever sized games you want.
Playing Epic Battles
Once you’ve got your army, it’s time to choose the Epic Battle scenario you want to play.
There are a total of 12 Epic Battle Scenarios to choose from, and unlike the main game, there is no story here. The scenarios simply exist to give you your victory conditions, special rules, deployment zones and which size board to play on.
That’s right, you can play on different sized boards whether you’ve got one, two or four mats, depending on the points value of the game. In addition, you get extra cards and actions.
Scenario 12: Ack Ack Attack Map Layout
For example, in a 2 or 4 Mat games, you can activate additional models, ensuring the game doesn’t get bogged down by all of the extra miniatures.
We Come In Pieces!
All of this is included in the new Mars Attacks: World War book, a fantastic expansion if you want to take your game further and play with your entire collection. In addition to the force lists and Epic Battles and Scenarios, there are also suggestion for taking your game further, including making your own scenarios, multi-player games, campaign and more.
Mars Attacks: World War is now available to pre-order and begins shipping in May. Get a free copy when you purchase Mars Attacks – The Miniatures Game.“
So BoLS readers, what we have here is an rules expansion that takes the small scenario based play in the original Kickstarter boxed set, adds a ton of new units including the golden age 1950s sci-fi Martian giant robot, and flying saucers. Then you get full army construction rules and over a dozen missions. That sounds like full fledged wargame to me – how about you!
ACK-ACK ACK-ACK!!!
