My current group is typically 7 people these days. I'd like to get more play out of IFOS so I was wondering if I could make 7 players work. So 2 Martians vs. 5 Heroes. The only options I could see would be giving the Martians either extra starting cards, allow them to pick up an extra card each turn or give them an extra command point each round. If anybody has tried any of these or has any suggestions please let me know what you think.
Here's some ideas. They all need some kind of dot scoring though. Depending on what you use you may need to add a couple options since an extra hero is worth 5 dots.
2 command pts per player
Increased hand size - 4 cards per player
Improved draw - Draw 2 cards instead of 1 when using the command console
Faster Saucers - Saucers move 3 spaces instead of 2
Start the game with the Martian Leader
Start the game with the Zard Beast
Improved Ray Guns - Ray Guns hit on 4+ or 3+ if full pack
Improved Ray Guns 2 - Increased range on Ray gun attacks
Mind controlled Heroes - Some kind of spin on Zombie Heroes
Cloaked - Martians ignore wounds on a d6 roll of 4+ (except fires and explosives)
Scouts - Martians move 2 spaces each turn
Tech - Start the game with a Tech card. This card is considered completed and may be revealed when the Martian player is ready. Dots=command pts?
If I think of more ill let you know but hopefully this will be a good start for you. Let's us know how things work out.
Look at the Dots mechanic an extra hero is 5 Dots so you have to balance that with extra stuff for the Martians you can look at the LNOE dots to get an idea since the game play is similar.