[pabianice]

I don't remember the novel saying anything about the pre-positioned war machines.

The book, written by Wells in 1898, had the Martians arriving by spaceships.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

The book, written by Wells in 1898, had the Martians arriving by spaceships.

Exactly, if they had been advanced enough to have pre-positioned war machines on the Earth a million years before mankind, why would they just have not populated the Earth for themselves at that time?