Invasion

Invasion was the Odyssey's most ambitiously strategic game — a wargame transforming the television into a global battlefield. The overlay showed a world map divided into territories. Players placed cardboard troops on the map and used the on-screen square to resolve combat — whoever hit the moving target won the battle. It was Risk mixed with electronics: analog strategic planning combined with digital aiming skill. The game included event cards changing war fortunes — alliances, rebellions, reinforcements. For 1972, the concept of an interactive global wargame was extraordinarily ambitious. Real-time strategy games (Warcraft, StarCraft) would fully realize this vision twenty years later.