Battleship

Seek and destroy the enemy fleet before they sink yours.

SET UP

• Place four 10x10 modular boards arranged in a square pattern with space between them.

• Use four sets of Vitaminz A1 to J10 to mark and identify the navigational rows and columns on each board.

• Place an eye shield between 2 of the boards, so that each player can only view 3 of the boards.

• Stones are used to mark the positions of fleet ships. A different color stone identify direct hits.

• Bottlecaps or tokens are used to identify missed missile shots/ cannon fire/torpedoes/ or depth charges.

• Boards are paired: each player controls the two boards closest to them.

• The game begins with each player placing their ships on their hidden board in any horizontal or vertical position.

• The player to shoot first is randomly selected.

Number of Players

• 2

Objective

• ‘Sink’ the enemy fleet before they sink yours.

Rules

• On your turn, call out the targeted coordinates of your weapon release.

• The opposing player is obligated to provide feedback of a ‘miss’ or a ‘direct hit’.

• Use bottlecaps to track missed shots, and stones to track hits on your visible board. (this allows your opponent to also track play for correctness.)

• Alternating turns continue until one fleet is completely annihilated.

Player Variations

• Variations are available with any NxM grid sizes, or number of ships in each fleet.

• Handicapping a player is available by requiring more or less ships than their opponent.

• Another variation, allows for 3 shots taken by each player on their turn.

History

• Battleship or Battleships is an old school game dating back to World War 1. (with predecessors dating back to 1890)

• It was published by many companies as a ‘pad-and-pencil’ game throughout the 1930s.

• In 1967 Milton Bradley released the plastic board game.

• The game has spawned electronic versions, video games, and inspired a science fiction Hasbro film.

Game Theory / Game Dynamics

• This game has fond memories from my childhood. I bet you remember playing it as well. It was fun to yell out, “You sunk my battleship!”

• It is still a fun one to play with kids, it is simply a strategy seek and destroy guessing game.

I hope you enjoy playing games,
as much as I have making them.