Battleship (game)

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The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. Although made popular throughout the world as a commercial board game published by the Milton Bradley Company, it was originally played as a pencil and paper game.

Description

The game is played on four grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square, and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges his own words and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid, the player records his own shots.

Before play begins, each player arranges a number of words secretly on the grid for that player. Each word occupies a number of contiguous squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each word is determined by the number of letters in the word. The words cannot overlap (a square is used in one word only--no intersecting words). The number of words allowed is the same for each player. This may vary depending on the vocabulary.

After the words have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player has a turn. During a turn, the player announces a square in the opponents' grid. If a letter occupies that square, the player earns one point and the opponent must tell what letter is in the square. When all of the squares of a word have been hit, the word is revealed. Score 5 points for discovering all the letters in a word. If your opponent is able to guess the word before all letter have been hit, he/she score a bonus of 10 points. If at the end of a round all of one player's words are discovered, the game ends and the other player wins. If all of both players words are discovered, add the points earned during the game to determine a winner.

Variations

Many variations in the basic rules are possible, including the sizes of the grids, the numbers and sizes of the ships, the numbers of shots allowed, and when hits are announced. Most of the variants simplify the game, which is useful for younger players.

In one variant, the opponent announces a hit after each target square is given. This reduces the challenge of guessing the locations of the ships.

In another variant, the number of shots allowed is reduced by each individual hit, rather than by ships sunk. This reduces the benefit for locating ships precisely.

A logical variation of battleship in which guessing is not required is more common in puzzle magazines. There will be some form of clues, either as row or column tallies or neighboring ship segment tallies in such a way that no guesses are needed to solve the puzzle. See Battleship (puzzle).

External links

Categories: Board games | Guessing games