Battleship Game

Few people need an introduction to battleships as the game is popularly known, as it has been played by adults and children alike for almost 100 years. At its most basic it can be played on paper with pencils and the aim of all battleship games, however sophisticated they are, is to sink all your opponent’s ships. You play the game on a grid which has square which contain a letter of the alphabet and a number. You call out these coordinates and your opponent has to tell you whether you have hit or missed their ships. You can’t sink them in one go as they occupy two to four squares each. It is a game of strategy which improves maths and geography skills as well as logical thinking. It’s enjoyable to play and educational too.

Some people believe that the original form of the Battleship game came from the strategy game used by the French military in the First Word War which was named L’Attaque (the attack). Others say that it originated from a game played by Russian soldiers after World War I, called Salvo.

It soon caught on and was played by schoolchildren and adults all over Europe, with two players and four grids, one on which the players marked the positions of their sips and one on which they each marked the squares they had attacked. In the 1930s board game manufacturers saw a chance to capitalize on the popularity of the game and the first board games of Battleships were introduced.

In the 1970s people were still playing with paper, so the first grids were put on the market for battleship players which made playing the game easier and less time-consuming. Magazines also published Battleships puzzles for one player, a solitaire form of the game. With the advent of electronic games, Battleships took on a new dimension as lights and sounds were added to denote a hit or miss.

Now there are a multitude of Battleships games which can be downloaded to your PC or played online, including ones of the Second World War and Star Wars games. In fact there is a battleship game to suit all tastes and you can play singly against the computer.

These electronic battleships games come with an instruction leaflet and a code manual so you can play an instant game using one of the hundred formats from the code book which you simply select to play. If you don’t want to do this you can put in your own 17 coordinates and choose where to deploy your ships. The smaller ones take up two squares on the grid, some take up 3 squares, typically the destroyers and submarines, while the big battleship takes up 4 squares and the aircraft carrier takes up 5 squares. Each player calls out a coordinate and the sound effects indicate whether the shot was a hit or a miss. The winner is the person who sinks the fleet of his/her opponent.

One of the best electronic battleships are the Advanced Mission and Star Wars Battleship edition.

This comes with a plastic tray and pegs for each type of ship and two boards. You place your ships on the board and call out the coordinates, e.g. “A5” to try to hit your opponent’s ships. He/She has to say whether you have hit one of their ships or missed. If you get a hit then you have to work out in which squares the other part of the ship is in. If you miss then it is your opponent’s turn to try to hit one of your ships. The game finishes hen all of one player’s ships have been sunk.

These work on the same principles as the traditional games, but you can play alone against the computer. You can also find online games in which you play against another person in real time. These games have very good sound effects and graphics, so it can be more exciting than the electronic game. You can download a huge variety of battleship games including ones of real battles from the Second World War. There are also Star War Battleship games if you are a fan of those films. There are also sites online which show you the best strategies to improve your performance against the computer (as well as real life opponents).

The rules are really simple and the aim of the game is to sink your opponent’s fleet. First you deploy your ships in the grid which has squares each with a letter and a number. When you want to fire a “torpedo” you either call out the coordinate or indicate it on the keyboard. Your partner must say if the shot has hit or missed one of their ships, or the sound effects will let you know what you have accomplished. If you miss, then it is your opponent’s turn to fire at your fleet. The rules are the same whichever form of the game you choose to play.

The game is a strategic one, and you have to deploy your ships randomly. Don’t bunch them all together as this doesn’t (in the game) provide you with security. You should also avoid putting them in corners of the grid. These are the first places an opponent will usually try to hit. Put them at different angles, not always lengthwise. They can be placed diagonally on adjacent squares or long ways.

When you have your first hit, you have to think about where your next shot should go and you have to try to out guess your opponent. If you hit the smallest ship first then you are lucky, but you have to go around the target sometimes to sink the ship completely. Some people prefer to try to find another ship with their second hit so that they then have more chances to hit a ship the third time.

It is unlikely that your opponent will have placed his/her ships in the same positions as yours, but they might be in the same areas. This being the case you might want to start by calling out a coordinate close to the ones where you have your ships. Your opponent might then think that you don’t have ships in this position, and will go for a coordinate far removed from your ships.

You can move diagonally across the board when you call out the coordinates, or call them out in a circular way. The first of these strategies is good to begin the game as you can try to plot a line in which, theoretically your opponent will have placed their ships. The second is also good if you plot a wide circle, although smaller circles are good if you have hit a part of one of your opponent’s ships. Start with C3 and work you way diagonally down the grid.

For more advice, go to one of the online sites and see if you can improve your game.