Object of Battleship: To become the winner of Battleship you must be able to find (sink) all five ships in your opponent’s fleet before they sink yours.
Contents of Battleship: Two Battleship target/ocean grid containers, two carriers, two battleships, two cruisers, two submarines, and two destroyers. Battleship also comes with 84 white “miss” pegs, 42 red “hit” pegs and the official Battleship rules and instructions.
Game Preparation: The easiest way to set up the game of Battleship is to sit facing your opponent with each target/ocean field facing away from each other. You should not be able to see your opponent’s hidden fleet. The Battleship rules state that each player should hide all five ships secretly somewhere on their ocean. Each ship has two anchoring pegs that must be pushed through the holes on the ocean grid. All holes on the ships must align over the holes of the ocean board. It is against the rules to place any ship diagonally on your ocean. Once all ships have been placed and each player announces that they are ready, the game of Battleship begins. Changing the position of your ships during the game is also against the rules.
Game Play: The basic Battleship rules and instructions for playing the game are each player calls out one shot (or coordinate) each turn in attempt to hit one of their opponent’s ships. To “hit” one of your opponent’s ships, you must call out a letter and a number of where you think one of their ships is located. The instructions state that once a shot is called, the opponent must immediately call out “hit” or “miss.” If one of your ships gets hit, place a red peg over the hole location on your ships that was called out. If calling a shot (or trying to hit your opponent’s ships), mark a red peg (if a hit was made) or a white peg (a miss) on your target grid located on the lid or the vertical divider between you and your opponent. This will help you keep track of your hits and misses in your hunt to find their ships.
Once all holes on a ship have been filled with red pegs, your ship has sunk and must be removed from the ocean. You then announce which ship has sunk. The Battleship rules on successfully sinking a ship are as follows: Carrier – 5 hits, Battleship – 4 hits, Cruiser – 3 hits, Submarine – 3 hits, Destroyer – 2 hits. It is considered cheating and against the Battleship rules to be dishonest on the location of your ships.
Different Battleship rules and instructions are available or can be made before player. One popular version of Battleship is called Salvo.
Salvo Rules: Most Battleship rules apply but with few variations: Each player calls out five shots at a time. Once all five shots have been fired, the opponent then announces where and on what ships the hits were made (if any). This rules change, however, when a ship has been sunken by eliminating one shot in your turn for every ship you sink.
Advanced Salvo Rules: After all shots have been fired, the opponent only announces the number of hits that were made. They do not announce on which ship the hit was made or where it was hit. Keeping track of where you think your hits are can be a bit tricky and might be advisable to have a piece of paper near by.
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