“You sank my battleship!” The cries of a wet weekend afternoon during my childhood and an excellent ad campaign that has stuck in my head for years. I have always played board games, and I like variety when I am playing them. Regular readers of my blog will be fully aware that I play a lot of games but recently I have gone back to playing a lot of classic board games that I enjoyed from my childhood, with, you’ve guessed it, Battleship being one of them.
Battleship as a game, is thought to have originated during World War I (1914-1918) and was a paper based game. It wasn’t until 1967 that it became the game of naval warfare playing on plastic grids and coloured pegs. It is a game that brings together competition, strategy, and excitement! In head-to-head battle, 2 players search for the enemy’s fleet of ships and destroys them one by one until your opponent cries those infamous words of “you sank my battleship”, although the battleship may not necessarily be the last ship to be destroyed.
Battleship is a game for 2 players, aged 7+ and has a playing time of around 20-30 minutes. Hunt, seek and destroy your opponents Battleship, as well as their Carrier, Cruiser, Submarine and Destroyer before they can sink yours!
In the box:
- 2 Battle Cases
- 10 Ships
- Bag of Red ‘Hit’ Pegs
- Bag of Yellow ‘Miss’ Pegs
- Instructions
In Battleship, each player has a battle case that opens up (like a laptop would) and five ships: Carrier (5 holes), Battleship (4 holes), Cruiser (3 Holes), Submarine (3 holes), and a Destroyer (2 holes). The battle case consists of two 10×10 grids, the bottom being the ocean grid and the vertical being the target grid. Players position their five ships anywhere on the ocean grid, clicking them into place. Now with each player in command of a naval fleet, war begins.
To play, each player sits opposite each other with their battle case in front of them. Once the boards are set up with each player placing their ship horizontally or vertically (they can’t be placed diagonally) each player takes half of each colour peg and puts them in their storage spaces in the case. Decide who goes first and then go hunting.
Each player takes it in turn to call out a grid reference, e.g. E6. If the opponent has a ship in this position they shout out ‘Hit’ and place a red peg in that position on the ship and the firing player marks it on their target grid with a red peg. If it is a miss, then the player shouts ‘Miss’ and both players mark the spot on their respective board with a yellow peg. When a ship is sunk, all holes are filled with a red peg, the player must say which ship is sunk and remove it from the board. Play continues until one player has all their five ships sunk and destroyed. The player that still has ships remaining is the winner.
Overall, I love playing Battleship, it is lots of fun. It is an easy game to play and does have an element of strategy involved but it is mostly a guessing game with some logic and thinking required. It is great at helping children with decision making and learning how grids and grid references work.
Not only is it a very competitive and fun game to play, but it also requires co-operation between the players as without the players talking and saying when there is a hit or miss and if a ship has been sunk it wouldn’t work.
The game boards are great, strong and sturdy, and once play has finished you can store the ships and pegs in the case and close the lid. They even have carry handles if you did want to take them elsewhere to play.
Battleship is an excellent game for family game nights. It is lots of fun hunting down and destroying your opponent’s naval fleet, but it also makes the players engage in the play rather than just passively moving a pawn around a board.
A classic board game that has been around over 50 years and still has excellent playability. Will it be you crying out “You sank my Battleship!” or your opponent?
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
DISCLOSURE: All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review uses an affiliate link which I may receive a small commission from if you purchase through the link.
