Description
Two fleets, two hidden seas and one goal: sink your opponent's ships before they sink yours. Battleship is Hasbro's edition of the classic game that families have known for decades. Each player gets their own game unit, and its lid hides their sea from the opponent's view. Then the search begins, and every shot counts.
How to play Battleship
At the start, you secretly place five ships on your lower grid: a carrier, a battleship, a cruiser, a submarine and a destroyer, each two to five spaces long. Ships go horizontally or vertically, but not diagonally. Once the game starts, you can no longer move them.
Then you take turns firing. You pick a space on the target grid in the lid and call it out by letter and number, and your opponent says whether you hit or missed. You mark every shot with a peg, red for a hit, so you can always see where you have already fired. When all spaces of a ship are hit, the ship is sunk and your opponent tells you which ship you sank. The first player to sink all five of the opponent's ships wins.
Why you'll love it
- Even the setup is a small puzzle: you hide a ship along the edge or in the middle of the grid and hope your opponent won't find it.
- After the first hit the game changes, as you fire at neighbouring spaces and work out whether the ship lies horizontally or vertically.
- Every shot brings a moment of suspense until your opponent says whether you hit or missed.
- After the game, the ships and pegs go back into their compartments and the two game units fold together, so tidying up is quick.
Who is Battleship for
The game is for two players aged 7 and up and takes about 30 minutes. The rules are simple and can be explained in a few minutes, so it suits children who are just discovering board games and parents looking for a short game for two with them. There is no text on the components; the grid has only letters and numbers. In our shop we also have the Battleship: Grab & Go version.
What you might not like
The first shots are more guesswork than planning, so the game may not be the best fit for those who prefer games where the outcome is decided mainly by careful thinking.
What's in the box
- 2 game units, each with a ship grid and a target grid in the lid
- 10 plastic ships, 5 for each player
- red pegs for hits
- pegs for misses
- game rules
