How to Play Battleship

Learn the rules to the board game Battleship quickly and concisely - This visually rich video has no distractions, just the rules.

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RULES: https://gamerules.com/rules/battleship-board-game/

The object of the game is to be the first player to sink all their opponent’s ships. Each board has two grids: The Ocean grid… and the Target Grid... Sit across from one another, raise your lids so neither player can see the other player’s ocean grid. Now each player places their 5 ships anywhere on their ocean grid horizontally or vertically. The ships may not be positioned diagonally nor may any part of a ship be off the grid.

Alternating turns, one at a time, players attack each other by calling out a position on their targeting grid by matching a row and column. For example: D4. The defender then looks at the corresponding coordinate on his ocean grid, if the space is empty, he replies “Miss”. The attacker puts a white peg into this position on his targeting grid.

If the space has a ship on it, he replies with “Hit” then must specify which ship was hit. The attacker then puts a red peg in the position on his targeting grid. Additionally, the defender puts a red peg into the space of the ship that the attacker hit. Once all the holes in a ship are filled, it has been sunk. The owner of the ship must announce this when it happens.

The first player to sink all their opponent’s ships wins.

For a more challenging variation of the game, on each attacking player’s turn call out 5 different shots on your targeting grid and mark each one with a white peg as its called. Once you’ve finished you, the defender announces which ships were hit. Change those corresponding white pegs to red ones. Whenever one of your ships has been sunk, you lose 1 shot during your attacking turn. So if you’re down to your last ship, you only get 1 shot per turn.

To make the game even more challenging, don’t tell your attacker which ship has been hit. All the other rules are the same, and the first player to sink all their opponent’s ships wins.