Battleship (game)

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The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. Although popularized in the United States as a commercial board game, first published by the Milton Bradley Company in 1931, it is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game and predates the First World War in this form.

1 Description
2 Variations
3 In popular culture
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Description

printable version

The game is played on four square grids, two for each player. The grids are typically square—often 10×10—and the individual squares in the grid are identified by letter and number. On one grid the player arranges his own ships and records the shots by the opponent. On the other grid, the player records his own shots.

Before play begins, each player arranges a number of ships secretly on the grid for that player. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of the ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., at most one ship can occupy any given square in the grid). The types and numbers of ships allowed are the same for each player. These may vary depending on the rules.

Here is a typical complement of ships:

Number	Type of ship	Size
1	aircraft carrier	5
1	battleship	4
1	cruiser	3
1	submarine	3
1	destroyer	2

After the ships have been positioned, the game proceeds in a series of rounds. In each round, each player has a turn. During a turn, the player announces a list of target squares in the opponents' grid which are to be shot at. If a ship occupies one of the squares, then it takes a hit. When all of the squares of a ship have been hit, the ship is sunk. After the target list has been given, the opponent then announces which of his ships have been hit. If at the end of a round all of one player's ships have been sunk, the game ends and the other player wins. If all of both players ships are sunk, the game ends in a tie.

The number of target squares that a player may shoot at in a given turn is determined by the condition of the players' own ships at the beginning of the round. Each player has many shots as he or she has vessels afloat in each turn. Thus each time a player's ship is entirely destroyed, that player has one fewer shot on all subsequent turns.

[edit] Variations

Many variations in the basic rules are possible, including the sizes of the grids, the numbers and sizes of the ships, the numbers of shots allowed, whether or not to declare when a ship has been sunk, and when hits are announced. Some of the variants simplify the game, which is useful for younger players or people with difficulties. If the game ends early, with both players having sunk the same amount of ships, the player who sunk the largest ship, or collection of ships wins. (For example, if each player sunk 3 ships, and player one sunk three small ships, and player two sunk 3 larger ships, player 2 will win.)

In The Dillinger Days, historian John Toland writes that prisoners in solitary confinement in the Indiana State Penitentiary played a version of Battleship during the 1920s, marking squares on their cell floors and calling out attacks from cell to cell. "For years the more obtuse guards wondered what was being plotted when they heard men calling: 'B-7.' 'Miss.' 'C-8.' 'Destroyer sunk!'" (John Toland, The Dillinger Days, p. 24. Da Capo Press 1995)

[edit] Variant rules for shots

In the simplest variation of all in this respect, players alternate turns to attack just one target square of their choice, with the result announced immediately. This rule is popular for its simplicity but minimizes the strategic aspect of the game. (Optionally, the rules may allow an additional shot to be fired after each successful hit. This makes it possible, though very unlikely, for a player to win without the opponent firing a single shot.)

Another variant is that a player has a shot per unit they have not sunk. This makes things a lot more tricky and a higher want to destroy the other player quicker.

[edit] Advanced Mission

Milton Bradley markets a more advanced version of the game called Electronic Battleship Advanced Mission.

[edit] Video games

Cover for Windows version of Battleship

Various Battleship variants for home video game consoles have been produced, including Battleship for the PC created by Hasbro Interactive, Battleship for the Nintendo Entertainment System (with a port to the Sega Game Gear), Battleship for the Nintendo Game Boy (different from the NES version), Gameboy Color, Super Battleship for the Super Nintendo, Battleship for the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS and Mobile phones. RNASoft created Naval Attack baed upon BattleShip for Toshiba SPANworks which was also used as a technology demo for Toshiba SPANworks' ImmediaNet SDK for WiFi based devices like laptop, PDAs, Windows Mobile and users could play across the platform. These alter the rules, including the size of the grid (8 x 12 in the NES version, 8 x 8 in the Game Boy version), size of ships (it is common to feature a submarine that takes up only a single square) and special shot missiles for each ship (for example, in the NES version the cruiser has a 5-shot missile which strikes 5 squares in an X pattern on the grid in one turn. Submarine-tracking sonar and aerial reconnaissance to spot ships are also features).

[edit] In popular culture

TV commercials for the game, which aired frequently during kids programming for many decades, featured the line "You sank my battleship" which became a well-known catchphrase.

In the 1991 movie, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Bill and Ted play Battleship with the Grim Reaper for their lives.

In a Homestar Runner cartoon, Strong Sad and Homestar are portrayed playing a game when Homsar announces "You shanked my Jengaship". In another cartoon, Strong Mad and The Cheat play, and Strong Mad says "I ATE MY BATTLESHIP!"

In the movie Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, the twin girls play a bathroom flatulence game where one 'loses' and declares "you sank my battleshit!".

In the film 13 Going On 30 Jenna asks her boyfriend "Do you have Battleship?" in which he replies "Yeah, I have Battleship. I'll show you my destroyer." Than she says "I call the red board." and then he says "Well, I call the blue board."

In the Simpsons episode The Old Man and the Key, Bart, and Homer play the game Scrabbleship a combination of Scrabble and Battleship

In the Simpsons episode The Old Man and the "C" Student, Jasper jokes You sunk my battleship while playing Bingo and later when the old people want to play Bingo.

In an episode of Beavis and Butthead Beavis says You sank my battleship

The film Robocop features a board game called Nuke em! a parody of Battleship.

The film Batman Forever, had The Riddler, and Two Face use a holographically generated game of battleship to fire at the Batwing, Batsub, and Batboat, The Riddler even says You sunk my battleship after Two-Face blows up the Batboat.

In the NUMB3RS episode Pandora's Box Alan lists Battleships as one of the games he couldn't get Dr. Mildred to play.

In the Nintendo GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, a minigame found on Windfall Island is a masked version of Battleship, with squid replacing the ships. The goal is for Link to shoot the schools of squid down in a group of 2, a group of 3, and a group of 4. The player gets 24 shots. Link does not have his own board, leaving the game rather one-sided. This game costs rupees to play and prizes are awarded for winning. When contact is made with the squids you are targeting, the host will say "KABOOM!" If you fail to make contact he will say "SPLOOSH!"

The song "The Bad Touch" by the Bloodhound Gang, features the phrase "... B-5, you sunk my battle ship..."

An episode of Seinfeld had Jerry and Elaine playing battleship with Jerry making Elaine do the sound effects of the explosives. On other episodes you can see the game on a shelf in Jerry's apartment.