This post is about Battleships and Salvo, a variant of Battleships.
The MB game Battleships can be found in many households. The two hinged plastic boards and the fleet of grey plastic ships are iconic. But the game has much earlier origins. It dates from the First World War and was commonly played as a pencil and paper game. And unless you are a fan of the components, it is much easier to play in this way. The game won’t be ruined by a lid falling down and spilling a load of red and white pegs everywhere. Blimey… those blasted fiddly pegs!
For the uninitiated, Battleships is a game for two players. Each player has a fleet of ships which must be placed in her 10 x 10 grid. The columns are labelled A to J. The rows are labelled 1 to 10. Ships must be placed along a row or column and may not be placed in squares that are adjacent to one another, even diagonally. Each player should keep her paper hidden from the other player. When all the ships have been placed, the game can begin.
Taking turns, players name a location on the other player’s grid, e.g. “H3”, at which they fire. The other player must then say if the shot has missed or hit one of their fleet. In the case of a hit, the player must name which boat has been hit, e.g. “Hit: Destroyer”.
Each player keeps track of her own fleet on one grid, marking her opponents shots and the enemy fleet on another, marking her own shots. A player must hit each square that a ship lies in to sink it. When a ship has been sunk, the call is “Hit and Sunk: Destroyer”, for example.
The aim is to sink all of the enemy fleet before your own fleet is sunk.
There are many variations you can try – change the size of the ships, the size of the fleet, the size of the grid or don’t give information about what has been hit… But my favourite variation is Salvo.
The rules are the same for Salvo, but players fire three shots at once instead of a single shot on each turn. The response announces the damage done, but does not specify which shot did which damage. For example, “One miss, two hits. One hit on a battleship, one on a cruiser.”
This makes the game more strategic, much more interesting and a lot harder.
You can download some pre-made grids here. Have a try and let us know how you get on.
Another variation of Salvo allows each player in turn to fire salvoes equalling the number of ships in their Fleet (e.g. Player 1 starts off the game with five shots).
Oh, interesting. I must try that one. Thanks John.
We learned “Salvo” (we called it Battleship) in the 1950’s from my Dad, born 1907. Our rules were:
Each player hides their fleet in their own 10×10 grid.
One ship of each length, 2, 3, 4 & 5.
Each ship is placed horizontally or vertically in the grid. A ship of length n occupies n consecutive squares. Each grid square contains part of at most one ship. No other restrictions on ship placement.
Three shots (a salvo) per turn. First player states the coordinates of the three squares at which he has fired. Second player states how many hits occurred on each of his ships, but does not say which of the three shots made the hits. First player records this information. Then second player fires and first player announces results. Players alternate salvos until one fleet is sunk.
This version seems more challenging than the single-shot game. I never tried the “one shot per remaining ship” version.
Yes – I like the multiple shots per turn version. Thanks for sharing your experience/memories.