Battleship
Rating: 8+
Battleship is played by two people. The object of the game is to sink your opponent's ships. The first person to sink all of his opponent's ships wins.
The players sit facing each other. Each player gets five ships: one patrol boat, with three holes; one submarine, with three holes; one destroyer, with three holes; one battleship, with four holes; and one carrier, with five holes. Each player places his fleet of ships on the lower of two grids that serve as each player's game board. Ships may be placed vertically or horizontally, not diagonally. A ship cannot touch another ship or the edges of the grid.
Before it became a popular commercial game, Battleship was played with paper and pencil. You can simply draw the two grids on paper and use X's to fill in the Misses and the Hits.
Players decide who will go first by flipping a coin or a similar method. The first player selects a location on the grid and calls out the location by letter (vertical axis) and number (horizontal axis)—for example, G-3. The second player finds the coordinate on his lower grid. If the first player has called out a coordinate on which the second player has a ship, the second player must declare a Hit, and which ship was hit—for example, “Hit. Battleship.” The first player places a red peg in the coordinate on the upper grid. If there is no ship in the coordinate, the second player says “Miss,” and the first player puts a white peg in the upper grid. Players alternate calling out shots. A ship is sunk when all its holes have been filled by red pegs. When a ship is sunk, the player must declare it sunk. The first person to sink all of his opponent's ships wins.
