# Battleship on Paper: Hunting, Spacing and Salvoes

> How pencil-and-paper Battleship is played, how to set up two grids and a fleet that fits, and real strategy for searching, hunting and placing ships.

## A game that started on paper

Many people know Battleship as a board game. It is often said to have been played with pencil and paper in the early twentieth century, long before printed pads and board versions. The earliest history is hard to pin down, so treat that story as a common account rather than a firm record.

Whatever its origin, the paper version needs nothing but two grids and a pencil, and it works just as well at a kitchen table as anywhere else.

## Two grids each

Each player needs two grids. A classic grid is 10 squares by 10. The first grid is your fleet, and it stays hidden from the other player. The second grid is your record of shots, where you mark misses and hits.

Label the rows with letters down the side and the columns with numbers across the top. A shot is then a coordinate such as B7.

## A fleet that fits

A common fleet has five ships, with lengths of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares. Ships are placed in straight lines, horizontally or vertically, and they may not overlap. Agree before you start whether ships may touch, because that changes how tight the game feels. If you use a smaller grid, shorten the ships so they still fit.

Each player draws the fleet on the hidden grid and keeps it out of sight, behind a folded sheet or a book.

## Calling shots

Players take turns calling a coordinate. The opponent checks their fleet grid and answers "miss" or "hit". When every square of a ship has been hit, they name the ship that has sunk. The caller marks each result on their shot grid, using a dot for a miss and a cross for a hit.

Once the game begins, the fleet is fixed. Keep your fleet grid folded away, and never move a ship to dodge a shot. The game ends when one player has sunk every ship in the other fleet.

## Real strategy

### Search on a checkerboard

Imagine your grid coloured like a chessboard. If you fire only at the squares of one colour, you will hit every ship that is at least two squares long. A ship of that length runs across both colours, so it must cover at least one square you are firing at.

This does not make the search fastest, but it does mean you will not miss a ship. Once you have hit something, switch to finding the rest of that ship.

### Hunt around a hit

After a hit, the next shots should be the four neighbouring squares, one at a time. Once two hits line up, keep firing along that line, in both directions, until the ship sinks. Ships are straight, so a line of hits shows you the direction.

### Space your own ships

Do not cluster your fleet in one corner, and avoid placing ships touching one another. A spread-out fleet makes your opponent search more. Vary your placements from game to game, so that the other player cannot learn your habits.

> Tip: keep your shot grid neat. A dot for a miss and a cross for a hit make the pattern easy to read at a glance, and the pattern is often where the strategy lives.

## Variations

- **Salvo.** Each player fires one shot for every ship still afloat. This changes the tempo of the game, because a player with a full fleet can take several shots in one turn.
- **Larger grid.** Use a bigger grid and more ships for a longer, slower game.
- **Smaller grid.** A 6 by 6 grid with two or three ships makes a quick game for young players.

For fresh printed grids, you can look in Paperoom's [Battleship maker](https://paperoom.yunusemrevurgun.com/battleship/). Whatever you use, print one test page at 100 per cent scale first, so the squares come out the right size for your pencil.

## Games in this post

- [Battleship (sea battle)](https://paperoom.yunusemrevurgun.com/battleship/): Two grids per sheet: hide your fleet, call out squares and sink the other player's ships on paper.

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