Paper Battleship Game

Paper Battleship Instructions

Step #1

Everyone takes their own battleship paper and does the following:

• Write YOUR own name in the first spot. Write everyone else’s names in the following spots going around the room clockwise (this will make it easier to keep track of subsequent rounds).
• Write the letters of all your own ships on your grid. You can put them wherever you want! The image below is just an example and should not be taken as strategy. 😜 Keep your grid hidden from other players so they don’t see where you are writing in your ships. PRO TIP: I like to choose another color pen for writing in my ships vs the color pen I’m using to write down numbers as the rounds go on.

Step #2

After everyone has their ships written on their grid, the person in position one (on the example above, that’s me, Mel) starts.

You get as many number callouts as you have ships in play. Because it’s the first round and none of my five ships have been sunk, I get to call out five number ones.

As an example, I would call out:

1. Alpha 4 is a one
2. Alpha 10 is a one
3. Echo 6 is a 1
4. Foxtrot 1 is a 1
5. Golf 1 is a 1

For the first couple of rounds, you really are just calling out random numbers to see if you can hit anyone’s ships. In later rounds, you’ll see how strategy can come into play.

As I call them out, EVERYONE (INCLUDING MYSELF) writes the number 1 down in all the squares called out.

Step #3

For all other players, if the number 1 landed on a square where they have one of their ships, they also mark that “hit” down underneath their name.

For instance, when I called out the number ones, Brian got hit once on his aircraft and Jackson got hit once on his cruiser. So they put a #1 in those specific spots.

• One-by-one, go around the room, and everyone will quickly state whether they were hit in the ONE round. All you would say if you had been hit is: I was hit once (or twice or however many times) on my “fill-in-the-blank” ship. You DO NOT say which specific square (Alpha 4 or Alpha 10 you were hit on).
• EVERYONE marks down ALL the hits on their own paper. This is important, because this is what allows you to start seeing patterns on the grid. So when Brian says he was hit once on his aircraft carrier, HE marks it down under his name, and the rest of us also mark it down underneath his name on our paper.

I can’t reiterate this enough: It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to correctly write down the numbers that are called out each round on the top grid AND to also mark down every time someone says their ships have been hit underneath their name.

Step #4

In round 2, Brian calls out the numbers. Because all of his ships are still in play, he gets to call out five squares to write in a #2.

This follows the exact same pattern as above. He calls out the number twos by saying:

• Charlie 2 is a two
• Echo 7 is a two
• Foxtrot 2 is a two
• Foxtrot 7 is a two
• India 2 is a two

You can see that his strategy might be trying to see where another one of Jackson’s cruiser ships might be, because he placed two number twos next to ones that had been called out in the first round (hoping that one of them might be one of the number ones that hit Jackson’s ship).

Again, everyone marks down if any of their own ships were hit with a number two.

And then everyone goes around and states whether they had any ships hit by the number twos, and EVERYONE marks down ALL the hits on their own paper (below the grid).

Step #5

The third round continues, and Jackson calls out the number threes this time.

Play continues like this round after round.

You can see by the fifth round (in the example below) that I had a ship taken out (my cruiser), and Jackson also had his cruiser taken out.

When that happens, as everyone is going around stating whether they were hit by the round, I would state (for instance, after the 5th round): My cruiser was hit twice and sunk.

Everyone would already have had a record on their own paper that my cruiser had been hit with a number four in the previous round, and we would ALL now mark the two number fives under my name on my cruiser row.

Because this ship is sunk, it means on my next turn to call out numbers, I would only get FOUR turns to call out the number six (or whatever round we are on). Same with Jackson – since his cruiser is sunk, he only has four ships in play now.

You can only call out as many numbers on your “call out round” as ships you have in play.

Play continues like this round after round until someone is the last one standing with ships still in play!

You can see how as the rounds progress, you can start to use the grid to try and figure out where other player’s ships might be hiding by following the patterns of their numbers.

That’s why it is so important to write down the numbers correctly that are called out each round on the top grid AND to also write down every time someone says their ships have been hit underneath their name.

This game is really easy to learn once you just start playing. Let me know in the comments if you still have questions!