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Battleships is a two-player strategy game of concealment and deduction played on a pair of square grids. Each player secretly arranges a fleet of five ships on their own grid and then takes turns calling coordinates to locate and destroy the opponent's fleet. Neither player can see the other's grid; the only information available is what has been revealed through previous shots. The player who sinks all five of the opponent's ships first wins.

The grid

Each player uses two identical 10×10 grids. Columns are labelled A through J and rows are numbered 1 through 10, giving 100 squares in total. One grid — the ocean grid — holds your own fleet and is visible only to you. The second — the target grid — is where you record the results of your shots against the opponent. Both grids are hidden from the opponent throughout the game.

The fleet

Each player places the same five ships. A ship occupies a number of consecutive squares in a straight horizontal or vertical line; ships may not overlap. Once placed at the start of the game, no ship may move. The example below shows one possible fleet arrangement on a player's ocean grid.

Ship	Squares
Carrier	5
Battleship	4
Destroyer	3
Submarine	3
Patrol Boat	2

How to play

1. Setup. Before play begins each player secretly places their five ships on their ocean grid. Each ship must lie entirely within the grid and be oriented either horizontally or vertically. Ships may not overlap. When both players have finished placing their fleet, the game begins.
2. Taking a shot. Players alternate turns. On your turn, call a single coordinate — for example, "C7". Your opponent checks their ocean grid and declares either hit or miss. A hit means one of their ships occupies that square; a miss means it is open water. Record the result on your target grid; your opponent marks their ocean grid accordingly.

3. Sinking a ship. When every square of a ship has been hit, that ship is sunk. The owning player must immediately declare which ship has been sunk — for example, "You sank my Destroyer." No additional turn is awarded for a sinking; play continues with the opponent's next shot.
4. Winning. The first player to sink all five of the opponent's ships wins the game. Because each sinking must be declared, both players always know how many ships remain afloat and which specific ships have been lost.

Strategy

• Spread your fleet. Concentrating ships in one area makes them easier to locate once a hit is scored. Distribute ships across the grid and vary orientation — some horizontal, some vertical — to reduce the information each hit reveals about neighbouring squares.
• Vary edge and interior placement. Interior squares can hold more possible long-ship positions, so many players search them early. Edge placements can still be useful, but avoid predictable habits such as always hiding large ships along the border.
• Search in a regular pattern. Before scoring a hit, call squares in a checkerboard pattern rather than at random. A checkerboard arrangement guarantees that no Destroyer — the shortest ship at two squares — can escape detection while covering only half the grid.
• Switch from hunt to target on a hit. Once you score a hit, call the adjacent squares to determine the ship's orientation, then continue along that axis until the ship is sunk. Resume your systematic search pattern only after confirming the sinking.
• Track remaining ships by size. Because sunk ships must be declared, adjust your search accordingly. If only large ships remain afloat, skip any isolated single squares that cannot be part of a ship of that minimum length.

History

Battleships is derived from a pencil-and-paper game played on squared paper that was in circulation by at least the First World War, where it was played by soldiers in the field. French and Russian variants — L'Attaque Navale and Morskoi Boi (Naval Combat) — were both documented in the early twentieth century. The first commercial edition was published in the United States in 1931 by the Starex Novelty Company. Milton Bradley released a plastic peg-and-board version in 1967, establishing the 10×10 grid, the five-ship fleet, and the hit-or-miss declaration that have remained standard since.

Milton Bradley produced handheld electronic editions from 1977 that replaced the peg system with a keypad and sound effects, extending the game's reach considerably. The core rules of classic editions — two grids, five ships, alternate shots, declare sinkings — remain the usual form of the game, though smaller and travel editions may vary.