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How to play Battleship (2026) — grid callouts, ship sizes, and a clean game that is not the drinking variant people nickname “battle shots.” You need two hidden grids and a way to mark hits and misses.
This is not Battle Shots the drinking game. Related: game night hub · Flip 7 · Yahtzee.
Grid night — more games for the same table
A dedicated Battleship set (plastic ships or a paper pad) is the real buy. The picks below are other games that suit the same table.
- Grid warm-up: Connect 4 — visible grid, two players, five minutes
- Dice table: Yahtzee — when a third friend shows up and the grid is full
- Party encore: Exploding Kittens — short draw-deck after the fleet sinks
Setup
- Each player gets an ocean grid, usually 10 by 10, labeled columns A–J and rows 1–10.
- Each player also gets a target grid to record shots at the opponent.
- Place ships in secret. Classic fleet: carrier 5, battleship 4, cruiser 3, submarine 3, destroyer 2. Confirm your edition — some modern sets rename or resize one ship.
- Ships sit on straight lines, horizontal or vertical, not diagonal. They cannot overlap. Edges may touch unless your sheet forbids it.
- A screen, a book, or the lid hides the ocean. No mid-game peeking.
Calling shots
Players alternate one shot (some house rules allow a bonus shot after a hit — post that before you start, or don’t). Call a coordinate: “C5.” The opponent answers “hit” or “miss” and, in many editions, must say when a ship is fully sunk and which ship it was. Mark hits and misses in different symbols so you don’t re-shoot a square.
Winning
Sink every square of every enemy ship. The player who sinks the last ship wins. If you play the salvo variant, each side fires a number of shots equal to ships they still have afloat — faster, swingier, and easy to mis-count. Announce salvo before placement.
Better than random poking
- Hunt in a checkerboard once you know the smallest ship is length 2 — you still cover every possible 2-ship, with fewer shots.
- After a hit, walk the line: left, right, then the other axis. Don’t scatter.
- Mark sunk ships’ full footprint so you stop hunting ghosts.
- Keep your own ocean updated. “Wait, was that a hit on my destroyer?” is how friendships fray.
Common mistakes
- Diagonal ships.
- Calling a square you already marked.
- Confusing this with a cups-and-dice drinking game. Different rules, different night.
- Touching ships when the edition says gaps are required — read the one sentence on the lid.
FAQ
How many players?
Two for classic. Team Battleship (two per side, whispering) works if you ban phones.
Paper or plastic?
Both are legal. Plastic pegs are faster to reset; paper pads travel. The coordinate rules do not change.
What should we play if we only have 20 minutes and three people?
Skip the fleet. Connect 4 is the fast grid, or Exploding Kittens if you want cards.