Talk:Battleship (game)

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Contents

[edit] Duplicate/Redundant Articles?

It looks like Battleship (game) needs to be merged with Battleship game. -- Logotu 19:58, 2004 Apr 15 (UTC)

Looks like it has been now - and the other page redirects to this one.
Does anyone know how old the game is? The article mentions it was a pencil and paper game before the 'lectronic version came out, but it doesn't say when it started. Presumably in the last hundred year, but not necessarily. sheridan 00:24, 2005 Jan 7 (UTC)
Yes, an interesting question - there are people who study historical games, so probably a book somewhere with some insight. My guess would be 1890-1910; the combination of intense public interest in naval affairs, plus the technological changes (fire direction, depth charges, etc) that introduced the new element of attacking enemies that you couldn't see. Stan 04:55, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)
My thoughts exactly, though it also wouldn't be difficult to imagine an earlier game based on cannon fire, say (though the idea you detail seems more likely to me). sheridan 15:14, 2005 Jan 7 (UTC)

[edit] Caption problem

Um, what is "the own fleet is already damaged" supposed to mean? Brown maybe? I have no idea. But it's confusing.

[edit] Using the Diagonals

The description here says the ships may be arranged horizonally or vertically. When I was a kid we used to allow ships to be placed along the diagonals as well. I mean the obvious 1:1 diagonals, not the knight's move (2:1, 1:2) or higher diagonals. This makes the game more challenging, and seems to me the "right" way to play. What do others think?

  • I don't remember that being physically possible with the game pegs... Liu Bei 17:01, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 17 shots?

The article appears to say that in one version of the game (the one first described, thereby implying that it is common) each player gets to fire one shot for each square of ship that he has, thus on the first round, the first player gets to fire 17 shots before it is the other player's turn. Has anybody actually ever played with that rule? It sounds like it would be immensely frustrating for player number two, to have to be passive for a whole 17 shots. Also the next several turns will be very long, as the players are unlikely to lose many shots early on. --Peter Knutsen 08:20, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I second this concern. I have an old (1920s?) book at home somewhere with this game in and I'm sure the salvo size is about 5, at least at the beginning of the game. So either it's one per ship and you start with 5 ships, or it's just fixed at 5 throughout. —Blotwell 03:18, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
Actually it is considered as if both players shooted simultaneously. They both have 17 shots (or more/less depending on rules) in the first turn. It's the second turn (and consecutive) when players calculate damage done in previous turns and calculate how many shots they have available. In that case both have even chances to win. —lockoom 12:45, 8 August 2007 (CEST)

[edit] Battleship userbox

There's a Battleship userbox, for those interested. {{User Battleship}} --Buchanan-Hermit™..CONTRIBS..SPEAK! 23:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ship spacing

I don't know if this can be called a variation of the rules (I don't use it as a rule myself), but when I place my ships, I always place them with at least one space between ships. So in the commercial version, the aircraft carrier for example will not have a ship in the 16 spaces surrounding it (assuming the ship doesn't touch the edge of the grid, but the ships must be completely in the grid anyway). Does anybody play this way (either as strategy or as a requirement)?

[edit] Different set up

My set (by MB) has 5 spaces for a Aircraft carrier, 4 spaces for a Battleship, 3 spaces for a Cruiser and a Submarine, and 2 spaces for a Destroyer. Anyone else seen a set like this?--Jcvamp 22:00, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Everyone's MB game is like that. The 1-space submarine is the pen-and-paper version. 205.174.22.28 00:56, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps, then, this could be added to the article to give more clarity to the article, and a list of the ships used on the board game could be added.--Jcvamp 07:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Need link to the best Battleship game online.

The one where you can shoot a torpedo, airstrike or missle. I remeber as you progress through the levels there are islands etc. I only played it once ad can't find it again. Someone link to it.

Oh and that miniclip BS game has been linked to a couple times. Get rid of some.

-G

[edit] Battleship PC game

I have a PC version of Battleship from 1997. It was made by Hasbro Interactive. Should this version be included in the article although it is from 1997 and no longer sold widely? I found more information on the game at this site [1]

[edit] External links Repeat

These 2 external links link to the same game:

The first is v2.7 while the second is v2.8.1. The second one seems to be the official site. Jonorossi 15:16, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Addition of a free game

Does everyone thing adding a link to my free game ([2]) would complement the free online ones? My game was on this page until last month when all the external links were removed. Jonorossi 16:01, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Strategy?

Does this game actually have any strategy, or is it mostly luck? I mean, I can see that, if the largest enemy ship remaining is x squares long, you would want to space your shots x-1 squares apart so as to avoid wasting shots without missing any enemy ships. Other than that, what strategy is there, really? Captain Zyrain 08:41, 14 October 2007 (UTC)


Not much. Battleship is really a dumbed-down version of the original public-domain game usually referred to as ‘salvo’, which has a lot more strategy involved. See the Oxford History of Board Games for more :) —porges(talk) 05:29, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
See Monte Carlo method. Strategy could also involve knowledge of your opponent's tendencies, since what a player perceives as random is not truly random. Efficient algorhythms can be exploited in the version where each surviving ship can fire a shot, although the x-1 strategy seems inefficient, since the gaps that allow the smaller ships to slip through would probably have to be filled in during a subsequent pass. If you can plan ahead, you could probably minimize the redundancy from your previous guesses leaving unnecessary gaps. Overall, anything that significantly improves on the 17% chance of a random hit is worth consideration. Finally, is it more important to find the ships or destroy them? MMetro (talk) 07:33, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Battleship (videogame).jpg

Image:Battleship (videogame).jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 09:58, 27 October 2007 (UTC)