Ready, Aim FIRE, I mean shout erm A 7 no B 6 (Battleships)

Member Name: EggMan

Product:	Battleships
Date:	03/08/09 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good family fun, gets them thinking

Disadvantages: Can get a little boring

Battleships, a game of navel strategy and shear destruction, well in theory. Battleships has been around for as long as I can remember. The version I have is the MB games Battleship from the 1970s. Two plastic folding trays coloured blue and red. Unfold a tray, the base is covered in holes and has small side sections for storing the white and red pegs and your moulded plastic ships. The ships also contain holes. The wall stands 90 degrees from the base and is also covered in holes. The bases, pegs and ships are all made from good quality plastic, well they must be as they have survived my house hold this long lol.

Aim of the game:
You have 7 ships, one small one containing two holes, three ships made up of three holes, two ships containing four holes and a battleship which consists of five holes. Without the other player looking, you place your ships on the base of the board in the holes. Each ship has two pegs under it so they can snap onto the playing board. Once all ships have been located play begins. Each player takes it in turns to shout out a grid reference, the holes on the board are in a square dimension with the letters A-J along the top and numbers 1-10 down the side making a grid of 100 holes. So the first player shouts out "A 7", if an opposing players ship is located in that grid reference, the opposing player shouts HIT.... The player calling the grid reference then knows he has hit one of his enemies ships and places a red peg on his vertical board, which contains the same grid reference. If however it is a MISS, a white peg is used. Each player takes it in turns shouting out grid references until the fleet of enemy ships has been sunk.

Verdict:
This is a very good game, gets you thinking and is very enjoyable. The pegs can be a little fiddly when placing them in the vertical board as some of the pegs can be loose and keep falling out. Even today, the kids enjoy playing this. Such a simple game that can even be made up using paper and pens, one for the kids over the holidays, get them making their own battleships. Overall a great family game, though can get a bit tedious after playing several times.

Summary: Good all round favourite which has lasted years.