How to Play Battleship Without Grid Paper

Last Updated: May 6, 2021

So, you're in a plane or just bored in class, and you want to play battleship, but you don't have graph paper. Don't worry, because with only a piece of plain paper and a pencil, you can be on your way to sinking your opponent's battleship!

Steps

1
Fold a piece of paper in half "width-wise" (hamburger style).
2
Draw five long ovals on one half, representing ships.

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3
Let your opponent do the same on the other half. It's all right if your opponent sees where your ships are, or if you see his!
4
To fire, mark a dot anywhere on your side. Where you mark it will determine where it will show up on your opponent's side: the higher you mark the dot on your side the lower it will show up on your opponent's side, and the lower you mark the dot on your side the higher it will show up on your opponent's side.
5
Fold the paper over, as shown.
6
If you did it correctly, you should be able to faintly see the dot you made (in step 4) on the reverse side. If not, hold it up to the light. Mark a dot in the exact same place as you did in step 4. Then fold the paper back over.
- See how the dot shows up on your opponent's side. It's up to you how many hits each ship can take. Normally, it's only one hit for any ship.
- Watch to see if you manage to sink a ship, and then write the word sunk on it so that you and your opponent will know there is no need to fire at it anymore.
7
Continue as your opponent fires, and then you fire, and again he fires etc. Whoever sinks all of the other person's ships first wins!

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Community Q&A

Question

How do I play Battleship on grid paper?

T. Chinsen

Top Answerer

Create a grid with numbers 1 - 10 and letters A - J along the edges of your grid. This gives the position of a square on the grid. The combination of ships in the game is up to you. For example: 4 subs -S in a single square; 3 cruisers -CC; 2 destroyers -DDD; 1 battleship -BBBB. Fill in the designated letters on your grid (ships cannot be positioned diagonally). Begin calling your shots on the grid; for example, "D7". You can always change the size of the grid and number of ships in the game.

Warnings

Avoid placing your ships anywhere near the middle (where the fold is). Ships placed in this space are very easy to hit.

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Helpful 16 Not Helpful 0
Another form of cheating is making ships very thin and/or short so that it is extremely hard to hit them.

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Discourage cheating such as counting lines or measuring distances using fingers/a ruler, etc. in order to calculate shots precisely.

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