Tactical Instructions for Playing Battleship

Hide your ships on the game grid. The grid consists of lettered and numbered holes, letters across the top and numbers down the side. Each game piece occupies two to five holes on the grid. Tactically place the ship-shaped game pieces on the grid. Avoid clustering ships together or having them touch one another. Your opponent could inadvertently hit two ships instead of one if you don't follow this suggestion. Avoid using middle, edge and corner spots since these are often the first ones chosen by opponents during their search.

Locate your opponent's vessels. In as few moves as possible, search the grid. Call out vectors and mark the spot on the empty grid. Use white pegs for misses and red for hits. Begin your search, as many do, in the center of the board and work outward in diagonal formation toward each corner. Alternatively, use a different diagonal pattern beginning at one corner of the grid, but not the corner space itself, then skip the next diagonal line of holes and start again with the next series of diagonal spaces. Either method will locate your adversary's larger ships.

Torpedo the enemy's fleet. When you hit an opponent's ship, figure out which piece it is -- the carrier has five holes, the battleship four, the submarine and destroyer have three and the patrol boat has two. Two hits sinks the patrol boat and five hits sinks the carrier. Ships are positioned horizontally or vertically. You cannot position any pieces on the diagonal. Pay attention to tendencies your opponent displays. He may lob torpedoes beginning in the center of the grid. If so, avoid placing your ships there in the future. He may also hide his vessels in predictable ways.

Sink the final enemy ship before your fleet is sunk. Because of their size, battleships and carriers are usually the first to go. The most difficult piece to sink is the small, two-hit patrol boat. With luck, you may hit this one early in the game but most often it remains hidden and elusive to the end. Avoid clustering your torpedo firings in one area or being too random. Until only the two-holed vessel remains, fire torpedoes at least three spaces apart. Use a checkerboard pattern to pinpoint the smaller ships. Following these suggested formats conserves moves so you can find and sink all the opponent's ships first and win the game.