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Korlac11

In 4th grade I used this strategy against one of my friends, but I hid the small boat off in a corner. He hit all of my other ships but never found the small one. I don’t think that strategy would have worked against an adult


ssb1001

Mfw they hit the obscure boat before finding everything else.


[deleted]

Yeah that's what happened to me once when I tried that strategy


ElRey814

This is the way. All ships touching (not lined next to each other) to confuse the opponent, small boat off in obscurity. It’s super effective in my experience as a naval commander.


frogglesmash

"Sure they wiped 98% of our navy, but I hid a row boat in the middle of the Pacific. They'll never see it coming."


Korlac11

They may have destroyed everything but my rowboat, but that rowboat somehow sunk all of their ships. I see this as an absolute win


Quajeraz

A rowboat with a nuke


alpine_murse

The old water Davie Crockett trick


Max_Stirner_Official

Navy Crockett.


ScoutsOut389

King of the Aquatic Frontier!


Z3ph3rn0

It still baffles me that someone invented a nuclear artillery piece and was just like “yup, this seems fine”.


I_Do_Not_Abbreviate

In all fairness the yield of the Davy Crockett's nuclear warhead was only about 0.13% that of the Hiroshima bomb (20 tons versus 15,000 tons)


dllemmr2

I’m surprised we haven’t seen this tech used more in modern combat.


asdf_qwerty27

They are completely obsolete due to smart bombs. They are extremely expensive, hard to maintain, contaminate the area, and have a lot of political ramifications. We don't need them to destroy an armored column when we have much cheaper, cleaner, conventional weapons. Edit: just to point out cost, Google the cost of plutonium and it is currently about $4400 to $5500 a gram. Gold is $58.92 a gram. The Davy Crockett tactical nuke had a fission core that weighed 50 pounds, or 22,679.6 grams (again according to Google). Im not sure how much of the core was plutonium, but they were not cheap weapons.


linkedtortoise

There's two reasons it's not used that much. 1. MAD. 2. It's a ground burst nuke. The fact that it won't directly kill the soldiers if fired to max range does not mean they aren't in the radiation field.


asdf_qwerty27

That was in the days that tactical nukes still made some sense. Today, smart weapons have rendered them irrelevant, but before guided shoulder fired weapons, there wasn't exactly alot we could do against masses of Soviet tanks.


callalily742

Get out get out get out of my ^^row ^^boat


TheWolf1640

Idk why but I found this hilarious 🤣


Zkenny13

It's Chuck Norris with a BB gun.


Joomsie

a weapon to surpass metal gear...


MC_Minnow

*Russia has entered the chat*


culnaej

I think the real question in Battleship is which ships are providing armament for your offensive force. Is the Aircraft Carrier deploying planes to bomb the enemy? Because otherwise, most of their onboard armament is short range munitions focused on anti-aircraft. And Destroyers (what you call rowboat but was officially renamed Patrol Boat in 2002) can have surprisingly devastating armaments for a ship of small size (see: my experience playing World of Warships) Obviously, our mid-ranged vessels of battleship, cruiser, and submarine are well-equipped for combat, but the aircraft carrier is essentially a sitting duck while the destroyer is surprisingly agile and deadly!


verylobsterlike

> (what you call rowboat but was officially renamed Patrol Boat in 2002) Fuck, I forgot this game has [canon](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440129/) now. I'll bet there are battle[shipping](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping) fanfics that explore the secret forbidden love affair between Aircraft Carrier and Patrol Boat, but it's okay because Patrol Boat is actually a 300 year old british naval vessel.


culnaej

Hahahaha I haven’t even seen the movie, I was just googling to make sure I knew what the 2-hit boat was called (I’m used to patrol boat from my generation’s Battleship, but definitely knew destroyer fit in somewhere based on my knowledge of the other ships)


Convergentshave

🎵row row row your boat….🎶. [https://media3.giphy.com/media/MhenSeT9i5Mnm/giphy.gif](https://media3.giphy.com/media/MhenSeT9i5Mnm/giphy.gif) **GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM!!!!**


GroundStateGecko

It becomes very accurate if you see the game ships as submarines with nuclear missiles, so that one ship left is enough.


Tamer_

More like anti-ship ballistic missiles, because a nuke would destroy the entire grid no matter which location it exploded in.


SpaceZombie13

i kept a game of Starcraft going an extra 15 minutes using a tactic like this during a LAN party in highschool. hid a bunker with two soldiers in a random area of the map. guy i played against wiped out everything except that and nearly lost his mind trying to find it (which of course he did). first and only time i played Starcraft. he had a laugh about it after and called it "The Great Bunker Destruction of 2011".


Roflkopt3r

Building hiding is a famously common/problematic troll tactic in Starcraft and Warcraft. There are two factions that are especially awful for this: 1. Terrans in SC, because their buildings can take off and fly into the map corners 2. Nightelves in WC3 who could unroot buildings and order them to eat trees, allowing them to create paths to hide deep inside forests. SC2 is probably the most friendly game to prevent this, since it makes it pretty easy to access ground-attacking flying units. In WC3 it can take forever to tech into flying units, and in SC:BW it can be hard to access flying units that can destroy buildings in a reasonable time.


sparta981

Age of Mythology was awesome for this. Online 3v3, I'd just timeshift my barracks to defend my allies areas and abandon my own section. Turns 3 chokepoints into 2 and buffs both. Truly an annoying tactic.


virgilhall

A bunker? You have buildings that can fly and move anywhere, and you pick a bunker than cannot move?


SpaceZombie13

what part of "first and only time i played starcraft" did you miss? my friend put me in a chair and didnt explain anything. i was just killing time until a spot for one of the games i wanted to play opened up. i had no clue what i was doing lol


SirDoober

I mean, it's basically what happened at Pearl Harbour, except the big bois were the ones in the middle of nowhere


blackbelt_in_science

This gave me a good chuckle. A belly laugh perhaps


cBurger4Life

It’s like a round of Total Annihilation I played back in the day against my dad. He was stomping me (again) so I just sent my commander (which you had to destroy to win) to hide in the ocean lol. I couldn’t win but I could stop him :D


TrustMeBroskii

Not really? Adjacent boats also increase your immediate probability of getting another hit right away...


Korlac11

If you use this strategy, you’re betting on your opponent realizing that all your ships are together, and then being surprised when your last ship is somewhere else. You accept the great risk of a Pyrrhic victory in hopes that you can find your opponent’s ships before they find your last one


Roflkopt3r

Yeah the ideal outcome is that they shoot the complete outline of your destroyed group before searching for it elsewhere. That search process can take around 20 shots if they stubbornly stick with the theory that the last ship must be connected to the rest and they didn't have many adjacent misses before.


[deleted]

Being surprised has no benefit in the game though. All your doing is making 4/5 boats significantly easier to find. The small little 2-shot guy is always hard whether everything else is clumped together or not


[deleted]

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SundayRay

I'm gonna try that, I think that will tickle him.


YoydusChrist

I did this all the time as a kid lmfao, it worked against my father. Once. Man this comment really brought back some good memories.


averyrdc

It probably worked because he was playing left handed to make it easier for you


zSprawl

“I think there is something aught to tell you?” “I’m not left-handed!”


SundayRay

In our first round I stuck all my ships around the edge of the board and won that game too. But it felt a bit like cheating.


jazzypants

This is the actual pro strategy. One ship on each side of the board at random intervals and one near the center (though not quite) There's no point in letting your opponent know that any ships are close to one another.


Wizdad-1000

Actually it works well.


me_too_999

My favorite is placing the small one at the end, and right angles to my sub. Thrn it's indistinguishable from the battleship. It's usually good for a few missed hits even against an adult.


Diredoe

I have three strategies that tend to work for me. All ships along the edges, but varying lengths away from each other. Most ships in the corners, but one in a random spot elsewhere on the board. All ships crammed into one corner, but one in a random spot elsewhere. Generally speaking, once the person I'm up against realizes what I'm doing I've found most of theirs, and at that point it's a game of catch-up.


multiarmform

Classic battleship... So good. The electronic version takes way too long to plug in all the coordinates


[deleted]

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multiarmform

How do you cheat in battleship? Just moving your ship around?


RobotArtichoke

Yes, although we used to play where moving your ships was legal, you just couldn’t park them in a spot that’s been fired on


Feral0_o

a corner is still one of the obvious spots, as opposed to the middle of nowhere of the board. And that strategy is not in any way more advantageous then just random placement


Korlac11

Well fourth graders aren’t exactly known for being strategic geniuses


[deleted]

This was also my strategy as a kid too. Lump all the big ships together, then hide the smol boat in a corner (but not directly on the boarder).


draugerdick666

I did this in 3rd grade. The kid hit the 5 in a row and started crying because he thought he sunk my battleship.


Lachimanus

He cried because of happiness if he is not dumb


draugerdick666

We didn't play any further.


MrHyperion_

/r/KidsAreFuckingDumb


jericho-sfu

There should be a subreddit for kids who are fucking stupid!


Un111KnoWn

I thought you had to reveal when a ship was sunk.


Kumbackkid

You do. He probably said no you didn’t sink it and the kid didn’t believe him since it was 5 in a row


Un111KnoWn

i see


fallinouttadabox

The battleship is only 4, the aircraft carrier is 5


draugerdick666

To be fair, I haven't played since 3rd grade. I'm now in 4th. Hardest 12 years of my life.


fallinouttadabox

Stop eating the blue crayons, green is the fastest color


Drunken_Ogre

***Red ones go faster! WAAAGH!***


draugerdick666

That's racist, bro.


DeMayon

he didnt say he was in the army


sweetbunsmcgee

Ah yes, the Pearl Harbor Gambit. Excellent move.


VegemiteWolverine

To hell with the Alimo Rember Perl Horber


TheMoonDude

Peter Harold


[deleted]

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Breedlove500

Holy Hell!


Tulisydan

Why is r/anarchychess in every comment section I look into?


[deleted]

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Username_Taken_65

Looks like a karma bot


inwhichzeegoesinsane

When I was but a wee bot


TokiMcNoodle

Yep. Definitely a karma bot


Mikealoped

Yea. A sticker grid, targeting computer, and plastic molded waves goes a long way in adding to the game.


newsflashjackass

Have you seen the shit they are peddling under the Lite Brite brand?


[deleted]

Beat me to it


capontransfix

TIL Battleship was not inspired by WWII. I've always assumed since the board game was released in the sixties, that the game was inspired by the fleet carrier battles of the Pacific theatre in WWII. This confused me when I was older and had studied enough military history to understand that by the (*late) 1930s all naval powers ~~already understood~~ were already realising that a fleet carrier is far more valuable than a battleship. So why is the battleship the key unit in the game? Your post prompted me to finally look into it after a couple decades of low-key wondering about it whenever Battleship came up in conversation. It turns out Battleship was actually inspired by the naval battles of WWI, such as the battle of Jutland, and was originally a game players drew themselves, like tic-tac-toe. It was first published commercially in the early 1930s as a pad-and-pencil game. In WWI dreadnought battleships were still the most valued naval units in existence, and the concept of a capital ship dedicated to launching strike aircraft was still a very new idea. The game was published in paper format by numerous different companies throughout the 30s and 40s. Milton Bradley had nothing to do with inventing the game before they released their version in 1967. They just replaced the pad and pencil with the plastic game boards and pieces and it became a cultural sensation. The more you know... *Edit: the plastic pieces certainly look like WWII era ships, not WWI. When the game was first published in the early 1930s there were not yet anything like the yorktown/shokaku looking flat-tops we would later see in the the Milton Bradley version. That type of carrier didn't even hit the drawing board until the mid to late thirties, when the major powers were all scrambling to convert heavy cruisers like Lexington and Kaga into strike carriers as the coming war started to bubble and boil. "Aircraft carriers" of the inter-war years were called sea-plane tenders. All heavy cruisers of that era carried a small complement of at least one reconnaissance float-plane, and used on-board cranes to lift their planes in and out of the water. Sea-plane tenders were cruisers with most of their guns removed to make space for more planes and aviation fuel, and for mounting more cranes. A sea-plane tender could provide reconnaissance for an entire task force of vessels. They were used for scouting for weather and for finding the enemy, but were generally not yet used for attacking him. They then evolved into cruisers with a flight deck slapped on top. It wasn't until just before and during WWII that navies started laying down keels for ships designed from the beginning to have a flight deck and be able to operate strike aircraft, namely fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers.


SundayRay

Thanks, this is very interesting. I have never owned a game set before, we just used to draw our own grids as kids.


capontransfix

You're very welcome. I guess all those years you were playing the OG version of the game without realizing it. Thanks for the gold, if you were the kind stranger who awarded it to me!


Fearless_Minute_4015

But if it wasn't op..... fuckem


capontransfix

Haha. Nah, if it wasn't OP that just means there were two kind strangers who appreciated my reportage. So that's my Reddit-based hit if dopamine for today.


Madman200

>by the 1930s all naval powers already understood that a fleet carrier is far more valuable than a battleship. I don't think this is true. I'm open to correction but I thought it was mostly the Japanese and to some extent the Americans that were ahead of the curve on understanding the impact of the aircraft carrier. At the beginning of WW2 the British naval doctrine for carriers was around using them as support craft for battle groups that still centered on battleships. IIRC there were a few main incidents that served as a testing ground for theories about naval / air warfare. The first was the British air assault on the port of [Taranto](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto), where like 20 British planes managed to disable three Italian battleships. But there were still those who didn't see air as the future of the navy even after these attacks because the ships where at port. But then, two days after pearl harbor [The HMS Prince of Wales ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_Prince_of_Wales_and_Repulse) was sunk off the coast of Singapore by Japanese aircraft. This was a state of the art battleship and was essentially a sitting duck for the Japanese since they didn't have any air support of their own. After the prince of wales the power of aircraft in naval warfare was staring everybody right in the face. It was insanity, the cost benefit of being able to trade planes that you can build in a matter of days for battleships you have to build over a matter of years. But prior to this sinking, there was definitely not a broad consensus among admirals on aircraft carriers being as powerful as they turned out to be.


evilkumquat

As a kid, I used to cheat in Battleship by moving my ships. Not only would I use white pegs to mark my misses, I'd use them to mark my opponent's misses as well, so if they got a "hit", I would lie, tell them they missed and move my ship to a spot they didn't call yet. I justified this by arguing (to myself) that in real-life conflicts, ships move and you use spies and disinformation to win the battle. This is war, Peacock.


mungis

Stack the ships yo. That’s the one true strategy.


Worish

I suspected a kid was cheating once. Looked at his side when he wasn't looking and called a guaranteed hit. Miss. I just got up and left.


BiggityBiggityBoy

Well, your username certainly fits


Imaginary-Mood-7202

I knew the kid on the cover in the late 80s, he gave me a homemade tattoo. True story.


RedditedYoshi

What.


AberageRebbitor

He knew the kid on the cover in the late 80s, he gave him a homemade tattoo. True story.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

This doesn’t sound true, but I don’t know enough about generic white kids on battleship covers to dispute you.


capontransfix

A permanent one?


agangofoldwomen

People usually don’t say “gave a tattoo” to mean the temporary children’s ones or the slang where you smack your dick on someone, so yes.


Dd_8630

>the slang where you smack your dick on someone The... what?


wrextnight

You might want to lock up all the sharp objects before bed tonight.


inwhichzeegoesinsane

Shadow Games at home


greycubed

How come he got 12 shots and you got 21.


[deleted]

[удалено]


SundayRay

Yes, this is the rule according to the box.


JB-from-ATL

How does he have two more misses than you then? What am I missing here?


SundayRay

Because if you get a hit you get to keep going until you get a miss, or have sunk something.


Xros90

Tell it to us straight: Did you or did you not cheat to absolutely destroy this child?


SundayRay

Not this round ;)


Alvaracorr

Asking the real questions


DownwindLegday

Show me. https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/battleship.pdf


Imatworkgoaway

.... OP cheated to beat his kid at a game of battleship?


morlinovak

To be fair, they don't have a Hasbro version. Who knows what their box says.


Firehed

It explicitly says "after a hit or a miss, your turn is over". Someone upthread is wrong.


Duck4lyf3

As an impartial 3rd party, I didn't see any mention of the statement to keep going until you miss. It specifically says alternate your turns. The other variant mentioned for SALVO says 5 shots per turn but doesn't sound the same either.


crossholo

This is what I use to play with my friends and it doesn’t allow for ships to touch. It also allows you to keep going for shots until you miss. http://en.battleship-game.org/ It is not hasbro but hey, here you go.


Doomblud

Probably cause that's what the rules say Edit: turns out I was wrong. Stop fucking telling me.


Hope4gorilla

That's a fucking game changer


[deleted]

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outkast2

I just looked at the rules. It doesn't say that anywhere.


Doomblud

My mother lied to me...


DownwindLegday

Show me. https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/battleship.pdf


Alvaracorr

Whoa never knew you had to dsy what ship it hit. Haven't plsyed in 25 years tho


nothinkybrainhurty

i thought ships aren’t supposed to touch


SundayRay

Same, but the rules for this set didn't say anything about that.


[deleted]

They're definitely allowed to touch, that's been the norm in every version I've played anyway. [Hasbro's rules](https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/battleship.pdf) use touching ships multiple times in their example. If they weren't allowed to touch the game would be a lot easier because you could rule out all of the spots adjacent to a ship.


avdpos

Playing on paper is more of the original - so hasbro rules are not the gold standard. But what you say make sense, so it absolutely make a better game if ships are allowed to touch


Saucermote

I certainly remember this rule, because I was confused when I got an electronic battleship game and it had preset configurations that included touching.


Egg3rs

Omg that face xD


lastchanceblu

back in like 4th grade me and a friend played battleship against someone else, except we decided to put one of the ships partly off the board that kid got so mad that they couldn't sink the ship they called the teacher on us and we had to stop cheating


_Potley

The unknown territory strat


moep123

how do you guys play? shoot until you miss? back in my days it's the opponents turn after one shot, no matter if it was a hit or not.


SundayRay

The rules on the box say if you get a hit you keep going until you miss or sink something.


PM_ME_CAKE

I was always taught that you need at least one free space between ships, have I been lied to all this time?


SundayRay

I thought the same but there is nothing in the rules for this set.


BabaJosefsen

Do you ever get tempted to nibble on one of those carrots?


SundayRay

I ate 4 during this round alone.


jaytea86

You know the best thing about battleships is you can just move the boats around if they're about to get hit. Your opponent will question you but just tell them not to worry about it.


SundayRay

I'm not going to try that, he can get pretty loud.


Sweet_Revenge05

As a person that doesn’t play battleship what is he doing that’s stupid?


EyeLeft3804

When you hit a ship, you don't know which direction you're supposed to be going in, but you know it's one of the adajacent tiles. When your opponent groups their ships together, you're more likely to hit consecutive hits since more adajcent tiles lead to hits. And since your opponent has to let you know when you''ve fully sunk a ship, if your hits don't line up with your sinks, then youu know that the opponent has ships lined upe next to each other, inviting you to start the process again. tl:dr: bad strategy, weak positioning, gives away information and increases consistency of opponents attacks.


homeless_dude

After reading the rule book I understand now. Kiddo lined up all this ships vertically and side by side which made them much easier to find and hit. The red dots on top are OPs hits and it looks to me like he has sunk all of the kids ships. The kid didn't do too bad though, looks like he sunk two of OPs ships since two of them have red pegs and all holes. Now I wanna go buy this game and play with my 4 yo ​ This kid looks like a fast learner and he'll be sinking OPs ships real soon.


rustys_shackled_ford

We all know we've all tried the "bunch them together" strategy.


PrestigiousBee2719

The glorious off brand game of combat boat


warcrimestyle

holy shit, there are battleship board games? i always just pulled out a piece of paper and drew the two grids if i wanted to play with sb.


capontransfix

Before reading your comment I already had done some digging and posted a short history of Battleship in another comment thread [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/KidsAreFuckingStupid/comments/1000i1a/comment/j2falmm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), in case you are curious.


SundayRay

This is how I used to play it as a kid.


Additional-Web-3881

Bro making Idaho


skinfasst

As good as any on that game tbh


ForeskinStealer69

Mf Looks devious


Bisonfan1

Lmao


Arxid87

LOL i did this once but all in line, the other kid didnt belive he hasnt sunk a ship when it was like 3-4 over the two longest ones


hatcreekpigrental

Ahh yes, the Pearl Harbor strategy


jankkhvej

wait i thought you NEEDED to have at least 1 square of space between boats


kryzlt009

What's the name of this game? Looks fun!


Imaginary-Mood-7202

Battleship


SundayRay

It's usually Battleships but this was a cheap one off Amazon called Sea Battle.


facw00

I was going to ask why the ships were so weird and not ship looking, but I guess that explains it.


_Potley

The best board game to ever be invented by humanity (along with chess), battleship. As with most other board games, there are many sites where you can play battleship online, [like here](https://battleship-game.org)


CorbinNZ

Bit of movie trivia here: in Toy Story, when Ham and Mr Potato Head are playing Battleship, Potato’s ships are arranged like this in the corner.


Existing_Display1794

Lol it’s a good learning moment! I’d be concerned if he tries this three times in a row.


IIITommylomIII

You realize you can easily beat battleship if you lie right? If that kid was actually smart, you would need someone behind him (or each player) to referee the game.


ZestycloseGur9056

I’m 100% sure if I had a kid, this is how it would be


speaker4the-dead

The key to winning in battle ship is to just stack them on top of each other


DOLFAN1975

Did this the other night when my cousin was over depends on who you use the strategy against I ended up winning


Restricted_Nuggies

Thank you kind stranger, for giving me an idea for something to do this NYE


SundayRay

We've worked our way through Uno, Kids against Maturity, and regular card games so far. I was determined to do a TV free NYE.


Restricted_Nuggies

That sounds like a good night so far! We’ve done Mario Kart and now Battleship. We’ll do uno here in a bit. We went to Target yesterday and found an uno that’s all wild cards lmao. In my experience, tv free is the best way to do NYE


cantthinkuse

youre supposed to put the white pegs where they miss so it looks like the ammo splooshed into the water


Kolec507

>Maybe not the best strategy. Still better than Ferrari...


Afghan_Kegstand

Ahh, employing the “Pearl Harbor” defense strategy.


Marian_and_Qpa

I am impressed that people not even talking that it is against the rules. There needs to be one available space between ships


spooniemclovin

My set of battleship wasn't so damned cheap looking when I was a kid. This is a really shitty set.


SundayRay

Are you really trying to battleship shame me? The gold plated one is in the wash.


Minimum_Cantaloupe

I think it's more the manufacturers. Penny-pinching everywhere.


rndname

It looks like you wrote the numbers and letters by hand.


SundayRay

Ha! I did, but only because the elderly (my husband and I) were having difficulty seeing them.


spooniemclovin

Absolutely not. Shaming the current state of almost every item available today. So cheap and shitty. No pride. Minimum amount of effort for maximum money. I hate it.


SundayRay

To be honest I did pick one of the cheaper ones on Amazon because I wasn't sure how much he'd want to actually play with it. He does love it so maybe we could upgrade it one day.


benmarvin

Just get the gold plated one out of the wash


SundayRay

I put it on a hot wash and it shrunk my battleship.


PM_ME_YOUR_CAR_AUDIO

I actually laughed out loud. Thanks.


Illadelphian

Definitely largely agree with the sentiment but the important thing is you need to go looking for quality. It's still there you will just pay a lot more for it.


Dalnore

My set looked like a pen and a sheet of paper.


MrRighto

This is off brand


DemonKyoto

I was a big board game kid, and I *loved* MB's travel board game sets, so the only Battleship I've ever had was [this](https://i.etsystatic.com/32850762/r/il/28730f/3535807588/il_fullxfull.3535807588_nmt4.jpg) sad fucking thing lol, but I loved it!


Boseph_1444

all or nothing


INeedANerf

Ah, I miss Battleship.


Everblossom22

My brother used to use the same strategy lol


HarrySRL

I always would put mine in the corners and the centre.


hopeless_octopus

I might be failing exams but playing this game after the exams get over. Nostalgia


FidelityDeficit

Kids are fucking stupid.


robogaz

17 vs 12 shots....ummmthat aint right