Most iterations of the game assume you cannot place ships right next to each other. So, when you down a ship in a normal configuration, you immediately know the surroundings are free of ships.
In this placement, all but these 4 cells will not give you such an advantage. Therefore, the tactic is advantageous as it keeps the opponent with less intel.
Correction: digging deeper, it seems like many people know Battleship by the Hasbro/Milton Bradley edition, which doesn’t have this rule. But the game itself is much older, and many of its editions do include the rule. At the very least, this rule is highly popular in Russia, Germany and Spain.
Huh, I dug down and apparently it’s a regional quirk?
Even the Wikipedia article about the game doesn’t mention it in English, but does mention it in Russian.
English:
Before play begins, each player secretly arranges their ships on their primary grid. Each ship occupies a number of consecutive squares on the grid, arranged either horizontally or vertically. The number of squares for each ship is determined by the type of ship. The ships cannot overlap (i.e., only one ship can occupy any given square in the grid) or be placed diagonally.
Russian (translated by yours truly):
The playing field is typically a 10x10 square, on which the fleet is placed. <…> When placed, ships should not touch each other by sides or corners. Some variations may lack this rule.
Also, apparently it is common for the game to have 5-long ships, which don’t appear in the Russian versions.
I think it’s for Russian knock off version of Battleship and not the real version. Especially with the talk about all 5 ships being carrier sized 5 peg ships.
The game is actually over a century old - at least in Russia, it first appeared at the edge of XIX and XX centuries. In the US, Starex started making notebooks for the game in 1931.
The Milton Bradley/Hasbro Battleship, which seems to be the most recognizable internationally as the Battleship game, appeared only in 1967. So, it is a knock-off of a knock-off, actually, made almost a century after the original.
We also don’t typically use a board, we just use a white checkered sheet of paper, which seems to be one of the classic versions of the game. But ship figures for the game did exist as long back as the early XX century.
Blagh blagh blagh. No one gives a shit it started with pencil and paper. It’s been a board game for like 60 years and the picture in this post is of the board game. LL
Certainly not just a house rule, I’ve met it everywhere.
And, as it seems from further down the thread, it seems to be the difference because large parts of the world rely on Hasbro’s Battleship as the rule source, while the other seems to play by older rules (by the time Hasbro/Milton Bradley released the game, it was already almost a century old).
Others from Spain and Germany also seem to know that rule, but it was not in the official Hasbro version of the game. This is what appears to make that difference.
Lol at trying to cop out on being wrong by claiming you were basing your answer on the pre 1963 pencil and paper game of Battleship. What’s worse is that you COULDN’T stack ships in the paper version and that the picture\meme for this post is using the boardgame.
You’re a riot, man. People must love how right you always say you are.
You’re either serious about it and trying to turn a friendly game meme discussion into some kind of battle, or you’re trolling and doing so with 0 finesse. Keep your game a little higher.
Either way, since you love being contested, here are pre-1963 ship figures for Battleship, dated early XX century:
Hasbro hasn’t been first in that, either. They are just large enough to dictate what is considered to be “official”. And this is far from isolated case.
Most iterations of the game assume you cannot place ships right next to each other. So, when you down a ship in a normal configuration, you immediately know the surroundings are free of ships.
In this placement, all but these 4 cells will not give you such an advantage. Therefore, the tactic is advantageous as it keeps the opponent with less intel.
Correction: digging deeper, it seems like many people know Battleship by the Hasbro/Milton Bradley edition, which doesn’t have this rule. But the game itself is much older, and many of its editions do include the rule. At the very least, this rule is highly popular in Russia, Germany and Spain.
I have never heard that rule. I cannot see that anywhere, even as a variation
Huh, I dug down and apparently it’s a regional quirk?
Even the Wikipedia article about the game doesn’t mention it in English, but does mention it in Russian.
English:
Russian (translated by yours truly):
Also, apparently it is common for the game to have 5-long ships, which don’t appear in the Russian versions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_(game)
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Морской_бой_(игра)
This is also the case for the German version I player, funny.
How odd that they would bother changing the rules regionally.
I think it’s for Russian knock off version of Battleship and not the real version. Especially with the talk about all 5 ships being carrier sized 5 peg ships.
The game is actually over a century old - at least in Russia, it first appeared at the edge of XIX and XX centuries. In the US, Starex started making notebooks for the game in 1931.
The Milton Bradley/Hasbro Battleship, which seems to be the most recognizable internationally as the Battleship game, appeared only in 1967. So, it is a knock-off of a knock-off, actually, made almost a century after the original.
We also don’t typically use a board, we just use a white checkered sheet of paper, which seems to be one of the classic versions of the game. But ship figures for the game did exist as long back as the early XX century.
Blagh blagh blagh. No one gives a shit it started with pencil and paper. It’s been a board game for like 60 years and the picture in this post is of the board game. LL
We have the same rule in Spain
That isn’t a rule at all, dude. You must had had a house rule when you were a kid.
It is in the rules that you can’t stack ships tho. Lol
Certainly not just a house rule, I’ve met it everywhere.
And, as it seems from further down the thread, it seems to be the difference because large parts of the world rely on Hasbro’s Battleship as the rule source, while the other seems to play by older rules (by the time Hasbro/Milton Bradley released the game, it was already almost a century old).
Others from Spain and Germany also seem to know that rule, but it was not in the official Hasbro version of the game. This is what appears to make that difference.
Lol at trying to cop out on being wrong by claiming you were basing your answer on the pre 1963 pencil and paper game of Battleship. What’s worse is that you COULDN’T stack ships in the paper version and that the picture\meme for this post is using the boardgame.
You’re a riot, man. People must love how right you always say you are.
You’re either serious about it and trying to turn a friendly game meme discussion into some kind of battle, or you’re trolling and doing so with 0 finesse. Keep your game a little higher.
Either way, since you love being contested, here are pre-1963 ship figures for Battleship, dated early XX century:
Hasbro hasn’t been first in that, either. They are just large enough to dictate what is considered to be “official”. And this is far from isolated case.
Lol. Yeah. That’s what you were basing your rules on. Sure.