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
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