Board Game: Battleship

When you were younger, you likely played a bit of Battleship. If not, then you absolutely need to get a copy of the game. Battleship is a board game for two people where you are attempting to sink the ships (battleships) of the opposite player. The goal is to sink all of their ships before they sink all of yours. If you’re still unsure then keep reading because Battleship is much more than just a fun game for you and your kids to play.

Battleship is a great game to start introducing kids to strategic board games. It works well because there isn’t too much going on like in other strategy games, but it helps your kids think through a problem and solve it (more on this later). Unlike some other strategy games, Battleship involves quite a bit of luck as well. This is good for younger children as it gives them a chance to luckily strike a battleship while also forcing them to think a bit.

Beyond a bit of strategy, battleship is a game of solving problems, and for younger children that are just learning how to really think through a problem this is a great game. While the game starts out with luck since you’re just randomly throwing bombs at the other team, once you’ve hit your first battleship, then your child must start to figure out where to go next. Do you go up, down, left or right? Once you hit or miss from there, where do you go next? Ultimately, there’s still a bunch of luck involved in the game, but helping kids to understand how to think through where to go after hits and misses is a great teaching moment.

Furthermore, Battleship is often an introduction to a grid system for children. Most kids will not have used grids before, and this is a great early introduction to how a basic grid system works. This is those math lessons in action. It will introduce your child to both an x and y axis. While it’s never called that in the game, that’s exactly what you’re looking at with your child. It’s a basic graph layout that they must learn to follow. It’s also not written/played in standard (x,y) notation, but that would be even cooler if it was - although it would be much more difficult to teach younger children so it’s probably best not to be that way.

Another reason that Battleship is great for kids is because they can play between themselves very easily without adult intervention. Once they understand the mechanics of the game and can follow the grid system, you don’t have to sit with them and help them play. You can put two kids together to play the game without worrying about a million little pieces (granted there are little pieces, but they’re basic items) or about complex rules.

Having a game that is built for 2 players is also really helpful for parents that only have one child. All too often, some of the most fun games are built for 3+ players. While these games are a lot of fun, you don’t always have 3 people to play with in the middle of the day when you’re at home with your child. Battleship is a perfect choice for days like this because it allows you to play with your child at any time of the day.

Finally, Battleship is great for you as a parent because it is a game that easily allows for interruptions - it’s not the end of the world if you have to pause the game (although your child might think otherwise) or it can allow for multitasking. For example, you can set your child up at the table with their board while you are in the kitchen. You can be cleaning the kitchen and playing with them or you can do whatever other task needs to be completed there. It doesn’t require your full attention the entire time (keep your phone put away when playing board games with your child though).

Battleship is a fun and classic game that holds up perfectly today. It’s a game you should definitely have, and a great game to introduce kids to strategic and analytical concepts. Buy the game now.