Rainbow & European Battleships

Tim Morrell

Aim of the Game

To be the player who has the most ships still floating after the party host has fired 30 torpedoes.

Overview

Each player will have their own battleships board. Each board is sufficient for two games. The first game is “Rainbow Armada”. The second game is “European Navy”. Both games play in the same way.

Each game features a grid of 36 squares representing the sea. The grid has column identifiers of A, B, C, D, E & F and row identifiers of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6. This means each of the 36 squares has a unique grid reference. E.g. square A1, square D3, square F5.

Within the grid are 6 ships. These are:

  • Aircraft Carrier – occupies 5 squares
  • Battleship – occupies 4 squares
  • Cruiser – occupies 3 squares
  • Submarine – occupies 3 squares
  • Destroyer – occupies 2 squares.
  • Patrol Boat – occupies 1 square

There are also 36 torpedoes. Each torpedo is labelled with a grid reference that matches one of the 36 squares in the grid. E.g. A1, D3, F5.

During the game the party host will fire 30 of these torpedoes one by one. Some of the ships will become damaged and eventually some will be destroyed and sink.

  • A ship is damaged if some, but not all the squares in which it is located are hit by torpedoes. Ships that are merely damaged remain afloat.
  • A ship is destroyed when all the squares in which it is located have been hit by a torpedo. Destroyed ships sink.

The winner is the player who, after 30 torpedoes have been fired, has the greatest number of ships still afloat. If two or more players have the same number of ships afloat then the remaining 6 torpedoes become “super torpedoes” and are fired one by one to decide the winner. A ship hit by a super torpedo is instantly destroyed.

Printable Battleships Board Game - Standard Board

Preparation you will need to do before the party

Cut out the 36 torpedoes and place them into an envelope labelled “TORPEDOES”.

Game Set Up

  1. Give one playing board and a pencil to each player.
  2. The Party Host should take the envelope containing the torpedoes.

Playing the game

  1. The party host should reach into the envelope and pull out a torpedo
  2. They should announce “The first torpedo has hit square…..” followed by the grid reference on the torpedo. They can make torpedo firing sound effects if they like!
  3. All players should now mark a cross through this grid reference and call out:
    1. “miss” if the torpedo has not hit a ship.
    2. “hit” if the torpedo has hit a ship but there are still segments of the ship that have not yet been hit.
    3. “sunk” if the torpedo has hit the final segment of a ship.
  4. Repeat until the party host has pulled out 30 torpedoes from the envelope.
  5. Ask each player how many ships they still have afloat. The winner is the person with the most ships afloat. Ships remain afloat until every segment of the ship has been hit by a torpedo.

Tiebreak

If two or more players have the same number of ships afloat then announce:

"OK. To decide the winner we are going to have a tie break.

I have 6 remaining torpedoes. These are SUPER torpedoes. If they hit a ship they destroy it completely! I am going to fire them one by one. If any player’s ship is hit by a super torpedo that player is immediately eliminated from the game. The winner will be the last person to be eliminated."

Fire the remaining torpedoes one by one until you have a winner.

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