Battleship
Drinking Game

Each player gets a fleet hidden somewhere on the grid. On your turn you call a square — "B4" — and the app tells you whether there was a ship there. A hit means the owner of that ship takes a sip. A miss means nothing happens and the turn passes. Keep calling squares until you have found and sunk every ship in their fleet. The first player to wipe out the other fleet wins, and the loser finishes their drink.

Step 1 — Fleets deploy: Every ship is placed at random on the grid before the first shot. Nobody chooses, nobody peeks, and nobody has to hide a screen — ship positions are simply never drawn until you hit them.

Step 2 — Fire one square: The board always shows the player whose turn it is, so you never have to guess whether you are allowed to tap. Call the coordinate out loud and tap it.

Step 3 — Hit means the owner drinks: Any hit costs the fleet's owner 1 sip. The square turns red and stays marked for the rest of the game, so you never check the same square twice.

Step 4 — Sink the ship, drink again: When every square of a ship has been hit, that ship is sunk and the owner drinks 2 more sips. The whole ship is revealed in dark red, which is your cue to stop firing around there.

Step 5 — Wipe the fleet, win the round: When the last ship goes down, the game ends. The winner hands out the final drinks and the loser finishes what is left in their glass.

1 sip per hit, 2 for a sunk ship. Hitting the final square of a ship costs 1 for the hit plus 2 for the sinking, so a three-square ship costs its owner 4 sips in total.

One shot per turn. Hit or miss, the turn passes. There is no firing again for a hit — that rule snowballs far too fast after a few drinks. Add it as a house rule only if your table wants a short game.

Ships may touch. Fleets are placed randomly and no spacing rule is enforced, so a hit next to a ship does not mean the ship ends there.

No repeats. Once a square is fired at it is marked permanently. Fired squares cannot be tapped again, in either direction.

Miss means nothing. Firing into empty water costs you nothing at all. If your table wants misses to sting, add the house rule below.

Each player has a fleet hidden on the grid. On your turn you call one square, and the app tells you whether a ship was there. A hit costs the fleet's owner a sip; a sunk ship costs them two more. Misses cost nothing and just pass the turn. The first player to sink the entire enemy fleet wins, and the loser drinks the closing penalty.

No, and that is the whole point. The physical version is usually a homemade grid with shot glasses or cups lined up on it, which is why so many of the best-known versions are people showing off boards they built themselves. Here the grid is on screen, the ships are placed for you, and the only equipment you need is a drink each.

One sip per hit and two extra for a sunk ship, so a three-square ship costs its owner four sips across the round. Misses are free. Plenty of tables play doubles, shots for sunk ships, or a finishing penalty instead — agree it before the first shot rather than halfway through.

The board is built for two fleets, which makes it a two-player or two-team game. The easiest way to include a crowd is teams: one person taps, the whole team drinks when their ship is hit. With four or more people and one phone, our group games such as Ring of Fire, Kings Cup or Categories will fit the table better.

Because that is the game. Ship positions stay hidden until you hit them, so the board only ever shows what you have fired at: empty water, a hit, or a complete ship you have finished off. Both players see the same board, which means you never have to pass the phone or hide the screen between turns.