History TabletopGame / Battleship

* CashCowFranchise: There have been countless variations of Battleship over the years, including a vaguely realistic fleet-based RTS (Simply packaged under the name Battleship), a vehicular combat game (Battleship: Surface Thunder), and the latest version of half NavalOps, half CallOfDuty (more of a tie in with [[Film/{{Battleship}} the movie]] with little else in common with the classic game). The most popular remains "Two people with five ships shout/punch in numbers and reply with 'hit' or 'miss'," which also tends to come packaged (with minor variations) with many of the Battleship spinoffs.

* RecursiveAdaptation: The film adaptation of the board game was also turned into a board game.

* AwesomeYetPractical / ParanoiaFuel: The destroyer (formerly the patrol boat). Being two pegs long, it can evade detection for quite a while.

* RecycledInSpace: There's a StarWars tie-in edition, with a hexagonal space grid, computerized hit/miss notation and ships replaced by iconic Star Wars vessels (X-Wings, Star Destroyers etc).

[[Film/{{Battleship}} Received a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson. There have been a number of video game adaptations as well, from the {{NES}} to modern [=PCs=].

* LuckBasedMission: Taking blind pot-shots at your opponent's fleet and hoping you score enough hits by essentially random chance before they can do the same to you is basically a textbook example.
** There is some room for strategy, though, such as ruling out spaces or deducing a ship's direction by firing at the surrounding points. This gets easier once the the smallest ships have been taken out.
** Psychology can enter into the equation as well, especially if you know your opponent's targeting habits. [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow They can compensate for this, however.]]

* CoolShip: Guess.

* {{Mundane Made Awesome}}: The live action adaptation. How does one make an action movie based on a simple tabletop game? Simple, ''ditch the pegs and add aliens'' (who attack by firing "pegs.")

** Partially averted when playing the game variant that grants each player one shot per turn [[MoreDakka for each of their surviving ships]]. This only counts for the player's fleet as a whole; the individual ships still count the same until they get sunk.

* {{Mundane Made Awesome}}: The live action adaptation. How does one make an action movie based on a simple tabletop game? Simple, ''ditch the pegs and add aliens.''

[[Film/{{Battleship}} Received a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson. There have been a number of video game adaptations as well, from the {{NES}} to modern PCs.

* RecycledInSpace: There's a StarWars tie-in edition, with a hexagonal space grid and computerized hit/miss notation.

[[Film/{{Battleship}} Received a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson.

[[Film/{{Battleship}} Recieved a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson.

* ExcusePlot: Assuming they have one at all, ''Battleship'' spinoff games tend to have paper-thin plots. Surface Thunder's entire plot fits onto one page of the manual, and in no way required to play the game.

[[Film/{{Battleship}} Will receive a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson.

!! '''Tropes''':

* [[OneManArmy One Ship Navy]] According to the 'plot', the player's nation in Surface Thunder has been completely reduced to a single warship: you.

* StuffBlowingUp: some versions of the board game even make explosion sounds, which probably helps keep players honest.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: damage doesn't affect a ship until it is sunk.

** There is some room for strategy, though, such as ruling out spaces by firing at the surrounding points. This gets easier once the the smallest ships have been taken out
* [[OneManArmy One Ship Navy]] According to the 'plot', the player's nation in Surface Thunder has been completely reduced to a single warship: You.

* CashCowFranchise: There have been countless variations of Battleship over the years, including a vaguely realistic fleet-based RTS (Simply packaged under the name Battleship), a vehicular combat game (Battleship: Surface Thunder), and the latest version of half NavalOps, half CallOfDuty (more of a tie in with [[Film/{{Battleship}} the movie]]. The most popular remains "Two people with five ships shout/punch in numbers and reply with 'hit' or 'miss'," which also tends to come packaged with many of the Battleship spinoffs.

The most common setup gives each player one two-peg destroyer, one three-peg submarine, one three-peg cruiser, one four-peg battleship, and one five-peg aircraft carrier, which are arranged on the flat board in an arrangement of the player's choosing. Each turn, one player says where he's firing his shot; the other declares whether they miss or hit (you can place pegs in the ships when they hit), whether a ship is sunk, and the type of ship. The last player with at least one ship on the board wins. One game variant allows the player to fire as many shots as they have ships still afloat.

[[TheMovie Will receive a live-action film adaptation]] in 2012. [[AdaptationExpansion With aliens]] and LiamNeeson.

This is originally a board game for two players, though it can be played with pencil-and-paper and has been adapted to computers. The classic Milton-Bradley set-up has two identical plastic half-boards, one red, one blue. Each half has two 10-by-10 sections: one flat one with peg holes where you place the ships, and a vertical section with peg holes which has the dual purpose of marking where you fire your shots and hiding where your ships are from the other player. Both grids are labeled with letters in one direction and numbers in the other, A to J and 1 to 10 repectively.

This is originally a board game for two players, though it can be played with pencil-and-paper and has been adapted to computers. The classic Milton-Bradley set-up has two identical plastic half-boards, one red, one blue. Each half has two 10-by-10 sections: one flat one with peg holes where you place the ships, and a vertical section with peg holes which has the dual purpose of marking where you fire your shots and hiding where your ships are from the other player. Both grids are labeled with letters in one direction and numbers in the other, A1 to J or K10.

Each player gets one two-peg submarine, two three-peg destroyers, one four-peg battleship, and one five-peg aircraft carrier, which are arranged on the flat board in an arrangement of the player's choosing. Each turn, one player says where he's firing his shots -- how many depends on how many ships are there; the other declares whether they miss or hit (you can place pegs in the ships when they hit), whether a ship is sunk, and the type of ship. The last player with at least one ship on the board wins.