Salvo

Quick Pitch

Salvo (Battleship on paper) is a two-player deduction game — secretly place your ships on a grid, then take turns calling out coordinates to find and sink your opponent's fleet before they sink yours.

Hook

Both players draw two 10×10 grids. On one, you arrange your ships secretly. On the other, you track what you've fired at and what you've hit. You take turns calling out a square — your opponent says "Hit" or "Miss." A hit ship sinks when you've found every square it occupies, and your opponent announces "You sank my Battleship!" The game is pure deduction: narrow down probabilities, read the pattern of your hits, find the rest of the ship.

Equipment Needed

• Two sheets of paper per player (one for their fleet, one for opponent's fleet)
• Pencil or pen (multiple colors helpful for marking hits/misses)
• Optional: ruler for drawing straight grid lines
• Optional: separate sheets showing ship sizes for reference

Setup

1. Create Two Grids: Each player draws two 10×10 grids

   • Grid A: Shows player's own ships (hidden from opponent)
   • Grid B: Shows opponent's ships (empty initially; filled as player fires)

2. Label the Grids:

   • Columns labeled A-J (left to right)
   • Rows labeled 1-10 (top to bottom)
   • Coordinates are read as Letter+Number (e.g., A1, J10)

3. Standard Fleet:

   • 1 Battleship (4 squares)
   • 2 Cruisers (3 squares each)
   • 3 Destroyers (2 squares each)
   • 4 Submarines (1 square each)
   • Total: 20 squares occupied

4. Place Ships: Each player secretly places their ships on their Fleet Grid (Grid A):

   • Ships placed horizontally or vertically (not diagonally)
   • Ships cannot touch each other (not even diagonally)
   • Ships cannot overlap
   • Both players must finish placement before firing begins

Example of ship placement (can mark ships as outlined squares):

   A B C D E F G H I J
 1 ■ ■ ■ ■ . . . . . .    Battleship (4)
 2 . . . . . . . . . .
 3 ■ ■ ■ . . . . . . .    Cruiser (3)
 4 ■ . . . . . . . . .    Cruiser (3)
 5 ■ . . . . . . . . .
 6 ■ . . . . . . . . .
 7 . . . . . . . . . .
 8 ■ ■ . . . . . . . .    Destroyer (2)
 9 . . ■ ■ . . . . . .    Destroyer (2)
10 . . . . ■ ■ . . . .    Destroyer (2)

Rules

Objective

Locate all opponent's ships and sink them (hit all squares of every ship) before opponent sinks your entire fleet.

Gameplay

1. Turn Structure: Players alternate turns calling out one coordinate per turn
2. Calling Shots: A player calls out a coordinate (e.g., "E5")
3. Opponent's Response: The opponent checks their Fleet Grid and responds:
   • HIT: If a ship occupies that square
   • MISS: If no ship is there
   • SUNK: If the shot was the final hit needed to sink that ship (then name the ship: "You sank my Battleship!")
4. Recording: Each player marks shots on their Opponent Grid (Grid B):
   • Mark hits with X or ✓
   • Mark misses with O or •
5. Continuing Play: Players continue taking turns until one player sinks all opponent ships

Sinking a Ship

A ship is sunk when a player has hit all squares of that ship. The player sinking it announces which ship was sunk. Only fully sunk ships are confirmed.

Winning

The first player to sink all ships in opponent's fleet wins the game.