Free Printable Battleship Game: Boards, Ships & Rules
Looking for a free printable Battleship game? This set includes color and black-and-white game boards, matching ship pieces, and easy instructions for two players. It’s a fun screen-free activity for family game night, classroom centers, rainy afternoons, or travel.
Each player needs one game board and a set of five ships. Choose the color or printer-friendly pages you prefer, print one copy for each player, and follow the simple rules below.
If you like this printable game you’ll enjoy our others too, like our printable tic tac toe board or our dots game printable.
What’s Included in the Printable Battleship Game
The printable set gives you everything needed for a two-player game:
- Color Battleship game boards
- Printer-friendly black-and-white game boards
- Matching color ship pieces
- Black-and-white ships that children can color
- Five different ships for each player
You’ll need to print one game board and one set of ships for each person playing.
How to Play Battleship
Battleship is a two-player strategy game in which each person tries to locate and sink the other player’s hidden fleet. The traditional game is recommended for ages seven and older, although younger children may also enjoy playing with some help.
Setting Up the Game
- Give each player one printed game board and one set of five ships.
- Cut out the ships if you are using the included pieces. Players can also draw their ships directly onto the grid if preferred.
- Each player secretly positions their fleet on their ocean grid.
- Sit across from one another or place a book or folder between the players so the boards remain hidden.
Each fleet includes:
- Aircraft carrier: 5 spaces
- Battleship: 4 spaces
- Submarine: 4 spaces
- Cruiser: 3 spaces
- Destroyer: 2 spaces
Ships may be placed horizontally or vertically, but they cannot overlap or extend beyond the grid. Players can use the printable ship pieces or draw their ships directly onto the ocean grid.
Playing the Game
- The first player calls out a coordinate, such as “B4.”
- The opponent checks that coordinate on their ocean grid.
- If part of a ship occupies that space, the opponent announces “hit.” If the space is empty, they announce “miss.”
- The player records the result on their target grid so they remember which coordinates have already been called.
- Players continue taking turns calling one coordinate at a time.
- When every space occupied by a ship has been hit, its owner announces that the ship has been sunk.
- The first player to sink all five of the opposing player’s ships wins.
Easy Battleship Strategy Tips
A little strategy makes the game even more fun:
- Spread your ships across different parts of the grid.
- Place some ships horizontally and others vertically.
- Avoid grouping all your ships closely together.
- Keep careful track of every hit and miss.
- After scoring a hit, try nearby coordinates to find the rest of that ship.
Printable Battleship Game Board
Our printable Battleship set includes both color and black-and-white game boards. Each board has an ocean grid for positioning your own fleet and a target grid for recording shots against your opponent.
You can use the matching printable ship pieces or draw the ships directly onto the ocean grid. The black-and-white version is especially useful when you want to save printer ink or let children color their own game pieces.
Printing Tips
- Print one game board and one set of ships for each player.
- Choose only the color or black-and-white pages you need in your printer settings.
- Regular printer paper works well for a one-time game.
- Use cardstock if you want sturdier boards and game pieces.
- Select “Fit to Printable Area” if any part of the board is being cut off.
- Laminate the boards or place them in dry-erase sleeves to reuse them for future games.
Printable Battleship Game FAQ
Battleship is designed for two players. You can also divide a larger group into two teams and let the team members decide which coordinates to call.
Print one game board and one set of ships for each player. A standard two-player game requires two boards and two complete fleets.
Yes. Laminating the boards or placing them inside dry-erase sleeves allows players to record their hits and misses with dry-erase markers and reuse the game.
The traditional Battleship game is recommended for ages seven and older. Younger children who understand letters, numbers, and coordinates may be able to play with adult assistance.
Each player uses five ships: an aircraft carrier, battleship, submarine, cruiser, and destroyer. The printable pieces show how many grid spaces each ship occupies.
Grab the Battleship Paper Game
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These are for personal or classroom use only please. Not for commercial use. But feel free to print out as many copies of the game as you like.
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This printable battleship template will allow you to quickly and easily create your own battleship game for family game night.
With this template, you can print it out and get playing. So gather around the table and get ready for some family fun.
I’m excited to turn this into a reading game with my students!
would like the free printable battleship game for my grandkids please!
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I find the most common problem seems to be that certain organizations, especially schools, have blockers on that prevent the box from showing on the system computers.
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