Last Updated on January 25, 2024 by Gamesver Team and JC Franco
Battleship, the game, has been around since the 1930s when people were playing it with pen and paper, and playing the game is a lot of fun. However, as with most games, the genuine value goes far beyond just entertainment.
As you guess and call out coordinates in a bid to sink your opponent’s ships and win the game, there is a lot more you can get from playing other than fun and entertainment.
Read further to discover what lessons playing Battleship can provide you.
These are 13 lessons you can learn from playing the Battleship:
1. Honesty
To play the game Battleship, the two players sit on opposite sides and face each other across the game table. This positioning ensures that neither player can cheat by seeing into their opponent’s ocean grid or ship locations.
During the game, the attacking player calls out a position, and it’s up to the opponent to let the player know if it was a hit or a miss. This part of the game tests each player’s honesty because they can be dishonest about a hit being a miss.
Battleship helps players recognize the truth and tell it as it is. Through this game, they become better people by learning the importance of being honest.
2. Tolerance
Playing any multiplayer game requires you to be tolerant of your opponents, and Battleship is no different. Sometimes, you aren’t even familiar with your opponent, but you still have to go ahead and start a game with them.
Battleship teaches you to be tolerant with every opponent and with other people. You’ll meet a lot of other people who each have different characters and character flaws. This game gives you the ability to live and relate to everyone with a good spirit.
3. Enhanced Logic
The most important aspect of playing Battleship is plotting and calling out coordinate points on the grids. This exposes your mind to the concept of columns, starting origins, and quadrants.
Children who play Battleship can also learn new things about rows, columns, grids, and ordered pairs. This enhances their logical reasoning and ultimately helps them to become more intelligent children.
Battleship can be especially useful for kids who are practical or visual learners and may not do so well in a regular classroom. They can be taught math using Battleship together with other board games.
4. Patience
Patience helps you analyze situations beyond what most people see, so impatient people often find success difficult. On some occasions, playing Battleship can come with a lot of tension and even fear.
You could be playing a big game against an experienced player, or your opponent may have already sunk some of your ships. If you can’t seem to get a single hit against them, frustration could also set in.
In moments like these, your patience is put to the test. A good strategy is to take a quick pause and try to understand your opponent’s strategy and technique. With this, you have the technical knowledge to win this game. Over time, regularly playing Battleship teaches you patience in unsettling times, an important lesson that is very useful in everyday life.
5. Focus and Attention
You can’t win any game while distracted because you have to monitor your opponent continuously and figure out your gameplay.
Likewise, in Battleship, you’ve got to constantly watch your opponent, figure out their strategy and eventually win the game. The Battleship game sharpens your focus and makes your attention span higher than usual.
Additionally, Battleship can help players experience people and give them a chance to interact more with the personalities of others. While playing, you get to see things from the perspective of your peers, and that can help you to improve in social interaction.
For the entire duration of the Battleship game, you are focusing on and directly relating with your opponent, through which the game helps you to express yourself and communicate better with people.
6. Critical Thinking
Now and then, you’re faced with choices and decisions that can affect your life in some way.
To win a game, every move that is taken while playing Battleship needs to be thought through. You need to weigh every option before making critical decisions like calling out a coordinate or positioning your ships.
Battleship is a good option for children because it helps to increase their brain power and sharpen their decision-making skills.
7. Healthy Competition
Many real-life scenarios play out like a game of Battleship. Just like trying to win a game, you often have a competitor you’re trying hard to beat.
However, it’s essential to learn how to compete with other people in a healthy way that doesn’t breed hate but introduces a spirit of sportsmanship. Battleship helps you understand how to compete for things with other people and maintain a healthy atmosphere.
8. Conflict Resolution
Conflict is inevitable. Sometimes, while playing Battleship, things can get heated between the players. However, it is essential that you always find a way to control the altercation and settle the dispute without getting physical or using hurtful language.
The Battleship game can teach you how to control these altercations when they do come up. By learning this, you’ll be able to keep a calm head whenever any conflict comes your way.
9. Strategic Reasoning
In Battleship, you call out positions on your opponent’s grid, hoping to guess correctly and get a hit on them. You will need to keep a record of what positions you’ve formerly called, so you don’t recall them and miss a chance to hit.
You also need to have an excellent attacking strategy if you want all your opponent’s ships to sink first and win the game. By using all these skills while playing, you learn how to make plans for other situations in life and get good results from them.
10. Sharpened Probability Skills
Taking chances can be a lot of mental work, but you’ll need to constantly do this when playing a Battleship game. You need to use every opportunity you get to get a hit on your opponent and win the game.
From playing Battleship, you will learn how to get better at taking chances and getting good results from each shot.
11. Maximizing Opportunities
Every move you make when playing Battleship is essential and can decide who wins the game. It is common for players to take some time to pause to assess the current gameplay and figure out their next move in the game.
Battleship players understand how important it is to utilize every single opportunity that comes your way in the game and in real life.
12. Moving in Silence
You mustn’t disclose any details of your game or strategy to the opponent. This is why players are positioned on opposite sides of the game table during gameplay.
You must learn to strategize silently during the game, so you don’t let any vital information slip out. This helps you understand that in life situations where you need to have a competitive edge, you need to keep other competitors from the progress of your work.
13. Resilience
There are always times in life when things are at their lowest, and you can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel anymore. At times like this, you need the conviction that things will get better soon to keep you going.
It’s the same in Battleship because no matter how badly a game starts off, you must realize that as long as it’s not over, there is a chance for you to come back and win the game. It’s up to you not to surrender until the game is over.
This article was co-authored by our team of in-house and freelance writers, and reviewed by our editors, who enjoy sharing their knowledge about their favorite games with others!
JC Franco
JC Franco serves as a New York-based editor for Gamesver. His interest for board games centers around chess, a pursuit he began in elementary school at the age of 9. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business from Mercyhurst University, JC brings a blend of business acumen and creative insight to his role. Beyond his editorial endeavors, he is a certified USPTA professional, imparting his knowledge in tennis to enthusiasts across the New York City Metropolitan area.