Card game
Battleship Card Game
Battleship's hunt-and-sink duel as a quick, pocket-sized two-player card game
- Set-up
- About 2 min
- Reading
- Some
The quick verdict
Full verdict ↓Great for Two players who want Battleship in a small box, with no pegs to lose
Think twice if You want the board game's calling out of squares like 'D-4': this version has no coordinate grid
How we rate it
Learning curve. A turn is just play one card and draw back up to five, but the five ship powers and three kinds of Power card take a game to learn, so we put it at 2 rather than with UNO at 1. The Beginner rules, without powers, are a 1.
Luck & skill. Where the ships sit is down to the shuffle, and so is the hand you draw. You choose when to search, which ship to hit, when to shield or repair and when to spend your big peg cards, but luck counts for a lot.
Interaction. Every card you play either attacks your opponent's fleet or protects your own, and ship powers change what both players can do.
Set-up. Split the cards by colour, shuffle your 12 Coordinate cards and lay them face down in a 3 x 4 grid, then shuffle your Battle cards and draw five.
Reading. Ship and Power cards carry short English instructions, and the reference cards summarise them; the Beginner game needs almost no reading.
Learning curve: 1 = UNO or Connect 4; 3 = Catan; 5 = a heavy strategy game. These describe the experience, not an overall score.
Is Battleship Card Game right for you?
Great if
- Two players who want Battleship in a small box, with no pegs to lose
- Travel, train journeys and holidays: a deck of cards and a little table space are all it needs
- Children from 7, who can start with the Beginner rules and add the ship powers later
- A 15- to 20-minute game for a parent and child, or two siblings
Skip it if
- You want the board game's calling out of squares like 'D-4': this version has no coordinate grid
- You need a game for three or more: it is strictly for two
- You dislike luck: the shuffle decides where the ships sit, so finding them is partly chance
How Battleship Card Game plays
Set-up: each player takes one fleet, red or blue, made up of 12 Coordinate cards, 26 Battle cards and two reference cards. Your Coordinate cards are five ships and seven misses: shuffle them and lay them face down in front of you in a grid three cards by four. Shuffle your Battle cards, draw a hand of five and keep the rest as your draw pile. The younger player goes first.
- Time to teach: about 10 minutes.
- Reading and language: Ship cards and Power cards carry short English instructions, and the rules sheet is in English. The Beginner game in the rules leaves out the Power cards and the ship powers, so younger children and players who don't read English only need to recognise pegs and numbers. We found no Hindi edition.
How to play Battleship Card Game · Triple S Games
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A turn, step by step
- 1Search
Play a White Peg card on any face-down card in your opponent's grid; it is turned face up to show a miss or a ship.
- 2Hit
Slide Red Peg cards under a revealed ship; when its pegs reach the number on the ship card, it sinks. Power cards and ship powers add shields, repairs and extra plays.
- 3Reload
End your turn by drawing back up to five cards, or seven while your Aircraft Carrier is revealed and afloat.
- 4Win
Sink all five of your opponent's ships first to win.
The full explanation: how a game of Battleship Card Game goes
On your turn you play one Battle card, then draw back up to five. To search, play a White Peg card on any face-down card in your opponent's grid: they turn it over, and it stays face up for the rest of the game. A miss does nothing; a ship can now be attacked. Red Peg cards go under a revealed ship, and each peg printed on them is a hit; each ship card shows how many hits sink it, and you can add more red cards on later turns. You can also search with a Red Peg card, which scores its hits at once if it finds a ship. When your draw pile runs out, shuffle your discards to make a new one.
Every ship has a power from the moment it is revealed until it sinks. The Submarine can only be damaged by White Peg cards; the PT Boat lets you take one peg card off one of your damaged ships at the start of your turn; the Destroyer lets your White Peg cards do damage too; the Battleship adds one peg to each of your Red Peg cards in play; and the Aircraft Carrier raises your hand to seven cards. Power cards give you a Shield to protect a revealed ship, a choice of discarding White Peg cards or playing two more cards, or a choice of repairing a ship or drawing three cards and playing one.
The first player to sink all five enemy ships wins. For younger players, the Beginner rules take the Power cards out of both decks and ignore the ship powers, which leaves a simple game of searching and hitting. A tip from Hasbro's rules: your 4-peg card sinks any ship except the Aircraft Carrier in one go, but on its own on the Carrier it can be removed by a Repair card.
How it differs from the board game: there are no plastic cases, no 10 x 10 grid to call out and no choosing where to hide your fleet, because the shuffle decides where your ships sit. In their place you get a hand of cards to plan with, ship powers, and defences such as shields and repairs. Both versions are for two players aged 7 and up and take about the same time, but the card game packs into a far smaller box.
What's in the box
- 24Coordinate cards
12 per fleet (red and blue): five Ship cards (Submarine, PT Boat, Destroyer, Battleship and Aircraft Carrier) and seven Miss cards - 52Battle cards
26 per fleet: White Peg, Red Peg and Power cards - 4Reference cards
two per player - 1Rules sheet
in English, with Beginner Game Rules and strategy tips
From Hasbro's E7971 rules sheet (2019 print, © 2018), which lists 80 playing cards: 24 Coordinate, 52 Battle and 4 reference cards. Hasbro's product record also gives 80 playing cards and game rules. The rules don't say how many of each kind of Battle card there are.
Where to buy
How to make sure you get a genuine copyEditions and the details worth checking.
What reviewers and players say
There are few published reviews of the Battleship Card Game. The fullest comes from the Riffle Shuffle & Roll channel, whose presenter played it with his wife: both liked it, saying it adds just enough choice to Battleship while staying simple, and their games usually lasted about 20 minutes. Rules guides describe it as a fast two-player game that keeps Battleship's search-and-sink idea but deals the fleet at random instead of hiding it on a grid. A rules question on Reddit shows that the reshuffle rule is easy to miss.
What people love
- Games are quick, usually about 20 minutes
- More choices than classic Battleship, from ship powers to shields and repairs
- Still simple, with a Beginner game for younger children
- A small deck that is easy to take along
Common complaints
- The rules leave some players unsure what happens when a draw pile runs out (you shuffle your discards and keep going)
- It plays differently from the board game: no calling out squares, and the shuffle decides where your ships are
Based on 4 reviews and discussions
- Review A Battle for the Sea (u/marksball of Riffle Shuffle & Roll, March 2021) · Reddit r/cardgames
- Players Battleship Card Game rule clarification needed (u/schmuttzdecke, January 2024) · Reddit r/boardgames
- Reference Battleship Card Game rules (Mark Ball, March 2021) · Game Rules
- Reference Battleship Card Game, item E7971 (Hasbro product record) · Hasbro consumer care
Summarised in our own words from the sources above. We don't use Amazon reviews or ratings.
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Why consider it | This game Battleship's hunt-and-sink duel as a quick, pocket-sized two-player card game | A different fit The original board game, with plastic cases, pegs and grid coordinates | A different fit Another quick Hasbro card version of a war classic, with dice battles | A different fit A fast card version of a long Hasbro board game |
| Players | 2 | 2 | 2–5 | 2–5 |
| Best with | 2 | 2 | 3-4 | 3-5 |
| Play time | 15–20 min | 20–30 min | 20–30 min | 15–30 min |
| Age | 7+ | 7+ | 10+ | 8+ |
| Rules | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Indian edition | Imported | Available | Available | Available |
| On this page | Explore Battleship | Explore Risk Strike | Explore Monopoly Deal |
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Questions people ask about Battleship Card Game
What is the difference between Battleship and the Battleship Card Game?
The board game gives each player a plastic case, five ships and pegs, and you call out squares like 'D-4' to find a fleet your opponent placed. The card game uses 80 cards instead: ships are shuffled face down among misses, you search for them and hit them with peg cards, and each ship has a special power. Both are for two players aged 7 and up.
How many cards are in the Battleship Card Game?
80: 24 Coordinate cards, 52 Battle cards and 4 reference cards, split into a red fleet and a blue fleet of 40 cards each. Each fleet has five ship cards and seven miss cards to lay out, plus 26 Battle cards to draw from.
Can young children play the Battleship Card Game?
Hasbro rates it for ages 7 and up. The rules include a Beginner game that removes the Power cards and ignores the ship powers, so younger players only need to search for ships and count pegs. The ship and Power cards carry short English instructions, which an adult may need to read out at first.
What happens when your draw pile runs out?
Shuffle your discard pile to make a new draw pile and carry on. The game only ends when one player has sunk all five of the other player's ships.
Is the Battleship Card Game made in India?
We couldn't confirm it. The listing behind our Amazon.in link gives India as the country of origin and names Hasbro India Toys, Mumbai, but the box back shown in an Indian store's listing is Hasbro's North American print, marked Made in China. The game inside is the same either way; check the label on the box if it matters to you.
Game facts
- Publisher
- Hasbro (Hasbro Gaming)
- In India
- Hasbro India Toys Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai (importer named on the Amazon.in listing)
- First published
- 2019
- Players
- 2
- Barcode
- 630509875719
- Language
- Some English – Ship cards and Power cards carry short English instructions, and the rules sheet is in English. The Beginner game in the rules leaves out the Power cards and the ship powers, so younger children and players who don't read English only need to recognise pegs and numbers. We found no Hindi edition.
Sources & photo creditsThe references behind this guide.
Facts on this page come from the publisher, the Indian maker or distributor, and the sources below. Photos are credited under each one.
- Hasbro consumer care – Battleship Card Game, item E7971 (contents, barcode, photos)
- Hasbro – Battleship Card Game rules, item E7971 (PDF)
- Hasbro instructions – Battleship Card Game (UK page for item E7971)
- Game Rules – Battleship Card Game (Mark Ball, March 2021)
- Toycra – Hasbro Gaming Battleship Card Game (E7971, barcode)
- Crossword – Battleship Card Game (barcode, box-back photo)
- Reddit r/boardgames – Battleship Card Game rule clarification needed (January 2024)