Let’s Learn to Play Battle Shots Drinking Game the DIY Way

I was huge fan of the game battleships as a kid. With my passion for playing any game that involves partying and drinking, Battle shots is top of my list.

As an authority on how to play battle shots, just follow my instructions. The aim of battle Shots is sink all your opponent’s battleships by guessing the location. Each player secretly places their battleships on a gird. The battleship consists of a destroyer, submarine and a battleship. Each player calls out a coordinate. If you have hit the player drinks a shot.

If I don’t have a friend over, Claire has no choice but to play Battle shots with me. I don’t like to admit it but she has beaten me lots of times and it makes her day.

The game itself is simple to play and the rules easy to follow. I have set out easy to follow instructions, clearing written. This does involve either buying or building your own battle shots game board but that’s easily done

Battle Shots Set Up

What you need

• Battleships game set
• Or Do It Yourself Battle shot Game board
• Battleships
• Shots
• Alcohol
• Depending on the Battle shot set you may need: pen and paper to track hit and miss

 The Battle Ships

 There are 5 battleships made up with shots

It is up to you how many you use in a game but as an example I play with the following Battleships based on the original game

• 1 x Carrier          =      5 Shots
• 2 x Battleship    =     4 Shots
• 1 x Cruiser         =      3 Shots
• 2 x Destroyer    =      2 Shots
• 2 x Submarine =      1 Shots

 Battle Shot Grid

 The grid is your battle shots board made up of:

• Letters A-J and Numbers 1-10
• These are Vertical on the Left and horizontal either on the top or bottom
• The shots sit on the grid

 Set Up

• Secretly place your battleships on your grid
• They are placed vertically and horizontally
• Fill your shot glasses with alcohol – the strength and variety is up to you.

Ready to play Battle Shots

• Flip a coin to see who goes first – Heads goes first
• Call out the coordinate position of where you believe your opponent has placed his/her Battleships
• Give you a hint – this is a guess
• For Example – C6
• Opponent to call out if he has been hit or missed
• Track your guesses with Red marker for a hit (X) and a Green marker (0)
• With a hit your opponents ship drink the shot.

How to Track and score your Hits and Misses

How you track your attacks on your opponent will depend on what battle shots game set you are using.

• Made your own – Download and Print off a gird
• Draw one on your home-made battle shots game
• Bought a set – There will be some form of score sheet with the set
• Track your score with Red marker for a hit (X) and a Green marker (0)

End of Game

• The game end when 1 player has sunk all their opponent’s battleships

Play Again

To play a 2^nd round just rebuild the ships and put them in new locations

Build your own Battle Shots Game or Buy

The quick and easy way is to buy. There are some cheap but very basic sets available. You will get what you pay for!

These ready to go games are a good way for you to try out battle shots but due to the fact that they are so basic;  you don’t get the full experience as you would if you had the complete Battle shots set up

Here are a few examples of what is available to buy

DIY Battle shots

 There are some amazing home-made battle shots boards that people who absolutely love this game have made. I modelled my own off a picture I found and it works for me

Boats and shots

Here you have 2 options

Option 1

• Use a square from the foam mats and cut out you battle ships.
• For the carrier, it will need it to be 5 squares (or 5 inches) long and 1 square (1inch) wide. Battleship 4, Cruiser 3 Destroyer 2 and Submarine 1
• Once cut out, put your shot glass on top and draw out the circle the size of the glass
• Cut the circle out and fit your shot glass in.

Option 2

• Just put the shot glasses direct on the gird.

You now have you very own battle shots game

I must share with you some of the amazing home-made battle shot games people have made

Battle shots Boats

I am amazed at lengths people have gone to make their own battle shot games boards. But the detail they are gone to to make their shot carrie ships is awesome. Some are made from wood while others are printed from a 3-D, this just shows how huge this drinking game is. Check these out.

Battle shots with Jimmy Fallon

If drinking  games weren’t already popular, Jimmy Fallon has taken them to a whole new level.

If you have not watched any of Jimmy Fallon’s drinking games on his late-night show then take a look. He brings onto his show top celebrities and gets them to play a variety of drinking games.

Here are 2 of his best clips playing battle shots with Chris Pine and Johnny Knox

Battle Ships Beer pong in the pool

Finally Battle shots will a twist. A different type of battle shots known as battleship beer pong and it’s played in the pool. Battle Shots gets transformed into an outdoor pool drinking game with floating battleships.

This is game I have researched but not yet played. Although I have played Beer Pong 100’s of times! But having got all the information, I will be giving it a go. We don’t have pool but we an outdoor area and it can be set up in a similar way.

The idea came from a company called Bradford Games who launched Battleship Beer Pong Pro on Kickstarter. Unfortunately for the company they didn’t get the funding they needed but it seems to a big hit anyway with lots of people building their own.

• 2+ people
• or 2 Teams 2 – 4 players

How to play

• Form 2 teams or 2 players
• The game is played following the rules of beer pong
• Each team takes it in turn to attempt to throw ping pong balls into the cups
• When a ball lands in a cup the team removes the cup and takes a drink
• Once all the cups are removed that ship is sunk!
• Play until all ships have been sunk
• Feel free to add new rules as you play

Here are a few options of making your own Battle Ship Beer Pong

Here are the links to the images and resources if you wish to build your own Battleships Beer Pong

• Floating Black Frame – Alibaba
• How to build Floating battle ships – Cubbies Entertainment
• Battleship Beer Pong Pro – Kickstart If it gets funding in the future
• Floatation IQ – Floating Beer Pong Table

Hi, my Name is Ethan, my partner Claire and I designed Keg of Wisdom to provide entertainment. We do not support excessive alcohol, irresponsible behaviour, drink driving or underage drinking. We ask that you know your limitations and please drink responsibly