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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!greg
From: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Newsgroups: net.games
Subject: Re: 'Battleship' game discussion
Message-ID: <2280@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 15:35:53 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsri.2280
Posted: Wed Mar  5 15:35:53 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Mar-86 15:43:03 EST
References: <311@drivax.UUCP>
Reply-To: greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith)
Distribution: net
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 61
Summary: 

[Line-Eater McNugget]

I worked out an interesting variation of battleship, which may not
be original, but is described herein.

(1) players arrange their ships secretly. The arrangement is completely
 irrelevant, as you will see soon. However, any rules you want to
 observe about adjacency should be observed. I like to allow diagonal
 touching only.

(2) player A makes a guess. Player B must record the guess if it
 is a miss. If it is a hit, player B is allowed to move his/her ships
 around, as long as (a) all previously recorded misses are still misses
 (b) no ship which has been 'hit' once may be moved (c) the adjacency rules
 are observed.  If the shot can be made into a 'miss', it is called
 a miss and recorded.

Step two is repeated and sides alternate. Sooner or later, it will
be impossible to arrange _all_ your ships so that _none_ are hit,
and you must give the enemy a 'hit'. The ship hit cannot move, even
after it is sunk.

Since this game is indistinguishable from a regular game between
two unscrupulous but careful players, I call it 'Cheat Battleship'.

I have played this a number of times and it is very interesting
( Note: you need a lot of pegs! ).
The defensive strategy is not as simple as it might seem. If you
only give up a hit at the last possible moment, then your opponent
can exercise a great deal of choice as to where your ships are
when he hits them ! ( at least the big ones, anyway). He can
arrange, for example, that your two big ships are NOT alongside
each other, with only one row between. You, of course, want this adjacency,
since it eliminates fewer 'hiding' places because of the overlap.

There is a game called 'Mastermind' where the defensive player
chooses a combination of coloured pegs and the offensive player makes
'guesses'. The defensive player must provide information as to
how close each guess is.

'Cheat Mastermind' can be played by allowing the defensive player
to change his secret pegs before scoring each guess, while making sure
that all previous scorings given are still valid for the new combination.
This can get very confusing!

Both of these 'Cheat' variations have the advantage that they remove
a large amount of luck from the games.

Have Fun!

PS_1: The Battleship 'Salvo Variation' described in the BattleShip
      rules sounds almost unplayable to me. Any commments?
PS_2: I will explain the rules for Mastermind and 'Cheat Mastermind'
      on this board if there is demand.
PS_3: To Bruce Holloway: _Please_ don't post programs with things
      like __BDOS() in them without saying what computer(s) and compiler(s)
      they are for.
-- 
"So this is it. We're going to die."	- Arthur Dent
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Greg Smith     University of Toronto       ..!decvax!utzoo!utcsri!greg