Human Battleship | Fantastic Youth Game

Having a good youth game up your sleeves is always handy. One of the favorites we do often is “Human Battleship”. It’s a fun take on the classic board-game “Battleship” and is great for small to mid size groups, and can even be tailored to work for large groups.

Youth Game Name: Human Battleship

Items Required: Light Ball (for Missiles), Objects to divide room into 2 sides and keep from viewing of each other.

Optional Items: Masking Tape (or some other marker) to set boundaries.

Number of Players: 6+ for most fun

Instructions for “Human Battleship” Youth Group Game:

Setup:

Get your play area ready for “Human Battleship” by dividing the space into two sections. It is best if the objects used to divide the room are tall enough to keep the sides from viewing each other. We use 2 PVC room dividers that we threw together. See the image for a template of it. I’ve seen other groups stack chairs and bunch them together. If you need to get creative, do so. As long as the two sides can’t see each other, and they can toss a ball over to the other side, you are good to go.

You’ll also need at least 1 light ball to use as a missile. We use two Water Soaker Footballs as they are lightweight and difficult to cause damage or injury with, yet dense enough to be thrown a good distance. We also put a little masking tape around it to be able to be tossed a little further with ease.

Optionally you can use masking tape (or some other kind of marker) to set boundaries in the shape of a tennis court.

Rules:

• Divide into two teams. Have each team take a side and explain the rules of the game.
• At the start of every round, all players must pick a position on their side to place themselves (the Human battleship). They do so by sitting down on their butt or laying down on their back. The choice is yours. The catch is they must stay in that location the entire round, or until sunk.
• Once each player has picked their position, the round begins. Give one side the missile(s) to start, and they choose a player(s) to “fire” over the divider into “enemy territory”. If the missile hits an enemy target, that player is “sunk” and must move to the sidelines. Once missiles are fired from one team, the other team goes next. Repeat until one team is the victor of that round. Play as many rounds as you wish.
• One variation we do to keep the “sunk” players involved is let them give “verbal commands” to direct their teammates to hit enemy targets. This also helps speed the game along. We don’t let players catch the ball to prevent themselves being sunk. We also usually play “direct hit” only, so if the ball bounces, or ricochets, into a player, it doesn’t sink them. But that is your choice.