How to play - Whale Spotting

Whale Spotting is our simplified take on ‘Battleships’, the classic strategic guessing game between two people. The objective is to find all of the other player's whales before they find yours.

Number of players

2

Age Recommendation:

3-5: Use these pages as a colouring in activity

5-7: Can require some adult assistance

7+: Can play independently

Game Set-up:

Each player hides their whale into their grid however they want. Whales have different sizes and can be placed horizontally or vertically, but cannot overlap, go off the edges or be placed diagonally. The number and size of whales to hide is shown in a guide to the left of the lower grid. We suggest marking the whales location by drawing a line through the boxes as shown.

Fun fact: Dolphins are a member of the whale family... who knew!

How to play:

1. Player 1 starts by guessing one square of their opponent's grid by calling out the letter and number (for example, B4). 
2. Player 2 looks at their grid and indicates whether a whale was spotted or missed. 
3. Next it is Player 2’s turn to guess a square of Player 1.
4. When a player has spotted every square of their opponent’s whale, the opponent reveals which whale they spotted by saying something like, "You found my blue whale".

How to mark guesses:

It is important to keep track of which squares you guess, as well as when your opponent correctly guesses a square of one of your whales. We suggest the below method of recording guesses as the simplest way to locate and keep track.

When you guess a square incorrectly, mark it in the lower grid with an X

When you guess a square correctly, mark it in the lower grid with a O

When your opponent guesses one of your whale's squares correctly, mark it with a O in the upper grid. 

When your opponent announces that you completely spotted one of their whales, place a line through it so that you know that whale was spotted. 

How to win:

The first player to correctly spot all of their opponent’s whales is the winner.