You Sank My Battleship

Quality family bonding time is highly treasured at our home. Take for instance last week when we had a few minutes to burn and we wanted to make some lasting memories. So, we decided to indulge ourselves in a rousing game of online Battleship. Thank goodness that I had all four of my children helping me make all of the important tactical decisions. Admiral Nimitz in all of his glory could not have had as good of advisers in the Second World War.

At first it looked like disaster for my small little team. The adversary, Luckygirl208, seemed too great a foe for us to handle. We were down 4 ships to 1 before we knew what hit us. We had to act fast and hard, but it looked like time was running out on us. Fortunately, our Battle Cruiser was well hidden.

This is when the greatest of Harris brain power kicked in. All the little munchkins took right over and started barking out orders left and right. We got our first significant hits, the other side missed. One by one we continued to get hits and the other side missed. The enemy stepped it up a notch and started to systematically eliminate any spaces on the board that would allow a three-spaced ship to hide.

We had momentum on our side, it was looking like we just might have a chance until it happened. Luckgirl208 hit the middle of my cruiser. It seemed that all was lost. We had not as yet located their last ship: the dreaded, and hard to hit PT boat. We pulled together our collective brain power, studied the charts, and made the best educated guess that we could to hit that dang little critter. Splash! we missed.

They were next. They had a choice, left or down. Splash! They chose....unwisely. In desperation Little Andrew took over and made me, against my better judgment, make a choice right in the middle of the board. Hit! He was right, against all odds we hit the PT.

It was their turn again. No guessing this time. There were only two places that they could actually go. Hit on the top and hit on the bottom. They chose top. Hit! There next shot would sink the last of our fleet down to the bottom of the Hasbro ocean.

It was our final chance. We had two choices: left or down. The same choice that the enemy had only just moments ago made wrong. Rachel, with full confidence suggested down. She said that Luckygirl208 always chose the position of a PT as vertical in the bottom half of the hour (I later found out that this was a total bluff, as she would have not known who the heck Luckygirl208 was, anyway).

I hesitated, first thinking of going down, then changing my thought to left. Time was running out. Did I have it in me to make the tough choice? The clock clicked down: 5,4,3,2. With final resolve, I hit the key. I chose....down. Hit! We had sunk the boat, and the last of the enemy fleet went to the bottom. We had won. Achieving the greatest 'come from behind' victory in the history of Battleship. There was jumping up and down, hugs, and high-five's all around.

We all came a little bit closer to each other that day.