Ask The World Radio Battleship

1. Application and free participation

These rules apply to Ask The World Radio Battleship sessions. The applicable calendar entry or organizer announcement may state the date, time, time zone, registration deadline, game code, eligibility, prize information, and organizer.

Participation is free. A donation does not provide priority registration, additional fleets, improved placement, preferential verification, or any other advantage.

2. Session setup and registration

Each session uses a 10 by 10 grid, coordinates A1 through J10, five ships occupying 17 total hull cells, and one fleet per registered player.

Select the correct organizer or enter the announced game code. While registration is open, enter the radio name or nickname the organizer will recognize. The server assigns one unique four-digit Fleet Seed. Registration becomes final when the organizer locks the roster. Only entries in that locked roster are eligible.

3. Deterministic fleet generation

The official algorithm is ATW-BATTLESHIP-2. The game key and Fleet Seed deterministically place the Carrier, Battleship, Cruiser, Submarine, and Destroyer horizontally or vertically without overlap.

The server stores the compact Fleet Seed and reconstructs the same fleet when needed. A player may not replace or regenerate a fleet after registration locks.

4. Official coordinate calls

The organizer calls one coordinate to every player using A1 through J10 or its spoken form, such as Echo-4. The logical caller may recommend a coordinate using only results from calls already made. It receives no uncalled ship positions.

The non-reversed server call history is authoritative. Players may tap coordinates on their private boards for immediate local HIT or MISS feedback. Those local marks do not create official calls or determine outcomes. Players may refresh the page to load the latest official history.

5. Hits, misses, and sunk ships

A called fleet coordinate is a hit, and called open water is a miss. A ship is sunk when every hull cell assigned to that ship appears in the official call history. A fleet is eliminated when all 17 occupied cells across all five ships have been officially called.

Active fleet layouts remain private in the all-fleet organizer status. An eliminated fleet may be reconstructed and displayed for review.

6. Elimination claims and verification

When the final ship sinks, the player should promptly announce the registered radio name and four-digit Fleet Seed. The organizer selects that exact locked registration.

The server reconstructs the fleet and compares it only with the non-reversed official call history. Player marks, screenshots, memory, and verbal descriptions are not authoritative. A verified elimination is persisted with the call sequence and verifier. If undo makes it invalid, the record is reversed.

7. Official winner and no-winner outcomes

In a session with two or more registered fleets, the only fleet still active after an official call is the last-fleet-standing winner.

If one official call eliminates every remaining fleet simultaneously, no surviving fleet exists and no winner is declared. If a one-player fleet is eliminated, the solo session completes without declaring a last-fleet-standing winner.

The server persists the outcome, publishes it to organizer and player pages, and disables further coordinate calls. The organizer may undo the final coordinate to correct the official history. Undo reverses the outcome and reopens calling.

8. Fair play and conduct

Players may not create replacement fleets after locking, use more than one Fleet Seed, register another person without authorization, alter the application, falsely report elimination, impersonate another player, deliberately interfere, or attempt to discover another active fleet.

The organizer may disqualify a player for a material violation when the decision has a reasonable and documented basis.

9. Technical interruptions and recovery

Poclink, cellular networks, Wi-Fi, internet service, browsers, hosting, radios, and participant devices may experience delay or failure. The organizer may stop calls, resume, reschedule, restart, or cancel when a problem materially affects fairness or verification.

The locked roster, Fleet Seeds, registration fingerprint, non-reversed call history, elimination records, and outcome history should be preserved when practical. Players should refresh the page after service is restored and compare their board with the official call history.

10. Privacy

A player’s radio name, Fleet Seed, registration status, elimination status, and winner status may be announced or displayed while administering the session. Active fleet layouts are not published in the organizer status or player-facing outcome.

Do not submit home addresses, telephone numbers, government identifiers, financial information, passwords, or other sensitive personal information through the game or public radio group.

11. Platform and service disclaimer

Ask The World is an independent, member-run community. Radio Battleship is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Poclink, Meta, Bluehost, Google, any radio manufacturer, or any cellular carrier. These services do not judge or verify results.

12. Changes, cancellation, and interpretation

The organizer may clarify these rules before registration closes for fairness, security, operations, or legal compliance. After locking, material changes should be limited to technical failure, fraud, safety, legal requirements, or events beyond reasonable control and should be announced through the same channels used for the session.

Registering and participating constitutes acceptance of this version of the rules and the applicable session announcement. The server’s authoritative roster, call, elimination, and outcome records control the community game.