An ancient, discoloured banner of The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia.
Everyone who's anyone has heard about NationStates 'gameplaying', but what about the newest craze stretching far and wide: Escadian Battleship?
Well, the great minds over at The South Pacific's (TSP) Ministry of Regional Affairs, and notably the genius of the one known as Escade, had another one of their epiphanies. As some of our dear readers may already know, so too was this the day of the fabled battle now residing in scriptures among similar legends; The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia, while speakin' in yarghen, clashed with the Vikings of Violet in the high seas! This resulted in an epic battle of which has legitimised the rule of the scurvy dargs over Escadian Battleship: ringing in our recent memories are the words of Escade that recount, "POWER LEVELS MEAN SCURVY WINS"! This twist on the Battleship board game, drawing inspiration from the XYZ game, shall from now on be referred to as Escadian Battleship by the Rejected Realms (TRR), and we invite our allies to do the same to celebrate the hard work of Escade as an interregional inspiration for expanding and sharing regional and interregional culture! YARG!
Now we turn to the purpose of this article: by explaining what Escadian Battleship entails. It is here that we will outline the rules for two possible versions of this game. A 'classic' gamemode, using the original rules that were reintroduced through Escade in the first ever game played by the NationStates community through discord (note: there were games using the classic rules and dubbed Submarine Warfare played via QuickTopic in the TSP inter-regional games, with the most recent of which being played in 2014 where the Basilisks were defeated by the ferocious Phoenixes), and an 'advanced' gamemode, of which features a more detailed set of rules, with a slightly larger and certainly more ambitious scale.
Classic
Reintroduced to the NationStates community through Escade and TSP, the classic gamemode involves "two teams competing with 4 to 8 total players". Each team must have an even number of players. The game is broken up into three phases. An assignment phase, where ships are numbered from 1 to a maximum of 4 on each side in order; a fog of war operational stage, where ships can move one space each turn, vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and destroy one another upon collision, without knowing where the enemy ships are; and, finally, a radar operational stage, which activates three turns following no combat after the first engagement and shows the positions of enemy ships.
Upon collision, the higher number ships destroy the lower number ships, unless the ships are the same number in which case a draw is declared, and moves are cancelled for that turn. The only exception is that the lowest number ship destroys the highest number ship i.e. 1 destroys 4 on collision. A 6x4 grid is used for the game board, with each player nominating where to move every turn in coordination with the rest of their team. The recommended game board layout is the following:
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| A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 | E1 | F1 |
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| A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 |
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| A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 |
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| A4 | B4 | C4 | D4 | E4 | F4 |
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Advanced
The advanced gamemode adds onto the rules of the classic gamemode. Total players range from 2 to 10, however having the full 10 players is recommended. The ships are broken into five thematic classes, with the 1, 2 and 5 ships having altered rules. The new rules include a boost ability for both 1 and 2 ships, which allow the ships to move two spaces in the same direction for the turn that it is activated. The 1 ships can boost every second turn, meaning that, after a boost is activated, 1 ships have a one-turn cooldown period for the ability. The 2 ships can also boost, but their boost ability has a three-turn cooldown period. A boost is never declared to the enemy ships and can be activated at any time other than during its cooldown period. As for 5 ships, they have a slow speed debuff and an artillery strike ability. The slow down debuff means that 5 ships must take a rest period of one turn after moving, however, while they cannot move, they can still fire during this resting period. While the artillery strike ability allows the 5 ships to shoot a location within a two square radius of its current location with no cooldown period, the 5 ships cannot move while firing. Additionally, the artillery strike ability is considered a combat move and resets the three-turn countdown to the radar operational stage.
Regarding collision rules, 1 ships still destroy 4 ships on collision and 1 and 2 ships destroy 5 ships on collision. In all other cases, the higher numbered ship defeats its enemy upon collision, and the same number rules from the classic gamemode still apply. A 5x9 grid is used for the game board, with each player nominating where to move every turn in coordination with the rest of their team. The recommended game board layout is the following:
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| A1 | B1 | C1 | D1 | E1 | F1 | G1 | H1 | I1 |
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| A2 | B2 | C2 | D2 | E2 | F2 | G2 | H2 | I2 |
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| A3 | B3 | C3 | D3 | E3 | F3 | G3 | H3 | I3 |
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| A4 | B4 | C4 | D4 | E4 | F4 | G4 | H4 | I4 |
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| A5 | B5 | C5 | D5 | E5 | F5 | G5 | H5 | I5 |
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As for the thematic classes of the ships, the following are examples for three different doctrinal periods:
1 - Longship, Submarine, Stealth Corvette
2 - Cog, Escort Destroyer, Frigate
3 - Hulk, Cruiser, Destroyer
4 - Carrack, Battlecruiser, Battleship
5 - Galleon, Dreadnought, Aircraft Carrier
Organising your own teams and themes beforehand is encouraged. For example, the Rejected Realms will be using The Scurvy Knaves of House Teararia.
Games of Escadian Battleship using these two versions will be run for both "A Journey Into Middle Earth - A Tolkien Fellowship Festival" hosted by The South Pacific, the New Pacific Order, the Rejected Realms and Forest, and the "15 Years of TRR and RRA" festivities in the Rejected Realms.
