Sebastian's Spaceships

Me and Sebastian, my five year old, have been playing your spaceship game like this: We each draw three spaceships, paired off across the paper. I roll three dice and put them on my ships in whatever order; he rolls three dice and gets to put them on his ships how he likes. High roll shoots, as usual.

He caught on right away -- I said, "you know, you can put your dice however you want," and I could see his little mind start to work. He decided long ago that on a tie, we both shoot, and that's always been his favorite, so the first thing he does is try for ties. He calls one of his ships his 'chief ship' and favors it, which is good practice for games to come, I think. I've watched him struggle with pretty sophisticated tactical decisions, like should he blow up one of my ships but let his chief ship take a hit, or should he protect his chief ship and miss the chance? It's a delight.

—Vincent Baker
author of Kill Puppies for Satan
March 2002

Thanks. That sounds like a great game.

Tessa and I would sometimes play Spaceship with four little ships instead of one big ship with 4 "hit points."

—JoT
April 2002