Made in Studio by @dwood

Char Wars

Battleship on the barbecue: hide your food, throw charcoal, burn your rival's grill first.

2–4 players · 15 min

Char Wars is Battleship with a cookout theme. Each player gets a private grill grid and secretly arranges six foods on it: a long bratwurst, a hot dog, corn on the cob, a kebab skewer, a veggie patty, and a lone burger. Foods lie in straight lines, horizontal or vertical, and can't overlap. Once everyone is ready, players take turns lobbing a single lump of charcoal at one square of an opponent's grill. You learn only 'sizzle' (hit) or 'ash' (miss), plus an announcement when a food is completely charred. Cover every square of a player's food and their grill is toast: they're eliminated and their layout is revealed. With 2 players it's a straight duel; with 3 or 4 it's a free-for-all where you pick which rival to pelt each turn, and the last grill with edible food wins. No powers, no special weapons, just deduction, memory, and the sweet smell of someone else's burnt dinner.

How to play

Be the last player with at least one unburnt square of food. A player is eliminated the moment every square of every one of their foods has been hit. In a 2-player duel, the first person to fully char the opponent's loadout wins.

How a game goes

Setup
The host picks grid size (default 10x10), loadout (default Classic six foods), and timers. Seats are shuffled with the room's seeded random to set turn order, shown to everyone as a grill-side lineup.
Step 1
PLACEMENT (simultaneous, timer = Placement seconds, default 90s): each player taps a food in their tray, taps a grid square to drop it, and uses the Rotate toggle for vertical or horizontal. Tapping a placed food picks it back up.
Step 2
TARGET SELECT (active player only, part of the shot clock): with 3 or 4 players the active player taps an opponent tab to choose whose grill to attack; eliminated players' tabs are closed. With 2 players the only opponent is preselected.
Step 3
THROW (active player, timer = Shot clock, default 30s): the active player taps one un-fired square on the target grid, then taps THROW to confirm. Other players see a 'Grilling...' status and their own boards.
RESOLVE (about 3s, all players)
The square flips to a glowing char mark (hit) or a grey ash dot (miss) with a sizzle or fizzle animation. The shooter's tracking grid updates.
BURNT CHECK
If the shot covered the last square of a food and Announce burnt food is on, a banner names it ('Corn on the Cob is burnt!') plus its owner.
Step 6
EXTRA SHOT (only if Hit = throw again is on): if the shot was a hit and at least two players still have food, the active player immediately returns to TARGET SELECT for another throw with a fresh shot clock. Misses end the turn.
And then
PASS: turn passes to the next living player in seat order, skipping eliminated players, and play loops back to TARGET SELECT. GAME OVER: when only one player still has unburnt food, they win.

Tips

Secret information: Each player's food layout is secret until they are eliminated or the match ends.

Drafted from the game's design notes. The game itself has the final say.

A player designed this game and Claude built it, so it may have rough edges. Something wrong with it? Report this game.