Since my boyfriend is in the military and has been stationed all over the US, a way for us to feel close together is to have our own little game that we play, Battleship.  We bought one game, but we each have our own “game board” or “console” or “battle ship container” or “blue box will all the white and red pieces that hold the grey ships”.  When we get board or miss each other, or are thinking of each other we simply text a move via our cell phones or e-mail or IM and once the other gets a chance, they will check and see if that move is a hit or miss. They will then text their next move back. 

So, the object of Battleship, if you do not know is to place your battleship boats throughout the bottom of your console in areas you think may be hard for the other player to guess.  Once both players have placed all five ships in the bottom of their console, they can not be re-set or moved until the game is over.  Each player takes a turn going back and fourth guessing a coordinate and then marking that coordinate on the top part of their console; white if they miss or red if they hit the other players ship.

Once a player has filled their opponent’s ship with hits, the player must let their opponent know by telling them that ship has been sunk.  Once a player has sunk all 5 of their opponents’ ships, they have won the game. 

While playing long distance, since you are not usually playing within a half hour, it is usually within a time span of a few days, I always mark on the top portion of the console where I have hit or miss (like normal), but then I also mark on the bottom part of the console where my partner has missed (and hit, like normal).  I mark the misses, so that I know how close they are to my ships and also so that if something happens to their game board, I can tell them where they have hit and missed without having to restart the whole entire game.

Once, my boyfriend and I were about to finish the game, we were both on our last ships when he had a room inspection.  He had kept open his Battleship game and left it on his desk while everything else was put away neatly.  The inspectors saw his game open and closed it shut, knocking down all of his pieces.  Luckily I had kept track of all of his moves so that once his room inspection was over he could re-enter in all of his moves so we could finish our game.

This is a great option for friends, family or long distance relationships because it makes you feel like you are close to that person by being able to play a game with them.