"In fact, I wrote a little code to generate random Battleship boards, and counted where each of the ships appeared." A knowledgeable opponent will have a tende

"In fact, I wrote a little code to generate random Battleship boards, and counted where each of the ships appeared." A knowledgeable opponent will have a tendency to place ships such that they're not touching each other, else the second ship might be hit while trying to sink the first ship. A full analysis of the problem would also generate optimized search patterns, and explore possible countermeasures. It's also not clear whether to dedicate your turns to sinking ships that have been hit, or searching for new ships. If and when turns can accomplish both, an advantage is gained. Another interesting aspect would be to look a dataset of ship placement and search strategies from human games.