A BattleShipper
Dinghy is a game that aims to be battleship++. The design is to keep some of the most fun elements, and make the decision making more engaging.
To keep:
The randomness: Battleship without blind, random guesses just isn't battleship
The tracking: Trying to track down the location of an enemy ship once you've got your first hit is very satisfying.
To improve:
The choices: Battleship only asks you 1 question each turn. "Where?". The aim is to change that to "what, and where?".
Giving the player more choices in actions beyond "shoot" vastly broadens the strategy of the game.
The flexibility: A core part of battleship is the rigid gameboard after initial setup. While that must stay to a degree,
the player should be able to adapt their board as the game plays out.
The comebacks: Battleship doesn't have very strong comeback mechanics. Who ever gets lucky first is mostly likely to win.
While comebacks shouldn't be easy, they can be extremely difficult in too high a % of games.