Striking the colors

Imagine you are playing a game with a friend and you both have different colored flags. When you want to say that you give up and don't want to play anymore, you can "strike your flag" which means you take down your colored flag and show that you don't want to play anymore. The other person can then see your flag is down and know you don't want to play anymore. This is kinda like "striking the colors" on a ship which means the ship is surrendering or giving up in a battle. When a ship strikes its colors, it is like taking down its colored flag and showing the other ship that they don't want to fight anymore. This is a way for ships to communicate in a battle and avoid more fighting and harm to the crew.