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Battleships online: sea battle game

Mode

Drag a ship to move it. Tap it, then tap a square to drop it; R or “Rotate” turns it. Keyboard: arrows, Enter to pick up then drop.

    Stats against the computer
    Games
    0
    Wins
    0
    Accuracy
    –
    Best win
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    A classic sea battle in your browser

    This game of battleships online is the pencil-and-paper naval battle: each side hides a fleet on a 10 × 10 grid, columns A to J and rows 1 to 10, then the players take turns firing at the other grid. Sink the whole enemy fleet first and you win. Choose "Against the computer" or "Two players, one device". Nothing is sent: everything stays in your browser, stats included (games, wins, accuracy).

    How to play

    The fleet

    Five ships, 17 squares in total: a carrier (5 squares), a battleship (4), a cruiser (3), a submarine (3) and a destroyer (2). Ships sit horizontally or vertically, never diagonally.

    Placing your ships

    1. Your fleet starts at random. "Random placement" deals a new layout.
    2. Drag a ship to move it, or tap it and then tap the square where its bow should go.
    3. "Rotate (R)" or the R key turns it a quarter turn. On a keyboard, arrows and Enter are enough; Escape drops the selection.
    4. Tap "Start the game".

    Firing and calls

    You fire first by tapping a square on the "Enemy fleet" grid, or with the arrow keys and Enter. Every shot gets a written call and a symbol, not just a colour: "miss" (a dot), "hit" (a cross), "sunk" (a cross on the full hull, now drawn). The computer replies straight away on "Your fleet". Tick "Fire again after a hit" to keep shooting as long as you hit.

    House rules around the world

    Ship names and fleet sizes change from one country to the next. The five-ship fleet used here is the most common in the US and the UK. A version popular in Central and Eastern Europe uses ten smaller ships (one of 4, two of 3, three of 2, four of 1) and forbids ships from touching, even at a corner. Tick "Ships may not touch" to play with that rule: no ship can sit next to another, side by side or diagonally.

    Strategy: hunt, target, calculate

    • Checkerboard hunting. The smallest ship is 2 squares long, so it always covers one dark and one light square of a checkerboard. Firing on one colour only finds every ship within 50 shots.
    • Targeting around a hit. After a hit, try the four squares next to it. Once two hits line up, extend the line at both ends.
    • Probabilities. On an empty grid the carrier has 120 possible positions. Corner A1 is covered by only 2 of them, square E5 by 10, so E5 is five times more likely.

    The computer's three levels follow these ideas. "Easy" fires at random. "Medium" hunts at random, then targets the squares around a hit. "Hard" fires at the square that fits the most possible positions of the remaining ships. Over 1,000 simulated games they need about 95, 60 and 45 shots on average to sink a randomly placed fleet (about 95, 50 and 39 when ships may not touch).

    Two players, or on paper

    In "Two players, one device" mode, each player places a fleet and then passes the device. Between turns a handover screen removes both grids from the page. To play on paper, "Print two blank grids" prints one grid for your fleet, one for your shots and a ship checklist.

    FAQ

    Who goes first?

    You do, against the computer. In two-player mode, Player 1 starts.

    Does the computer cheat?

    No. It only knows its own shots and your calls, like a player with a paper grid, and it never fires twice at the same square.

    What happens if I close the page?

    The game is saved in your browser. Come back and it resumes at the same shot; in two-player mode the handover screen shows first.

    Can I turn the sound off?

    Yes, untick "Sounds". The sounds are short and only play after a shot.