Naval strategy game
Sea Battle
Hide your fleet. Hunt theirs.
A naval duel in the style of the iMessage game, on an 8×8, 9×9 or 10×10 sea. Place your fleet in secret, then trade shots until one fleet is gone.
What is Sea Battle?
Each player hides the same fleet on a private grid. On your turn you fire at the enemy waters. A hit lets you shoot again, and you keep firing until you miss; a miss hands the turn to your opponent. A ship with every square hit goes down. Sink the whole enemy fleet first to win.
The server holds both fleets and checks every shot. Your ships are sent only to you, and nobody can fire twice at the same square or out of turn.
How to play
Six steps from an empty room to a rematch.
01
Take a seat
Two seats. Anyone else in the room watches the battle but never sees a fleet.
02
Place your fleet
Pick a ship, drag it onto your grid and watch the preview turn red where it cannot go. Rotate (or R) turns it, Random places the whole fleet and Reset starts over.
03
Lock in
Ready unlocks once every ship is placed. You can unlock until the other captain is ready too.
04
Fire
On your turn tap one square of the enemy waters, then tap it again or press Fire. Hit and you shoot again; miss and the turn passes. A square cannot be fired at twice.
05
Sink ships
When every square of a ship is hit it is sunk and shown in full. You see how many ships each side has left.
06
Win and rematch
Sink every enemy ship to win. Both fleets are revealed at the end, and the host can start a rematch.
Rules
What the server does.
The fleet
- 10×10: one ship of length 4, two of 3, three of 2 and four of 1 (20 squares). 9×9: three of length 4 and five of 3 (27 squares). 8×8: one of length 4, three of 3 and three of 2 (19 squares). The host picks the board and both captains play it.
- Ships go horizontally or vertically and may not overlap or touch: there is always a square of water between them, corners included.
- When a ship sinks, every square around it, corners included, is marked as water with a dot and can no longer be fired at (ships never touch, so those squares are certain water).
- These fleets follow the iMessage game as documented by its community. Apple publishes no fleet table, so they are kept in one place and can be corrected.
Shooting
- A hit, or a sinking, earns another shot. Your turn ends only when you miss, so a run of hits can sweep several ships. The host chooses who starts.
- The server answers hit, miss or sunk. Your opponent's ship squares are never sent to you until a ship is sunk or the game is over.
Clocks
- The placement clock auto-places any ships you have not placed. The turn clock fires a random unfired square if you run out of time.
- Miss three turns in a row and you forfeit.
Settings
The host sets these in the lobby before the game starts. They are fixed once it begins.
Board size
Placement clock
Who shoots first
Turn clock
Playing with others
Sea Battle is a two-player game with no bots.
Watching
Spectators see both grids with every shot, hit and sunk ship, but never an unsunk ship until the game ends.
Ready to play?
Start a room and send the link to your friends.