How to play Sea Battle
A practical guide to the objective, legal flow, and decisions that matter in this playable version.
Objective
Sea Battle hides two fleets on separate coordinate grids. Place every ship without overlap, then find and sink the opponent’s fleet by firing at grid squares. The first player to sink every opposing ship wins.
How a turn works
Place one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell patrol boats, or use Randomize fleet. Ships must stay inside the grid and cannot touch, even diagonally. Confirm readiness, then choose an untried coordinate on the enemy grid. A hit earns another shot; a miss passes play to the computer, which follows the same rule.
Strategy that changes the outcome
Use a spaced search pattern while hunting so a multi-cell ship cannot fit between untouched lines. After a hit, switch to target mode, test orthogonal neighbours, establish the ship’s direction, and continue along that line. As ships sink, adjust the search spacing to the lengths still afloat.
First decision: Search with a spacing pattern, then switch to adjacent shots after a hit and account for the lengths of ships still afloat.
A common mistake to avoid
Repeatedly firing near an unconfirmed hunch wastes coverage. Separate hunt mode from target mode: spread shots until a hit provides real information, then finish that ship systematically.
Three useful table habits
- Place ships with varied directions and distance from obvious edges.
- Use coordinates and persistent markers instead of relying on memory.
- After a hit, test only horizontal and vertical neighbours.
A question players ask
Why is my Sea Battle placement invalid?
Every ship must fit inside the grid with at least one water cell separating it from every other ship, including diagonally. Non-overlapping ships can still be too close. Clear the fleet to place ships again, use Rotate before selecting a legal starting cell, or choose Randomize fleet. Start battle becomes available when all ten ships are legally placed.
About this guide
We compare the rules shown in the game with the implemented legal moves, complete representative deals, and review desktop and mobile presentation. If a house rule changes play, the in-game How to play panel takes precedence. Read How games are researched and tested.