How to play Sea Battle

Two players, a sea of ten squares by ten each, and a fleet of ships hidden in it. Take turns naming a square of the other player's sea, and the first to sink the whole of the other fleet wins.

It began as a paper game, two sheets of squared paper and a pencil, and Russia still calls it Морской бой. The boxed game with plastic pegs came later.

Players: 2
What you need: Two seas of ten squares by ten, and a fleet each
How long: A game takes ten minutes or so

What Sea Battle is

Sea Battle is a game for two. Each player has a sea of a hundred squares, letters across and numbers down, and hides a fleet of ships in it, each ship a line of squares across or down.

Neither may see the other's sea. You find the ships by firing at squares, one shot at a time, and hearing whether you hit.

A fleet of ten, placed. The other player sees none of it.

Placing your fleet

Your fleet starts laid out at random. Most people keep it and press Ready.
To move a ship, tap it to pick it up, then tap the square of water where its front should go. Tap a ship you have picked up to turn it.
Ships may not lie on each other, and in the paper game's fleet they may not touch, not even at a corner. A move that would break that is refused.

Both players place at once. On one phone, each places theirs in turn behind a screen that hides it, and after that the phone can lie between you: from then on both seas show only shots and sunk ships.

Firing

On your turn, tap a square of the large sea, which is the other player's. A white peg means the shot fell in the water. A red peg on a yellow burst means it hit a ship.

When every square of a ship has been hit, it sinks, and it is shown. In the paper game's fleet ships never touch, so the squares round a sunk ship cannot hold another, and they are dotted for you.

Your own fleet is in the small sea, with the other player's shots in it. The square shot last is ringed in both.

Misses are white pegs, a hit a red one, and a sunk ship is shown with the empty squares round it dotted.

What a hit tells you

A hit says a ship is there and not where it ends. The next shots go beside it, until a second hit shows which way the ship lies, and then along that line until it sinks.

One hit, and the squares worth trying next are ringed. The square below it is already a miss.

In the paper game's fleet a hit also clears the four squares on the slant from it, since ships are straight lines and never touch. Use that before you guess.

How a game ends

The first to sink every ship of the other fleet wins. Then both fleets are shown, so you can see where the last ships were hiding. There are no draws.

The two fleets

Two ways to play, chosen on the game page.

The paper game's fleet: one ship of four squares, two of three, three of two and four of one, twenty squares in all, and no two ships touching.
The boxed game's fleet: five ships of five, four, three, three and two squares, which may lie side by side.

And after a hit: in the paper game you shoot again, and keep shooting until you miss. In the boxed game the turn passes whatever happens. The paper game's way is the default here.

A match

A match is one, three or five games, chosen on the game page. One is the usual setting, because a game takes ten minutes or so.

In a match the first shot goes back and forth between games, and whoever wins more games wins the match.

Playing better

Do not fire at random. Fire on a chequer: every other square catches every ship of two or more.
Once you hit, finish the ship before you hunt for the next one.
Hide your ships away from each other and away from the obvious edges, where a careful player looks first.
Late in the game, count what is left. A ship of four cannot fit in a gap of three.

Settings

Everything on the game page, before you press Play.

Setting	Standard	What it changes
Who is playing	With bots	With bots sets you against a bot. On this phone seats two people, who place their fleets in turn behind a screen and then share the phone. Friends online plays over a link. Watch the bots, the link under the button, sets two bots against each other.
Games	1	One, three or five games. Every game of the match is played.
Difficulty	Medium	Easy fires at random and often forgets a ship it has hit. Medium hunts on a chequer and finishes every ship it hits. Hard works out, for every square, how many ways the ships left could lie across it, and fires where that is highest.
The fleet	Ten ships that never touch (the paper game)	Ten ships that never touch, or five that may, as described above.
After a hit	Shoot again	Shoot again after a hit, or let the turn pass whatever happens.

The words

Sea Battle (समुद्री लडाइँ): The paper game Russia calls Морской бой, played around the world.
Square (कोठा): One of the hundred places in a sea, named by a letter across and a number down, as B7.
Hit (लाग्यो): A shot that found a ship. A red peg.
Miss (चुक्यो): A shot into empty water. A white peg.
Sunk (डुब्यो): A ship hit on every one of its squares.

Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.