Sea Battle

Two hidden fleets, two grids, and a lot of guessing. Sea Battle is the classic pencil and paper game many people know as Battleship: call out a square, hear “hit” or “miss”, and slowly close in on your opponent’s ships.

The paper version has one weak spot: you have to trust the other player to say “hit” honestly. In GroupGames.ai the app hides both fleets and calls every shot, so the only thing left to argue about is who is the better admiral.

Create a crew and play

At a glance

Players	2, each on their own phone (the rest of the crew watches)
Board	6 by 6
Fleet	3 ships: Cruiser (3 squares), Destroyer (2), Patrol boat (2)
Turn	No timer. Players take turns shot by shot
Match	1 to 5 rounds

How to play

Each player secretly places their ships on their own grid. Ships go in straight lines across or down. They may touch but cannot overlap.
When both fleets are locked in, players take turns firing at one square on the opponent’s grid.
A shot is either a hit or a miss. When every square of a ship has been hit, that ship is sunk.
Turns alternate after every shot, hit or miss.
The first player to sink the whole enemy fleet wins the round.

How it works in GroupGames.ai

Fleet placement screen with three shaded ships on a 6 by 6 grid — Place your ships and rotate them, or let the app arrange them for you. Your layout survives a reload until you tap Lock in fleet.

Firing screen showing hits with flames, misses as splashes and a sunk ship — Tap a square on the enemy grid to fire. Hits burn, misses splash, and sunk ships appear as wrecks. The app enforces turns, so nobody can fire twice.

Round result revealing both fleets and the winner — When a fleet goes down, both boards are revealed to everyone and the winner scores.

Scoring

Sink the whole enemy fleet: 10 points.
Points go on the crew leaderboard with every other game.

What makes ours different

No cheating possible. Your fleet lives only on your phone and the server. Your opponent and the spectators see only the hits, misses and sunk ships, never your hidden ships, until the round is over.
Quick rounds. A 6 by 6 grid with three ships means a round takes minutes, not half an hour. Perfect between party games.
Spectators. The rest of the crew can follow the battle and send reactions.
Works on foldables and small phones. The board is sized to fit every screen we have tested, folded or unfolded.

Strategy: how to win at Sea Battle

Hunt on a checkerboard. Every ship is at least two squares long, so you only need to fire at every other square to find them all. That halves your searching.

Switch to target mode after a hit. Fire at the squares next to the hit until you find the direction, then follow the line until the ship sinks.

Use the edges wisely when placing. Players tend to aim for the middle first. Ships along the edges and corners often survive longer, but do not always hide them there, or a smart opponent will learn.

Remember touching ships. In our rules ships may touch, so a long run of hits could be two ships side by side.

Ways to play

Best of three. Set the match to three rounds. The winner of the most rounds takes the crown.

Winner stays on. After each match, the winner picks the next challenger.

Spectator predictions. Let the crew guess where the last ship is hiding and cheer the shots.

A short history

The ship hunting guessing game is older than any box it has come in. Russian officers are said to have played a pencil version before the First World War, and it spread as a paper game through the early 20th century. The first commercial version, Salvo, was published in 1931, and others followed through the 1930s and 1940s. A plastic peg board edition from 1967 made it a family classic around the world, and an electronic version with sound effects followed in 1977. A home computer version appeared as early as 1979.

Battleship is a trademark of its owner. GroupGames.ai’s Sea Battle is an independent take on the traditional pencil and paper game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the trademark owner.

FAQ

How many ships are there in Sea Battle? Three: a Cruiser of 3 squares and two 2 square ships, a Destroyer and a Patrol boat. The classic big board version uses five ships of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares on a 10 by 10 grid.

Can ships touch? Yes, in our version ships may touch, but they cannot overlap or bend.

Do you get another turn after a hit? No. Turns alternate after every shot, hit or miss. Some paper versions give an extra shot after a hit.

How do you play on paper? Each player draws two 10 by 10 grids, one for their own ships and one to track shots. Players call out squares like B4 and answer honestly with hit, miss or sunk.

Can I play Sea Battle on one phone? No. Each player needs their own phone, so neither can see the other’s fleet.

What is the best strategy? Search on a checkerboard pattern, then hunt around every hit. Probability based targeting beats random firing by a wide margin.

How long does a game take? Usually a few minutes per round on our 6 by 6 board.