Classic Battleship Rules
Classic Battleship is one of the world's most famous and thrilling turn-based strategy and deduction games. The objective is simple: locate and sink all 10 ships in the enemy fleet before the computer manages to sink yours.
This game is continuously evolving: new features and refinements are added regularly. If you spot an issue or have suggestions, please contact us at
postmaster@lucianomanenti.com
— your feedback is greatly appreciated!
1. The Official Fleet Composition
Each player commands a standard fleet of 10 ships spanning a total of 20 grid cells on a 10×10 board (coordinates A through J and 1 through 10):
| Ship Type |
Quantity |
Length |
Total Cells |
| Battleship |
1 |
4 cells |
4 cells |
| Cruiser |
2 |
3 cells each |
6 cells |
| Destroyer |
3 |
2 cells each |
6 cells |
| Submarine |
4 |
1 cell each |
4 cells |
2. Fleet Deployment Phase
Before battle commences, you must deploy all 10 ships onto your left grid ("Your Fleet"):
- Orientation: Ships can be placed horizontally or vertically. Toggle orientation with Right-Click, the Spacebar, the R key, or the on-screen rotation button.
- Selecting Ships: Click any unplaced ship tag below the board to choose which ship to place first. The active ship pulses in bright gold.
- Moving and Removing Ships: Click any already deployed ship directly on the board to pick it up and relocate it, or click the red × on its tag to remove it.
- No-Touch Rule: Ships must never touch each other, not even diagonally. There must always be at least one cell of open water separating any two ships.
- Auto-Deploy: Click "Randomize" to generate a valid, randomized fleet deployment instantly.
3. Battle Phase & Combat Rules
Once all ships are positioned and you press "Start Battle", combat begins:
- Firing: Click an unrevealed cell on the right grid ("Enemy Radar") to take aim.
- Miss / Water (•): If no enemy ship occupies that coordinate, the shot misses into open water (blue dot) and the turn passes to the opponent.
- Hit (×): If a ship is struck, the coordinate erupts in red. Scoring a hit grants you an immediate bonus shot!
- Sunk (∅): Once all cells of an enemy ship are hit, the ship is sunk (skull marker). All surrounding water cells are automatically marked as safe water, as no other ship can touch it.
Tactical Pro-Tip: Once you score your first hit on an unknown ship, fire at the 4 adjacent coordinates (North, South, East, West). As soon as a second hit connects, you have discovered the ship's axis: continue firing along that line in both directions until the vessel is completely destroyed!
4. AI Difficulty Settings
You can test your skills against three distinct computer commanders:
- Seaman (Easy): Fires randomly and follows basic scouting patterns.
- Captain (Medium): Systematically hunts and completes any damaged ship before scouting elsewhere.
- Admiral (Hard): Uses directional hunting and checkerboard parity scouting to locate and eliminate your fleet with ruthless efficiency.
5. Victory & Statistics
The first player to destroy all 10 enemy ships wins the war! A complete summary of battle duration, shots fired, and accuracy percentage is displayed and stored in your browser's local stats.
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