The goal
Two players hide a fleet on a 10×10 grid and take turns firing at the other's grid by calling a cell: "B4", "J10". The first to sink every enemy ship wins.
The grid
Columns are lettered A to J, rows numbered 1 to 10. Each player has two grids: the lower one holds their own ships, the upper one tracks their shots at the opponent - white pegs for misses, red pegs for hits. On paper, a dot is a miss and a cross is a hit.
The ships
- Carrier - 5 cells;
- Battleship - 4 cells;
- Cruiser - 3 cells;
- Submarine - 3 cells;
- Destroyer - 2 cells.
Five ships, 17 cells in all. A ship lies in a straight line, across or down, never diagonally. Ships may touch each other but not overlap.
Placing your ships
On 10ships your fleet starts out placed at random. Drag a ship to move it, tap it to turn it. A ship that breaks the rules turns red, and the battle waits until the fleet is right.
Taking turns: hit, miss, sunk
- Miss - nothing there; the turn passes.
- Hit - part of a ship is there, but it is still afloat.
- Sunk - every cell of that ship has been hit, and the owner says which ship it was.
In the classic game players simply alternate, one shot each, hit or miss. The first to sink all five enemy ships wins. Here only the server sees the fleets, so nobody can peek or move a ship mid-game.
The ten-ship rules
In Eastern Europe the game is played with ten ships: one of 4 cells, two of 3, three of 2 and four of 1 - 20 cells in all. Ships may not touch, not even at the corners, so the cells around a sunk ship are known to be empty and are marked at once. And a hit earns another shot: you keep firing until you miss.
Both rule sets are in the game: pick one before you start.
How to win
- While nothing is found, fire at every other cell, like the dark squares of a chessboard: no ship of two cells or more can slip between your shots.
- After a hit, finish the ship: the rest of it lies in a neighbouring cell across or down.
- Do not waste shots where none of the remaining ships can fit.
- After the game, open the review: it shows where the best shot was and how hard your own fleet was to find.