peer2peergames

Warship

Two hidden fleets and a hundred squares each. The old objection to playing a stranger is that you cannot see their grid; here each fleet is sealed before the first shot and published at the end, so it can be checked.

Play Warship Leaderboard

Setting up

  1. Each player has a grid ten squares by ten, so a hundred squares in all.
  2. Each player places the same five ships: a carrier of five cells, a battleship of four, a cruiser of three, a submarine of three, and a destroyer of two.
  3. Every ship is placed horizontally or vertically. Ships may not overlap, and no part of a ship may hang off the edge of the grid.
  4. That is seventeen cells of ship altogether, which is the number that decides the game.
  5. Both players place at the same time, and neither sees the other's grid.

Playing

  1. Take turns calling one square on your opponent's grid.
  2. You are told immediately whether it was a hit or a miss.
  3. The turn then passes, whether you hit or missed. A hit does not earn another shot.
  4. When the last remaining cell of a ship is hit, that ship is announced as sunk and named, so you know which one you have finished.
  5. You cannot call the same square twice.

How a game ends

  1. The first player to hit all seventeen cells of the other fleet wins.
  2. A resignation ends the game, and both fleets are still revealed: the loser is entitled to see what they were shooting at.
  3. A missed deadline ends the game against that player.

Both fleets are sealed with a hash before the first shot and published when the game ends, so anybody can confirm afterwards that no ship was moved once the shooting started. That is the one thing you cannot check when playing on paper against somebody you do not know. The turn passing on a hit is the standard game; giving yourself another shot for a hit is a house rule and is not played here.

Warship terms

A hit
A called square containing part of a ship.
A miss
A called square containing water.
Sunk
Every cell of one ship hit. It is announced and named when it happens.
The fleet
All five ships: seventeen cells that have to be found.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.