How to start
- Open bigboard.games on every device and tap Start a table on one of them.
- The others join by themselves on the same Wi-Fi; elsewhere, scan the QR code or type the four-letter code.
- Lay the devices edge to edge, screens up, as the drawing shows, and pick the game.
Your fleet stays on your phone
On paper, sea battle needs two sheets and a book stood up between you. Here each phone is the book: it shows your own waters and the board you are firing at, and never the other fleet. Because nothing crosses from one screen to the other, the phones don't have to touch. Hold yours, lay it face up in front of you, or sit at opposite ends of the sofa.
The match opens with both of you placing at once. Your fleet starts in random places; drag a ship to move it, tap it to turn it, or Shuffle the lot until you like it. The layout is always a legal one, so there is nothing to check, and when the 60 seconds run out your fleet is ready as it lies. Tap Ready to start sooner.
One shot each, and a hit shoots again
Two fleets take turns. The board you are firing at fills most of the screen, with Your waters smaller beside it in landscape or under it upright. Tap a cell to aim, and a crosshair marks it; tap Fire, or the same cell again, to shoot. A hit or a sink gives you another shot, and each shot has 30 seconds on its clock.
A miss is a small dot, a hit a glowing peg in your opponent's colour, and the frame round the board glows in the shooter's colour, pulsing when the shot is yours. A hit on your own fleet makes your phone buzz. With the ten-ship fleet, the water round a sunk ship marks itself, as you would cross it out on paper. A clock run out is no shot, and three in a row scuttle the fleet.
A friend far away, or both firing at once
Your friend doesn't have to be in the room. Send the table's link or its four-letter code and they play the same game from their own phone, wherever they are; How it works shows how a table forms. The rules are the ones you know from Battleship, with two fleets to choose from: ten ships that never touch, or five larger ones that may.
Turns can be All at once even for two: you both aim, and the shots land together. Mines hide two traps in each fleet's waters, and a shot on one hits the shooter's own largest ship. Only one phone between you? Sea battle 2 player passes it behind a cover. A third friend makes it 3 player sea battle.
2 players: questions and answers
Do the phones have to touch?
No, each phone shows only its own player's boards, so they can lie anywhere, even in two different cities.
Can a friend play sea battle from another place?
Yes, they join with the table's link or code and play from their own phone.
Does a hit shoot again?
Yes, when you take turns a hit or a sink gives the same player another shot.
Can we both fire at the same time?
Yes, choose All at once and both shots land together each round; a hit earns one extra shot in the next.