Printable · 2 players · 20 min
Sea Battle printable.
The classic hidden-fleet guessing game, on paper. Each player gets a sheet with their own fleet grid, an enemy-waters grid and a tracker for all five ships.
Free for home and classroom use. Want all six games? Get the full Paper Games Pack.
How to play
- 01Each player needs their own sheet. Secretly draw your fleet on MY FLEET: ships run straight across or down and may not overlap.
- 02Take turns calling a square, like C7. Your opponent answers “hit” or “miss”. Mark the result on ENEMY WATERS.
- 03When every square of a ship is hit, its owner says “sunk”. Sink the whole fleet first to win.
LV.01 Strategy
Play it better.
- Search in a checkerboard pattern — the smallest ship is two squares long, so you never need to fire at neighbouring squares while hunting.
- After a hit, fire around it until you find the ship's direction, then follow it.
- Don't pack your ships together; touching ships make it easy to find the second one.
- Edges are tempting hiding places, which is exactly why experienced players check them.
LV.02 FAQ
Sea Battle, answered.
Q1Is this the same as Battleship?
It's the same traditional pencil-and-paper game that inspired the Battleship board game, with the usual fleet: carrier (5), battleship (4), cruiser (3), submarine (3) and destroyer (2).
Q2How many sheets do I need?
One per player. Sit so you can't see each other's sheets — or fold the page in half.
Q3Can ships touch?
In our rules they can't overlap; whether they may touch side by side is up to you — agree before you start.
LV.03 More
