Play Admiral Down

Hide your ships and send your rival's fleet to the bottom before they get yours.

How many players

Played by 1 or 2: solo against the computer, or online against another player.

Online: create a room and send the link to a friend, or get matched with a random opponent. If nobody shows up, we offer a clearly labeled computer opponent.

Goal: Find and sink all 5 of your rival's ships before they sink yours.

First, place your fleet on the 8x8 sea: drag a ship to move it, tap it to rotate. "Shuffle" places them at random.
Your fleet: five ships, 4, 3, 3, 2 and 2 squares long. Ships can't touch, not even corner to corner.
Then you take turns firing one shot each: tap a square in your rival's sea.
Hit or miss, the turn passes to your rival.
A ship sinks when every one of its squares is hit. Sink the whole fleet first and you win.

You can't fire at the same square twice.
The squares around a sunken ship are marked "empty" automatically, since no ship can be there.
Every sinking is announced, and you can see which ships are still afloat.
Computer difficulty: Easy fires at random and often forgets to check next to a hit. Medium hunts around a hit once it finds one. Hard fires at the most likely square. The bot never sees your ships.

Touch: While placing, drag a ship to move it and tap to rotate. In battle, tap a square in your rival's sea.
Keyboard: In solo play, Enter or Space after a round starts a new one with a random fleet.

You both place your fleets at the same time, then press "I'm ready". You get 3 minutes; whoever isn't ready in time loses.
You only see your rival's ships once they sink.
You have 60 seconds per shot. Run out of time and you lose.
If you lose connection you have 60 seconds to come back, or your rival wins. Leaving the game also hands them the win.
A rematch needs both of you to ask for it. Fleets get placed again and the first shot switches sides.

Ships never touch, so the water around a sunken ship is empty. Don't waste shots there.
Two hits side by side means the ship runs along that line. Aim at the ends.

Four Stones: Line up four stones across, down or diagonally. First to four takes it.
Vanishing XOX: You only get 3 marks. Place a new one and your oldest vanishes.
Backgammon: Your dice, your tactics. Bear off first and gammon them before they gammon you.
Mangala: Sow stones pit by pit, then raid your rival’s treasure with the last one.
Turkish Checkers: Pieces move forward and sideways, and capturing is a must. Crown a king and sweep the board.
Nine Stones: Line up three, steal a stone. Whoever drops to two is out.