The ships move from point to point on a grid. Certain points are under fire from shore batteries. Some grid points are in shallow water. Sailing ships move only on a 1, steamships on any number. Three ships in the game are too shallow to ground.
Ranges are one and two grid points.
Each ship has a number out of 1 through 12 that it must stay below to hit at short and long ranges. This number represents both the size and number of guns carried by each ship. All ships except the Monitor can only fire to the side. After taking a certain number of hits, ships become Disabled, then Sunk. The sailing ships can only take about 5 or 6 hits, while the ironclads can take around 20.