Against rival captains, in your browser
One fleet against three computer captains who see only what you would see. No account, no download.
Play now
Trust the flag. Fear the fleet.
Thirty years in the making. Free in your browser and on paper today.
Bigger number wins
Three exceptions
For anyone who grew up on Stratego. Every fleet carries the same 14 ships, rated 1 to 7 plus two specials. When two ships meet, the higher rating sinks the lower, and equal ratings sink each other.
Choose a ship to see what she sinks when she attacks.
Nobody waits for a turn
A round is three short steps, and every captain takes them together. The bluff lives in the gap between what you sent and what they guessed.
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Read the water
You see every ship's flag and none of their ratings. A fight shows the two ships only to the captains who were in it.
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Seal your orders
Move up to 3 ships, or 4 while your Admiral is afloat. Nobody sees an order until every captain has sent theirs.
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Sail together
Every fleet moves at once. Ships that meet fight; ships that cross pass in the night. Then the water is yours to read again.
What they see, and what you know
Drag across one round of a game. On the left is the chart every captain shares; on the right, the referee's view with every rating showing. The difference is the whole game.
Four captains, round 9.
The shared chartThe referee's chart
Hold the water before the storm takes it
Points come from the chart
- ½
- of a ship's rating, rounded down, for sinking her in a fight
- 1
- for each harbor you hold at the end of a round
- 2
- for the side with the most ships on the Capital
- 4
- for keeping your own Admiral afloat to the end
- 8
- for capturing an enemy Admiral
After rounds 13, 18, 22 the storm takes the next ring of the chart, and any ship still out there is lost. A fleet that hides in its anchorage falls behind, then drowns. 24 rounds, and the most points wins.
Play it tonight
Three ways aboard, two of them free right now.
On paper, at your table
The chart, the standing ships and the rules print on letter paper. Bring scissors and a rival.
Get the free kit
With friends, on your phones
Everyone sends orders from their own phone, at their own pace, and the phone says when it is their turn. The beta is free and open to everyone.
Play with friendsPlay at your own pace
Online, Secret Sails plays like correspondence chess or a word game with friends. Set a table, drop each captain's link in your group chat, and play over days: send your orders when you have a minute, and your phone tells you when it is your move again.
Send your orders when it suits you
Over coffee, on the train, last thing at night. You can change them until the last captain's are in.
The round sails when everyone has sent
Every fleet moves at once, and the round plays back on your chart the next time you look. If someone is away, the host can move the game on and their ships hold.
Your phone calls you back
A note when your orders are due, when the table is waiting on you, and when the game is over. Off unless you turn it on, on your phone or in the ntfy app, and quiet while you have the game open.
Or play a whole game in one sitting, with everyone at the table and the chart on the television, flat or as a wooden table in 3D. A game keeps for a month between moves.
- Secret Sails: Round 16Your orders are due.
- Secret Sails: Round 16Everyone else has sent orders. The table waits on you.
- Secret Sails: The game is overSee how it ended.
Seven fleets, one roster
Each fleet takes its hulls and rigging from a real seafaring tradition. The flags are invented, and every fleet carries the same fourteen ships, so the captain decides the battle.
Square-Riggers
Walls of canvas on three masts and tiers of gun decks, after the battle fleets of Britain and France. HMS Victory is the famous First Rate.
The fleet and its history
Lateens
Long slanting yards and triangular sails, from the dhows of the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the East African coast.
The fleet and its history
Junks
Battened fan sails and a raised stern, after the war junks of the Chinese coast, which carried pivot guns, oars and shields along their sides.
The fleet and its history
Gaffs
Gaff mainsails, jibs and quick hulls, after the cutters and schooners that chased smugglers and privateers through coastal waters.
The fleet and its history
Carracks
Castles fore and aft and great square courses, after the sixteenth-century Portuguese nau that first carried trade around the world.
The fleet and its history
Xebecs
Long low hulls, beaked bows and raked masts, after the Mediterranean corsairs that mixed sail and oar.
The fleet and its history
Buccaneers
Black hulls and patched bone-white sails. The pirate fleet in Pirates!, where one captain hunts an alliance of navies and a pirate ship that wins takes her prize instead of sinking her. Any captain may fly them in any game.
The fleet and its history
A lie the law allowed
For centuries a warship could fly any flag she pleased while she closed on her prey. The custom of the sea asked only one thing: hoist your true colors before you open fire.
Secret Sails keeps that bargain. Your flag is always true; your rating never is, until you fight. The fleets, the fireships, the privateers and the captured admirals all come from that history, and so do the stories behind them.
Read the history behind the gameMade to sit on your table
Laser-engraved ships that stand in a slotted base, an engraved chart and an illustrated box, with paper and digital ways aboard beside them.
Engraved wood
Four fleets of engraved wooden ships, rating on the captain's side, ensign on the enemy's. The edition we are taking to Kickstarter.
Printed acrylic
The same ships in full colour on both faces. A lighter way in.
Paper, always free
The print-and-play kit, today. Pay what you want if you like it.
The Shipwright's Creed
- Always free to play
- Play together
- Easy to learn, worth mastering
- Never franchised
- Nothing hidden but the ships
Wanted
Captains
for the first voyage of Secret Sails
- First word of new charts and modes
- Notes from the Admiral
- Word the day the Kickstarter opens
- A founder's code for the finished game
The Kickstarter opens in
Fourteen ships, fourteen secrets. I need captains who can keep them.
Bring your crew: confirm, and you get a recruiting link to share with the friends you would sail with. Recruit your crew
Before you sail
I have played the classic hidden-rank games. Is this one of them?
It shares their oldest idea: you know your own ranks and not your rival's. Everything else is new. Every captain moves at once, games last a fixed 24 rounds, points come from holding water, two to six can play, and losing your Admiral costs points instead of the game.
How long does a game take?
About 45 to 90 minutes at a table. Online, a round can take a minute or a day: every captain sends orders when they can, and the round resolves when the last one is in.
Who is it for?
Anyone who can read a number. An eight-year-old can play it unaided; the bluffing, the alliances and the timing are where adults spend the evening.
Is the paper kit really free?
Yes, with no signup. If you enjoy it you can pay what you want for it, and supporters are named in the rulebook.