• sea cannon image by Alexey Kuznetsov from Fotolia.com
  
  Battles on the high seas are intensely strategic and extremely dangerous. A boat is a large, slow vehicle, and combat in them is usually equally slow. This style of battle has been re-created in a number of online games with different styles, genres and looks to them--some of them increase the speed, others change the game to make them more exciting, but the mechanics remain.
  
  

Naval Battle

• One of the most familiar sea battle games is Battleship, the old board game that involved placing ships on peg-boards, then guessing the location of the enemy ships. This simple Flash application re-creates that game in an easy-to-play application. Guess the location of enemy ships on the board, and the computer will guess the locations on yours.
  
  

Desktop Armada

• Build an armada of tiny wooden ships to send out against your foe. You can upgrade the ships and unlock new ones to send out. The game has a fun toy boat feeling to it, and is designed to be easy to play, while also being deep and strategic.
  
  

Black Navy War

• Set up your base, build your boats and send them out to take on the enemy fleet. This game plays a bit like a side-scrolling version of "Desktop Armada." This game gives you a lot more control, and a lot more options for defending your base. It's a very strategic and more complicated sea battle game.
  
  

Puzzle Pirates

• A number of pirate-themed mini-games are built into this title, and many of them are jobs required to keep your pirate ship afloat even in battle. Keep the ship afloat by manning the bilge pumps, man the riggings by finding the winds and keep the cannons loaded. When the ships get close enough, all the crew becomes engaged in a sword fight. All of these are done through the easy-to-play puzzle mini-games.
  
  

Treasures of Cutlass Reef

• Steer your ship around, get the enemy ships in sight, and fire your cannons before they know what hit them in this pirate-themed action game. This game is a challenge, because your cannons only fire to the port or starboard, meaning you have to pass the enemy, becoming vulnerable briefly.