LOADING
warming up Broadside…
💡 click the game once so it hears your keyboard
👆 tap the game to start, then use the on-screen controls
Naval combat
Sailing and naval battle game: read the wind, then fire
You cannot sail into the wind. Everything else is yours to work out.
A sailing sim before it is a combat game: no ship on Earth points into the wind, so making ground upwind means tacking, and running downwind means outrunning nobody. Broadside cannons only bear abeam, so a fight is a question of angles as much as aim - the hunter captains sail on the same polar and the same heel penalty you do, no cheating. Sink them, loot the wreck, and bank the haul before you push your luck for one more prize.
Free to play, no download, no sign-up. Hosted with ❤ by GamerX.
How to play Broadside
On a phone the HELM buttons put the helm over, CANVAS sets and takes in sail, and PORT and STBD fire the two batteries; on a keyboard it is A and D, W and S, and Q and E. Tags on the screen point to the harbour, the nearest cargo and the hunters, with how far off each one is, and the line under your hold says what to do next. Sail over cargo to take it aboard, then bank it by slowing down inside the harbour, which also buys more time on the tide. The first thing to learn is that you cannot sail into the wind: point too close to it and the sails empty and you stop, so making ground upwind means tacking - a zig-zag of long diagonals, turning through the wind at each corner. The second is that your guns only fire sideways. A broadside bears abeam, so a fight is a matter of arranging your hull across the enemy's while keeping their guns off yours, and that is a question about the wind before it is a question about aim. Sink a hunter, sail over the wreck to loot it, and get the haul back to port before somebody takes it off you.
Tips
- Know where the wind is before you turn. Every manoeuvre on this map is cheap or expensive depending only on that.
- Shorten sail before a tight turn. A ship carrying full canvas heels over and turns badly; less sail is often faster through a corner.
- Fight on the beam. Chasing directly astern of an enemy is the one angle from which neither of your broadsides can fire.
- The hunters sail the same polar you do and take the same heel penalty. If a manoeuvre would be slow for you, it is slow for them - which is what makes upwind an escape route.
- Loot is only yours once it is banked. A hold full of cargo at the bottom of the sea counts for nothing.
About Broadside
Broadside is a sailing simulation with a combat game on top, and the order matters. The boat is governed by a polar diagram - the real relationship between wind angle, sail setting and boat speed - so no-go zones, tacking and the cost of heeling all come out of the model rather than being rules bolted on. Because the AI captains sail on that same polar, with the same penalties, the fight is genuinely about seamanship: there is no difficulty setting that lets them cheat their way upwind. The broadside-only firing arc is the other constraint that shapes everything. Together they turn a naval battle into a geometry problem played out over a minute at a time, where the winner is usually whoever spent less of the fight pointed the wrong way.
What you need
- Graphics
- WebGL, which every browser from the last decade has switched on already
- Controls
- Keyboard or touchscreen
- On a phone
- Yes
- Install
- Nothing. It runs in this tab.
Questions
- Why has my ship stopped moving?
- You are pointing too close to the wind. No sailing vessel can make ground directly upwind; turn away until the sails fill, then work upwind in diagonals, turning through the wind at each end.
- Why will my cannons not fire at the ship in front of me?
- Broadside guns only bear abeam - out to the sides. You have to bring your hull across the target rather than point at it. On a phone the fire button turns red when a hunter is in that battery's arc and range, and after a broadside the guns take about three seconds to reload.
- Where am I supposed to go?
- Follow the tags: gold for cargo, green for the harbour, red for the hunters. Take cargo, then slow down inside the harbour to bank it before the tide turns.
- Do the enemy captains cheat?
- No. They sail on the same polar and take the same heel penalty you do, which is exactly why sailing upwind works as an escape.
- Can I play Broadside on a Chromebook, at school, or on a phone?
- Yes on a Chromebook. Broadside draws with WebGL, which every Chromebook has had for years, and it is built for integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card. On a school or office network there is nothing here for a filter to object to on the usual grounds: no download, no installer, no browser plugin, no account, no chat and no user-generated content. Whether your particular filter lets it through is its decision and not something any site can promise. It plays on a phone with touch controls, and it is built wide - turning the phone sideways gives it the shape it was designed for. A keyboard works too.
If you liked this
Controls
- HELM buttonsADPut the helm over
- CANVAS buttonsWSMore or less sail
- PORTSTBDQEFire the port or starboard battery
- CChange camera
Browse more