[GoldenStake]

Optimal placement of the boats is pretty simple to find in games like this. After playing a round or two a simple pattern in the searching algorithm emerges.

After a few iterations of optimization you get the most moves before the bot finds your boat

Here is the setup: http://imgur.com/gallery/5jx3ARG

[christiangenco]

I found a similar setup: http://imgur.com/aOaZYrs

It'd be fun to automate the process and find the absolute best strategy against this deterministic guessing algorithm.

Edit: the only placement that actually matters is that of the smallest ship, ie: http://imgur.com/YQ01k95