With Battle Stations, Battle Stations! players take the rolls of historic admirals to command entire fleets of ships. As a fleet commander you must work within the limitations of your ships and be guided by the strategic necessities of your nation. The streamlined and intuitive game system is player friendly; it allows players to concentrate on tactics rather than minutia. Specifically designed for 1/2400 scale miniatures, players using a larger scale can easily modify ranges; smaller scales need no modification.

To avoid bookkeeping, players utilize markers to track each ship's damage, speed, torpedoes fired, aircraft, and submarine depth levels. Players place markers on the ship stands or the ships themselves to eliminate the necessity of bookkeeping.