This weekend we tried to play Simulation Canada's Divine Wind. We had heard from several sides that this game is supposed to be very strange, so we thought we were prepared for anything. Boy, were we wrong.

This game is so bizarre! The main effect of the game's intriguing supply system is to hamstring the Allies, while providing the Japanese with endless supply. We laughed out loud when we realized on the second turn that only limited troop transport capacity together with the fact that every Australian hex hides an infantry division (and a fairly good one at that) keeps the Japanese forces from being carried across Australia on an ever-rising tide of abundant resource points.

At the same time, Burma is almost impenetrable on land. This is good, because British troops, once stationed there, can never be recalled because supply movement through Rangoon or across the border is prevented by Japanese ships stationed in China or the Philippines. India, which again would be in easy reach of an IJN that already gets all the fuel it needs from Thailand alone (who needs the Netherlands East Indies??), has an elite British division in every hex. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

There are some interesting aspects here. Search and the naval/air combat system is reminiscent of WiF, but quicker and somehow more satisfying. The rules suffer from abominable formatting, but are actually quite concise and clear, and as it appears so far, relatively complete.

The counters, though unnamed, allow you to recognize the ship classes and show different plane types. We even suppose the game might still be balanced because eventually, all those US reinforcements will simply overwhelm the Japanese even if moving on a shoestring, but the absurdity of the supply effects was too much to bear. Has anyone (Gregg?) ever tinkered with this game? In particular with that Japanese resource points cornucopia?

Oh well, another "discarded" notch on the quest for the playable WWII Pacific game. Anyone on the list who has played Omega's Carrier War? I've heard different comments about it, from "good and playable" over "too historical" to "full of holes and confusing rules". If only it had nicer counters.