Battle of Midway: Game Designers Workshop simulation reviewed by Rob Gibson The recent film on the Battle of Midway will doubtless help the sales of this latest opus from GDW - not that it really needs any help. Unlike the earlier GDW simulation "Coral Sea" with which it has much in common this is a two-map simulation covering the expans of the Pacific between the western Hawaiian Islands and Tokyo Bay. At first sight, the westernmost map seems irrelevant, since the other map covers the actual battle area. However, having both maps enables the Japanese player to vary his approach and deployment from the historical one. One thing strikes me as odd, though - the Midway main force sailed from Kure which is off the map, west-south-west of Tokyo. So Tokyo is a wee bit pointless, unless you are planning the Doolittle raid (on 18th April 1942, twenty odd B-25 Mitchell bombers flown off the deck of the USS Hornet bombed Tokyo almost without opposition. This strike precipitated the Midway operation). When compared with "Coral Sea" the new simulation shows considerable additions to the use of ships and aircraft. In effect, this makes it a more sophisticated simulation. For example, battleships are included, which brings in extra gunnery factors (I liked Marc William Miller's reason for including the USS ''West Virginia" - would you believe his father served on her in the '30's...and he thought it would be nice?!). Submarines also play their part, plus seaplane tenders and Midway Island's own radar. This review has been somewhat long 'in the pot' as your reviewer has been going through the histories (from both sides), the orders of battle and reams of technical data - and I am happy to say that nothing has been over looked. No, sir ! - not even the latest aircraft available to and used by the Japanese. (The H8K 1 Emily flying-boat, which has a high air defence factor and the DAY1-C Judy scout plane, marginally better than the standard scouts of either side). "Battle for Midway", in short, is a first class simulation of the battle that destroyed the Japanese capability to wage an offensive naval campaign and passed the initiative to the United States.