--- a/host.js
+++ b/host.js
@@ -3314,6 +3314,37 @@
     return octets.reduce((a, o) => ((a << 8) | o) >>> 0, 0) | 0;
   }
 
+  // Browser Games Now: retry transient delivery failures once. Compile errors
+  // remain compile errors; production does not ship the WAT compiler inputs.
+  static async fetchWasmBytes(url, init) {
+    for (let attempt = 0; ; attempt++) {
+      let response;
+      try {
+        response = await fetch(url, init);
+        if (!response.ok) {
+          const error = new Error(`Unable to load ${url}: HTTP ${response.status}`);
+          error.responseBody = (await response.text()).slice(0, 2000);
+          throw error;
+        }
+        return await response.arrayBuffer();
+      } catch (error) {
+        error.isDownloadError = true;
+        error.assetUrl = url;
+        error.attempts = attempt + 1;
+        if (response) {
+          error.status = response.status;
+          error.cfRay = response.headers.get('CF-Ray');
+        }
+        const retryable = error instanceof TypeError || error.status >= 500;
+        if (!retryable || attempt >= 1) throw error;
+        console.warn('[host] retrying WASM download', {
+          url, status: error.status, cfRay: error.cfRay, message: error.message,
+        });
+        await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 500));
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   static getWasmModule() {
     if (!WineAssembly._wasmModulePromise) {
       const attempt = (WineAssembly._wasmCompileAttempt || 0) + 1;
@@ -3351,16 +3382,11 @@
           const artifact = tailCalls
             ? 'build/wine-assembly.wasm'
             : 'build/wine-assembly.compat.wasm';
-          try {
-            const response = await fetch(WineAssembly.versionedUrl(artifact), fetchOptions);
-            if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
-            const bytes = await response.arrayBuffer();
-            const module = await WebAssembly.compile(bytes);
-            await recordWasmIdentity(artifact, bytes);
-            return module;
-          } catch (error) {
-            console.warn(`[host] unable to load ${artifact}; compiling WAT sources`, error);
-          }
+          const bytes = await WineAssembly.fetchWasmBytes(
+            WineAssembly.versionedUrl(artifact), fetchOptions);
+          const module = await WebAssembly.compile(bytes);
+          await recordWasmIdentity(artifact, bytes);
+          return module;
         }
         // Source compile goes through the WATX compiler Worker — the
         // Milestone 4 wiring from lib/watx-launcher.js's header. The Worker