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The key to winning a war in Russia was being able to function effectively in the harshest of conditions. Napoleon learnt a costly lesson there and Hitler should have paid more attention during History classes.

The Russkies developed a number of over-snow transport vehicles including the quirky little “aerosani” literally “aero-sleds.” Essentially an airplane motor bolted onto the back of a sled, a variety of these things saw service throughout the war.

CompanyB Minis are bringing out their own 28mm versions of these two models. The RF8 is available now (click here) and the NKL42 is nearly ready for release apparently. I have recently finished the first of these kit and a great looking model it is too. To be honest, it’s a pig to assemble and I actually went as far as making my own suspension bars to replace the white-metal versions in the kit. This model is to be used in a demo game and so has to be robust enough to withstand a bit of rough use.

The idea for the game comes from Nic Robson of Eureka Miniatures. He’s been mulling over this ever since he saw the master model by Mike Broadbent. The players operate an aerosan model each and are chasing after an armoured train, trying to shoot the engine and damage the boiler enough to make it slow down, all the while being shot at by the gun turrets on the train itself. The board is made up of a number of modules, each about 8″ wide and 6′ deep. At the start of each turn a new section is fitted to one end of the table and terrain is randomly placed on this. The train, which is located along the centre of the table, is moved forward one module. The players move their aerosans by placing three cards (very much like Wings of War) and attempt to dodge the oncoming terrain. At the end of the turn the last table module is removed, ready for the next turn.

It works like those scrolling backgrounds on a cartoon and players have to keep their aerosans moving forward enough to avoid ‘falling behind’ while dodging terrain and each other.