Manitoba Dragoons List Discussion

I thought I’d do something a little different this time and review one of the PDF’s which is on the Battlefront website.
I thought I’d start with the one list which I actually (slightly drunkenly) fell in love with – The Manitoba Dragoons.

I'm a Stag Man!

Now the reason that I chose these guys was because a few years ago I spent a very enjoyable 3 months working in Winnipeg, and when I saw the list hit the website I knew I had to do it! It also filled the other criteria I had for a list having finished (or so I thought at the time) my British Para’s.

By this I mean that it was not infantry, it was not fearless, and it was not veteran! I also hoped that I would be able to prove to Mr Coops that a recon vehicle list could work – his puma’s were not having much luck at this time.

So I thought I would try and do a list first for these guys – with the secondary intention that it would also cover the bases for a future Canadian Armour list too.

going on recon by the hedge

So first choice were the HQ and troop choices. In the initial list the HQ had access to the AA staghound, but in the final version it was the deadly Staghound 3! Now battlefront don’t have models for these guys, so I read up their history. Being staghounds with Crusader 3 turrets added, I did just that, but instead of battlefronts crusaders I hit up skytrex for my Crusaders, and the turrets fitted a treat.
The normal Staghounds I picked up from every gaming shop I went to, and ordered the remaining ones I needed from our local FLG, they took a long time to arrive, and I assume it’s because everyone ordered these awesome models – or there was some problems with shipping maybe…

Stag 3's hit like a butterfly

So that was the Core of the force 8 Staghound 1’s and 4 Stag hound 3’s. Now the support.

I knew I would struggle against any armour, so the Shermans and firefly and the MC10’s were my next purchases, again I was please to see that the Canadian rules for mission tactics and remounting vehicles should help to keep them going – though it seems lately whenever I say ‘Oh Canada’ when re-rolling to remount, I still fail!

we have to hide, it's what we're trained for!

After that it became pretty clear that to hit 1750 I was pretty much going to need to fill out the divisional support options. So I got a motor platoon, some mobile Bofors –in hindsight I think the oerlikons are a better choice as they don’t have the awkward layout!

And also some sextons – I almost went for the normal 25pdrs, but with everything else mobile the sextons made sense.

aim, fire!

And of course topping it off with some air support.

Now I had a look back over my solo (and short lived) blog and found a couple of missions I played with these guys, and remembered playing a couple of others, (including a brilliant doubles game where Coops panthers failed to damage my stag3’s, which then proceeded to waste them!

All in all though, learning to use a heavy recon force was hard – utilising terrain well was important, and being trained keeping the boys safe from enemy tanks/infantry – well anything really; proved to be a huge challenge from my sit and dig para’s.

move out into the houses!

I think in retrospect trying these guys as my second force was a big ask, as they struggled against most lists they were up against due to the Stag’s limited firepower, and the vulnerability of their support, but typing this has actually convinced me to maybe break them out again, to see if an older wiser and more experience me would have better luck – I doubt it, but who knows.

Thanks Adam