I will get better at remembering these! Surprisingly fun to take through the scenario, but they've got their flaws. Just got to polish off the audio and get the footage now!

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Platoon Patrol 3: Dutch Light Infantry in G-Wagens

Welcome back to Combat Mission Shock Force 2 and the Platoon Patrol series. This time we are taking the Dutch Light Infantry out in their G-Wagens. I’ve made a quick unit guide that explains them in more detail: I’ll link that down below, along with the base scenario and a link to the poll for the next unit; but the TLDR is that the Dutch LI pose some… different challenges to your average NATO mounted infantry platoon.

This is primarily due to all the vehicles being crewed by the dismounts, creating a lot of tension between staying mounted and going on foot that units with dedicated vehicle crews don’t have to deal with.

So it’s going to be interesting. I rolled up Entry Point 6, meaning we’ll be starting off in the north-west corner of our map. As usual, the enemy consists of a reinforced squad of highly trained US Marines who will be set up in one of five different locations.

They’ve had a slight tweak to their AI plan: in the last run I noticed the SMAW teams were not getting involved in the firefight. It turns out I had set their engagement criteria to “Armour Ambush”, meaning they would only engage vehicles. I’ve now removed that and they should get stuck in with everyone else. At the same time, I also gave them a load of reinforcements who never arrive so they shouldn’t ever surrender and we don’t need to worry about that mechanic messing with the results.

Kick Off

Getting started then, a bit like the Uncons in the last run, I have to work with the fact that I’m moving to contact with eight very vulnerable vehicles mounting various different weapons.

Here at least, I don’t have to immediately cross a river and I have some freedom to manoeuvre. I think keeping all eight vehicles together is probably going to make them very unwieldy, so I’ve split them down into two four vehicle bricks.

Going left, we have Squads 2 and 4, with 1 GMG and 3 MMG vehicles. Going right we’ve got Squads 1 and 3, with 1 GMG, 2 MMGs and the HMG vehicle.

Alpha

The closest objective is Location Alpha, which seems like as sensible place as any to start. It’s actually on a reverse slope from Entry 6 and the approaches from the front and left are full of rough terrain I don’t want to put the G-Wagens through.

One side of it is somewhat overlooked by the ground on my immediate right where there’s a smaller isolated farm. So 1st and 3rd head right to get up there and get eyes on Alpha while 4th goes left to approach the crest above the objective through the orchards while 2nd hangs back in reserve.

Ten minutes later, it’s obvious that Alpha is clear. 2nd has moved up to the crossroads just outside the compound, 4th has dismounted and moved in to touch the objective and is now returning to its vehicles, while 1st and 3rd begin the next bound.

This has been a nice surprise: both the Stryker infantry and the Uncons both found the Marines waiting for them in the closest objective. My next step is to continue down my right to check Charlie and Delta, then move on to Echo and finally tackle Bravo.

Contact Delta!

So while 1st stays up on the higher ground and covers them, 3rd move off towards another compound. This one is pretty much equidistant between Charlie and Delta: there’s a two storey building in the middle and with a bit of luck the dismounts might be able to make a spot from the roof.

While 3B stop in the compound and get out to head to the building, 3A pulls up on the far right corner.

Here, it starts taking fire. A few rounds hit the G-Wagen, the gunner catches one but is only lightly wounded, and 3A reverses off.

Plan

So, we’ve got our first contact. We’re attacking Delta again, albeit from a different angle this time. In fact, I only have a single squad at the point of contact here and I’ve got pretty much as much freedom of manoeuvre as I could want.

Looking at Delta from the north, the objective compound takes up the far right quadrant of a square orchard. The orchard consists of a few trees, but it’s mostly light forest tiles broken up by some tracks. Beyond that to the front there’s a big open field with what’s probably a water tower of some description. That’s surrounded on four sides by an irrigation ditch, which in turn is crossed by a bridge at the bottom on the right.

The right side of Delta is marked by the muddy drainage ditch the Stryker infantry attacked down, then another orchard. This one has distinct rows of trees in lines of light forest interspersed with grass.

All this boils down to two vehicle avenues of approach. Through the field on the left or through the orchard on the right. The infantry, of course, can leg it across those approaches as well as slogging down the ditch again.

Of the three, the open field is probably the easiest, but most exposed. The orchard is actually not as much of a barrier as it was for the Strykers. Because we’re approaching down the rows instead of across them, the G-Wagens can get some speed up and close the distance faster. We’ve already established that the ditch between the fields is probably going to be really slow going, with the added disadvantage that it’s not as deep as the main branch along either side of the causeway, so it doesn’t offer the same level of cover.

So I’m leaning left or right... the tricky part is crossing the ground without getting shot to pieces. The G-Wagens can dash across, but there are some CM-isms in play that mean the passengers aren’t going to be able to dismount in the middle of a turn. If I don’t time things to perfection, I could end up with a very vulnerable G-Wagen full of infantry sat right in front of the enemy.

Both the field and the orchard offer some potential for the vehicles to approach hull down, but even assuming everything goes to plan they’re going to be kicking their dismounts out into questionable cover within 150m of the enemy. There’s a lot that could go wrong there.

I could, however, go out far left and attack via the Charlie compound. There’s a track on the outside of the open field there that runs all the way down to the edge of the Delta orchard. Thinking about Marines in or around the Delta compound, they’d have their best shots at maximum range at the start of the track, then have their line of sight increasing obscured as the changing angle puts more and more of the orchard between them and the G-Wagens.

There’s a wet ditch to cross near Charlie, but that’s not overly exposed and the far end where I would be dismounting has some dead ground I could exploit to form up prior to an infantry push.

As a bonus, advancing down the edge of the open field means it’s kept clear for supporting fires.

So I think the best plan here is to shift left, advance via Charlie to the edge of the Delta orchard, then attack dismounted from there.

Going Left

Something that consistently surprises me about the G-Wagens is how fast and manoeuvrable they are. It takes barely any time to bring 1st up to 3rd and send 2nd and 4th round to the left to stack up in an orchard in front of Charlie.

There’s a bit of delay while I decide what to do with 1st and 3rd. 3B has managed to spot a Marine SAW gunner on the edge of Delta, so I sent 1A up to join them on the roof in the hopes that they might make more spots or engage him with their sniper rifle. But they can’t see him for whatever reason and I remount the two squads before sending them off to fire support positions in the Charlie orchard.

They pop up to put some speculative suppressive fire out on the objective while 2A dashes up the left to cross the ditch and run down the track beyond. Of course, 2A gets stuck in the mud and spends the next two minutes trying to get out. They manage to get out of their rut, but only a few seconds after 2B has passed them: I’ve sent them forward to take over. The two G-Wagens zoom off lightning fast… and something explodes in the Delta orchard.

A few seconds later, the culprit is revealed: one of the Marine SMAW teams is on the roof of building D2. They fire a second rocket at 2B, which skims just overhead. 2B sends a few rounds back, while 2A, now out in front, takes some small arms fire.

2A end the turn side on and a little hull down to Delta, so I decide to kick them out and take cover behind the rise on the edge of orchard. 2B is facing the compound just in front of a chokepoint in the track. I hadn’t noticed this and it could give the pixeltruppen a pathfinding aneurysm I really don’t need now. But the dust thrown up by 2A’s transit is currently masking 2B and I decide they’re in as good a position as any to get stuck in with their GMG.

Back in the base of fire, I now have a concrete threat to engage, so 1st and 3rd focus their attentions on the D2 rooftop. 1A is out of position: the Marines previously spotted on the close right corner of Delta managed to wing their gunner while 2nd moved up, and they’ve temporarily reversed back into the orchard.

So the roof of D2 gets filled in by two GMGs, the .50 and 4 FN MAGs. The base of fire is about 500m out, so the Marines aren’t crushed under the weight of fire, but they do rapidly take cover.

They’re not the only SMAW team though. The other one fires a rocket over the top of 2A as they dismount. They’re up on top of D4. With 2A going to ground around their vehicle and 2B focused on D2, the D4 SMAW has free reign and its only luck that it misses 2B with another shot.

That gets the gunner’s attention though and despite his orders to area fire the roof of D2, he switches on to the more immediate threat and starts chucking grenades in their direction.

The Firefight

So we’ve got our firefight. 4th is rushing up to reinforce 2nd despite a little fire on the approach and they’re soon joined by the platoon leader and 1A.

Despite all the fire, there are still a few SMAWs flying about- one near miss takes out 4B’s empty G-Wagen- but the Marines are putting some effective fire out with their M16s too. 2A takes repeated casualties to the SMAW team on top of D4, despite 2B relocating to open the track and get a better angle.

Both of the SMAW teams eventually go down, by which time it’s clear I’m going to need to bring the base of fire in. I need more dismounts if I’m going to move up and clear the compound. With 2A basically out of action and 2B staying mounted to keep their GMG running, I’ve only got 4th and half of 1st forward and that’s not going to be enough.

So I spend a few minutes consolidating, then start to probe across the orchard.

4th Squad is up first, moving up to the low wall outside D2 when the lead team comes under fire from its left.

The culprit is the Marine Platoon HQ, firing across the front of the compound from keyholes made in the wall by errant 40mm grenades. They’re set up in a patch of dense undergrowth too, which makes spotting and getting fire on them tricky.

1B, still mounted in their GMG vehicle try to engage them, but the Marines manage to snipe out both gunners before scoring some hits on 1A as they push up.

It’s not a totally one-way street though: all the firepower heading their way does eventually tell and they go down in a hail of machinegun fire and 40mm grenades.

That clears the way into the Delta compound. With the Marines’ HQ and SMAW teams confirmed out of action, I just have the rifle squad to deal with.

I already know where one team is- on the far right corner of the objective- and send 4th to deal with them by occupying Building D2.

They quickly get into a gunfight while 1B tries to support them with its GMG from back on the track. This almost goes disastrously wrong when the Marines land a 40mm grenade on 1B’s vehicle, but they somehow get away without any casualties.

The same is not true for the enemy, as 4th quickly picks them off.

While they do so, the rest of the dismounts are hitting the other flank. 1A and the now dismounted 2B are in the centre- 2B having expended all their GMG ammo- while 3rd is out left.

They’re the next to make contact. As 3A occupies Building D6, 3B makes the questionable decision to run around the dense undergrowth in front of them, which results in a casualty to some rounds flying across the compound.

There’s another Marine team just to the left of D8. 3rd consolidate in D6 and light them up with some support from 2B who’ve taken Building D4. They overwhelm them with automatic fire and 40mm grenades in short order.

The final team is close by, mostly masked behind Building D8. 4th cross from D2 to D3 to get a better angle on them, losing a man in the process but putting enough fire out to shut the Marines down. 3rd splits off an assault team and sends them round to D7 while they’re suppressed, but the last Marine standing stubbornly refuses to bow out until 2B occupies D8 and opens up at point blank range.

After spending one last turn checking that the Marines on the right corner are out of action, it’s time to hit the ceasefire button.

Endex

The Marines are indeed all gone so the Dutch get their 1000 points. They took 8 casualties themselves though, or 25% losses, plus one of the G-Wagens, giving the Marines 145 points. If we tot that up they get a score of 855. Slightly better than the Uncons at 829 and a little behind the 929 of the Stryker infantry.

We do have to bear in mind, though that the Dutch were up against the latest iteration of the AI plans and this is really the first time we’ve seen the SMAW teams get stuck in.

In terms of time, there were 30 minutes from contact to ceasefire in this run, so again… the Dutch are slotting in between the Stryker Infantry and the Uncons just like we might expect.

This is all a little arbitrary though: what we really need to focus on is how the Dutch Light Infantry TOE influenced the tactical decisions I was making.

Mobility

The G-Wagens certainly felt very quick. Whether they were moving on from Alpha, getting into position to attack Delta or bumrushing down the track past Charlie they were really fast off the mark. This was partly to do with the terrain I found myself in: the centre of the map is relatively open with a pretty good road network, but I’m not sure heavier vehicles would have benefitted quite so much.

The speed of advance onto Delta’s left flank certainly helped out. That route was definitely covered- there were several SMAW misses and a few hits from small arms fire- but the G-Wagens were able to zoom through the danger area before significant fire could be brought to bear. At the same time, the fact that they could make the transit so quickly meant that the base of fire only had to create small windows of maximum suppression, rather than haemorrhage ammo for an extended period.

Firepower

Once the G-Wagens stopped moving, things were a little different. I think I was very lucky not lose any manned vehicles to the SMAWs: the Marines fired off at least half a dozen in a short period where I didn’t have the firepower up front to totally suppress them.

We also started to get that mounted-dismounted tension. 2nd Squad was the first up and the circumstances at the sharp end convinced me to bail out 2A while keeping 2B mounted. 2A immediately became pinned and it was probably only the fact that 2B was one of the GMG vehicles that kept things from going more sideways than they did.

That may well be a Combat Mission feature: dismounts appear to be much more vulnerable to suppression than vehicle crews. But it was also a situation where the Dutch were only being engaged by 4 Marines. It wasn’t until I could get 4th down to support them that the situation really stabilised.

In a sense, that’s perhaps not that surprising. 2nd was just a single squad after all. But I think there’s a question mark over whether both teams should have stayed mounted to exploit the firepower on the G-Wagens. They would have been more vulnerable, but also might have been able to return more effective fire.

This isn’t a problem that a lot of platoon level units have because they don’t sacrifice their mounted firepower by going on foot. When a Stryker squad dismounts, it actually increases its firepower because the vehicle is now backed up by the infantry.

This doesn’t mean that the Dutch dismounts here were lacking in firepower. Although the vehicle mounted weaponry did most of the heavy lifting outside of the Delta compound, once the infantry got in there they did really well. Those squads can and did put a lot of fire out. They overwhelmed the isolated Marine rifle teams in short order without any real problems.

I think there’s a balance to be found depending on the situation. Here, once I started dismounting it felt like the terrain and enemy made it foolish to remount and it made increasing sense to get more infantry on line. The real exception to this were the two GMG vehicles, because the GMG is such an effective supporting weapon and I didn’t want to give them up in exchange for a fire team until I had to.

A final note on the dismount tension is that once I had dismounted most of the platoon, I ended up with a load of empty G-Wagens abandoned at my jumping-off point. If another enemy element got involved and shot them up or dropped artillery on them, I’d be losing my mobility.

The separation of dismounts and vehicles has other consequences along the same lines. If I had to now defend this objective, I would have to do something with those G-Wagens, whether that is driving them off and stashing them somewhere, or finding another balance point between mounted and dismounted teams. I’d also have to factor in casualties and whether they mean I’d have enough surviving troops to re-crew them all or start working out which teams to consolidate and which G-Wagens to permanently abandon.

Conclusion

All of this is another layer of decision-making with tactical consequences that alter the platoons mobility and firepower that other units don’t have to deal with. But the Dutch LI still did well here, they were a fun formation to put through the scenario.

They were from Group 2. That means Group 3 is up next and the choice is between US Marines in AAVs, Canadians in Nyala MRAPs and two flavours of Syrian Motor Rifle Platoon: in BTRs or in BMP-1s. Again, it’ll be interesting to see what you guys pick, I’ll put a link to the poll down below.

Until then then, tanks for watching. If you’d like to see these videos early and support the channel you can do so via Patreon and Youtube memberships. Whether you do or not, thanks for watching and I’ll catch you in the next one.