USMC – Marine Rifle Platoon Build & Tactics

Martin back with my second article on the USMC. Whilst I slowly paint my way through 150 odd marine figures I’m going to look at the ways to build out and utilise my Marine Rifle Platoons and how changing the balance of the support weapons you add or not to the platoon will alter the ways you can use it on the table top. I’m writing this specifically from a Pacific perspective so the opposition are the Japanese and whilst some of this is relavent to playing against other opponents not everything will carry over against forces from the Western Desert or the Eastern Front.

First up lets understands what a basic Maine Rifle platoon can and importantly can’t do. As a start we have the option of 7 or 10 Rifle teams which is a good sized platoon. They have excellent Motivaion, a Careful hit on rating and an slightly better than average Tactics. This makes them a big blob of teams but lacking any real stopping power being only ROF 1 and with only an average capability in assault. Even if you take all 10 teams you are hard pressed to pin an opponents platoons and wont do any serious harm to a Banzaii charge. You also lack any form of integral anti-tank capability – a common MW trait. Your Teams cost 0.9pts each which is a fair price for them overall.

You have lots of upgrade options which can address all of these weaknesses to differing degrees. M1919 LMG and M1917 HMG teams address the stopping power issue, whilst the Bazooka team provide some integral tank fighting capability. The Flame Thrower team provide a reliable way to pin the enemy and fight Nests (a potential Japanese option) whilst the 60mm Mortar team provides a way to break up attacks or pick off supporting elements. You can simply add them all to the platoon effectively creating a dismounted version of the US Army’s Armoured Assault Rifle platoon but this is an expensive way to proceed and potentially leaves you with some teams that are limited in their use for your game plan.

So lets start with a basic decision what do you want each platoon to primarily do Attack, Manouver or Defend choosing which of these are your target role influences what you do in list selection and how you think about configuring the Marine Rifle Platoons to maximise their effectiveness and minimise their points cost.

Attacking

So lets start with a look at building a platoon to attack with, what does it need – bodies is the obvious answer to sustain an attack and absorb casualties plus it needs a way or two to pin the enemy to reduce defensive fire and thus increase your chances of making a successful assault. So in this mode my suggestion is you take a large platoon and add in the options that have most chance of pinning the enemy i.e a Flame Thrower team and a 60mm mortar. Here I wouldn’t bother with a Bazooka team you aren’t going to attack Tank Platoons with these and neither of the machine gun upgrades. Working out at 14 points for 12 Teams and a basic Formation cost of 31points.

You would support your core assault platoons with a spearhead option and some Stuart light tanks to protect your flanks as well as an artillery platoon for that all important Smoke Bombardment, or even two. Here we are less concerned with Reserves in most scenarios this isn’t an issue for Attackers.

Manouvering

This time we are planning a mobile fight so we are considering the space we need to manouver the platoon in and here I would start with the smaller sized platoon and we want support weapons that offer the best option when moving as well as providing all around defence. The M1919 LMG is a great way to boost fire power here as you get 2 for 2pts which adds 4 dice to our moving fire power, tipping the odds in our favour of pinning an opponets platoon. I wouldn’t take the M1917 HMG here as it is twice as expensive and offers very little more. I would add the Bazooka team and the Flame Thrower team as well, the former gives us a way to threaten tanks and the latter is a great way to pin the enemy or destroy supporting gun and HMG teams so you can assault with your Riflemen, plus these are on small bases which makes manouvering easier. The 60mm Mortar isn’t really much use in this scenario as it need to be stationary to fire which contravenes our aim of mobility.

14 points but this time for 11 Teams, giving a core cost of 31pts. Supporting this sort of build is trickier as you are likely to have to deal with Reserves so this is the option if you are probably considering taking Marine Sherman Tanks in support of the Rifles or more likely a platoon of Marine Rifles supporting the Tanks as your core Formation.

Defending

Defending is all about firepower and being able to counter attack so here I would take the larger platoon and add in all the MG’s I can, so thats two M1919 LMG teams and the M1917 HMG, you could leave it at that but I’d consider adding in the 60mm Mortar for a bit of a way to kep the enemy at arms length as well. The Bazooka isn’t really much of a threat against a tank attack so I’d save those points for something else like an extra Stuart or 37mm AT gun. The Flame Thrower is limited here in how it can add to defensive fire being only Range 4″ (10cm) so again I wouldn’t bother with this upgrade.

Coming in at 16 points for 14 Teams, this brings us to 35points for our compulsory Formation units, we are looking to add point defence here so 37mm AT guns and dedicated M1917 HMG units are good options to add. The 20mm AAA is another unit that puts out a lot of shots as do Stuarts both good options in a defensive Force – there is still the issue of Reserves to consider but this could include one of your infantry platoons coupled with a Marine Sherman Tank platoon which keeps the unit count down and offers some flexibility. A spearhead option is less implortant as a Defender but some scouting infantry is worth considering as an extra infantry platoon.

Defending vs the Janpanese

I have a few thoughts about the way to defend against the Japanese and their unstoppable Banzaii assault. The key here is to defend in depth setting your platoon up with some forward pickets otherwise know as “sacriffices for the greater good” deployed 6″ (15cm) forward of your main firepower line this prevents the Japanese from engaing too many stands at once and enables you to break off without having to move your core Firepower teams out of their foxholes. The platoon leader should be in this line the remainder of the Riflemen form a counter attcking element in a third line ready for when you stall the Japanese assault. Ideally all of this is positioned to the front of the objectives whenever possible.

Expect your pickets to get killed by the Japanese move into contact but then the Japanes win the assault but don’t gain any more ground exposing them in the open to your fire again on your turn before you send in the reserve of riflemen to mop up what’s left and then pull in your perimeter to reset your position ready for the next unit.

When you attack to mop up move your reserve rifles to the flanks if possible to minimise any line of sight blocking and to ensure you can move away from the enemy when consolidating increasing the amount of times your fire base units can get to shoot at the attacking enemy platoons, the Japanese will be looking to attack on mass using multiple platoons so falling back to create a killing ground for your MG fire is essential. The presence of the M3 Stuarts or AT guns will deter a tank assault and your own artillery should be conducting counter battery fire as much as possible. You will note my platoon leader stays with the fire base this ensures they all remain In Command and maximises their shooting effectiveness.

Unless you really need to or are in the mopping up phase when you should have a significant advantage in numbers I would never counter attack vs a charging Japanese platoon you simply can’t kill them quick enough when you hit back in assault to do this with Tactics 4+. You will do more damage from shooting them either in your turn or through the defensive fire you can dish out – set up like this even a pinned Marine platoon has the potential to put 16 shots into the enemy infantry. Mixing your 37mm guns even better some M3 Stuarts into the 2nd line of defenders will further bolster your defensive capability even if pinned thanks to their canister ammunition both these teams add 6 dice in defensive fire each making a well set up marine defensive position very, very hard to assault.

Well thats it from me this time I hope you found this useful.

Martin