In-plane wave propagation in a periodic rectangular grid beam structure, which includes rotational inertia (so-called 'Rayleigh beams'), is analyzed both with a Floquet-Bloch exact formulation for free oscillations and with a numerical treatment (developed with PML absorbing boundary conditions) for forced vibrations (including Fourier representation and energy flux evaluations), induced by a concentrated force or moment. A complex interplay is observed between axial and flexural vibrations (not found in the common idealization of out-of-plane motion), giving rise to several forms of vibration localization: 'X-', 'cross-' and 'star-' shaped, and channel propagation. These localizations are triggered by several factors, including rotational inertia and slenderness of the beams and the type of forcing source (concentrated force or moment). Although the considered grid of beams introduces an orthotropy in the mechanical response, a surprising 'isotropization' of the vibration is observed at special frequencies. Moreover, rotational inertia is shown to 'sharpen' degeneracies related to Dirac cones (which become more pronounced when the aspect ratio of the grid is increased), while the slenderness can be tuned to achieve a perfectly flat band in the dispersion diagram. The obtained results can be exploited in the realization of metamaterials designed to control wave propagation. and the solution techniques are well-known, many interesting features still remain to be explored. This exploration is provided in the present article, where an exact Floquet-Bloch analysis is performed and complemented with a numerical treatment of the forced vibrations induced by the application of a concentrated force or moment, including presentation of the Fourier transform and energy flow (treated in [26] for free vibrations). It is shown that (i.) aspect ratio of the grid, (ii.) slenderness and (iii.) rotational inertia of the beams decide the emergence of several forms of highly-localized waveforms, namely, 'channel propagation', 'X-', 'cross-', 'star-' shaped vibration modes. Moreover, these mechanical properties of the grid can be designed to obtain flat bands and degeneracies related to Dirac cones in the dispersion diagram and directional anisotropy or, surprisingly, dynamic 'isotropization', for which waves propagate in a square lattice with the polar symmetry characterizing propagation in an isotropic medium.The presented results open the way to the design of vibrating devices with engineered properties, to achieve control of elastic wave propagation.2 In-plane Floquet-Bloch waves in a rectangular grid of beams An infinite lattice of Rayleigh beams is considered, periodically arranged in a rectangular geometry as shown in Fig. 1a, together with the unit cell, Fig. 1b.