Land Cruisers:
The Lithuanian Campaign
Scenario Preview, Part One
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2023

Our alternative-history naval games have been very popular for years, though less beloved than the games with a historical topic. When we’ve tried out alt.history themes for Panzer Grenadier, there’s a similar drop-off, but Panzer Grenadier games don’t come close to matching Second World War at Sea or Great War at Sea for players and sales. So we’ve only rarely ventured into alternative history for them, and then usually only for the Gold Club.

But there are players who really like to try something different, and we want to give them some extra fun, too. Land Cruisers: The Lithuanian Campaign is a Premium Content download exclusively for the Gold Club, with 88 new pieces and 10 new scenarios. It draws on Lithuania’s Iron Wolves and Land Cruisers for pieces and Fire in the Steppe for maps. The story’s from our Second Great War alternative history; let’s have a look at the five scenarios of the first chapter.

Chapter One
The Invasion
Tsar Alexei II has honed the Imperial Russian Army into an instrument of conquest, well-equipped with the most modern tanks, artillery and helicopters. The lands seized from his father’s patrimony in 1917 by the gangster Wilson and his cronies would be recovered: Poland, the Baltic Provinces, Finland and Bessarabia. And as reparation for that seizure, Russia would also acquire the formerly Austrian and German lands included in the Kingdom of Poland.

Lithuania had prospered within the Central Powers economic bloc, and built a small but strong army under the auspices of its alliance with Germany and Austria. There was never any doubt that the Lithuanians would hold out as long as possible, with the assurance that their allies would come quickly to their aid.

Scenario One
Little Green Men
August 1940
Russian probes of Lithuanian border defenses began several hours before the formal invasion. These ranged from one or two infiltrators attempting to destroy telephone wires and brigades, up to battalion-sized incursions seeking to seize jump-off points for the main attack. Weeks of Russian bluster had taken some of the edge off Lithuanian preparedness, with the defenders expecting an attack on the Tsar’s birthday, not almost two weeks early.

Conclusion
The Russians had built a well-trained, well-equipped army, but the Lithuanians felt themselves ready to face it. They found themselves badly outmatched and had to fall back from their forward positions. Retreating in the face of what was clearing a probing attack did not augur well for the country’s defense, but before dawn broke the Lithuanian government had invoked the common-defense clause of the Central Powers alliance. Help would be coming, if only the Iron Wolves could hold out.

Notes
This is just a small infantry-based scenario; we don’t as a rule include introductory scenarios in expansion sets (since they can’t be played without a complete game, that means that anyone playing them probably already knows how to play Panzer Grenadier). But lots of players want the option to get a game in quickly.

Scenario Two
The Tsar’s Armor
August 1940
A Russian rifle division included an organic tank battalion, with another full brigade of infantry-support tanks available at the corps level. When the full weight of the offensive began, the “breakthrough” tanks appeared in the first wave of Russian attackers. Behind their 37mm anti-tank guns and Krupp field pieces, the Iron Wolves awaited the multi-turreted land battleships.

Conclusion
The Lithuanian defenders couldn’t very well miss the lumbering land battleships when they approached their lines. The massive tanks had only limited protection, and even the 37mm anti-tank guns of the Lithuanian batteries could penetrate their armor with a little luck on their side. But they came on in huge numbers that overwhelmed the Iron Wolves. The Russian advance would continue.

Notes
The Russians wield a full battalion of T-35B tanks, the famed “land battleship” of the Soviet Union’s Red Army. In this alternative history, the B model – designed but never produced in our reality – is the standard heavy breakthrough tank. It’s more reliable and not quite as slow as the Red Army’s T-35, but this is no T-34 or KV.

Scenario Three
Armored Wolves
August 1940
Lithuanian defense planning called for prompt counter-attacks against any Russian penetration, with the small country’s lone tank brigade intended as the core of any such effort. The Russians, for their part, intended their rifle divisions to hold the ground gained and so they had been liberally supplied with rockets, anti-tank guns and artillery. Tsar Alexei’s men would not be easily expelled from what their sovereign considered Russian territory.

Conclusion
The hastily-arranged Russian defenses held, delaying the invasion for a few hours at best. Russian anti-tank defenses claimed many Lithuanian tanks, and the Lithuanian infantry lacked the firepower to suppress them. The Iron Wolves had little choice but to fall back, but reinforcements were already on their way.

Notes
Lithuania’s Iron Wolves includes plenty of tanks, so we get to use them here in an attack on the Russians. The Russians have rocket-firing infantry and pretty effective anti-tank guns, which is going to make this one tough on the Iron Wolves.

Scenario Four
Panzer Attack
August 1940
Within hours of the Russian attack, the handful of German units on a war footing began moving eastwards to join the Poles and Lithuanians on the front line. Behind them, others mobilized frantically and prepared to follow them. The active units of the Imperial German Army’s I Corps, recruited and stationed in East Prussia, arrived in time to join the Lithuanians in a renewed counter-attack.

Conclusion
The German assault panzers had, like their Russian counterparts, been designed to break through enemy fortifications and infantry positions. They had more success than the lighter Lithuanian machines, but the lack of supporting infantry in the Imperial German tank brigade made it impossible to hold onto their gains, let alone expand them. The Russian advance had been slowed this time, but it had not been stopped.

Notes
Now we get to use the Imperial German panzers from Land Cruisers, which are not very good tanks but do have a lot of firepower. Unfortunately for the Kaiser’s tankers, their machines are almost as vulnerable to the Russian anti-tank guns and rockets as the lighter Lithuanian tanks.

Scenario Five
Clash of Armor
August 1940
It didn’t take long for the Russians to re-group and resume their advance, once again spearheaded by their slow, relentless tank brigades. But this time the Germans had added a tank brigade of their own to the Lithuanian defenses. That made a battle between the land battleships inevitable.

Conclusion
Russian numbers and firepower eventually told, but only at a steep cost to the invaders. The Central Powers managed to bloody the Russians and temporarily halt their advance. But it soon resumed, prompting the German general staff to dispatch more substantial reinforcements to the Eastern Front.

Notes
Like the scenario title says, it’s a big-ass tank battle, with masses of Russian T-35 tanks and the similar German variant lumbering about and shooting at each other. That’s what wargaming’s supposed to be.

Next time, the Russians meet the Land Cruisers.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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