The Soviets lost large numbers of infantry units and tanks, but they kept the Germans away from entering the city. The Germans lost half of their tanks and only 1 infantry step. At times it was difficult to allow the loss of men in exchange for time, but it was the cost of victory for the Soviets. Watching losses of 24 infantry steps to 1 germans step loss can turn one against such a stragety. However, A Victory is a Victory and there are a lot more peasants to but in uniform.

Here's the battle report, written by the German Cmmdr (me), so maybe some small bias here and there, I don't know. But I would recommend this one as a good head to head scenario....................

‘Senno ’

Eastern Front Scenario No.30 Senno : 6th July 1941 Scenario played : Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Maj.Gen Vinogradov’s 7th Mechanised Corps rolled forward to halt the invaders marching on Smolensk. Near Senno they crashed into the spearheads of Panzer Group.3. Around 0700 hours, the two forces came into combat reach of one another, and so the frantic battle at Senno began.

Both sides had decided that the town of Senno would provide the key objective of this battle, and initial dispositions had both sides deploying their troops in two groups on a North and South position. The Germans for their part advanced in two Kampfgruppen, divided into Panzers in the South and Infantry and Artillery in the North. Gen.Vinogradov divided his troops also, but into roughly two equal groups of tanks and infantry in both the North and the South.

It thus appeared to be a key factor of whether the German concentration of their better class tanks could smash through the enemy group facing them whilst the infantry in the North kept their front occupied. Once and if this was achieved, then the Panzers could swing north to assist the Infantry to take Senno. Whilst the German Panzer group in the South sped eastwards, the Soviets in the Northern section soon occupied the Town of Senno and set up defensive positions whilst their foe continued to advance.

By about 0830, the German Panzers in the South had made contact with the Soviets and a furious battle ensued. As the opposing tanks blasted at each other, Soviet AT Guns, artillery and infantry also became embroiled, especially as the supporting German Infantry platoons pushed forward. Over a period of about an hour and a quarter, about 30 Russian tanks were put out of action, 2 guns and 30 infantrymen. German losses amounted to 4-5 tanks, 8 APC’s and about 50 infantrymen.

Meanwhile, at Senno itself, the town was slowly coming under German attack as the Soviet defenders nestled in to repel it. Around here the Germans disembarked from trucks about a kilometre west and advanced cautiously forward with covering fire. Even so, by the time they reached about 200-300m outside of Senno, at least 50 of their comrades had fallen in the advance and had inflicted minimal damage on the Communist foe there.

With the time now at 0930, and two and half hours of battle, the situation was as follows. In the North, Senno was Soviet occupied and well defended. Although under assault, the Russians were standing fast against the Germans and inflicting casualties on their advancing troops. In the South, the Russian Battle group’s armour there had taken a mauling, causing the whole group to retire, albeit in orderly fashion North to Senno. The Germans here were pushing fast after them and looking to make it a two-pronged attack on Senno as their Northern Kampfgruppe continued to engage on the peripheries of the town.

The battle now concentrated on the assault on Senno itself. The German Panzers in the south swung north to advance on to the town whilst their fellow infantrymen and AT Guns continued to fire away at the strong Soviet forces there. The Soviets had set up a strong peripheral defence with many reserves located deeper in the town. They had also been reinforced by the units that had retired in orderly fashion from the southern part of the encounter.

The Germans, using their 50mm & 37mm Paks began trying to reduce the Soviet armour and artillery that had plotted up in Senno, and even with the little incursions made, it was taking a lot of time. There were quite a few defenders disrupted or demoralized and feeling, at 1045 hours that the Soviet defence was as weak as it would get in the time allotted, the Germans finally sprang forward on the south-west corner of Senno and at the west side of it also. The fighting proved frighteningly fierce! No quarter of Senno was being given up by the Russians, whilst the Germans would not let up on the attack either.

Artillery shells fell, sometimes amongst friend and foe alike. Tanks bustled around the town, firing machine-guns at zero range and loosing off AP shells at armoured enemies. Infantry grappled with each other house-to-house.Up until the attack on the town, Soviet infantry casualties had been low, but now, they were totting up to around 175 men lost around the streets of Senno. German infantry accounted for about another 100 lost in Senno.

The struggle was proving a grim business! The Germans had managed to obtain a hold in the south-west quarter as well as a small slice on the west edge. But there were no reserves? German tanks and armoured cars were being knocked out, and although the gains had been made and there was enough to hold them, there was no way further encroachments could be made. For their part, the Soviets managed to find units to keep reinforcing each block, but even their troops were beginning to become demoralized in large numbers.

After an hour and a half’s fighting in Senno, the attack was called off. Bits taken would be held, but no further chunks of the town could be taken this day. This 5 hour engagement would have to go down as a Soviet victory despite the huge loss of 42 tanks, 6 artillery platoons and 250 other soldiers. They had held the majority of Senno and blunted today’s attack by the Wehrmacht. German losses were high too! 14 Pz38t’s had been eliminated, 8 armoured cars and 225 infantrymen. If the Soviets fought like this for a town, what would the cities be defended like?

Two strong armored forces with significant infantry and AT support clash over control of a sizable town. The Soviets are closer to the town and occupy it quickly forcing the Germans to cross substantial open ground in order to come to grips with the Sivets.

I am NOT the best armored force commander but I'm starting to get the idea. Use mass and get into crossfire positions. Avoid the nasty AT guns but lose some tanks in order to crush the mass of the enemy.

This is early in Barbarossa so the Soviet tanks are NOT particularly good and the Germans are in luck to have the 38ts which have sufficient armor to get into a shooting match with the BTs and T-26s.

The Russians entered the board and quickly took command of Senno loading it up with their infantry and AT guns. The BTs rushed out to try to take the fields west of Senno and deny their use as a screen for AT guns. It almost worked. They got to the right position and the next turn would have given them the final rush when the Germans won the initiative. 15 BT-7s were suddenly reduced to fireplaces. The BTs then ran away to the northwest trying to escape the arriving 38ts. It didn't work as assaulting infantry, AT guns and tanks quickly reduced the BTs to lone tanks running away.

At the same time the Soviet medium tanks, the T-26s, advanced on the south flank of the German tank mass. With their increased armor protection they proved much more difficult for the German tanks to engage, so they split into two groups, one which placed themselves in front of Senno and open to AT gun fire and one to the SW of the T-26s. With the +2 bonus for crossfire the T-26s began their death march. The German tanks in front of Senno took losses from the AT guns (about 10 tanks) but remained in place long enough to accomplish the near complete destruction of the Soviet tank force.

German infantry then moved up to assault the AT guns and once they were invested (and could no longer shoot at advancing armor, the tanks and ultimately the SPWs were able to move into Senno and the firepower and combined arms action resulted in the whittling down of the Soviet position.

A good learning experience, however I would strongly suggest that, if the goal is to HOLD Senno, that the Russians stay in Senno and force the Germans to assault at a disadvantage. I was too wasteful of my Soviet tanks resulting in the loss of their firepower and mass to hold the town after the Germans closed the gap. Still an enjoyable ride as I was able to atually put together a tactical plan for the Germans and see it work.

The Germans face two opponents in this scenario, the Soviets and the clock. I was able to finally blast through the Soviets' forward positions (those two hills made things especially difficult) by about turn twelve, but with my infantry and leaders spread out and disrupted, there was no way I was getting into that town. Additionally, I foolishly let two PZ platoons get surrounded, then stuck in an assault by infantry, and finally destroyed by Soviet tanks. I'll ascribe this loss both to the superior play of the Soviets and to my unwillingness to take losses early on. The German desperately needs to get his infantry into the thick of things, even if this means a few of his carriers get lost. I didn't do so, and I lost.

Up Front Caveat: We only got ten turns into this 20 turn scenario, which is why it's listed as a draw--it wasn't clear how it was going to eventually turn out. The Germans were just staring their assault into the town and it was pretty clear that it was going to be a bloody diciest to decide the winner.

My opponent is learning the tank/anti-tank rules as previously we were playing infantry-only actions. This was his first FTF foray using the full 3rd Edition rules with no options but with OOBs for both sides featuring tanks and ATGs. This was also his first foray into EASTERN FRONT (we'd been playing ELSENBORN RIDGE before this). He chose the scenario and took the Germans. Tough row to hoe for someone new to the game/system, but there's no other way to learn! Plus, it feels easier to play the Germans in most games.

Of course, with the VCs solely based on possession of the majority of town hexes and since the Germans get five on Board 1 right off the bat, it makes sense to pile absolutely EVERYTHING into Senno to deny the fascists the needed 8 more hexes to win. So here was my defensive concept for the game:

Senno is shaped kind of like an egg with the pointy end facing south. The first idea was to create a "ring of steel" using the tanks on the outer town hexes--two tank platoons per hex to face the western approach and pointy ends of the football. There's a few left for the back side, but the Soviet doesn't have enough to stack two tanks per hex. Then, the 76.2mm IG guns and 45mm ATGs are moved and unlimbered on the ends--you have a pair of each, so one of each goes on each end. I put the IG so it has line of sight to the west approach to the town. Yes, this means you are stacked to capacity on those ends, which means you don't get the full terrain benefit of the town. More on that in a bit.

I moved the HMGs in trucks on the western edge hexes and marched infantry on all the other ones. So that means full-capacity stacks on all the outer hexes. Yes. I'll explain later. Mortars are trucked in and unloaded (but not unlimbered) in a generally central location. I put highest morale LTs stacked with the76mm IGs and the other two lieutenants where I think I have the best view to call for mortar fire. The mortars will move and then unlimber adjacent to them once the Soviet discerns the German main effort.

March order on board are the cavalry tanks, then the guns in transport, then the HMGs. Infantry begins marching but empty transports come back to pick up the rear of them and get them into town before the Germans show up.

Once the Germans close on the town, they'll generally have to mass practically everything against the Schwerpunkt if they are to be successful, so the Soviet adjusts his defense oriented against it. That means having those 3-combat unit stacks ringing the town so that you can create 4-2 infantry paired with 7-4 HMGs as backups adjacent to where the Russian thinks the German Point of Penetration into Senno is going to be. Putting the Captain and Major mounted in the two KMS one hex back from the defensive crust where they can best activate the most units near that anticipated Penetration is a good idea.

Here's the rationale for this. The Soviet needs room to move around in the town interior given the stacking restrictions, which apply at all times (to include the movement phase and, especially important--when Demoralized units are Fleeing to Safe hexes inside Senno. Room has to be left for this. If you have interior hexes stacked to capacity so you can fully take advantage of Town defensive shifts on the outer crust, then you are going to have problems moving around reinforcements and units that need to Recover. The second important thing to realize is that when the German starts destroyed the Soviet tanks on the outer crust of town, he's going to create wrecks. Three steps of wrecks means his vehicles can't get in via that hex without burning up activations to "push" wreck levels down to where he can. Those Pz-38s have "7" as DF values which the German can surely use when doing Direct Fire and Assaults in town. But he's got to get them in there...

The two senior leaders are mounted in KMS so they are relatively protected from Direct Fire/non AT Fire and--especially--bombardments. I don't advise putting them on the front line where they can be spotted; keeping them adjacent to max chain activations and do Recovery of Disrupted and Demoralized units are what is most important. Eventually they can be dismounted when staying in the KMS is more dangerous than being on foot.

While the Germans are closing, it's best advised for the Soviet Fire concept to aim at disorganizing large "base of fire" groupings and units forming up to assault. There's temptations to go for step losses as the sole criteria for what to shoot at and when. if the Soviet can induce delays in assaults on the town, there will likely more German casualties/step losses suffered over the long run.

The Germans will likely go for one of the ends of Senno, probably the southern/"pointy" end of the egg, and that can be made to work against them. Once they commit, there's not a lot of maneuvering room inside the town and the Soviet has a narrower front to defend. It's not likely the Germans can create a significant flanking force to draw off infantry fire from Town hexes. They'll need every infantry and HMG platoon they have to sustain a continuous attack at the Point of Penetration (as front-line units will get Disrupted/Demoralized and have to be drawn off and replaced). The German will be most nervous when he only has a single hex or pair of hexes on the fringe of town--it's a long, long way to a Safe Hex for any Demoralized units that fail to Recover! The Soviet can counterweight against the Point of Penetration and turn the fight into an urban nightmare of carnage and mayhem...aiming to buy time (but of course, German step losses are bonus!). In the town, Disruption is often good enough--can't generate significant combat power that way on the Direct Fire table! Demoralizations and step losses are icing on the cake!

Would love to hear about other Soviet players who adopt this or something similar and go through the rest of the scenario to see how it turns out. Maybe then we can get some observations on what it takes to defend against urban assaults (and the German tricks to guard against).

Solid scenario, I have seen other AAR which suggest that the game will always develop in the same way. That is a tank battle on the western boards followed by a German assault on the town on board 2. Our game was very close and resulted in my first FtF victory

This scenario played out basically the same as the historical conclusion with the 7th Panzer Division failing to get a secure foothold on the larger town (presumedly Senno) on map 2. In order for the Germans to have been able to win this one they would have had to of taken control of 8 of the 20 larger town hexes under Soviet control; by the end of it all only three of the required town hexes were contested -none under German control. The Soviets were able to deploy a solid line of defense of the western face of the town with HMG and INF units in the center and armored units covering the north and south flanks. The eastern portion of the town was just barely occupied with remaining forces in the center able to quickly fill in any attempts to attack from the rear. Behind the town 82mm mortars were set up on 40m part of the hill overlooking the town with 45mm AT guns on the lower hills as a last line of defense. Time was on the side of the Soviets in this engagement with just 20 turns and without a continuous east-west road available it took a good 5 turns just for the Germans to make DF contact with the Soviet defenders which only left 15 turns for Germany to attempt an assault on the town. There wasn't much time to casually weaken the defenses before getting into close-quartered fighting and as soon as the Germans rushed in Soviet opportunity fire had make a disrupted and demoralized mess of the German leadership and foot-units. The Germans fared much better in the armored engagements with an average of 3 Soviet armored steps eliminated to every German one but the tank battle took up a lot of time before most of the Soviet tanks were dispatched. Ultimately, German armored and foot units were kept disorganized and separated for the duration of the battle. Soon the bulk of the German foot-units were able to rally enough to make a decent push for the western edge of the town but at that crucial moment the German Major was cut-down by opportunity fire. The catastrophic loss resulted in further delaying the attack so that the first actual urban assault did not take place until 10:00/turn 13. With so much time lost already it was almost certain that Germany would not meet their VCs but the attack was followed through regardless. The remainder of the battle went from bad to worse for 7th Panzer Division and every time one of the contested town hexes came close to falling under their control a Soviet unit was able to rally or reinforce just in time to keep control of the hex contested. Losses were high for both sides but German foot-unit losses were 2 to every Soviet one and that was the deciding factor. Even if the three contested town hexes did eventually fall under German control there wouldn't of been much left to carry on with afterwards. I think the German player just has to be very lucky on their initial advance in sustaining casualties and perhaps not get too bogged down or distracted by Soviet armor; at least saving half the Pz38ts for infantry support. All the tank battle here managed to do was fill town hexes with a ton of wreck markers which in turn prohibited the panzers from easily moving into them before Soviet foot units were able to reoccupy them. There was plenty of action in this one and still gets a "3" rating out of me but by midway through knew the Soviets were going to bag the victory. I think this one will provide a good challenge to even the most seasoned and battle-hardened axis player though as the Germans have just barely enough time and resources to get the job done with little room for error.