IS-2
"It is a fact that under equal conditions, large-scale battles and whole wars are won by troops which have a strong will for victory, clear goals before them, high moral standards, and devotion to the banner under which they go into battle."
- – General Georgy Zhukov
The IS-2 is the final word in Soviet heavy tank design, known for its heavy sloped armor and hilariously powerful 122mm main cannon. Designed in response to the German Tiger and Panther tanks, the IS-2 first saw service in the invasion of Romania and the Baltics, where it was shown to be capable of taking shots from even the feared German 88. However, this came at a trade-off of relatively poor crew ergonomics and an exceptionally slow rate of fire of about 3 rounds a minute for a trained crew. Crewed by the best veterans the Soviets could muster and train, the IS-2s led many of the most important offensives of Operation Bagration and the push into Germany.
Flames of War
Being introduced in 1944, the IS-2 is only available in Late War.
The IS-2 is pretty much the epitome of the Red Army playstyle, with rather impressive hard stats balanced by a whole host of soft stat issues that the player needs to work around to get the most out of their points investment.
The most glaring one is the cannon: AT14, FP 2+, and Brutal. This would all be relatively impressive (even if it's ahistorically weak) if it wasn't for the (historically accurate) Slow firing rule. This means that your tanks are going to have a really hard time killing things on the move, but whatever they do hit tends to die. Fortunately, the IS-2 has some important features that help mitigate this issue. The first is the next of it's impressive hard stats: Front Armor 10. This is some of the heavier armor in game, making it capable of standing up and dueling with the Tigers and Panthers that German players love to bring (you save on a 3 at range). This will let you roll up, take a round of shooting, then dish it back in equal measure. The second is the 3+ skill rating on your crew, letting you use movement orders like blitz and shoot and scoot along with terrain to protect your tanks until they're ready to fire (though the 3+ cross will fail you more than you'd like). The mobility is ok, letting you get where you need to, but try and avoid area terrain, since 3+ cross will result in you probably leaving behind a valuable tank or 2.
You are left with a peculiar tank that requires a very particular style of play to maximize its great strengths against its plethora of weaknesses and make its points back. Fortunately, these weaknesses give you a tank that is relatively cheap for what it brings at a bit over 7 points each. This makes it actually feasible to build a list out of at tournament conditions (looking at you, Tiger). And a phenomenal support vehicle for any list. Roll them up, relying on artillery to take care of enemy anti tank guns, and use terrain to block enemy lines of fire until you get in range. Use your skill to mitigate your slow firing rule through blitz checks, then assault infantry on the objective. Chances are, your opponent will focus on those heavy tanks moving on their objectives, leaving the rest of your army a lot of room to maneuver. Focus your IS-2 on dealing with enemy heavies; this will remove something they're uniquely suited for and help them make their points back. The IS-2 isn't like German heavy weights, able to operate with minimal support, but rather a cog in a well oiled machine. When it works with the rest of the army, it can contribute well beyond its weight. When isolated and left alone, it will die and not do anything.
In Real Life
Ah, the mighty Iosif Stalin-2 tank... Named after the Great Patriotic War leader himself, emblem of the Soviet victory over the Fascist invaders who put the fear of Red into the heart of the Western Allies! There's a lot to be said about this one, but let's start at the beginning.
In 1937, the Red Army is trying to re-equip itself to be in accordance with their updated Field Regulations from the year before, and a tender is put out for a heavy tank. Heavy tanks (sometimes referred to as breakthrough tanks, but the two terms aren't 100% equivalent: heavy is a class where breakthrough is a role on the battlefield) were designed to take the enemy head-on, and thus be able to take a beating without flinching and return it twofold. The first attempts however were... really bad. The multi-turreted monsters that were the T-35, the T-100 and the SMK performed so poorly they were discarded, and ironically the single turret design that had been added almost as an afterthought was approved by direct order of Stalin himself not because it was good, but because all the others designs were just plain terrible and they needed a heavy tank like yesterday! Enters the Kliment Voroshilov tank, better known as the KV-1.
The KV-1 was not a good design. It was, in it's way, just as problematic to the Reds as the late-war heavies were to the Germans: too big, too heavy, too prone to breakdowns, too sluggish; poor visibility and ergonomics... It did however have two major boons that allowed it to go down in history as a saviour instead of a total failure. First, the ZiS-5 76mm gun in its turret (the same gun as its smaller brother the T-34) that early in the war was a good all-purpose weapon able to engage any ground target. The second was armour. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of armour that made the KV-1 virtually impenetrable by the early-war German tank guns, except at the most point-blank of ranges. Nicknamed Koloss or Monster by the Germans due to the insane amount of punishment it could take, the KV-1 was a major thorn in their side... when it did reach the battlefield, that is.
By 1942 and with the Germans no longer at Moscow's doors people dared to start complaining to Stalin about the KV-1's many problems, especially when the Germans brought bigger guns and the KV-1's armour wasn't longer such a big advantage. This turn of events led (amongst many other things) to Kliment Voroshilov (the man) being sidelined by Stalin. Zhozef Kotyn, the designer of the KV-1 saw the writing on the wall just in time and ordered the problems with the KV-1 fixed. That task fell to a young engineer named Nikolay Shashmurin. Shashmurin's approach was simple: he replaced the transmission (which was the worst part of the original KV-1) with a better one, made some quick improvement to ergonomics and eventually sacrificed armor wherever he could do so without threatening the tank's vitals to make it lighter. Shashmurin's rework, designated the KV-1S (Skorostnoy, Russian for 'speedy') delivered... in a sense: the KV-1S was indeed a lot more reliable than the earlier model(s), but the crews soon enough reported they were now just using a bigger T-34, with no advantage in firepower or armour. To Kotin's dismay and anger, field commanders requested more T-34's instead of his new toy. That said, Stalin was satisfied enough he didn't bring the hammer (and sickle) down on Kotin and he remained at the head of his design bureau.
Fast forward to 1943: those goddamn German bastards are bringing out bigger, better toys to play with and the Reds quickly become fed up being on the receiving end of 88mm shells fired from almost 2km away. When the decision was taken to start upgunning the armour park, Kotin came up with a quick'n'dirty stopgap upgrade of installing a 85mm gun in a KV-1 turret, the KV-85. But, at the same time he turned to Shashmurin again and gave him pretty much carte blanche to come up with a new design... as long as it would finally allow him to one-up his (to him and him only) unsufferable counterpart that designed the T-34, Mikhail Koshkin.
Undaunted, Shashmurin came up with two propositions:
- The IS-1, a rough analogue to but complete redesign of the KV-85 that incorporated advances like sloped armour, a better engine and improved transmission, while sporting the same 85mm gun.
- The IS-2, which was pretty much the same machine but sporting an adapted version of the much larger naval D-25 122mm dual-purpose gun.
The IS-1 was quickly discontinued as it suffered from exactly the same poor comparaison to the T-34-85 the KV-1S had suffered with the earlier T-34: bigger and heavier for no practical advantage. The IS-2, however, was a winner. Its powerful 122mm gun was capable of penetrating Tigers and Panthers with its armour-piercing at combat range, while also packing a high explosive shell that could knock out tanks through sheer force alone. Its well-designed armor allowed the IS-2 to regain the ground the KV-1 had eventually lost to the Tigers and Panthers, forcing the German heavie(r)s to close in for a kill instead of sniping from afar exploiting the better range and optics of their Acht-acht. All in all, Shashmurin delivered for the second time, and about 4.500 IS-2's rolled from the assembly lines to deliver high-explosive death to the dumbasses who had the bad idea to start a land war in Asia.
Now, a passionate topic amongst armchair historians is whether the IS-2 was one of the better tanks of WWII or not. Sadly for the IS-2, the answer is actually "No!" Put bluntly: it wasn't even a good tank design to start with, having more in common with the various German Sturmhaubitze than both side would like to admit: the crew of only four men and the 122mm gun's so-so precision and far too small fire rate of at best 3 shells a minute (with an experienced crew and nothing to distract them) made the IS-2 rather inefficient in tank vs. tank engagements. Of course, a hit from the D-25 was a kill and there are confirmed stories of IS-2's overcoming incredible odds against Panthers and Tigers in tank-to-tank combat. That is indeniable. But when you look at the Russian ORBAT and AAR's, you will see IS-2's were committed in regiment strength (21 tanks at once) to support infantry assaults and destroy bunkers, fortifications, buildings, dug-in weapons and the likes; with tank-hunting a distant second best left to the much more numerous and better adapted to the task T-34-85's. Sadly enough for Kotin, but his dream of seeing his heavy tank design prevail would never come to pass: where the T-34-85 evolved into the T-44 and formed the base for the next generations of Soviet/Russian MBT's; heavy tanks were sidelined after WWII, only kept for propaganda purpose and the odd parade and eventually given the definitive boot by Nikita Khrushchev in the sixties for being stupidly impractical and a waste of resources.
After reading that last paragraph, you will probably be wondering why the hell the IS-2 is so well-remembered if it was so bad? The answer to that is twofold:
- While heavy tanks in general weren't that good of a concept, individually the IS-2 was the right tool at the right time for the job at hand during WWII: when it started to really hit the field in numbers, the Germans had less and less operational tanks and relied more and more on static defensive fortifications to try and slow down the enemy. The IS-2, in turn, excels at dealing with static fortifications and racked up a fearsome reputation for killing Fascists easy as you please.
- After WWII, the Soviets used it along with its IS-3 successor for propaganda value and liberally made it available to their allies around the world (from European Satellite States like East Germany to China and North Korea during the Korean War); which bolstered and cemented its reputation as an Instrument of Liberation.
However, despite being made available to their allies and eventually even modernized in the fifties; the IS-2 barely ever hit the field of battle after WWII. Both technology and warfare methods had evolved in the meantime, and the hour of the 'Main Battle Tank' (a come-all-takers that straddles the line between medium and heavy) was at hand, and bunker-pounders like the IS-2 were eventually phased out, put into storage, transformed into static defenses or given to museums/cities for static emplacements. To conclude: the IS-2's reputation is certainly not undeserved, but it got blown out of proportion after the war. Ironically enough exactly like his opponent the Tiger!
| Soviet Forces in Flames of War | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | T-70 - Valentine - M5/M3 Stuart - M3 Lee - T-34 - KV - Churchill - IS-2 - Captured Tank Platoon - T-28 - BT-7 - KV-2 - T-26 |
| Transports: | M3 Scout Car - Universal Carrier - SdKfz 251 |
| Infantry: | Rifles - Motor Rifles - Penal Company - Storm Group - SMG Company - Engineer Sapper Company |
| Artillery: | Katyusha - 152mm Artillery - 122mm Artillery - 76mm Artillery - 120mm Mortars - 82mm mortars |
| Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns: | 45mm Anti Tank - 57mm Anti Tank - 76mm Anti Tank - 100mm Anti Tank - SU-76 - SU-85 - SU-100 - SU-122 - SU-152 - ISU-122/ISU-152 |
| Recon: | Scout Platoon - BA-64 Platoon - Armored Reconnaissance Platoon - Reconnaissance Platoon |
| Aircraft: | Il-2 Sturmovik |
| Anti-Aircraft: | ZSU M17 - DShK AA MG Platoon |
| Midwar Monsters: | KV-3 - KV-5 - T-43 |