Storm Group
"The heavy casualties, the constant retreat, the shortage of food and munitions, the difficulty of receiving reinforcements... all this had a very bad effect on morale. Many longed to get across the Volga, to escape the hell of Stalingrad."
- – Vasily Chuikov
The Soviet storm group, also known as Shturmovye Gruppy is a unit in the Soviet Forces for Flames of War. Armed with sub-machine guns, Anti-Tank rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and heavy machine guns, these men would be tasked with taking on and clearing heavily defended buildings in the clusterfucks to end all clusterfucks known as Stalingrad, Königsberg, and Berlin.
Late War[edit | edit source]
These guys are your elites, your absolute madlads, your Fearless Veterans with 2+ Assault rating. So should you just take whole roster of them and start tearing fascists a new one? Alas, it's not that simple.
First of all, they are not all that cheap. 7 SMG teams, 1 PTRD AT, 1 Maksim HMG and 1 82mm mortar cost 14 points, and one of those SMG teams is a Unit Leader, mounted on a small base. Hero Shock Rifle or SMG can do roughly the same thing as Storm Group, but cheaper, and more expensive Engineer-Sappers can deploy smokes and be given Panzerfausts. The latter is very important as, and here's the second point, Storm Groups aren't very good against vehicles even with their ridiculously effective assault, and infantry-on-infantry assaults in V4 are rare due to how much lead even a pinned squad can vomit in opponent's general direction. To sum up, Storm Group is a good choice, just a little bit overshadowed by more cost-effective squads.
IRL[edit | edit source]
In the 100 years leading up to WW2, advances in building materials and metallurgy, especially in steel and concrete production, caused urban centers to explode in size and height during the early-mid 1800s-1900s. Even Russia, in its somewhat shaky state after the civil war, under the leadership of the communist party began a large industrial campaign to lead the nation into an industrial power. However, as the war reached the Soviet Union in 1941, these urban centers became hotspots of some of the fiercest fighting in history. Because of their construction, a medium-sized apartment building could withstand the odd artillery shell and become a small fortress filled with dozens of troops, necessitating clearing these places out in close quarters combat. The Soviets learned quickly the need for such action and developed the Shturmovye Gruppy or Storm Group. Each storm group was divided into 3 unique parts:
1. The Assault group was armed with SMGs, (The PPsH but also any captured German submachine guns), flamethrowers, pistols, and grenades, and tasked with taking the objective from the enemy in a hail of bullets, explosives, and fire.
2. The Reinforcement group was tasked with holding the fucking line against counterattacks. They were armed with heavier equipment such as anti-tank rifles, heavy machine guns, and mortars.
3. The Reserve force group was to ferry supplies to the reinforcement group and act as a backup assault group if the objective proved to be a harder target to take.
Such tactics were pioneered by the 62nd Army's 13th Guards in the fierce fighting of downtown Stalingrad and eventually adopted by the 62nd army proper under the leadership of Chuikov.
| 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 |