KV-2

It has been suggested that this page should be merged with KV, let's discuss at discussion page.

"I believe in one thing, the power of human will."

– Joseph Stalin

I must break you.

The KV-2 was a extremely heavy breakthrough tank of WW2 used by the Soviets during the final stages of the Winter War and the early stages of Barbarossa. Extremely armored to the upper limits of the chassis itself, and armed with a 152mm howitzer for a main gun. The KV-2 was the epitome and embodiment of the Russian will to survive and strike back at the invading forces of the Wehrmacht bully the neighboring Finns during the Winter War (not that it didn't work against the schnitzels, mind). It features as a unit in Flames of War though it possesses no official on-paper stat-card, yet.

IRL

There is, never will be, and never was anything quite like this monstrosity. At least, until M42.

The closest thing to an IRL Leman Russ Demolisher, the KV-2 was a variant of the KV-1 that was jury-rigged to mount a D-10 152mm Howitzer for bunker-busting. The KV-2, being based on the KV-1, had all the advantages of its then-impenetrable armor, but suffered from all the obvious problems of mounting such a massive gun on an improvised turret: beyond its massive profile, the turret's traverse was terrible, and could only be rotated on level ground. The original turret was also extremely cramped, which made loading the gun a slow and laborious process, and it did not have a machinegun for self-defense. While a revised turret was later designed with better ergonomics and a machinegun port in the back, fixing this did little to address many of the KV's more drastic performance issues (like having to shift gears with a fucking mallet).

The KV series was eventually decommissioned, though the legacy of the KV-2 lived on with the SU-152, a self-propelled assault gun that mounted a similar cannon (with much better ballistics) on the same chassis. While the KV-2 was certainly not the only assault vehicle ever designed with a huge fuck-off gun (the Churchill AVRE comes to mind), the KV-2 stands out from the rest because of its somewhat insane and improvised nature. In addition, it was still considered an assault tank, not an assault gun or some lowly engineering vehicle. In the right circumstances the KV-2 was able to sit directly in plain view of the enemy while destroying targets at leisure, all while remaining largely impervious to return fire. These qualities are quite unlike most other vehicles that were optimized for a bunker-busting or close assault role.

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