Why Play Finland?
Unlike Germany and the USSR, Finland has awful tanks beyond Early war stage. They are primarily an infantry-focused nation with many different kinds of support and utility equipment, your playstyle will be much different as you will have to control and micro many squads of infantry at the same time and you will most likely need support from your allies if you want to have any chance of succeeding, a good USSR player can completely stomp you in-game if you can't micro well.
So why play Finland in the first place? Do you like locking down whole sections of the map by yourself? Do you like being an annoying prick to the enemy team? Want to use new kinds of equipment? Want to practice your infantry micro? Mass infantry assaults? Stealth? How about setting everything on fire with molotovs? If you said yes to any of these then Finland is for you!
Infantry Squads
For simplicity, E M L stands for Early Mid Late war stages respectively
UC for no difference between war stages
Good choices are in bold
E: Tier 1 squads suck in general, this is no different, 10 infantry with molotovs, 9 rifles and 1 with 25 clip LMG
M: Renamed "Reserve Rifle Squad", 1 less guy
L: 2 SMG's and 1 20 clip LMG
100 hp, completely useless, get a rifle squad instead
E: Scout squad, 4 infantry with rifles. Very cheap
M: Leader has a SMG
L: UC
150 hp, obviously only good for scouting. Scout sections have longer view range than normal infantry, you should be spamming these to get as much vision of the enemy as possible, make them prone, hold fire and put them in bushes, try your hardest to sneak some past their front line
E: 10 Infantry with molotovs and grenades, 9 rifles and 1 SMG
M: 1 rifle replaced with 20 clip LMG
L: 2 SMG's, 1 Soviet LMG, 1 SVT
200 hp, good for basic defending at long range where you expect casualties
E: 7 infantry with molotovs and grenades, 6 rifles and 1 with 20 clip LMG
M: N/A
L: Renamed "AT Squad", 9 infantry, 6 rifles, 1 SMG, 4 panzerfausts, 2 PTRD-41
200 hp, very nice to get in Late to deal with any early car/tank rushes
6 infantry with rifles and a random amount of grenades/AT/smoke
Only available in Mid and as a doctrine unit in Late, these guys are ridiculous. A weapon skill of 7 in rifles (tier 4 squads only have 5) means they're very accurate at long rang and are incredibly cheap to spam, but they're only real good at defending, 200 hp means they'll get quickly shredded if you try to use them offensively. Put them behind cover or in bushes prone and watch as enemies get 1 shot if they try to get close
E: 10 infantry with very good guns, 7 Mosin/SVT/AVT, 2 with SMGs and 1 with 18 clip LMG
M: UC
L: 4 SMG's
200 hp, only slightly more expensive than the last 2 squads yet way better with good weapons. No cooldown so you can also spam these out fast, great for attacking and defending as most other squads don't have weapons like these early
E: 9 infantry with more molotovs and grenades, 8 rifles and 1 with 20 clip LMG
M: 2 SMGs, 1 SVT, and Soviet LMG
L: UC
300 hp, basic tier 3 squad, good for attacking and defending
E: 10 infantry with all kinds of grenades, 9 rifles (1 SVT) and 1 SMG
M: 1 guy less, 2 SMGs,
L: 3 SMG's, 1-2 panzerfausts and 2 SVT's
350 hp, tier 4 squad, great aim, great hp, good for everything
9 infantry, with 2 20mm AT guns, 2 panzerfausts and 1 panzerschreck
Only available in Late, this is a complete scam, you are paying around 100 more MP if you get this instead of getting the units individually (2x20mm = 140 + 89 for panzerschreck = 210 + 150 for 4 normal infantry)
E: 7 infantry with all kinds of grenades, 6 rifles (1 SVT) and 1 with 20 clip lmg
M: Renamed "Border Jager Squad", 2 more guys, 2 SMGs, Soviet LMG
L: 3 SMG's 1-4 panzerfausts, 1 SVT
350 hp, similar to the Jager squad, worth it in Mid
Specialists
Most specialists remain the same throughout the war stages
Good choices are in bold
2 infantry with rifles
200 hp, for manning equipment incase you lose some guys
2 infantry with 18 round LMGs
200 hp, the 18 clip lmg is slow firing, not very accurate, not very worthwhile, unavailable in Late
E: 2 infantry, 1 with 20 round LMG
M: UC
L: Upgraded to Soviet 47 round LMG
200 hp, better to just get an infantry squad
E: 4 infantry, 2 with 5 clip AT rifles and 2 with normal rifles
M: UC
L: 2 less guys, 1 AT rifle
200 hp, actually better against infantry than tanks, the AT rifle fires nearly as fast as a mosin and 1 shots most people, also very good for stopping an enemy armoured car rush at the start, but isnt as good in Late
2 infantry, 1 with panzerschreck
200 hp, only available in Late. This is the best option you have for killing enemy tanks and vehicles, you will more often than not have to manually control this guy yourself and you only have 6 shots, but landing a single hit can severely damage any tank in the game if not downright kill it. Keep prone and sneak up on them
Unlike Germany and the USSR, you get 3 infantry (as opposed to 2) with AP mines, for a total of 48 mines and costing 5 less MP
Only available from mid onwards, mines themselves are a bit useless
Again, you get 3 infantry with AT mines, for a total of 25-26 mines and costing 5 less MP
AT mines generally dont have enough power to completely destroy a Mid/Late tank, at best you are stopping it momentarily until it gets repaired
2 engineers with rifles
200 hp, they cost 50 MP less compared to Germany or the USSR, good for building stuff
1 guy with a flamethrower
200 hp, available from Mid onwards, fire is cool
5 guys with pistols
150 hp, since your tanks suck and man-able equipment is better to be given to guys with more hp, I only use these guys to pick up the mines from the supply caches in domination mode
2 medics with pistols
200 hp, medics are quite worthless in general, needless micromanagment and expensive
1 sniper with a scoped Mosin
350 hp, losing him is painful, only use him if you can get a good hiding spot for him to snipe from
1 officer with an SMG
300 hp, only good for seeing stuff with binoculars and decreasing your CP if you want to field more guys
Equipment
All equipment remain the same throughout the war stages
Good choices are in bold
Russian MG, nothing special, 2 guys with 200 hp
120m range, only available from Mid onwards, your mp is better used elsewhere
Generic MG, nothing special, 2 guys with 200 hp
120m range, your mp is better used elsewhere, there is nearly no difference between this and the maxim
Generic AA gun with 2 guys, lethal in early, not so lethal later
150m range, basically the same as the German one
The previous AA gun with another barrel attached
150m range, only available in Late and Mid Defensive doctrine, basically an A-10 Warthog on the ground, fires 40 shells in only 2 seconds and essentially shreds any infantry in sight, burns through ammo fast and while it can kill a plane in under a second, it'll most likely get its crew wiped out if the plane is coming directly at it before it can fire a shot. AI controlled tends to keep firing long after the target is dead
Anti-Material rifle with 2 guys
150m range, basically a sniper on crack while also cheaper, fairly accurate, fires fast and 1 shots infantry it hits, damages armoured cars and light tanks, can't recommend it enough, only downside is it only has 50 rounds, bring an ammo crate as it runs out of ammo fast
37mm gun with 4 guys, reloads fast and penetrates most tanks Early
160m range, only good against Early/light tanks or against infantry with HE as you might expect
45mm gun with 4 guys
160m range, only available from Mid onwards, completely obsolete by the time you can get this, can't penetrate T-34's or KV-1's and massively out-ranged too
47mm gun with 4 guys
170m range, only avilable in Late and Early Offensive doctrine, completely obsolete by the time you get this in Late
Fake 76mm "Field" gun with 4 guys
180m range, actually an AT gun as it shoots straight forward instead of in an arc, takes care of most tanks Early but you'll need something bigger for a KV-1 (or track it and bomb it), it can only penetrate the turret of a T-34
7.5cm gun with 4 guys
170m range, incredibly situational, on flat terrain you are going to be decimated, it is out-ranged by nearly everything because it only has HEAT/HE shells, but it reloads fast and can take out any tank in the game that comes in range of it by stun-locking it to death. It is your only way of taking out tanks in Mid besides charging them with infantry
76mm gun with 4 guys
190m range, only available in Late, the same gun as the ones on the T-34 and KV-1, it is completely worthless against an IS-2
75mm gun with 5 guys
200m range, only available in Late and Defensive doctrine, expensive, reloads fast but unfortunately it already struggles against KV-1's in Mid, an IS-2 out-ranges it by 20 meters, thus you need to make sure it is not seen by any enemy troops and to pray that your first few shots kills the IS-2. Better to just get an AT Detachment
Light mortar with 2 guys, very fast firing with 46 rounds
140m range, tiny blast radius, inaccurate, low damage and burns through ammo fast, funny to use
Medium mortar with 2 guys, 61 rounds and slower firing
160m range, basically just an up-scaled version of the previous mortar
76mm field gun with 4 guys
160mm range, only available from Mid onwards, essentially the same as the other two field guns. Can be very powerful if protected well
Medium Artillery with 4 guys, 21 rounds, 15 second reload
410m range, quite accurate with a good blast radius, worthwhile to get
Vehicles
All vehicles remain the same throughout the war stages
Good choices are in bold
Bicycle with 1 guy
It cycles and stuff and its pretty cool ngl
Generic truck
For transporting equipment since some are very slow
Your AA on a truck
Nothing special, AA is very good for moping up infantry, but you can already do that with your own infantry
A very small armoured tractor
It's slow and only fires forward with an ok machine gun, can kill squads of infantry who don't have any kind of AT, but honestly the enemy can just rush it with AT grenades and destroy it
An armoured car with the AT rifle mentioned in the equipment section + 2 MG
It's fast, the MG's fire fast and are accurate, but its AT rifle is inaccurate, dies in 1 shot to basically any kind of AT and costs way too much for what you get
An armoured car with a 45mm cannon + 2 MG
Slower, worse MG's, worse armour (if it even matters) but it has a 45mm cannon on it with a range of 160m, not worth it
A fuel truck
Nothing special, you wont ever use it as your tanks and vehicles (if you use any) will never run out of fuel realistically
A supply truck
Nothing special, good to get one of these at the start for your guys and equipment
An engineer truck
70MP cheaper than its counterparts packed full with AP and AT mines (only AT in Early) alongside the ability to replenish AP/AT infantry or field engineers digging supplies, not worth it in Early since tanks are incredibly weak in that stage
Tanks
All tanks remain the same throughout the war stages (except Captured Vehicles)
Good choices are in bold
A WW1 tank with a maxim and a crew of 2
A top speed of 7.7km/h, pathetic armour and equipped with only a maxim, complete garbage right? It absolutely is in Early and Mid war stages, but in Late it acts somewhat like a cockroach, it can survive multiple hits from an IS-2 (its armour is so bad its good) while being able to blast any infantry that gets close to it with a pretty accurate maxim, still dies rather fast to a panzershreck or AT rifle. Very cheap though, can be funny to use
A WW1 tank with a 37mm cannon and a crew of 2
Same tank as above, just costlier and with a much worse gun, not worth it
E: T-37A -> T-26M1933 -> BT-5 -> REPEAT
M: T-37A -> T-26M1933 -> BT-5 -> REPEAT
L: T-26M1933 -> T-34/76 M1941 -> T-34/85 -> REPEAT
Captured tanks is an odd mechanic, you are basically spending MP to get a progressively better USSR tank, but the end result is it costs much more than it usually would if you played the USSR itself (184+184=368MP for T-26M1933 VS 275MP for the same thing) but in Late you get the T-34/85, which is your only decent non-doctrine tank. Very expensive though and better to just get an AT gun or panzershreck team
Lightly armoured, slow, 37mm cannon with a maxim and SMG in the hull and 4 crew
160m range, it'll die to pretty much anything it faces, including AT rifles, but its basically a more mobile version of your 37mm AT gun while costing a bit more. Only decent in Early. DO NOT USE IN MID/LATE
The previous tank with a 45mm cannon
160m range, only available after Early, completely obsolete by the time you get this, out-ranged and will die to anything. DO NOT USE
The previous two tanks, with one less crew and no hull MG or cannon, but a flamethrower turret
40m range, only available in Late and the Irregular doctrine, do I even need to say anything? Completely worthless
Finnish version of the SU-152 with 3 crew
170m range, only available in Late and Mid Offensive doctrine, vastly out-ranged, dies to everything, but its much faster and cheaper, use it as a hit-and-run tank or hide in cover against dug-in infantry
German Stu 40 G with 7.5cm cannon, MG ontop and 4 crew
200m range, only availabile in Late and Mid Offensive doctrine, this is probably the biggest newbie trap for anyone who plays Finland, in theory you have a good tank destroyer which can help take care of T-34's and more, in reality its just a big target for IS-2's and T-34 M1942's who one shot it 99% of the time. Far too expensive. Get an AT detachment instead.
Ok armour (in Early), decent speed, 76mm cannon, 4 MG's and 6 crew
180m range, the same tank the USSR has in Early, it's alright, it'll still die if another tank shoots it first but if they don't have any AT you can use this to mop up infantry or rush their artillery.
Doctrines
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
How To Play Finland + Tips
Finland is a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses, you are at your strongest during Early, but unless you take Irregular for the airstrikes or have a German ally, you can't destroy any of the doctrine tanks (T-34/KV-1/KV-2) the USSR has without suicide charging it with molotovs/satchel charges.
Likewise, you have the most overpowered units in Mid, the Marksmen squad and 300mm Nebelwerfer tank, yet you have to survive for 25 minutes to get it (battlezone games are usually decided by then), all the while having to deal with nigh-invulnerable Soviet tanks that vastly out-range any AT-gun you have access to, again forcing you to rely on a German ally or suicide charging it
Your most reliable AT weapon is found in Late, with the Panzerschreck team, stealth is essential to get them close enough to tanks that need killing. Aside from that, you should have little difficulty at pushing a Soviet player.
Unless your micro is horrible and your units are dying every second, you should notice that you have alot of MP in reserve, use it for when the other side has depleted most of their resources, you can easily swarm the enemy with Assault Squads.
The T-28 is sometimes useful late in the game if you know the enemy has no AT guns (since you'll be playing Finland and optimally using no tanks, quite common occurence) it is fast and relatively cheap, use it to speed past the enemy troops and crush their artillery pieces to get a quick ragequit.
The biggest mistake you can do as Finland is turtling AKA building defences, trenches, etc and never attacking. You are fighting another PERSON, not the AI. Unless they are new to the game they will not attack you at all. You are essentially a spectator for half an hour and if the person you're up against is smart, they will just attack a different player, making it a 3v4. You are going to be nuked to death by artillery and all your time and effort will be wasted.
On the other hand, if the person you are fighting decides to turtle, you can easily leave a few garrison troops prone in bushes/foxholes while you attack someone else, if you want to be spicy you can get an engineer truck and plant a few mines around the place in-case your garrison gets attacked.
Despite all this, I know that turtling can be fun, so if you are going to do it, atleast spread out your infantry and emplacements so they don't all immediately die to artillery or Katyusha
Closing Remarks
I have spent nearly 400 hours fighting as and against Finland and have learned many things. However I know there will be inaccuracies in this guide and I would appreciate if you pointed them out in the comments below. SISU!
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2914490506
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