some information for BKB's mod (mods move)

[massamuusi]

First of all, I can't access the mods page on the forum at all, probably because server doesn't work? Well, anyways, I had something to tell BKB...
Moderators, forward this message to BKB to the appropriate forum.- Also I'd be happy to know if I can post to the thread in question in future, or will I have to always contact you this way?

Finland before swedish rule existed as several (~4?) kingdoms which were quite similar to sweden at that time, both lands had a rather rich southern province, and the rest were mostly rather rural and poor. That's for both countries.
Also, finns earned a lot of money by fur trade to south europe, and were able to buy very expensive weaponry. Also, since early iron age finnish smiths made remarkably fine quality weapons and other tools. Chainmails weren't anything uncommon, and crossbows were also adapted as soon as they became available.
Also, the temperature alone here is such that you might have difficulty finding those half naked warriors.

Just thought that your view of those poorly armed half naked barbarians is not correct, if you want to make a finnish special unit you could give them chainmails and swords. Also, they were on the same grounds for fighting provess as the vikings (note that vikings were unable to settle into finland in any quantity that would have any signifigance. And like I said, southern finland had nothing to envy from south sweden... If you wish to discuss more about the subject, you can contact me by messenger or email masamuus@mbnet.fi if you want I can try dig up more of the early history for your mod, but for certain I can remember that we always used straight swords.
So for more details if you need any just contact me, I have never anything important doing so I'd be glad to help.

The fallacies in many older history books are based on myths formed during early years of independence early 1920's and also the old colonial swedish attempts to rewrite the history as a part of effort to stabilize the empire. A lot of pre swedish history writings have been recovered now in modern era, and many of the myths and fallacies are being corrected.
Old icelandic sagas and other literature have proven to be great help in this process of recovering the old history.

[Efrem Da King]

Welcome to the forums massa http://212.238.194.39/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[massamuusi]

Seems they're really having problems. As stated on the front page. Hope they fix it soon.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Hi massa, that Finnish tribesman was only for early period when and finnish auxillaries are planned which are well armoured and were used by the swedes extensively.

I mightchange there name to another area if you'd prefer. My knowledge is good of the baltic but not that well of finland. Vast areas of russia are extremely cold and slav warriors are trainable so thats why i probably added the unit.

[massamuusi]

Actually, 90% of the area you can train the slav warriors are not that cold. The reason I noticed this was that almost all early paintings from finland have the people wearing clothes, and often chainmails aswell with helmets. And overall, when you think about finnish mentality, we tend to stick to ourselves, and don't talk to strangers, overall the clothing until late globalization has been very covering, even during summer hots.

Now I have no real idea which weapons were the most common, but since axes were a necessity tool, they were obviously used a lot in wars, but so were the swords. Sword then again would be more expensive, since it has no use for other than war.
I have little difficulty with the name of the unit, but I don't really know for certain how big part of the finnish troops back then had or didn't have armour. But it would be reasonable to presume that the armies were quite similar to those the swedes had.
Finns learned to appreciate crossbows quickly, even in our old saga Kalevala it's the weapon used for ambushing, rather than a bow.

Finns belong to same group as Hungarians, the fenno-ugrian peoples, also turkish language is said to have similarities. Other than these, estonians are very similar. The rest are mudjurs and other really small peoples in russia.
About troop quality, the wars finns have taken part in, we've always stood up for ourselves, swedes just loved to raise finnish troops, of which one of the most notorious being the Hakkapeliitta in 30 years war. Lacking finesse, instead just charging wildly and yelling hakkaa päälle which earned them the feared name among germans.
The armoured troops existed already before swedes, you didn't claim the opposite, but I just wanted to make this straight. It's easy to get the facts wrong about finland, mostly because of the swedish empire, which forwarded a myth about finland being paganic and undeveloped before them, as to justify their conquest.
In fact, finland was largely orthodox before the swedish rule, as the result of the missionaires from the east, also danes did a converting too.
Also, like I said, the southern finland (the are presented in TW map) was a kingdom as I've heard. But it'll take a lot of digging to find any kings names or stuff. Since they weren't very aggressive, there is no real need to have one more passive king+heirs+princesses army.

I could get you some info about the historical medieval rebellions such as the Nuijasota (macewar/clubwar), an uprising against the swedes. Other than the few historical events, finnish have been very obedient. Now, it would be far more realistic seeing finland begin with a percentage of orthodox and christians. Something like 33/33/33 or any other combination you see fit could do it, since I don't think there are many statistics available from that period, especially since a lot of the old documents were destroyed during swedish rule.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

In an Osprey book, 'Medieval Scandinavian Armies 1300-1500' there is a picture of a Finnish Auxillary based on a Medieval picture. He wears Gothic armour and has a halberd-like weapon. This is providing my base for the unit.

[massamuusi]

Yes, that's a good picture for the period, the weapon is called tappara btw. It'd be old finnish and meaning something like killer which is quite accurate, the halberd truly was a devastating weapon.
Just trying to search net for references and pics and stuff, but seems that they're really well hidden. Have to visit library... Are there any specific things you need to know?