Moi! It is Mano de Zombi again to welcome you all to a new HOI4 Dev Diary for the upcoming DLC Arms Against Tyranny.
Today we’ll be talking about the alternative history available to Finland with the new DLC. In case you missed it, you can read more (a lot more) about the Historical content for Finland here.
As per usual, keep in mind that some of the stuff you’re about to see is still work in progress, there is still some balancing to be done and some art in the workings. Last but not least, some of the content might vary if certain previous DLCs are not active.
And without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Finland’s Alternative History content, starting with a screenshot of the full Finnish Focus Tree!
Let’s begin with the Fascist Branch, to the right of the Historical focuses. First a short-ish piece of context!
In the 1920s and 1930s, Europe saw the rise of far-right and authoritarian movements in response to economic difficulties, social unrest, and the aftermath of World War I, and Finland was not immune to these trends, with various far-right and nationalist movements emerging.
The most notable of these movements was the Lapua Movement, formed in 1929, and succeeded by the Patriotic People’s Movement during 1932-1944. It drew its support primarily from agrarian and nationalist groups. The movement aimed to combat what it saw as the growing influence of left-wing and communist forces in Finnish society, using tactics such as street violence and intimidation to suppress left-wing organizations and activities. They targeted labor unions, communist sympathizers, and other perceived threats to Finnish nationalism.
The actions of the Lapua Movement led to a political crisis in Finland, with the government struggling to maintain order. Eventually, President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud declared a state of emergency and took measures to disband the Lapua Movement and restore stability.
But now let’s take a look at how the branch looks in-game.
As you can see, the Fascist Branch shares some focuses with the Historical Branch, which were already covered in the Historical Dev Diary, so let’s talk about the unique stuff:
“Right-Wing Policies” is the first focus in your path towards a Fascist Finland, unlocking your Fascist Demagogue so that you can start boosting ideology in the country.
After that, you can choose to “Discredit the Democratic System” for a slower-going but peaceful change of ideology, using your advisors to boost ideology in the country until you reach the required support and stability to complete “A Fascist Regime” and have a peaceful change of government.
On the other hand, “Prepare a Military Coup” will set you up for a faster (yet more violent) change of ideology. This focus will unlock a series of decisions granting some advantages for the Civil War that will, in turn, be triggered by the Focus “A Fascist Regime” after choosing the military coup focus.
And simple as that, you are now a fascist. But what does the future hold for you? Well, first of all let’s take a look at your new leader, Vilho Annala:
Vilho Annala was a Finnish economist, nationalist and far-right political figure active in the 1920s and 1930s. He played a role in the early stages of the Lapua Movement, and was known for his involvement in organizing paramilitary activities and actions against left-wing groups during the turbulent political climate of the time.
He supported the replacement of capitalism and free market economy with state-led corporatism, similar to Italy.
In-game, this is represented by Annala’s trait Economic Reformer. Also, to represent the influence of other prominent individuals of the right-wing movement, Annala’s personal Agenda will make the Balance of Power (BoP) move towards high trust when Finland has a considerable army and is not losing a war, whereas having too much Democratic or Communist support will make the public trust decay over time.
In the focus tree, the rightmost sub-branch is themed around internal affairs and utilizing and empowering multiple right-wing organizations.
Here you will unlock advisors, get bonuses for the army and industry, some Balance of Power, etc. But there are a few focuses that stand out a bit more:
“Mustapaidat” was a youth organization of the Patriotic People's Movement (Blackshirts), the successor of the previous Sinimustat (Blue and Black, hence the color of the focuses in-game). The focus will unlock militia units and spawn some in the capital state.
“Take Over the Suojeluskunta” represents the fascists taking absolute control over the Voluntary National Guard and will grant a new division template and spawn some of these units, which can be useful as garrison against sneaky naval invasions.
As for the final focuses, “Intellectual Elite” grants the fifth research slot, while National Fanaticism will, among other things, boost the army’s manpower and performance when on core territory, increase the Militia cap and improve their stats, and finally improve Vilho Annala’s trait as country leader, to represent is success as the leader of the country and the turn towards national corporatism in Finland.
Finland will potentially have to deal with a winter war regardless of Finland’s ideology, and in this regard the fascists have the historical option “A Cry for Help”, or they can “Seek German Protection”, trying to secure a Non-Aggression Pact with Germany and a German Guarantee, in exchange for military access and some resource rights.
In terms of Alliances, Fascist Finland can either “Join the Axis” or work to achieve “Finnish Supremacy in the North” and form a Finnish-led faction focused on the Nordic and Baltic states.
The focuses under “Join the Axis” are more focused towards getting German (or other major fascist countries) aid to boost Finnish industry and army getting, among other things, some research and doctrine bonuses, military factories and some old foreign tanks, whereas the mutually exclusive focuses spin around Finland’s own way of developing the armed forces, boosting Finnish generals and divisions.
“Finnish Irredentism” has multiple effects, the most relevant ones being claims in Kola and East Karelia, significantly reducing the cost for taking cores and claims during peace conferences, and unlocking a new set of decisions: The Last Kinship War.
The Heimosodat, also known as the Kinship Wars or Kindred Nations' Wars, were a series of conflicts in the early 1920s involving Finland and other Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. These wars were characterized by the desire of various ethnic groups to assert their independence and self-determination.
Finland's involvement in the Heimosodat was primarily aimed at supporting the aspirations of fellow Finno-Ugric peoples, such as the Estonians, Karelians, and Ingrians, who sought to break free from Bolshevik or Soviet control and establish their own nations. Finnish volunteers and military aid were provided to these groups during their struggles.
In HOI, Finland has now the option to ignite one last Kinship War in Karelia.
These decisions are available both to Fascist Finland (via the focus “Finnish Irredentism”) and to Non-Aligned Finland (via the focus “Finnish March of Conquest”).
You will start by creating Anti-Soviet sentiment in Karelian states controlled by the Soviet Union.
Once you have stirred the Anti-Soviet sentiment in the region, you have one year to arm the Karelian independentists and ignite the uprising, before the instability and agitation fades away. During this time, the Soviets will also have a decision to crack down on Karelian rebels, crashing down the uprising before it had the chance to happen.
Once the Uprising happens, Finland can choose to openly side with Karelia, fighting alongside the Karelian independentists against the Soviets and puppeting their government, or just provide support to Karelia without officially joining the conflict.
Here you can see a Karelia, supported (and puppeted) by Fascist Finland.
Karelia will also spawn with a general who will also be the leader of Non-Aligned Karelia if it is Non-Aligned Finland causing the uprising.
His portrait is still not implemented in-game (it is almost finalized now), so I took the liberty of making a quick sketch for you so that you all can get an idea of what he looks like in-game.
You are welcome.
And this is how his portrait is coming along. I know what you’re thinking, you can barely tell the difference between the in-game portrait and this one, just a couple of shadows here and there…
Just a final note about the Kinship War content, you can also support your Karelian friends during the second Russian civil war.
Finally, “Keepers of the North” will demand Nordic states from allies and claim states controlled by neutral or enemy countries.
And just like with Non-Aligned Finland, this branch culminates with “Greater Finland”, granting the final cores and claims that Finland needs to further its expansion in Scandinavia, Baltic and Russia.
And to wrap up the Fascist content, let’s take a quick look at the fascist advisors and generals unlockable throughout the branch:
And now let’s jump into the Socialist branches:
Finnish Socialism in the 1930s and early 1940s was marked by political tensions and the growing influence during the 1940s of the Finnish Communist Party (SKP). The Great Depression had led to economic hardship, fostering support for socialist ideas among the working class. However, as Finland geared up for the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) against the Soviet Union, political focus shifted towards national unity, temporarily reducing internal political conflicts. Socialist parties, particularly the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), still advocated for workers' rights and social welfare policies during this period, but the geopolitical challenges of the wars played a dominant role in Finnish politics.
The conservative political parties in Finland are represented as NonAligned, so it kinda made sense to have the democratic ideology representing the more progressist social-democrats, and having the Communist and Democratic branches sharing part of the focuses.
Since the two branches are a bit intertwined, let’s start by looking into the way of changing government and the unique focuses in each branch.
“Suomalainen Sosialismi” unlocks the Communist Revolutionary and Democratic Reformer political advisors. These advisors will in turn unlock decisions to help Finland switch ideology when they are hired.
The focuses below (“Towards a Red Government” and “Social-Democracy”) will unlock two more ideology-related advisors each. And these advisors will also unlock, when hired, more decisions to help change the government.
“Pragmatic Socialism” will peacefully swap the government to Democratic. It requires fairly high Democratic support (60%) to be available, but with the help of your advisors and their decisions, you should be able to get there without much problem.
The rest of this democratic internal affairs sub-branch is initially focused on BoP, PP, boosting ideology and unlocking advisors shared with the Historical branch (“Align the Agrarian League” and “The Finnish Swedish Party”), shared with the communist branch (“Sosialistinen Eduskuntaryhmä”) and unique to the social-democrats (“Social Democratic Women’s Union”).
The last focuses, “Mineral Wealth” and “Funds From Kalevala Koru Oy” grant some factories, resources and consumer goods.
And now you are democratic, what does it imply? Well, first of all you get Väinö Tanner.
Tanner played a crucial role during the Finnish Civil War as a leader of the Red Guards, the socialist faction, which ultimately lost to the White Guards. After the war, he faced imprisonment and later political rehabilitation.
During the turbulent years leading up to World War II, Tanner adopted a pragmatic approach. He supported President Risto Ryti's government during the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) against the Soviet Union, prioritizing national unity over internal political divisions.
In-game, Väinö Tanner is the Democratic country leader, a Pragmatic Socialist. His BoP Agenda includes having very high democratic support while controlling all owned states (including Karjala even if ceded to the Soviets) in order to get trust, and watching out for Fascist or Communist rise in the country so as to not have Public Trust decreasing.
We’ll talk more about the late-game focuses available for Democratic Finland later, but for now let’s just move to the leftmost part of the tree and see how the communists can rise to power in Finland.
Flipping to Communism in Finland can be a bit faster than flipping to Democratic, but it’s definitely going to be harder, since you will have to undergo a civil war in order to achieve it.
All the decisions unlocked by the Communist advisors will help you getting the upper hand when the civil war starts: granting extra states and percentage of the armed forces, sabotaging some of the enemy’s factories and supply lines, imprisoning far-right politicians and officers to weaken the fascist side, and getting aid from the Soviet Union.
Once you are done with your preparations and complete the focus “The Second Finnish Civil War”, it is time to purge fascism from Finland once and for all!
Militia divisions will be spawned for both sides in this civil war (some pre-civil war decisions will grant the communist side more militias and some will grant the fascist side less militias).
Once you have dealt with the tiny issue of fascists rampaging around the country, you can start working on the internal affairs branch.
Here you will get access to extra advisors (some of them shared with the social-democrats) and get some industrial and intelligence bonuses, and a couple of custom operatives.
As for country leader, Communist Finland there are a various options:
The initial Communist leader is Aimo Aaltonen.
Aaltonen studied in the Soviet Union for several years during the 1930s, where he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He returned to Finland on two occasions to organize the military branch of the Finnish Communist Party, but got arrested in 1935. He remained in prison until his release after the Continuation War, and was elected chairman of the now-legalized Finnish Communist Party.
In-game, Aaltonen’s BoP Agenda will be focused on fighting (and be winning) wars against fascist countries in order to increase Public Trust, and keeping a united proletariat with a very high Communist support in order to not lose Public Trust over time.
The focus “The Red Watch” unlocks a decision to appoint Yrjö Leino as leader of the Communist Party.
Yrjö Leino was sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment in 1935, for high treason.
Allegedly, he became a communist during this period and, when he was released in 1938, he participated in underground activities of the prohibited Communist Party of Finland.
During the Winter War Leino stayed underground, hiding in communist safe-houses across the Finnish countryside.
In 1940, Leino was detained in a secure facility, until 1941 when he escaped from a prison train in Riihimäki, which was taking prisoners to fight in a penal battalion. Leino participated in underground Communist Party activities until the 1944 armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union and the legalization of the Communist Party.
Leino’s BoP Agenda will make Public Trust grow by wiping out fascism from Finland’s society and from European Governments. Just like Aaltonen, he needs high Communist support to prevent Public Trust from going down over time.
Last but not least, Otto Wille Kuusinen will automatically become the country leader the moment Communist Finland joins a faction led by Stalin’s Soviet Union (including if Soviet Union puppets Finland after a war), and the Finnish Democratic Republic will be formed.
Kuusinen had fled to Soviet Russia after the defeat in the civil war, and there he forged his political career. He played a key role in the founding of the Communist International and managed to survive the Great Purge. During the Winter War Kuusinen was appointed as leader of the Finnish Democratic Republic, also known as the Terijoki’s Government, a short-lived puppet state of the Soviet Union in occupied Finnish territory during the war.
In-game, when the Finnish Democratic Republic is formed, Kuusinen will grant the Soviet Union a small but convenient Consumer Goods and Supply Efficiency boost for a couple of years, in exchange for some construction speed bonus for Finland.
In terms of his BoP Agenda,
“A Solar system of organizations" is a reference to Kuusinen’s proposal for a network of various political and mass organizations that are either sympathetic to or directly affiliated with the Communist Party. These organizations would work in conjunction with the Party and serve as a means to influence and mobilize the masses for political purposes aiming to create a system of interconnected entities that can effectively advance the party's objectives and prevent the loss of political influence among the masses.
Even though this concept has nothing to do with actual invasion of any nations, in order to spice-up Kuusinen’s gameplay and make it a bit more rewarding to expand with him in charge, controlling all Scandinavian and Baltic countries or having them as puppets will make Public Trust increase, while not having control over all three Karelian states will make Public Trust slowly decrease.
Regardless of its ideology, Finland will most likely have to deal with the Soviets kindly asking for Karjala state in order to secure Leningrad from potential threats coming from Finland.
In this regard, both Communist and Democratic Finland have two options: “Approaching the Soviets” or “Antagonize the Soviets”.
“Approach the Soviets” is your way to show the Soviet Union that Finland poses no threat to their country, trying to cooperate with them and leading to establishing a “Finno-Soviet Pact”, getting a Guarantee from the Soviets as well as other diplomatic deals.
This option will also unlock Finnish generals exiled in the Soviet Union, available for the Civil War, and a decision to request the extradition of Kullervo Manner, who was imprisoned in 1935 in the Soviet Union and died of tuberculosis in 1939, so you better hurry to get him out of that prison camp before it is too late!
On the other side… Does Finland really need the trust of the Soviets? “Antagonize the Soviets” will make Finland reach out to major communist or democratic European countries (Soviets don’t count, obviously) to get a guarantee from them. Further down the branch, you have focuses themed around the fortification of the country and getting trade Agreements with friendly nations.
In between those two options, there are shared focuses granting the fifth research slot, boosting industry, and seeking a union between Finland and Estonia.
When it comes to factions, as you have probably noticed already, there are three options:
To the left, assuming Communist Finland did “Approach the Soviets” and a “Finno-Soviet Pact” was signed, you can choose to “Join the Comintern”.
But remember: if you do so with Stalin at the helm of the Soviet Union, Kuusinen will inevitably pop-up, pushing aside your former leader!
Well, Stalin might initially not be in the mood to trust just any Finnish leader, so he will only accept Kuusinen, but over time, he will get confident in the Finnish leadership and you will be able to complete the focus “Finnish Autonomy”, once the industrial bonus to the Soviet Union, provided by Kuusinen, has expired. This will bring back your former communist leader, country name and white color on the map!
Apart from territorial and war-related focuses, the branch culminates with “Red Finland”, which, similar to Greater Finland, will not only grant some cores and Resistance bonuses, but it will also increase the Militias cap and improve the country leader trait (whoever is in charge).
To the right, Democratic Finland can “Approach Major Democracies”, assuming you decided to “Antagonize the Soviets” previously.
This branch will get some industrial and naval bonuses, some territorial demands and it has two culminating focuses:
“Proclaim the Grand Finnish Federation” will grant cores and big Compliance bonuses in certain neighboring states, and “Socialist Welfare” will grant pretty good bonuses to industry and research, but it will also improve your current leader trait
But Finland can always (regardless of your ideology and how you dealt with Soviets) opt for forming their own faction, the Northern Defense Front.
This branch will (unsurprisingly) focus on the Nordic and Baltic countries, and as you can see shares many focuses with the other two options.
However, there is one unique focus, “Confederated Finno-Russian Republics”, with which Finland will work towards the integration of several semi-autonomous republics within the nation, appealing to the Finnic peoples living in these regions to spread a sentiment of trust towards the Finns among the local population.
In terms of advisors, these are all the ones you can unlock in the Socialist branches.
These are the generals that Communist Finland will unlock. As you can see, a couple of portraits are not finalized so they have not been implemented yet
Here is the (WIP) portrait of one of the missing guys, Antikainen.
And, even though this is pretty much the alternative history for Finland, we are not done with all the new content for Finland just yet, since there have been some changes and many new things implemented for historical Finland (or just Finland in general).
And for these various flavorful details and content I have had the luck to count with some extra help, so allow me to hand you over to Jonathan!
And now for me. Hello everyone, it’s me Jonathan, here to write about some of the content I have helped with creating for Finland for the upcoming expansion. I have been jumping around and helping my fellow content designers wherever help has been needed for AAT, whilst working on other stuff in the background.
The White Death news event:
In game, this is represented through a series of events for Finland and an aggressor, be it the Soviets or someone else in case of an alt-hist scenario, where Finland has the option to prop up their sniper organizations, dealing damage to enemy manpower and equipment pools through events, and where their enemy can choose between simply taking the hits, or spending equipment and command power on dealing with these snipers before they become a problem. Finland also gets the option to either do as historically and use propaganda to build up Simo Häyhä as the embodiment of the White Death, or to embrace the original meaning of the word, by making their enemies take more attrition. At the end of the event chain, Häyhä can either escape unscathed, be wounded (as historically happened), or be killed by the enemy, getting a hero's funeral.
Well, there were talks held with the Allied powers around the time of the battle for Stalingrad, as Finland saw that there was great risk that things would go south real fast, regarding changing sides, and declaring war on the Germans in exchange for peace with the Soviets, but this plan never really panned out due to the Western Allies’ fear of intruding on the Soviet sphere by allowing Finland to join them. That is why though it didn’t succeed historically, it and the historical outcome both exist and can happen, as can be seen below.
Decisions to get yourself out of the Continuation War if worse comes to worst:
When not switching sides, but instead offering concessions to Moscow in exchange for peace, Finland will have to concede any of Salla, Petsamo and Karjala that Finland still owns, and they will need to transfer equipment over to them, signing the historical Moscow Armistice with the Soviets.
The Moscow Armistice news event:
This is however not the end of the struggles for Finland or its people, as a part of the agreement signed with the Soviet Union was the expulsion of Axis troops from Finnish territory. As the Soviets press Finland to comply with the treaty, the Lapland War starts, and Finnish troops clash with Germans retreating into German-occupied Norway (or Sweden, if the game has gone slightly a-historical). The Germans will have options for how to deal with the Lapland war, allowing for slightly different bonuses and maluses when withdrawing.
The German response to the Lapland War starting:
When all this is said and done however, if this was the option of peace Finland chose, there will be no actual war between the countries, as compared to if they were to switch sides completely.
The Lapland War news event
City and State Name ChangingNow onto something a little bit different. During BBA, Italy introduced states and vps that change names depending on who controls them, such as Zara being called Zadar when not under Italian control.
This has now been updated to include certain state and vp name changes for Finland and Sweden, as seen below.
Petrozavodsk becomes Äänislinna if under either Finnish or Karelian control
Murmansk becomes Muurmanski, Kandalaksha becomes Kantalahti, and the state of Murmansk becomes Kuolan Niemimaa (Kola Peninsula) when under either Finnish or Karelian control
Many cities in Finland, due to the sometimes significant Swedish minority (or in some specific places even majority), officially use both Finnish and Swedish names to this day, such as Turku and Åbo both being frequently used for the same city, and Sweden and Finland still harboring a close bond to this day. Thus, if Sweden were to go rogue and decided to occupy Finland, it would only make sense that they would use the Swedish names for towns in the region.
Here you see the southern parts of Finland when under Swedish control, with many cities gaining their official Swedish names, such as Turku becoming Åbo, and Viipuri becoming Viborg.
And here you can see northern Finland when under Swedish control. Also take note that Inari (which can not be seen here) becomes Enare.
Releasables and Game RulesAnd now we can move on to something a bit less Swedish, and also a bit less Finnish, we have two new game rules for the fragmentation of the Nordic countries!
You can choose between no fragmentation, only releasing Sápmi from the Nordic nations, or doing that alongside liberating Iceland, Karelia and Greenland from Nordic countries. If you combine any of these rules with the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Sápmi and Karelia will gain their Soviet-held cores as well.
The new game rules
The Nordics Fragmented option has been chosen
And with our brand new releasable nation, Sápmi jumping into action, we had to do them some justice with just that extra pinch of flavor added on top. As can be seen in the image below, Sápmi will not only have unique party names and flags as do any other nation, but also unique leader and general portraits.
Sápmi with all of its cores
Sápmi has its own unique Admiral portrait
Sápmi also has its own unique General portraits
Sápmi has many new advisor portraits, some of which can be seen here
And that’s been all from me for now. I will see you all when I have more cool stuff to deliver! But now, back to Manu.
Alright, let’s take a look at the last batch of changes and content for Finland.
Some of you might have noticed a new focus in the historical branch that was not there in the last Dev Diary.
The focus “Pärmi’s Devils”, available for both historical and fascist Finland, is themed around the Finnish Separate battalion 21, a penal battalion formed mainly by political prisoners and commanded by Nikke Pärmi.
In-game, this focus will unlock a limited recruitment of Divisions formed by penal battalions, and spawn Pärmi’s very own full division, a veteran unit with a very promising officer ready for action!
A few extra Generals have been added at game start, based on some of the feedback from the last Dev Diary.
Karl Oesch is now available to Finland.
Aksel Airo is also available to Finland, although his portrait is still not in the game.
Raappana has made an appearance and is now replacing Törni as the general unlocked by the focus “Sissi”. Törni will, in turn, be unlocked via the fascist focus “Military Promotion”.
In terms of military advisors, Vilho Nenonen has joined the Military High Command roster as an Artillery Genius, while Kaarlo Somerto has been downgraded from Artillery Expert to Artillery Specialist. This way, Finland has the option to go for a cheaper and weaker artillery officer early if needed, and then move on to the Genius later on.
Akseli Anttila is now only available to Communist Finland, and Erik Heinrichs is the available military theorist for non-communist Finland
Something I wanted to implement for a while was French Renault tanks (available at game start) and the modified British Vickers tanks (available in the 1939 Bookmark or via “Foreign Armor” focus).
And before finishing, I would also like to give a big kudos to our 2D and 3D artists because they keep doing an amazing job delivering incredibly cool assets for our content! From focus icons to portraits, tech icons and 3D models, they’re great!
Throughout the diary you have seen a lot of cool 2D art but only a few 3D models, so here are some more pics of the new Finnish 3D models!
Let’s start with the new Soviet T-28 model (and icon), which is now the default model for the Interwar Medium Chassis for Soviets and for Finland.
We now have a Marine 3D model for Finland, based on the Rannikkojääkärit (or Marine Jaegers).
And we got a fourth regular infantry model, the best of them all. Behold the beauty of an infantry division walking alongside one of the coolest means of supply, the reindeer!
This new infantry model also has a winter version and a warm weather version. This is the winter one. Again, the coolest of them all in my honest opinion..
And last but not least, the hot acclimatization version of all 4 regular infantry models!
And that was all from me! I hope that you all enjoyed reading about the Finnish Alternative history content coming with the new DLC as well as the changes and additions implemented since the first Finnish diary. I wish you all a nice week and make sure to stay tuned for the next dev diary where we’ll be talking about one of the new features in Arms Against Tyranny: Military Industrial Organizations!
Nähdään pian!
Today we’ll be talking about the alternative history available to Finland with the new DLC. In case you missed it, you can read more (a lot more) about the Historical content for Finland here.
As per usual, keep in mind that some of the stuff you’re about to see is still work in progress, there is still some balancing to be done and some art in the workings. Last but not least, some of the content might vary if certain previous DLCs are not active.
And without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Finland’s Alternative History content, starting with a screenshot of the full Finnish Focus Tree!
Let’s begin with the Fascist Branch, to the right of the Historical focuses. First a short-ish piece of context!
In the 1920s and 1930s, Europe saw the rise of far-right and authoritarian movements in response to economic difficulties, social unrest, and the aftermath of World War I, and Finland was not immune to these trends, with various far-right and nationalist movements emerging.
The most notable of these movements was the Lapua Movement, formed in 1929, and succeeded by the Patriotic People’s Movement during 1932-1944. It drew its support primarily from agrarian and nationalist groups. The movement aimed to combat what it saw as the growing influence of left-wing and communist forces in Finnish society, using tactics such as street violence and intimidation to suppress left-wing organizations and activities. They targeted labor unions, communist sympathizers, and other perceived threats to Finnish nationalism.
The actions of the Lapua Movement led to a political crisis in Finland, with the government struggling to maintain order. Eventually, President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud declared a state of emergency and took measures to disband the Lapua Movement and restore stability.
But now let’s take a look at how the branch looks in-game.
As you can see, the Fascist Branch shares some focuses with the Historical Branch, which were already covered in the Historical Dev Diary, so let’s talk about the unique stuff:
“Right-Wing Policies” is the first focus in your path towards a Fascist Finland, unlocking your Fascist Demagogue so that you can start boosting ideology in the country.
After that, you can choose to “Discredit the Democratic System” for a slower-going but peaceful change of ideology, using your advisors to boost ideology in the country until you reach the required support and stability to complete “A Fascist Regime” and have a peaceful change of government.
On the other hand, “Prepare a Military Coup” will set you up for a faster (yet more violent) change of ideology. This focus will unlock a series of decisions granting some advantages for the Civil War that will, in turn, be triggered by the Focus “A Fascist Regime” after choosing the military coup focus.
And simple as that, you are now a fascist. But what does the future hold for you? Well, first of all let’s take a look at your new leader, Vilho Annala:
Vilho Annala was a Finnish economist, nationalist and far-right political figure active in the 1920s and 1930s. He played a role in the early stages of the Lapua Movement, and was known for his involvement in organizing paramilitary activities and actions against left-wing groups during the turbulent political climate of the time.
He supported the replacement of capitalism and free market economy with state-led corporatism, similar to Italy.
In-game, this is represented by Annala’s trait Economic Reformer. Also, to represent the influence of other prominent individuals of the right-wing movement, Annala’s personal Agenda will make the Balance of Power (BoP) move towards high trust when Finland has a considerable army and is not losing a war, whereas having too much Democratic or Communist support will make the public trust decay over time.
In the focus tree, the rightmost sub-branch is themed around internal affairs and utilizing and empowering multiple right-wing organizations.
Here you will unlock advisors, get bonuses for the army and industry, some Balance of Power, etc. But there are a few focuses that stand out a bit more:
“Mustapaidat” was a youth organization of the Patriotic People's Movement (Blackshirts), the successor of the previous Sinimustat (Blue and Black, hence the color of the focuses in-game). The focus will unlock militia units and spawn some in the capital state.
“Take Over the Suojeluskunta” represents the fascists taking absolute control over the Voluntary National Guard and will grant a new division template and spawn some of these units, which can be useful as garrison against sneaky naval invasions.
As for the final focuses, “Intellectual Elite” grants the fifth research slot, while National Fanaticism will, among other things, boost the army’s manpower and performance when on core territory, increase the Militia cap and improve their stats, and finally improve Vilho Annala’s trait as country leader, to represent is success as the leader of the country and the turn towards national corporatism in Finland.
Finland will potentially have to deal with a winter war regardless of Finland’s ideology, and in this regard the fascists have the historical option “A Cry for Help”, or they can “Seek German Protection”, trying to secure a Non-Aggression Pact with Germany and a German Guarantee, in exchange for military access and some resource rights.
In terms of Alliances, Fascist Finland can either “Join the Axis” or work to achieve “Finnish Supremacy in the North” and form a Finnish-led faction focused on the Nordic and Baltic states.
The focuses under “Join the Axis” are more focused towards getting German (or other major fascist countries) aid to boost Finnish industry and army getting, among other things, some research and doctrine bonuses, military factories and some old foreign tanks, whereas the mutually exclusive focuses spin around Finland’s own way of developing the armed forces, boosting Finnish generals and divisions.
“Finnish Irredentism” has multiple effects, the most relevant ones being claims in Kola and East Karelia, significantly reducing the cost for taking cores and claims during peace conferences, and unlocking a new set of decisions: The Last Kinship War.
The Heimosodat, also known as the Kinship Wars or Kindred Nations' Wars, were a series of conflicts in the early 1920s involving Finland and other Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution. These wars were characterized by the desire of various ethnic groups to assert their independence and self-determination.
Finland's involvement in the Heimosodat was primarily aimed at supporting the aspirations of fellow Finno-Ugric peoples, such as the Estonians, Karelians, and Ingrians, who sought to break free from Bolshevik or Soviet control and establish their own nations. Finnish volunteers and military aid were provided to these groups during their struggles.
In HOI, Finland has now the option to ignite one last Kinship War in Karelia.
These decisions are available both to Fascist Finland (via the focus “Finnish Irredentism”) and to Non-Aligned Finland (via the focus “Finnish March of Conquest”).
You will start by creating Anti-Soviet sentiment in Karelian states controlled by the Soviet Union.
Once you have stirred the Anti-Soviet sentiment in the region, you have one year to arm the Karelian independentists and ignite the uprising, before the instability and agitation fades away. During this time, the Soviets will also have a decision to crack down on Karelian rebels, crashing down the uprising before it had the chance to happen.
Once the Uprising happens, Finland can choose to openly side with Karelia, fighting alongside the Karelian independentists against the Soviets and puppeting their government, or just provide support to Karelia without officially joining the conflict.
Here you can see a Karelia, supported (and puppeted) by Fascist Finland.
Karelia will also spawn with a general who will also be the leader of Non-Aligned Karelia if it is Non-Aligned Finland causing the uprising.
His portrait is still not implemented in-game (it is almost finalized now), so I took the liberty of making a quick sketch for you so that you all can get an idea of what he looks like in-game.
You are welcome.
And this is how his portrait is coming along. I know what you’re thinking, you can barely tell the difference between the in-game portrait and this one, just a couple of shadows here and there…
Just a final note about the Kinship War content, you can also support your Karelian friends during the second Russian civil war.
Finally, “Keepers of the North” will demand Nordic states from allies and claim states controlled by neutral or enemy countries.
And just like with Non-Aligned Finland, this branch culminates with “Greater Finland”, granting the final cores and claims that Finland needs to further its expansion in Scandinavia, Baltic and Russia.
And to wrap up the Fascist content, let’s take a quick look at the fascist advisors and generals unlockable throughout the branch:
And now let’s jump into the Socialist branches:
Finnish Socialism in the 1930s and early 1940s was marked by political tensions and the growing influence during the 1940s of the Finnish Communist Party (SKP). The Great Depression had led to economic hardship, fostering support for socialist ideas among the working class. However, as Finland geared up for the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) against the Soviet Union, political focus shifted towards national unity, temporarily reducing internal political conflicts. Socialist parties, particularly the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), still advocated for workers' rights and social welfare policies during this period, but the geopolitical challenges of the wars played a dominant role in Finnish politics.
The conservative political parties in Finland are represented as NonAligned, so it kinda made sense to have the democratic ideology representing the more progressist social-democrats, and having the Communist and Democratic branches sharing part of the focuses.
Since the two branches are a bit intertwined, let’s start by looking into the way of changing government and the unique focuses in each branch.
“Suomalainen Sosialismi” unlocks the Communist Revolutionary and Democratic Reformer political advisors. These advisors will in turn unlock decisions to help Finland switch ideology when they are hired.
The focuses below (“Towards a Red Government” and “Social-Democracy”) will unlock two more ideology-related advisors each. And these advisors will also unlock, when hired, more decisions to help change the government.
“Pragmatic Socialism” will peacefully swap the government to Democratic. It requires fairly high Democratic support (60%) to be available, but with the help of your advisors and their decisions, you should be able to get there without much problem.
The rest of this democratic internal affairs sub-branch is initially focused on BoP, PP, boosting ideology and unlocking advisors shared with the Historical branch (“Align the Agrarian League” and “The Finnish Swedish Party”), shared with the communist branch (“Sosialistinen Eduskuntaryhmä”) and unique to the social-democrats (“Social Democratic Women’s Union”).
The last focuses, “Mineral Wealth” and “Funds From Kalevala Koru Oy” grant some factories, resources and consumer goods.
And now you are democratic, what does it imply? Well, first of all you get Väinö Tanner.
Tanner played a crucial role during the Finnish Civil War as a leader of the Red Guards, the socialist faction, which ultimately lost to the White Guards. After the war, he faced imprisonment and later political rehabilitation.
During the turbulent years leading up to World War II, Tanner adopted a pragmatic approach. He supported President Risto Ryti's government during the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944) against the Soviet Union, prioritizing national unity over internal political divisions.
In-game, Väinö Tanner is the Democratic country leader, a Pragmatic Socialist. His BoP Agenda includes having very high democratic support while controlling all owned states (including Karjala even if ceded to the Soviets) in order to get trust, and watching out for Fascist or Communist rise in the country so as to not have Public Trust decreasing.
We’ll talk more about the late-game focuses available for Democratic Finland later, but for now let’s just move to the leftmost part of the tree and see how the communists can rise to power in Finland.
Flipping to Communism in Finland can be a bit faster than flipping to Democratic, but it’s definitely going to be harder, since you will have to undergo a civil war in order to achieve it.
All the decisions unlocked by the Communist advisors will help you getting the upper hand when the civil war starts: granting extra states and percentage of the armed forces, sabotaging some of the enemy’s factories and supply lines, imprisoning far-right politicians and officers to weaken the fascist side, and getting aid from the Soviet Union.
Once you are done with your preparations and complete the focus “The Second Finnish Civil War”, it is time to purge fascism from Finland once and for all!
Militia divisions will be spawned for both sides in this civil war (some pre-civil war decisions will grant the communist side more militias and some will grant the fascist side less militias).
Once you have dealt with the tiny issue of fascists rampaging around the country, you can start working on the internal affairs branch.
Here you will get access to extra advisors (some of them shared with the social-democrats) and get some industrial and intelligence bonuses, and a couple of custom operatives.
As for country leader, Communist Finland there are a various options:
The initial Communist leader is Aimo Aaltonen.
Aaltonen studied in the Soviet Union for several years during the 1930s, where he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He returned to Finland on two occasions to organize the military branch of the Finnish Communist Party, but got arrested in 1935. He remained in prison until his release after the Continuation War, and was elected chairman of the now-legalized Finnish Communist Party.
In-game, Aaltonen’s BoP Agenda will be focused on fighting (and be winning) wars against fascist countries in order to increase Public Trust, and keeping a united proletariat with a very high Communist support in order to not lose Public Trust over time.
The focus “The Red Watch” unlocks a decision to appoint Yrjö Leino as leader of the Communist Party.
Yrjö Leino was sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment in 1935, for high treason.
Allegedly, he became a communist during this period and, when he was released in 1938, he participated in underground activities of the prohibited Communist Party of Finland.
During the Winter War Leino stayed underground, hiding in communist safe-houses across the Finnish countryside.
In 1940, Leino was detained in a secure facility, until 1941 when he escaped from a prison train in Riihimäki, which was taking prisoners to fight in a penal battalion. Leino participated in underground Communist Party activities until the 1944 armistice between Finland and the Soviet Union and the legalization of the Communist Party.
Leino’s BoP Agenda will make Public Trust grow by wiping out fascism from Finland’s society and from European Governments. Just like Aaltonen, he needs high Communist support to prevent Public Trust from going down over time.
Last but not least, Otto Wille Kuusinen will automatically become the country leader the moment Communist Finland joins a faction led by Stalin’s Soviet Union (including if Soviet Union puppets Finland after a war), and the Finnish Democratic Republic will be formed.
Kuusinen had fled to Soviet Russia after the defeat in the civil war, and there he forged his political career. He played a key role in the founding of the Communist International and managed to survive the Great Purge. During the Winter War Kuusinen was appointed as leader of the Finnish Democratic Republic, also known as the Terijoki’s Government, a short-lived puppet state of the Soviet Union in occupied Finnish territory during the war.
In-game, when the Finnish Democratic Republic is formed, Kuusinen will grant the Soviet Union a small but convenient Consumer Goods and Supply Efficiency boost for a couple of years, in exchange for some construction speed bonus for Finland.
In terms of his BoP Agenda,
“A Solar system of organizations" is a reference to Kuusinen’s proposal for a network of various political and mass organizations that are either sympathetic to or directly affiliated with the Communist Party. These organizations would work in conjunction with the Party and serve as a means to influence and mobilize the masses for political purposes aiming to create a system of interconnected entities that can effectively advance the party's objectives and prevent the loss of political influence among the masses.
Even though this concept has nothing to do with actual invasion of any nations, in order to spice-up Kuusinen’s gameplay and make it a bit more rewarding to expand with him in charge, controlling all Scandinavian and Baltic countries or having them as puppets will make Public Trust increase, while not having control over all three Karelian states will make Public Trust slowly decrease.
Regardless of its ideology, Finland will most likely have to deal with the Soviets kindly asking for Karjala state in order to secure Leningrad from potential threats coming from Finland.
In this regard, both Communist and Democratic Finland have two options: “Approaching the Soviets” or “Antagonize the Soviets”.
“Approach the Soviets” is your way to show the Soviet Union that Finland poses no threat to their country, trying to cooperate with them and leading to establishing a “Finno-Soviet Pact”, getting a Guarantee from the Soviets as well as other diplomatic deals.
This option will also unlock Finnish generals exiled in the Soviet Union, available for the Civil War, and a decision to request the extradition of Kullervo Manner, who was imprisoned in 1935 in the Soviet Union and died of tuberculosis in 1939, so you better hurry to get him out of that prison camp before it is too late!
On the other side… Does Finland really need the trust of the Soviets? “Antagonize the Soviets” will make Finland reach out to major communist or democratic European countries (Soviets don’t count, obviously) to get a guarantee from them. Further down the branch, you have focuses themed around the fortification of the country and getting trade Agreements with friendly nations.
In between those two options, there are shared focuses granting the fifth research slot, boosting industry, and seeking a union between Finland and Estonia.
When it comes to factions, as you have probably noticed already, there are three options:
To the left, assuming Communist Finland did “Approach the Soviets” and a “Finno-Soviet Pact” was signed, you can choose to “Join the Comintern”.
But remember: if you do so with Stalin at the helm of the Soviet Union, Kuusinen will inevitably pop-up, pushing aside your former leader!
Well, Stalin might initially not be in the mood to trust just any Finnish leader, so he will only accept Kuusinen, but over time, he will get confident in the Finnish leadership and you will be able to complete the focus “Finnish Autonomy”, once the industrial bonus to the Soviet Union, provided by Kuusinen, has expired. This will bring back your former communist leader, country name and white color on the map!
Apart from territorial and war-related focuses, the branch culminates with “Red Finland”, which, similar to Greater Finland, will not only grant some cores and Resistance bonuses, but it will also increase the Militias cap and improve the country leader trait (whoever is in charge).
To the right, Democratic Finland can “Approach Major Democracies”, assuming you decided to “Antagonize the Soviets” previously.
This branch will get some industrial and naval bonuses, some territorial demands and it has two culminating focuses:
“Proclaim the Grand Finnish Federation” will grant cores and big Compliance bonuses in certain neighboring states, and “Socialist Welfare” will grant pretty good bonuses to industry and research, but it will also improve your current leader trait
But Finland can always (regardless of your ideology and how you dealt with Soviets) opt for forming their own faction, the Northern Defense Front.
This branch will (unsurprisingly) focus on the Nordic and Baltic countries, and as you can see shares many focuses with the other two options.
However, there is one unique focus, “Confederated Finno-Russian Republics”, with which Finland will work towards the integration of several semi-autonomous republics within the nation, appealing to the Finnic peoples living in these regions to spread a sentiment of trust towards the Finns among the local population.
In terms of advisors, these are all the ones you can unlock in the Socialist branches.
These are the generals that Communist Finland will unlock. As you can see, a couple of portraits are not finalized so they have not been implemented yet
Here is the (WIP) portrait of one of the missing guys, Antikainen.
And, even though this is pretty much the alternative history for Finland, we are not done with all the new content for Finland just yet, since there have been some changes and many new things implemented for historical Finland (or just Finland in general).
And for these various flavorful details and content I have had the luck to count with some extra help, so allow me to hand you over to Jonathan!
And now for me. Hello everyone, it’s me Jonathan, here to write about some of the content I have helped with creating for Finland for the upcoming expansion. I have been jumping around and helping my fellow content designers wherever help has been needed for AAT, whilst working on other stuff in the background.
The White Death
During the winter war, the Finnish fought fiercely to stave off Soviet attacks, cleverly using a combination of their (as mentioned in the previous Finland Dev Diary) Motti Tactics alongside snipers, who had been trained either by the Suojeluskunta (Finnish voluntary militia Civil Guard) or as hunters or Jaegers. Among these snipers was Simo Häyhä, who thanks to Finnish propaganda later came to be known as the White Death. The White Death however, despite being said to have been attributed to Häyhä by Soviet soldiers, to them rather symbolized the severe cold in the deep forests, and the tenacity of the Finnish people in a more general sense.The White Death news event:
In game, this is represented through a series of events for Finland and an aggressor, be it the Soviets or someone else in case of an alt-hist scenario, where Finland has the option to prop up their sniper organizations, dealing damage to enemy manpower and equipment pools through events, and where their enemy can choose between simply taking the hits, or spending equipment and command power on dealing with these snipers before they become a problem. Finland also gets the option to either do as historically and use propaganda to build up Simo Häyhä as the embodiment of the White Death, or to embrace the original meaning of the word, by making their enemies take more attrition. At the end of the event chain, Häyhä can either escape unscathed, be wounded (as historically happened), or be killed by the enemy, getting a hero's funeral.
The Continuation War
At this point, you have all heard about the Finnish Continuation War before, but one not all that known fact is, how did they manage to worm their way out of the mess they had found themselves in?Well, there were talks held with the Allied powers around the time of the battle for Stalingrad, as Finland saw that there was great risk that things would go south real fast, regarding changing sides, and declaring war on the Germans in exchange for peace with the Soviets, but this plan never really panned out due to the Western Allies’ fear of intruding on the Soviet sphere by allowing Finland to join them. That is why though it didn’t succeed historically, it and the historical outcome both exist and can happen, as can be seen below.
Decisions to get yourself out of the Continuation War if worse comes to worst:
When not switching sides, but instead offering concessions to Moscow in exchange for peace, Finland will have to concede any of Salla, Petsamo and Karjala that Finland still owns, and they will need to transfer equipment over to them, signing the historical Moscow Armistice with the Soviets.
The Moscow Armistice news event:
This is however not the end of the struggles for Finland or its people, as a part of the agreement signed with the Soviet Union was the expulsion of Axis troops from Finnish territory. As the Soviets press Finland to comply with the treaty, the Lapland War starts, and Finnish troops clash with Germans retreating into German-occupied Norway (or Sweden, if the game has gone slightly a-historical). The Germans will have options for how to deal with the Lapland war, allowing for slightly different bonuses and maluses when withdrawing.
The German response to the Lapland War starting:
When all this is said and done however, if this was the option of peace Finland chose, there will be no actual war between the countries, as compared to if they were to switch sides completely.
The Lapland War news event
City and State Name Changing
This has now been updated to include certain state and vp name changes for Finland and Sweden, as seen below.
Petrozavodsk becomes Äänislinna if under either Finnish or Karelian control
Murmansk becomes Muurmanski, Kandalaksha becomes Kantalahti, and the state of Murmansk becomes Kuolan Niemimaa (Kola Peninsula) when under either Finnish or Karelian control
Many cities in Finland, due to the sometimes significant Swedish minority (or in some specific places even majority), officially use both Finnish and Swedish names to this day, such as Turku and Åbo both being frequently used for the same city, and Sweden and Finland still harboring a close bond to this day. Thus, if Sweden were to go rogue and decided to occupy Finland, it would only make sense that they would use the Swedish names for towns in the region.
Here you see the southern parts of Finland when under Swedish control, with many cities gaining their official Swedish names, such as Turku becoming Åbo, and Viipuri becoming Viborg.
And here you can see northern Finland when under Swedish control. Also take note that Inari (which can not be seen here) becomes Enare.
Releasables and Game Rules
You can choose between no fragmentation, only releasing Sápmi from the Nordic nations, or doing that alongside liberating Iceland, Karelia and Greenland from Nordic countries. If you combine any of these rules with the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, Sápmi and Karelia will gain their Soviet-held cores as well.
The new game rules
The Nordics Fragmented option has been chosen
And with our brand new releasable nation, Sápmi jumping into action, we had to do them some justice with just that extra pinch of flavor added on top. As can be seen in the image below, Sápmi will not only have unique party names and flags as do any other nation, but also unique leader and general portraits.
Sápmi with all of its cores
Sápmi has its own unique Admiral portrait
Sápmi also has its own unique General portraits
Sápmi has many new advisor portraits, some of which can be seen here
And that’s been all from me for now. I will see you all when I have more cool stuff to deliver! But now, back to Manu.
Alright, let’s take a look at the last batch of changes and content for Finland.
Some of you might have noticed a new focus in the historical branch that was not there in the last Dev Diary.
The focus “Pärmi’s Devils”, available for both historical and fascist Finland, is themed around the Finnish Separate battalion 21, a penal battalion formed mainly by political prisoners and commanded by Nikke Pärmi.
In-game, this focus will unlock a limited recruitment of Divisions formed by penal battalions, and spawn Pärmi’s very own full division, a veteran unit with a very promising officer ready for action!
A few extra Generals have been added at game start, based on some of the feedback from the last Dev Diary.
Karl Oesch is now available to Finland.
Aksel Airo is also available to Finland, although his portrait is still not in the game.
Raappana has made an appearance and is now replacing Törni as the general unlocked by the focus “Sissi”. Törni will, in turn, be unlocked via the fascist focus “Military Promotion”.
In terms of military advisors, Vilho Nenonen has joined the Military High Command roster as an Artillery Genius, while Kaarlo Somerto has been downgraded from Artillery Expert to Artillery Specialist. This way, Finland has the option to go for a cheaper and weaker artillery officer early if needed, and then move on to the Genius later on.
Akseli Anttila is now only available to Communist Finland, and Erik Heinrichs is the available military theorist for non-communist Finland
Something I wanted to implement for a while was French Renault tanks (available at game start) and the modified British Vickers tanks (available in the 1939 Bookmark or via “Foreign Armor” focus).
And before finishing, I would also like to give a big kudos to our 2D and 3D artists because they keep doing an amazing job delivering incredibly cool assets for our content! From focus icons to portraits, tech icons and 3D models, they’re great!
Throughout the diary you have seen a lot of cool 2D art but only a few 3D models, so here are some more pics of the new Finnish 3D models!
Let’s start with the new Soviet T-28 model (and icon), which is now the default model for the Interwar Medium Chassis for Soviets and for Finland.
We now have a Marine 3D model for Finland, based on the Rannikkojääkärit (or Marine Jaegers).
And we got a fourth regular infantry model, the best of them all. Behold the beauty of an infantry division walking alongside one of the coolest means of supply, the reindeer!
This new infantry model also has a winter version and a warm weather version. This is the winter one. Again, the coolest of them all in my honest opinion..
And last but not least, the hot acclimatization version of all 4 regular infantry models!
And that was all from me! I hope that you all enjoyed reading about the Finnish Alternative history content coming with the new DLC as well as the changes and additions implemented since the first Finnish diary. I wish you all a nice week and make sure to stay tuned for the next dev diary where we’ll be talking about one of the new features in Arms Against Tyranny: Military Industrial Organizations!
Nähdään pian!
