The entirety of the Sakkijärven nation, I mean Finland’s domestic contributions have been implemented in premium/event vehicles for Sweden. All Finland-specific tech-tree vehicles except for the glorious B-239, BT-42, ItPsV Leopard and T-55M are either premiums or the tech tree is made up almost entirely of imported vehicles.
I don’t really understand how this is supposed to be a “sub-tree” in the same way Hungary in Italy or South Africa in the UK is.
Those sub-trees actually become part of the research tree. They provide domestic vehicles throughout the grind, fill lineup gaps, and give those nations an actual identity inside another nation’s tree. Premiums exist, but they are extras, not where the nation’s identity is concentrated.
Hungary is a good example. South Africa is another. You can clearly see their domestic vehicles making up part of the normal progression.
Finland doesn’t really do that.
When the teaser for Finland as a sub-tree dropped, it only featured captured or bought vehicles, and that was honestly the first “wait… is this just copy & paste?” moment.
Gaijin recently explained their philosophy behind duplicate vehicles and sub-trees.
They said duplicate vehicles are meant to:
- fill gameplay gaps,
- improve lineups,
- include smaller nations that couldn’t support their own tree,
- while keeping historically important or unique vehicles in the research tree whenever possible.
That’s exactly where Finland doesn’t make sense.
Most of Finland’s genuinely domestic or historically significant vehicles ended up as premium or event vehicles, while the research tree is largely Soviet, British or German imports that were simply used by Finland.
So instead of Finland’s domestic industry being what builds the subtree, it’s Finland’s imported equipment.
That feels completely backwards compared to the explanation.
Gaijin also says that adding duplicate vehicles doesn’t replace unique vehicles and that those unique vehicles will still come later.
But Finland has plenty of interesting domestic vehicles and modifications that should have helped give the tree its own identity from when it was added.
For example, Finland’s StuGs weren’t only German StuG IIIs.
During the Continuation War they received several Finnish field modifications after combat experience, including:
- reinforced concrete on the front
- additional armour around the driver’s position
- spare track armour
- log protection on the hull sides
- extra deflector plates around the commander’s cupola
- relocated storage equipment
These weren’t cosmetic differences. They represented one of Finland’s most famous armored vehicles and are exactly the kind of vehicle that gives a subtree its own identity.
In June 1944 the Finnish StuGs went into hard battles against the large scale Soviet offensive. During these battles they destroyed numerous T-34-76s, T-34-85s, ISU-152s and even IS-2s. The experience from these battles resulted in several uniquely Finnish protection upgrades.
Ground Vehicles
Stu-40 “Sturmi” (Modified Stug III)
Ford 098T with 20 ItK/40 VKT
Sisu SA-150 with 23 ItK/61
A-34 Comet (QF-20pdr) (Missing suggestion)
BMP-25 (BMP-1 w LAV-25 tower, 25 mm M242 Bushmaster) (Missing suggestion)
Patria AMOS
Aircraft
BAE Systems Hawk: Mk.51, Mk.51A, Mk.66 (Missing suggestion)
