I'm a Finn player who has a M/
LW RajaJaakari Kompanie (Finnish Border Jaegers).
Books: at this point,
MW Finns are in Eastern Front and
LW Finns are in Grey Wolf. There are also a couple PDF briefings here -
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=108&kb_cat_id=100 Unfortunately, ALL the
LW Finn lists used to be free PDFs but they changed the point values for v3 and included them in Grey Wolf. If my hunch is correct and Barbarossa comes out this August, we should get
EW Finns, possibly even Winter War Finns!
http://www.jaegerplatoon.net/MAIN.html &
http://www.andreaslarka.net/ are excellent resources.
Are Finns a Good Army?: I'll simply say that, like the core German lists, they're fairly well-balanced. They are (generally) somewhat expensive, but have great motivation and skills and their lists give good access to various units. Their special rules work well on some tables (forested, rural, or snow) and not so well on others (urban). They can be tricky to master.
Jalkavaki are standard Finnish infantry with a balanced list, they also have access to Heavy Mortars
and all German allied units. Jaakari (Jaegers) are light infantry, they have access to a wide variety of units, better access to transports, & high skills. Their
HMGs have the Fire & Relocate rule which means they can still move and shoot (at a lower
ROF) and they have access 2 armoured unit support choices. They also get the only looted ISU-152 in the Finnish list (other than the Pansarri support choice) which has the awesome Heavy Breakthrough Gun! Pionerri are Finnish engineers, good in assaults and setting up defenses, but with a more limited access to support (they are available and recommended as a support unit for every other list). Pansarri are the armored units, made up almost entirely of looted Russian tanks. They are VERY expensive, only have widespread access to the T-26 light tank with limited access to T-34s, KV-1s, & T-28s (sadly, no Panzer IVs, even though Germany finally sold them several tanks in '45). They have access to two infantry support choices, Sturmi, the nifty Anti II armoured
AA tank, and the uniquely Finnish
BT-42 armoured howitzer. Sturmi are the assault guns of the
LW period and are just StuGs lacking the Schurzen armoured skirts and replacing them with logs
and concrete over the glacis plate.
Models: The
FOW Finnish infantry is
by far the best, well-scaled and historically accurate. You can also include a few German or Russian
FOW figs if you run low, since Finland bought so much gear from Germany and looted almost everything else from Russia. Italian Fucillieri headswaps work well too, since Finland bought the same helmets. Resistant Roosters has Winter uniform Finns, though word on TMP is that they're oversized and badly molded at times.
Zvezda has some excellent vehicles for about $4 each in their Operation Barbarossa line. They make the
BT-5 (in the
EW period, then replaced the turret to make the
BT-42 armoured howitzer), KV-1, T-26, T-34 mod. 1940, Opel Blitz & ZIS trucks, and are coming out with
BA-10 armored cars this summer.
PSC makes the T-34 and StuG in 15mm of 5 minis for $25. The StuG can easily be converted to a Sturmi by leaving the Schurzen off, adding toothpick "logs" to the sides, and
GS'ing some concrete slopes to the turret front (though not always necessary as some Sturmi did not have this).
Hope that helps!
Avrik_Shasla wrote:Go to Oldglory25.com and look through their 15mm Command Decision line. You're going to be looking at about $25.00 for three high quality pewter miniatures, and if you sign up for their army deal (which is a year long membership for $50 that gives you 40% everything on their site). So after that you'll be looking at about $14.40 for a pack of three high-quality tanks.
Now I don't know much about the Finns, but with the information given we'll need more, like what year, and what type of army you want to run. One bit of advice though....Stugs....stugs are nice.
Wow, you really should get a marketing stipend from OG. They don't even make Finn infantry or vehicles!
