Short guide to independent Finland

[Korppi]

If you want to play Finland, here's how to get it without editing files. Can also be used as a guide how to get independent Sweden fast.

NOTE 1: Always lend money when you need it
NOTE 2: This strategy sometimes fails early because RNG (you lose either the naval battle or the battle of Sjaelland), if that happens, just start over.

Before unpausing:
- Start new game, select Sweden (Ironman off (to be able to change country), lucky nations none (personal preference))
- Switch to Chevauchee cavalry
- Select mission Improve Prestige
- Destroy all ships except galleys
- Only take advisor that gives morale if it is available, no others
- Send diplomat to Novgorod to fabricate claim to Neva
- Set to build: 10 galleys, 1 Cavalry, 2 Infantry

Gaining independence from Denmark:
- When armies are ready, move them to Småland and form one army.
- When navies are ready, move them to Småland and form one fleet.
- Once both army and fleet are ready, declare war to Denmark.
- Make king to general, recruit one general and one admiral. Put admiral to the fleet and the better general to the army.
- Start building 8 mercenaries (infantry). Once they are ready, join them together and assign the second general.
- If Danish big fleet is at sea, attack it. Otherwise move your fleet to Öresund.
- Attack Sjaelland with your army. Attack Norwegian army with your mercanaries when they are ready.
- If you gain few ships from naval battle, divide your fleet and blockade both Öresund and Storebaelt. If not, just keep blockading Öresund.
- For your first army targets are: Win Sjaelland siege -> Keep Sjaelland -> Siege Skåne
- For the mercenary army targets are: Keep Norwegians away from your land -> Keep possible other army away -> Siege Bleking
- Denmark will accept peace when:
* You blockade Öresund and Storebaelt and
* You occopy Sjaelland and
* You are sieging Skåne and Bleking
- Just keep checking when situation changes. Make peace and claim your independence. Usually before 1447.
- Once at peace:
* delete ships (keep only galleons) so that you are at forcelimit.
* Consolidate mercenary regiments.
* Put ships to port so that they are repaired.
* Move your main army to Viborg and mercenaries to Österbotten
* Reduce war exhaustion and boost stability, BUT DO NOT GO BELOW 150 DIPLOMACY

Getting Finnish cores:
- Once you have the claim to Neva, declare war to Novgorod
- Build more mercenaries so that you have 10
- Move your fleet to Gulf of Finland (for blockade)
- Attack Neva with your main army
- Walk through Karelia to Kexholm with your mercenaries (maybe good idea to wait for rest to finish, depends where Novgorod moves their main army)
- Your first target is to occopy Karelia, Kexholm and Neva while keeping your provinces.
- After you have those three, take other provinces until Novgorod makes a peace and gives you Karelia, Kexholm and Neva.
- You might have to build more mercenaries if war goes badly. Just take more loans all the time.

After the war with Novgorod:
- Destroy all mercenaries, put ships to port and set both army and navy maintenance to 10%
- Diplomacy->Create Vassal->Finland
- Check new forcelimits and destroy enough armies and navies so that you are not over them.
- Remove war exhaustion and boost stability to +1 if you can
- Wait until truce with Finland expires. If you are nice, you can pay off some Sweden's loans. Doesn't really matter much, just don't lose any of Finland's provinces. If you leave weak Sweden, it is easy to vassallise :)
- Once the truce with Finland ends, break the vassallage.
- Save, exit to menu, single player, load game, select Finland, press play :)
- You're done. Year should be about 1455, depending how long the war with Novgorod was.

Did I forgot something?

[Korppi]

Out of curiosity I tried this three more times. Seems I had pretty good RNG earlier (managed to create vassal 3 times out of four). Now I failed once because I got moron generals and lost against Denmark and twice because I got too much rebels during Novgorod war and Novgorod somehow threw much more forces against me.

So... fix is to wait a year or so before attacking Novgorod, get the war exhaustion down. Get rid of mercs, lower your maintenance etc.

[CynicalToast]

This is a really great way to get Finland! Thanks! :D

[Ville Valste]

Man this is an old thread, but still the most relevant for my post:
I've managed to change Sweden's culture to 100% Finnish (except for recently conquered territories) and changed the primary culture to Finnish and I was wondering, if I could change the country to be Finland. I'm also playing on Ironman, if that makes a difference.

Again, sry for the necro.