Units In Spirit of Liberty #6 | Scouts & Kaukopartio
War is the apparent opposite of safety. Yet, there are always levels to how much you can be endangered. It is one thing to fight at the front line: advancing or retreating, being stuck in trench warfare or forced to run and shoot - but at least you always know where your enemies and friends are. Guess who cannot say the same?
Being a scout is like playing a deadly version of hide-n-seek, but losing is much worse. It is not surprising then that to be a successful scout - you must be good at what you do. Extremely good if you want to be both successful and alive.
Finnish scouts were undisputable masters of survival in the wild, no matter what season they’d find themselves working. Physical and mental requirements for scouts were very demanding. Not only would traversing long distances through rough terrains with equipment be physically challenging but there was this constant presence of danger stressing you out even more. Keeping your mind clear despite physical and mental stress was a must!
Add to that a couple of extra skills like parachuting (not commonly used due to the limited airforce potential), tactical medicine (not many medics would follow you to the frontline and beyond), being stealthy and a good shot, cunning and creative - and you’ll get a true jack-of-all-trades recon master, the Finnish scout.
And if you get extremely good at scouting, you might end up being a member of Kaukopartio, long-distance recon. That is, you will go deeper into the enemy territory, testing your abilities and skills at the utmost level.
Historically, long-range recon patrols were created after the Winter War, recruiting the battered veterans of that war. At the time of creation, members of Kaukopartio had dealt with peacetime intelligence, but as the Continuation War started, four detachments were called to arms. The line between Kaukopartio scouts and a special task force was thin: reconnaissance, sabotage, extermination, guerilla warfare, and raiding, to name but a few of Kaukopartio’s activities during wartime.
In the game
For the first time in the Strategic Mind series, we will feature dedicated Infantry recon units (on top of our usual recon cars and equipment) - Scouts and their “upgrade” to Kaukopartio. Both units will have segmented movement ability and ignore enemy overwatch, as well as increased movement.
They will play a critical role in your army as Fins historically did not have a lot of scout cars, so you will have to exploit difficult terrain to your advantage with these new types of units.
Let us know what you think of this new addition to the series.
Dev Q&A #3 has finally arrived on our YouTube channel: Watch Q&A #3
In the video, you will see the summary of the year 2022 for the Starni Games team and answers to the questions you sent us via the google form.
I hope it answers your questions, and if you have more, we will have another Dev Q&A in the summer of 2023, so I will be happy to answer more questions. Also, feel free to ask us on Discord any time.
With Best Regards from Kyiv
Oleksandr
Starni Lunar New Year Sale
Hello
Lunar New Year is about to come. In celebration of the upcoming holidays in Asia, we decided to start a special sale that runs until the start of the Lunar New Year - from the 16th to the 23rd of January.
If you planned on playing Strategic Mind games during the upcoming holiday period - now is the time to get the game with the best deal for yourself or as a gift.
Scenario overview #3: Battle of Suomussalmi and Raate Road
Emblematic of the whole Winter War, the Battle of Suomussalmi pitched about 11,000 Finnish troops (starting as a small, understrength contingent) against several Soviet divisions totaling from 40,000 to 55,000 troopers. Against these outrageous odds the Finns managed to not only beat back the invader, but deal tremendous casualties in one of the most famous encirclements of the Winter War – the Raate Road motti.
The Soviet plan was simple, and on the surface rather ingenious. A strike on Suomussalmi, sitting in the middle of the eastern Finnish border, could, if successful, allow for a westward push all the way to Oulu, where the much-needed weapon shipments from abroad were coming by rail. A swift armored advance could cleave Finland in half, leave it without Western aid, and split apart the already tiny and worse-equipped Finnish Army.
There was only one problem with that plan: the swift armored advance would take place over miles of sheer forest and swamp. This forced the Soviets to stick to the area's main road – the Raate Road – and prioritize rushing Suomussalmi in order to regroup and establish a staging area.
During the first week of the invasion, the Finnish forces in the area were insufficient to stop the enemy, and still managed to inflict heavy casualties as they retreated westward. At first, the fighting was so chaotic, many locals couldn't evacuate on time and were stuck in their homes. Once the Finnish forces took control of the situation, however, no half-measures would be taken.
The High Command decided to abandon Suomussalmi to the enemy… but not before the village was set on fire. The blaze lasted for hours, and was seen throughout the night. When the Soviet forces took the village on the next morning, they found it stripped of supplies and proper shelter – all this in the record-setting freeze of December 1939.
Around this time, the legendary Colonel Siilasvuo, the master tactician and the hero of many battles to come, assumed the command. The Finns cut all supply lines leading to the city, and prevented the enemy from establishing new ones. Siilasvuo tried to overwhelm the frozen and starving enemy, but the Soviet forces mounted a desperate defense, beating the Finns back. Around the same time, massive Soviet reinforcements were rolling towards Suomussalmi along the Raate Road, constantly harassed and making little progress.
Finally, in the closing weeks of December, the reinforcements' supply lines had collapsed as well: the main motti at Suomussalmi was joined by dozens of smaller ones along the Raate Road.
After a cold Christmas among the pines, Siilasvuo ordered another assault on Suomussalmi on December 27. And this time, when the Finns began their advance, the Soviets panicked, launching a desperate breakout across the ice. Some of them were successful, and reached the Russian border. Most did not, and the Finns made sure of it. Suomussalmi was finally liberated.
After that, the Raate Road was less of a battle and more of a mopping-up. Starved and dizzy from hypothermia, the Soviet forces could barely mount an effective resistance, while the Finns were ruthless.
This was the biggest Finnish victory by that point, making it to the front pages of numerous newspapers around the world. From the beaten enemy, the Finns captured 85 tanks, 437 trucks, including Red Army's anti-air technical trucks, 92 artillery pieces, dozens of anti-tank cannons and rifles, thousands of small arms, and over a hundred machine guns. In fact, in another display of delusional self-confidence, the reinforcements were carrying a fully-stocked military band with instruments and banners, ready for a victory parade – those were captured too.
The USSR sought to cut Finland in half, but through a massive morale boost united it even more. It sought to sow panic and discord among the Finns, but in the end, the Soviet forces were the ones panicking. Finally, it sought to deprive Finland of Western weapon shipments, but instead became Finland's greatest weapons provider.
In the game
You will have to encircle and destroy the Red Army reinforcements and then attack the bulk of the encircled enemy army, causing it to retreat in panic. Then you have to pursue to cause maximum losses and capture some of the abandoned Russian tanks for your troops. One of the key landmarks of this scenario is the “ice roads”.
Units In Spirit of Liberty #5 | Finnish artillery 1939-1945
Hello
Today, we have a whole bunch of units to look at, so we split up all Finnish artillery pieces into two time periods - the Winter War (1939-1940) and the Continuation War (1941-1944).
Finnish artillery of the Winter War
Artillery, as they say, is the king of battle. And in the lead-up to the Winter War, Finland was definitely not a kingdom.
Where major powers could boast magnificent rows of identical, factory-produced cannons, Finland simply had to make do with what was on hand. Assorted European surplus, decades out of date and long decommissioned by the manufacturer, made up the vast majority of Finnish artillery. Mint-quality imported pieces were a luxury, and "older" weapons were a baseline; many pieces were simply "old".
The main Finnish Winter War cannon was the French 105 mm Schneider. It was a solid, battle-tested piece, even if most of the battle-testing took place during the Great War. The Finns, as with the rest of their equipment, compensated for it with superior discipline and trained artillery crews, and made attempts at modernization. Several modifications of the cannon's bigger cousin, Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider, filled up the niche of long-range, division-level artillery. There were pieces bored for 152 mm as well as 155 mm – the Finns knew a time would come when they could not be picky about where their ammo came from.
Finally, the main howitzer was the Russian Empire-produced 122 mm howitzer model 1909/1910 and M1910/30. Once the war broke out, Soviet weapons started filling up the Finnish ranks as trophies. Several dozen Soviet 76 mm M1936 were captured, serving both as divisional artillery and as excellent anti-tank weapons.
Finnish artillery of the Continuation War
Once it was clear that Finland could indeed defend itself, the government took the task of rearmament seriously. The German "partners" contributed to it the most, providing several dozen state-of-the-art 15 cm sFH 18 field howitzers. Over a hundred 155 mm Schneider pieces were provided in 1941, Germany's own trophies from France.
And once the Continuation War began, opened with several successful offensives, the Red Army became Finland's weapons donor once again. Soviet 122 mm M30 howitzers, long-range 122 mm M1931/37 and devastating 152 mm M1937 cannons were all cutting-edge weapons for their time.
The new pieces, coupled with Finland's own revolutionary fire control systems, made Finnish artillery crews some of the most effective in the Second World War. What started with antiquated Great War pieces ended with a world record in fire concentration, set during the Battle of Tali-Ihantala.
In the game
Artillery is a crucial weapon in the Strategic Mind series. Although the scarcity of this vital resource made Finns take extra care in operating these deadly weapons - this resulted in well-trained crews and unique know-how, some of which is represented by the Finnish-only equipment for artillery you will see in the game.
As with many other Finnish units and equipment - the amount of artillery pieces you can get via Prestige is limited, so you have to avoid losses and try your best to get your hands on the Soviet trophies to further bolster your artillery forces.
We hope that your holiday is going well and you were able to spend some great time with your family and friends.
If you planned on getting any Strategic Mind games during the Steam Winter Saler all-time largest discount and forgot to do that - here is your chance. The sale ends on January 5th, so there is only a couple of days left.
It’s been a difficult year for everyone in Ukraine. So, our key achievements for this year are:
Everyone on the team is alive and safe (to the extent you could be safe in a city that occasionally suffers missile strikes)
The company survived - we continued our operations, managed to keep the team together, and returned to our Kyiv office
That is already good enough on its own, but we are happy to say we managed to do even more, despite all difficulties we also managed the following:
We made good progress in the development of Headquarters: World War II and kept working on Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty
We self-funded and self-published a fully free charity project about the war in Ukraine from civilains points of view - Ukraine War Stories
Our team grew from 15 to 25 people. Now we are quite a large team (which we are still getting used to)
Installed a power generator and heaters to make sure we have a power supply and internet connection even if the whole city or our district is out of power - ensured our office is autonomous. This allows us to look more confidently into 2023.
Donated substantial amount of money to help Ukraine both as a company and as individuals
Starni Games team
Now let us look a bit closer at our team. Here is a Starni team introductory video made by Slitherine team for the Headquarters: World War II presentation. We are very excited that despite the war our team has only grown stronger and is ready to deliver more and better content in 2023 than ever before.
Starni Games Q&A #3 - ask us
We remain very open to our community - so we would be more than happy to answer any and all of your questions. Please, send your questions through this form.
We will record a video answering all of your questions in early January.
Also, join our Discord server to talk with us and other players at any time.
Headquarters: World War II
Throughout the year our biggest project was Headquarters: World War II and we are making really good progress with it. You can see that yourself if you watch the recent presentation at the Slitherine Next event. Also, if you like the project and want to help us with the final polish - sign up for the Beta test of the game here.
Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty
We keep working on the project, but we have to admit that we have some difficulties in organizing the VO as most of teh people we worked with are now unavailable for various war-related reasons and we do not have the budget to just order it somewhere, so we are looking to solve these problems while also working on the remaining levels and aspects of the game we could. We have concrete plans for release in 2023, but we cannot announce it yet, as some aspects of the development remain unresolved at this stage.
We will continue to make regular updates about our development progress, Here is one of the historical music tracks from the upcoming Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty for your listening pleasure.
We are really happy we managed to create a highly reviewed project (88% Positive reviews at the time of writing, which is a miracle in itself considering the sensitive nature of the project) about the war in Ukraine in the middle of the said war. It is a fully free charity project that our whole team is really proud of - so we invite you to have a look and spread the word: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985510/Ukraine_War_Stories/
Check out our recent report about Ukraine War Stories.
War in Ukraine
While the war in Ukraine continues, we managed to adapt and keep working even in these difficulty conditions. You can learn more about how that went by checking out our War in Ukraine Despatches on the community hub - there is the most recent one.
We hope that Ukraine’s territories will be liberated by UAF and the war will be over as soon as possible. With that in mind, we also should not be overly optimistic or careless and should be ready and resolved to work in wartime conditions as long as it is required.
Stand with Ukraine!
Extra details for newsletter subscribers
We want this report to be concise, so if you are looking for even more details and insides about the Starni Gamers team - make sure you subscribed to our newsletter (Subscribe button could be found in any of the Strategic Mind games, and if you already subscribed you do not have to do anything extra, just wait for the letter) to receive a letter with an extra addition to this report.
The letter will be sent out on 30th January.
Happy holidays!
Our team wishes you all happy holidays and looks forward to seeing you all in 2023. We hope you will spend a great time with your family and friends, while also refreshing your body and soul and getting ready for the new and exciting year 2023.
With Best Wishes from Kyiv Oleksandr and the Strani Games team
War in Ukraine - despatch 13 | Power generator saves the day
Hello
Last two months have been rough for our team, same as for just about everyone else in Ukraine, due to the constant missile and kamikaze drone attacks on the power supply system across entire country. As I explained in previous despatches this led to working from home with a very unsteady working hours (often at night) and communication delays as different people would be available at different times.
To be able to participate in Headquarters: World War II live presentation I had to go to coworking space with my laptop, as there was Stralink internet access unaffected by unpredictable power cuts. This was necessary to make sure I would not drop out in the middle of the livestream.
Now, all these problems are tackled, as we finally got ourselves a decent power generator installed near our office. It allows us to run all PCs and a couple other devices while there is no power, and then switch back to main supply when its back up, There is still problem with the cold though, as the temperature outside could go as low as -10 *C, while the centralized heating in the office building does not work this winter. When the centralized power is up, we can use various heaters to make it nice and warm, but when the power is off and we run the generator - we cannot use much more than our PCs alone. So, to counter that we installed a powerful gas heater as well. The first few days it was cold, while we were still working out everything with the heating, but now the situation should improve.
The best thing though, is that we are together again and can work out any issues and discuss things very fast and efficient as before. That means we should be back to our normal production speed after the holidays period, despite the ongoing war. We often lack the power at home, which is uncomfortable, but at least now our work is secured and we can continue uninterrupted.
Starni Games news
Sign ups for Headquarters: World War II Beta now open
Make sure to watch the recent Headquarters: World War II presenation during the Slitherine Next event and if you want to help us make the game better before the official trelease - make sure you sign up for the beta here.
The Headquarters section of the event had the following structure:
- Intro video - Strani team presentation - Single-player operation gameplay video with dev commentary - 4-players multiplayer match highlights with dev commentary
So, there is really a lot of juicy content there and a quite in-depth discussion of the game. I think that is the first time our team prepared a footage of a multiplayer match by 4 Devs recorded by each person to create the shortened “highlights” version and present the multiplayer to the audience.
Please, let us know what you think about the project and its presentation. Your feedback is really important for our team
Submit your questions for Dev Q&A #3
We will soon hold end of the year Q&A, so if you have questions about any of our projects (Strategic Mind series, Headuarters: World War II, or Ukraine War Stories) or about our team – please send them to us through this form.
Ukraine War Storiers 2 months after release review
Check out how our fully free charity project covering the war in Ukarine from civilians point of view is faring here.
Scenario overview #2: The Battle of Tolvajarvi
If you have missed our recent Strategic Mind: Spirit of Liberty scenario review, you can found it here.
Steam Winter Sale has begun!
Last but not least, Steam Winter Sale is ongoing with all Strategic Mind titles at there all-time biggesrt discounts up and running until January 5th. We know that Strategic Mind could be a very tricky Chirsmas present to figure out, but if you know some hardcore wargamers (including yourselves) who are up to the task, consider making their holidays even more exciting.
Our whole team wishes you, your family and friends Merry Chistmas and hopes you will have great time during the holidays.
With Best Regards from Kyiv Starni Games team
Steam Winter Sale BEGINS!
Hello
Christmas holiday is about to start, it’s high time to expand your collection by taking advantage of the all-time largest discount on all Strategic Mind series titles.
Our team is living through difficult times in Ukraine, so we would truly appreciate if you support our team by grabbing one or two copies as a gift (only if you think that would be a good gist, of course). We will keep you updated on how we work in these difficult times for our country in the follow-up Steam community news.
