Current Finnish OOB - some notes for discussion

[PvtJoker]

More tank stuff:

I increased the HE kill value of PKT machine guns to 8. The PKT has a higher rate of fire (750-800 rpm) than infantry PK(M). Any reputable source will confirm that.

Extended the availability of Comet, Charioteer and StuG 40 as "Reserve tanks". These vehicles were kept around for a long time after active crew training ended. It is not available in open sources when the army stopped maintaining them and how long ammo stocks were preserved.

The last of the British tanks were auctioned off in 2007 along with some StuGs. At that stage they were in fairly bad shape visually, but probably could have been restored to running condition relatively quickly if the SHTF, so to speak.

In any case, the Comets were always classified as training tanks and at least officially they had no combat role even in the 1960s. I personally do not buy that, however, since just a few years earlier technically inferior WW2 vehicles were still considered combat-worthy. Classifying them purely as training vehicles was probably politically motivated. Before the purchase of T-55s in 1966 Finland had more British tanks (Comet & Charioteer) than Soviet ones (T-54 & PT-76) and in the balancing act of the cold war that would have been a Bad Thing.

[shahadi]

I don't have an interest in Finnish "this or that" at this point and don't anticipate having one; however, I read your fascinating posts for the education and apparent due diligence that your posts exhibit each and every time. I see a post authored by PvtJoker, I read it!

Good job.

[dmnt]

PvtJoker, nice to see someone else from Finland!

I've been bothering the authors for a long time over here and I'm making my own suggestions list for the future. I'd love to work together with you since I lack serious information on 50's-80's stuff and I have - by trial, error and Don's judgement - learned the fine line between authenticity and game mechanics. If you're interested, just drop me a PM and we can exchange email addresses. I thought I'd do it during the summer when I have free time but it turned out that I really didn't and I had to prioritize.

Quick note about "Musti", I've been trying to find any reliable source for the ammunition being DC-HEAT, but failed. If you can find any documentation to back that up it'd be great!

[PvtJoker]

Originally Posted by dmnt

PvtJoker, nice to see someone else from Finland!

Quick note about "Musti", I've been trying to find any reliable source for the ammunition being DC-HEAT, but failed. If you can find any documentation to back that up it'd be great!

Sorry, real life kept me from answering to this thread earlier. About the the Musti: the warhead is not technically dual charge, but instead it has a hard steel penetrator cap that will trigger at least "light" or 1st generation ERA tiles just early enough that the HEAT "jet" will not be disrupted significantly. Its real life performance against so called "heavy" ERA is unknown. Some have estimated that it won't work at all since the projectile does not have enough kinetic energy to trigger the ERA, but others think that it might work partially. Anyways, it's just guesses unless you have real expertise on relevant fields, which I certainly do not have...

From the point of game mechanics, classifying the 95 Okr of the Musti as DC-HEAT is still quite okay, because heavy ERA is more likely to resist DC-HEAT charges in the game.

For official source I recommend old versions of www.puolustusvoimat.fi from Wayback machine, which have more information that the current pages.