Will Balts and Finland be ignored again?

[Zikko]

Finland only at a much later time came to refer to more than Finland Proper. So do not use "there was no Finland" as an argument.

Historical region called Finland in the picture

People living on Finnish and baltic coast might have not made a great historical impact, but should they be completely ignored?


Pre-Roman period 500BCE - "0"

The Pre-Roman period of the Finnish Iron Age is scarcest in findings but the known ones suggest, that cultural connections to other Baltic cultures were already established.


Roman period "0" - 400CE

The Roman period brought along an influx of imported iron (and other) artifacts like Roman wine glasses and dippers as well as various coins of the Empire. During this period the (proto) Finnish culture stabilized also on the coastal regions and larger graveyards become commonplace. The prosperity of the Finns rises to the level that the vast majority of gold treasures found within Finland date back to this period.


Migration period 400CE - 575CE

The Migration period saw the expansion of land cultivation inland, especially in the Southern Bothnia and the growing influence of Germanic cultures both in the artifacts like swords and other weapons as well as in burial customs. However the primary source of iron as well as its forging was of domestic origin, probably from bog iron.

Merovingian period 575CE - 800CE

The Merovingian period in Finland gave birth to distinctive fine crafts culture of its own, visible in the original decorations of domestically produced weapons and jewellery.

The Ynglinga saga tells about the first known military expedition to Finland. Based on the saga's internal chronologies, the war presumably took place at the end of the 4th century, six generations before the time of the semi-historical Swedish king Ohthere (Vendelkråka).
"It happened one summer that King Agne went with his army to Finland, and landed and marauded. The Finland people gathered a large army, and proceeded to the strife under a chief called Froste. There was a great battle, in which King Agne gained the victory, and Froste fell there with a great many of his people. King Agne proceeded with armed hand through Finland, subdued it, and made enormous booty."

[Tuskin]

In the case of Finland, it wont be included because its not on the final version map.

As for Balt cultures(proto Lithuanian, Latvian, Curonian and etc) they are in the map and might get some representation through a Balt-Slavic Culture DLC. Most likely if CA goes in that route it could be two or three Slavic factions and then a Balt faction. Even though they are of different cultures, they are close geographically and will be grouped like the Balkan DLC pack.

[pirro]

Are they even needed?

[Zikko]

Is anything but the Huns needed? Got any other arguments than pure racism?

[Lanciarius_90]

They were simply too unimportant.

[Hakkapeliitta]

There was no 'Finns' during this time. Some loose tribes at best, nothing that would resemble or warrant a 'Finnish' faction.

[Zikko]

There you go again with the blatant racism, same would apply to the "vikings", they just were more expansionist. That's really sad when all the evidence goes against what you're saying. Also Finns is shorter to say than keep repeating "the people settling the coasts of the land mass known today as Finland". People are still pretty much the same even if they have united today as a nation and borders have moved a bit.

[Maximinus Thrax]

Please don't try to steer the discussion towards racism, nationalism, or anything like that, because these concepts don't belong in this thread.

[KingofBattle66]

If you can make the map bigger and add Finland, go ahead.

[Darios]

I'm not surprised to see 6-7th century Slavic entities (Sclaveni, Vendae, and Antae) on the campaign map, it is doubtful that Baltic peoples will be represented (CA is more likely to just put generic Germans in the region like always), and there's no way that Dark Ages Finnic people will be represented in the game. It has nothing to do with them being rich, important, or whatever, it's simply way too unconnected with the forces that brought about the Fall of the Roman Empire. You cannot use the same argument for the "Vikings" DLC because the Jutes and Danes raided England and settled there.

You can bet your farm that there will be a Slavic DLC coming at one point or another.
1) There's a huge Eastern European market to take advantage of
2) The early Slavic entities historically filled a "barbarian" vacuum in Eastern Europe left behind by Germanic migration into western Europe. Hopefully they'll be scripted to march in their historically accurate directions.

[Roma_Victrix]

The Slavs were an emerging faction in the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack for the first Rome Total War. However, it is just as Darios says: they weren't invovled with or relevant at all to the major powers further south. That includes the Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, Sassanid Empire, and major migrating Germanic tribes pressed by the Huns.

[Zikko]

I asked something else than pure racism. We do know Finns were rich thanks to fur trading, we know that there was constant battling against east and west among trading. Kinda wondrous that the Finns weren't subjugated untill people were starting to unite under Christendoms when vikings were conquering so many other places. Not powerful enough to conquer, but powerful enough to not be conquered.

[Tuskin]

No one is being racist towards the Finnish people. Its just that Finland isn't even on the final version of the map. If a Total War game(or DLC or Mod) is made that focuses on Scandinavia and the Baltic, it would be much better game to properly represent Finnish and Baltic tribes and cultures. Also no one is saying that Finnish people weren't important, its just that Total War Attila will primarily focus on nations or groups that played a role in the fall of the Roman Empire. Also in case if anyone asks the reason why Norse factions were added was because a number of people on the forums were asking for Vendel period Norse, so CA put them in a DLC.