TSTOS 21 was organised in Padasjoki, mainly in the areas of the Finnish Defense Forces, Padasjoki municipality and Hämeenlinna municipality. Combined, the event area, due to its size and roads, enabled the use of versatile vehicles and waterways and, of course, even larger numbers of participants.

The story of the event was completely rewritten, because the conflict between Pirkanmaa and Uudenmaa known from earlier parts caused the players to be too committed to their factions, making them eventually uneven. As a solution to this problem, we revealed the colors of the factions only a couple of months before the start of the event.

The Battlegroup 21 was a combination of airsoft, milsim and larp elements. The game could have been compared to the Swedish Berget–events. The game was filled with ongoing operations and momentary missions, which were handed out by the team leaders. The game was not in a full on battle the whole time, there were also some times you couldn’t be able engage in battle.
Players were required to be physically and mentally prepared that the game would last +70 hours and the game area was big. The players should have been well equipped for long distances, long times on the battlefield, weather changes and that food and water will not always be on hand. The official in game languages are finnish and english.

Even though the story was completely rewritten, we kept some familiar characters from the previous parts in it:

When Hölböcorp’s missile exploded, causing massive losses to both Pirkanmaa and Uusimaa, both have decided to withdraw from the area. As the fighting forces left, it left a certain kind of empty presense in the area, which was quickly filled by Hölböcorp and the EGTC.

 

The missile explosion had exposed Lithium from the ground, which had attracted the interest of the EGTC, which had previously made a fortuine in mining industry. The EGTC has set up a number of test drilling points in the area, from which rock samples were to be analyzed by Hölböcorp. For some reason, however, Hölböcorp unexpectedly withdrew from the cooperation. There were also plans to establish new concentrator plants in the area. Overall, at the time the future looked bright even among the locals. The mining was believed to improve the national economy.

In recent months, the situation has worsened between Hölböcorp and the EGTC. Hölböcorp’s CEO Gen. J. Hölbers has actively highlighted the EGTC’s activities in the previous SambaGambina civil wars in the media and demanded that the EGTC would hand over the mining takeovers to Hölböcorp.

 

In addition, Hölböcorp began to fund a local mining union, which has most of the EGTC’s miners as members. As a result, surprisingly the miners went on a major strike against the EGTC. The EGTC got into further trouble with the mining project which then angered Gen. Gambels who vowed to avenge Hölböcorp.

UN peacekeepers in the UNOF mission noted an escalating situation between Hölböcorp and the EGTC. 06.09.2020 Gen. Gambels birthday party was interrupted by a grenade attack near the party location. UNOF launched an investigation into the issue, but the investigation quickly stalled as Gambels campaigned for Hölböcorp being behind the attack. Hölböcorp again responded claiming Gambels had himself planned the attack to gain media attention.

 

Months after the attack, the UN had calmed the flammable situation again and UN-led checkpoints were established in the Tiirikylä entrances. The EGTC moved its own workers on the outskirts of the village, while Hölböcorp set up its own staff village near the Tiirikylä. By mutual agreement, the UN was mandated to monitor peace in the region and to investigate possible war crimes.

During the spring only little information has leaked about the mining project and many villagers have believed the project has failed due to the inconvenience caused by violence around the companies. The test drilling sites established in the area are a daily reminiscent of the mining project. The village chief representing the civilian population has expressed concern about the water quality in the area in connection with the mining project. Years of martial law in the area have taught locals to be prone to self-sufficiency, and it is not entirely out of the question that the grenade attack aimed at Gen. Gambels would indeed have come from the civilian population.

 

Towards the summer, the situation is expected to become even more difficult, as it is known that neither Hölböcorp nor the EGTC will leave the area empty-handed, but the value of the soil in the area will still be of interest to the factions. The UN has called on the factions to hold peaceful negotiations without success. At checkpoints, EGTC and Hölböcorp staff have increasingly expressed their dissatisfaction with the UN, which has at times led to the use of force by the UN to finish individual vehicle inspections.

 

FreedomeFinlandPress (FFP), founded by local civilians, received documents dated August stating that the EGTC was bringing a large number of SambaGambina veterans to the area in response to a unknown threat posed by Hölböcorp. Neither Hölböcorp nor the EGTC agreed to comment on the findings and as a result FFP published a news on its website https://tstosnews.ehasa.org . FFP has switched to using nicknames in its articles to ensure the safety of their journalists in these increasingly dangerous times.