Plate Armor - It isn't really that heavy!

[MythandLore]

Re: Re: Myths about european swords...

Also remember that most swords were simply made of a very high carbon steel which like I said before allowed them to hold an edge like a razor but made them quite brittle. They are tough to come across these days but try this experiment. Take a stainless steel blade and a carbon steel blade strike them both with a hammer. I can promice you that the carbon steel will probably shatter. It isn't because the carbon steel is of poor quality, it's because you are abuseing it. It's like how moderen marines would be stupid to bury their M16's in the sand, or jump up and down on them.

As for the comment about swords not being common I'l like to argue that too. Why does nearly every surviveing fighting manual of the time focus on sword work? Be kinda dumb to learn how to use a weapon you wern't going to actually use.

I agree about swords being common.
"Most" of the manuals are about swords.
It also depends on what you consider "common".
To you, was sword common in Japan? (not you Imperialus, who ever you were talking too )
The sword is the weapon of the elite, not for peasants or the inexperienced.
Part of the reason is the heavy armor used, whether you were a Samurai, Teutonic Knight or Landsknecht, on foot with a sword they all did the same thing, walked up to a group of spearmen (or pikemen) the spearmen were powerless against the armor, then the heavy armored soldier would proceed to hack the line to bits with his sword.
Why a sword?
A sword is really really goods at hacking light/non-armored opponents to pieces.
Longer reach, quicker strikes and easier to land a good hit then a hammer, mace or axe.
It's kinda sad when you think about it really.

I'm not sure what your trying to say as far as the steel goes.
Are you talking about steel or cast iron?
Because very high carbon "steel" is cast iron.
Cast iron is not flexible but has a high tensile strength.
Cast iron can crack from being hit with a hammer.
Steel does not have that much carbon.
People in the medieval/renaissance couldn't really make cast iron because of the heat needed to liquefy the iron.
How much carbon in steel do you consider "high carbon"?
Is a traditional katana "High carbon" to you?
But anyway, I have seen some old European blades that did look like kinda like cast iron.
Pretty darn beat up, scarred up stuff.
But it wasn't cracked.
I know they used a method of adding carbon to the iron to make their steel, though I don't think they could get that much into it.
Most of the old accounts of "intense" battles that I have read though swords (along with many weapons) did break, much more often they would be beaten dull (and I mean dull) thru the coarse of a battle and many times a weapon would become deformed in the coarse of the battle.
So they did take lots of damage, crack, break and generally get messed up.
As far as not finding many heavily damaged swords for the most part, there is a very logical reason.
Unlike today, they really weren't "collectors" pieces they way they are today.
So if one is to damaged to repair what do you do?
That's right, make another weapon out of it.
Whether it's cutting it down into a different weapon or making a totally new weapon out of the "scrap" metal, you lose the original weapon.
It's not just swords, if you think sword will get all mashed up but a warhammer or mace wont you'd be in for a surprise.
It's all the same metal.
Also, pieces of surviving weapons that weren't needed were sold, they went all over, I was looking at 5 African swords just today (in my hands) that had euro blades, but all the other mounts weren't euro.
Some of them weren't even the unmarked trade blades ether, German marks.
There are people running around the Sudan as we speak with 600 year old euro-blades and 300 year old mounts that we'll never see.
I was lucky enuff to play with 9 African swords (3 wootz) a few kris's, 10 jians and 6 daos (and more) today.
What a great day.

So perhaps the balance for heavy armor should be an increase in food costs. Ok, trail rations are compact, dry, high-energy foods that weigh 1 lb. Let's say we have 2000 cal in that 1 lb. (hard to do actually, but let's assume). So, to consume 20,000-30,000 cal that's 10-15 lbs of trail rations at 5 sp ea. for 5-8 gold per day.

Now that you brought it up that really could be a good idea.
Characters tend to eat way to little as it is.
I don't think I've seen rules for the amount of food need to be consumed by creatures to live, I would assume it would scale a lot from halflings to storm giants.