Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imperialus" data-source="post: 2090575" data-attributes="member: 893">One important thing to concider is that armour did follow a good better best evolution. Looking at England alone for example:Anglo/Saxon period: Chain shirt was king. There was little need for leg protection since horsemen were virtually unknown on the battlefield and battles typically concisted of 2 shield walls bashing each others skulls in untill one broke.Norman England: Full suits of chain mail were seeing common use. The prevalance of cavelry ment that they needed the leg protection from infantry. Unfortunately the weight and discomfort of 80+ lbs sitting on your shoulders as well as the cost prevented any infantry from wearing it.100 years war: Transitional armour (the ones with the hounskull bassinets) was the height of technology. Metalworking technology had advanced to the point where metal bits were being added to chain armour protecting the legs and torso. Once again the leg protection points to the need for protecting against the attacks from infantry. This is also where we start seeing infantry equipped with Brigandine and kettle hats. The first time in several hundred years where infantry weren’t simply equipped with what they could scavenge.War of the Roses: Full suits of round armour were now in common use these as well as Gothic and Milanese armour from the continent were the height of armour technology. Poor old infantry were still typically protected by brigandine however. An interesting aside here is that Milanese armour was actually designed to be worn by footknights. This is largely due to the fact that warfare in Italy did not lend itself well to cavalry so if you want to see what type of armour Fighter Joe is probably wearing look to Milan and the Italian Siege armours for inspiration.English Civil War: Armour was starting to decline suits of Cuirassier armour were the last effective full suits of armour while many cavalry officers had instead begun wearing simple breastplates. This is actually the first time breastplates that weren’t worked into a larger suit of armour saw any use. At least some of the infantry were more heavily armoured than they ever had been previously wearing pike harnesses while musketeers went the opposite rout and were typically only armoured with a thick leather buffcoat that would protect you from a glancing blow or a musket shot at extreme range.Sorry I got a little carried away with the history lesson there but what I'm trying to say is that all throughout history there has been a "best" armour and everyone with the means does their utmost to acquire it. There is no way anyone would be caught dead (or as a matter of fact they would be dead) during the War of the Roses for example wearing a suit of chainmail, you may see the occasional suit of transitional armour more than likely a hand me down in a poorer family but by and large everyone who was anyone was wearing full plate. Of course everyone in the world is going to wear Mithral Fullplate if it is within their means but that doesn't mean you can't still have fun with it. Muck around with different armourers, turn it into more of a roleplaying thing than a mechanical perhaps the NPC's who've commissioned their suits from George the Master Armourer would look down their noses at a PC who's armour carries the mark of Joe the village smith even if technically speaking the PC's armour is better (MW or some such). Increadable amounts of prestige was attached to various armourers based on who they've made armour for or how long the armoury has been in business.Anyhow this has distracted me for too long from a paper due yesterday  so I should get back to that.</blockquote>

Verification