"Different types of armor" Topic

Other then the way I have listed below, in order of protection is there any other types of armor I could add to make it a little more variable, but not to crazy, and no magic protection, and this is more geared to fantasy.

Types of armor: none, leather or tough skin and hide (light), chainmail, scaly skin (medium) platemail (heavy.

You might just add a Super Heavy that would be for things like certain monster hides, armor made from Mithril or Admantium, rock giants etc.

Do you want more 'levels', or more types of armor per level? You might want (or might not depending on your level of detail) account for guys in complete vs. partial armor.

I agree that a 'super heavy' level for the truly exceptional also makes sense.

Also as a point of pedantic order, it's more properly called plate armor, not 'platemail'.

Do your rules account for shields?

-Will

What's chainmail. I know of mail – interlocking rings, but no such thing as chainmail.

I have shields accounted for, i was looking more towards maybe another level or two of armor. If super heavy was an option what provided more protection then plate armor or i should just consider plate armor as super heavy and make something else just heavy.

You didn't mention lamellar armor. I understand that not only was lamellar used on its own, but it was sometimes put on over mail.

Also, I've hear that arrows couldn't penetrate silk--of course, this meant the silk coated arrowhead went deep into the target, but he could snap the silk taut and that would kick the arrow out, greatly decreasing the mortality from infected arrow wounds.

Grelber

The silk gets pulled into the into the wound, making it possible to pull the arrow out, with less chance of snagging.

If super heavy was an option what provided more protection then plate armor or i should just consider plate armor as super heavy and make something else just heavy.

Well, it depends on if you don't want to allow 'better than real life' types of armor, as Extra Crispy pointed out. Special materials (Mithril, Admantium, Valyrian Steel, iron from a fallen star, etc), exceptional critters (dragons), or so forth.

-Will

None.
Leather/hides.
chainmail/scale.
plate and chain/lamellar.
Plate.

Add a level of protection if made from special materials: Mithril chain is the same as plate mail.

Don't forget the padded jackets -- they were apparently quite good at turning cutting blade impacts into bruising impacts and were cheap.

They were again also worn under mail or mail/plate combinations.

'Chainmail' and 'chain' are inaccurate terms invented by late Victorian writers and coined by fantasy writers ever since. The popular medieval term for armour made from interlocking rings or iron or steel is simply 'mail' (from the old french 'maille' and similar spellings).

Leather armour was often boilled in oil so it could be initially moulded into shapes such as breastplates, vambraces, greaves etc and would be allowed to stiffen and become tough and fairly inflexible. It was often referred to as cuir bolli or similar spellings.

Plate armour is the complete head-to-toe armour worn by late medieval and renaissance mounted knights and I guess would equate to super heavy armour.

There were many other types of armour that offered vaguely similar protection such as coat-of-plates, scale armour, lamellar, etc, etc. I'm sure we could argue forever about which armour offers better protection under which conditions, etc.

All of these terms can be found in wikipedia.

The correct English term is Mail derived from the french 'maille' meaning a net. 'Chainmail' is a Victorian romanticisation of the word.

That all being said, too much emphasis is put on the type of armour when it's effectiveness is determined as much by the weapon striking it as what it is made of.

The first armours were leather or padded over garments. Useful enough against low powered bows and slashing weapons (bronze swords for example) but next to useless against a thrusting weapon or a high powered bow.

Next came ring shirts (mail). Usually worn over a padded garment or leather jacket. Better than just leather or padding against most weapons, but still vulnerable to bows, crossbows and thrusting spears.

Lamellar comes next. Better than mail, but potentially vulnerable unless very well maintained (like Japanese armour).

A better step was the 'Coat-of-Plates' in which small iron plates were fixed between 2 layers of leather. Sometimes worn with a padded garment as well, this was much better against all weapons. Look up the Battle of Visby for examples.

Part plate (plate-mail for want of a better word) came next, with plates covering some parts of the body (back, breast, shoulders, head, legs). Mail covered the rest, and this was the first armour to cover the vulnerable legs. Early Greek Hoplite armour was similar to this, but without the mail to cover the gaps.

Plate armour steadily got better until full plate (Field Plate) is achieved. This is the stuff that Henry VIII wore. Proof against most weapons unless driven with great force (mounted lance) or maybe a crossbow from close range.

One thing I can't comment on is 'Hardened Leather'. Potentially better than chain because it is a sheet and will give a little if compromised, but I don't know of any genuine historical examples that have been studied.

If there are any I'd be interested in a link.

No need to make too many categories. It's not sure that mail was better than a good padded jacket; and in fact, they often had both or bits of both. For example, HYW infantry did often wear padded jackets with some mail around the neck, and sometimes metal knee pads, metal elbow pads and/or proper "chaines" (a few metal bars) sewn on the arms etc.

Yes I know you mentioned fantasy but I don't see why fantasy warriors would not be as wise as historical ones :)

IMO, with 3 categories (no armour / padded+mail etc / knight armour) your rules stay simple and still are historical-"fantasycal" enough.

I agree with Patrice – depends on the scale of the rules, but no armour, light armour and heavy armour pretty much do it for me

If you want a super-heavy, I guess that would be good for the small number of troops rich/strong/motivated enough to wear it

Despite my rather wordy post above, the progression used in FOG should be enough for most purposes -

Unarmoured, Protected, Armoured and Heavy Armour

KISS

No Armor

Light Armor

Medium Armor

Heavy Armor

Holy is that a tank?

Guthroth

A friend made some braces once out of boot shoe type leather. We then got into a discussion on Curiboili. So he went home and boil in oil his bracers. His mom came in and wonder what in the world and pull the leather out of the pot on her stove. This splashed hot oil around that then decided to com-bust. Flaming kitichen, firemen later dicussing the correct method to boil armor. They seem to know a bit. LOL.

the bracers took this all in stride and came out hard as stone. Later others reenactors tried this for chest pieces and it worked well. The leather is stiff and hard. I talk with a leather armor maker at one event and years later he stated that he tried different oils and waxing until he got a formula that he like.

should of got my metallurgist Friends to do a hardness test.

Not as good as metal but better than just leather.

I wore Scale for 20 years. Just did not like the feel of the chain on me.

I've seen the modern stuff, oven baking, oil frying etc, but is there any that is real ?

i.e. More than 500 years old …

Is it possible it's a post medieval invention ?

Oiled leather a recent invention? Almost certainly NOT.

how to explain this… I'm using modern boiled linseed oil to refinish a gunstock. Every single cloth I use to apply the oil ends up very stiff after the BLO dries. Linothorax, anyone?

Raw linseed oil has some serious issues with flammability, but dries harder than BLO. For cloth, you'd want to hang the linothorax out to dry for a week or so. No, I'm not kidding.

Linseed oil is probably the most common plant oil, historically. Olive oil doesn't really dry, so it's not going to work for what we want to do.

Same with the cloths I use to oil my Norman broadsword, they stand up by themselves now!

Olive oil was very uncommon in northern Europe. You need olive trees.

I never tried to boil leather in oil. Just a few seconds in boiling water and it becomes very hard (and it shrinks too, so you must allow it when you cut it).

Lion, I'm not being a troll here. My interest is sincere, not least because as an Early Medieval re-enactor I'm often involved in discussions about leather armour.

As I say, if there are any extant examples from pre 1500 I'd be very interested.