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[King Mir]

I found that quite interesting,

On the subject of heat though, I heard that chainmaille(sp?) is very good for dispersing heat and that soldiers during the crusades could walk in the desert without suffering too much from the scorching temperatures.

In the desert, heavy clothing is a boon, because you actually want to be insulated from the outdoor heat; sweating doesn't work well enough. The extra weight can't help, though.

[Funk]

it was in the desert that cloth covers came in to use, metal gets hot in the sun.

[Alastar]

Things that radiate heat well also absorb it well... white and black are both popular for clothing in hot areas, depending on whether the wear expects to be in the sun or shade. Metal on skin, loose covering or another means of keeping it in the shade sounds reasonable if it can be worn comfortably.

[Jelle]

Metal on skin in a dessert seems like a bad idea to me, don't you want to keep insulated from the heat as best you can?

[runlvlzero]

I read, in several places (on the internet(TM)) that color doesn't matter as much as protection from direct sunlight and ventilation.

I.e. loose fitting clothing that covers the skin, keeps moister in, and allows airflow is what matters, color is irrelevant.

With my own personal experience with the desert, I would have to agree on the loose clothing that covers most of your skin.

While chainmail might not let pinpricks through, maybe it had enough ventilation for airflow to keep the warriors comfortable.

[khearn]

Metal on skin in a dessert seems like a bad idea to me, don't you want to keep insulated from the heat as best you can?

Non-stainless steel on sweaty skin sounds like a recipe for fast rust to me. Armor was worn over some kind of padding, regardless of the weather.

[runlvlzero]

Metal on skin in a dessert seems like a bad idea to me, don't you want to keep insulated from the heat as best you can?

Non-stainless steel on sweaty skin sounds like a recipe for fast rust to me. Armor was worn over some kind of padding, regardless of the weather.

Very true, I always thought of the crusaders as rucking their equipment dressed most likely like the Arabs lol. Only going full battle rattle when they were doing the honorable line up before killing each other thing.

[Funk]

all armor had some clothing under it, often a thick padded shirt.

[CodexDraco]

That video was highly informative. I certainly believed many of these myths. Seeing a knight in full armor running towards you at full speed would have been an intimidating experience.

So is the whole light vs heavy armor a complete myth? The guys fighting in full armor certainly made a lot of noise so maybe there is some truth to the archetipycal thief wearing light armor.

[scriver]

Yes and no. There's not many reasons not to wear "heavy" armour if it's available, especially since "light" and "heavy" armour was worn together anyway. Padded clothing and/or leather went under or over, or both depending on what part and type of armour (and design).

The real separator should be cheap vs costly armour. Any metal armour was expensive, the kind of plate armour knights wore during late medieval times unbelievably so. Not many people could afford much more than padded cloth and/or leather, if even that.

[Funk]

I would also like to point out the "falling down" factor. If you are wearing a large amount of armor, weighing a hell of a lot... the moment you fall down, you will probably be stuck there until someone can help you up.

NO you can get back up
hell you can even do  cartwheels

[scriver]

Not really. Perhaps there were designs of plate rigid enough to DL that, but in the vast majority of cases getting up would be fine.

Of course, falling over in an actual combat situation puts you at a pretty great disadvantage anyway, so many wouldn't get up again, but the weight of the armour would be largely incidental

[Malarauko]

It makes a lot of sense that armourers and soldiers would favour armour you can actually move in. I guess you think of all the metal as being a dead weight but its distributed carefully and with a lot of though put into maintaining mobility. Still its cool to see actual examples of the principle in action. Helps correct the little assumptions you make.

[Alastar]

This is a little like considering modern armour vehicles and lumping together main battle tanks, lesser armoured vehicles designed to withstand specific threats, and hillbilly armour. Are we considering quality pieces tailor-made to the wear and carefully balanced to the intended use... or munition armour of the early modern period, meant to outfit whole units for cheap? Mass-produced crap isn't exclusive to recreations

And again, ultra-heavy armour that made getting up difficult existed... but that was 16th century sports gear for full-contact jousting, where additional protection (and perhaps mass behind one's charge) was welcome and lack of mobility wouldn't get one killed.

[Sonlirain]

From the things i read about the Winged Huzzars (Some type of Polish Cavalary) the Warrior with armor and his lance weighted around 100 kg.
Assuming a average male back then weighted around 70-80 kg their armor was most likely weighting around 15-20 kg.
Now if the stories about them were to believed:
One of them managed to survive a cannonball hit in the chest (got knocked out but not dying is something noteworthy)
They were mostly immune to most firearms used back them (the armor was 9 mm thick in some parts)
Another one managed to swim across a river while on his horse (ok so the horse managed it but still...).

And now seeing how those dudes in full plate can run at full sprint...
Well i always thought huzzars were bad whe off their high horse.