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[Noobazzah]

I'm trying to figure out a heavy armor set that is both effective and somewhat realistic. My best so far:
Body: breastplate, mail shirt, leather cloak+owned clothing.
Legs, hands,feet: Greaves+gauntlets, high boots and owned clothing.
Head: Helm+leather hood.
Any better/cost-effective ideas?

[toomanysecrets]

This is what I've been using. You can get 3 mail shirts on with a BP, and you can also squeeze 2x leather trousers under greaves. No mixing leggings with greaves has ever worked for me.

Breastplate+mail shirt.
Greaves+leather trousers
Gauntlets+leather gloves
Low/high boots
Helm+hood

[Lich180]

Breastplate+mail shirt.
Greaves+leather trousers
Gauntlets+leather gloves
Low/high boots
Helm+hood

Pretty much this, the gloves might have to be replaced with mittens, and you can get a pair of socks in there... but I think socks are slightly buggy and cause issues while a dwarf is grabbing gear.

[Loud Whispers]

Define realistic. Because as it stands the max clothing/armour combination set would make sense if you spent your days fighting in the cold depths of the Earth...

[krenshala]

meatspace armour set:

- leather or thick wool or quilted hood, optional chain coif (hood), optional half or full helm
- cloth shirt, leather or thick wool or quilted gambeson, mail shirt, optional brestplate, optional cloak/cape
- optional vambraces (arm greaves) and pauldrons (shoulders)
- cloth or leather pants of some sort, optional mail leggings
- optional greaves for upper and lower leg
- gloves and optional gauntlets
- high boots with optional plates (possibly part of the greaves) or articulated steel boots

Not exactly something to keep cool in, even in winter. Heatstroke is always a concern. This is, of course, for your standard plate-and-mail defense.  Stuff like Maximillian Plate is a little bit different, but not by much.

[Joben]

@Lich, fortress mode dwarves can wear gloves, gauntlets and mittens at the same time. Possibly more than one set of gloves and/or mittens but I"m not sure about that.

Side note, historially metal or leather armor was worn over a thick jacket like garment called a gambeson, generally made of quilted fabric. So making your dorfs wear a few extra shirts is arguably not any sort of exploit.


I generally equip soldiers in a full set of plate, with helm, chain mail shirt, gloves, mittens, clothing and cloak. Sometimes two cloaks.

Infantry that do not have high armor skill get bone greaves instead since it saves about 20 units.

Archers get bone greaves and leather armor over their mail and carry wooden or leather shields.

[Hyndis]

This is my standard uniform:

1 helmet
1 breastplate
1 mail shirt
1 mail hauberk (custom item, its basically a cloak made out of mail and covers entire body)
1 pair of gauntlets
1 leggings
1 pair of boots
1 shield
1 weapon

Weight is actually a very important factor. While you can load down your dwarves with superheavy armor, they will move at a snail's pace. Everything is done slower. Including combat. This can leave your dwarves very vulnerable with such heavy armor.

Of course at the same time an unarmored dwarf is just another coffin occupant, so you need to give them some armor. But you don't want to armor them down to the point of immobility.

[Noobazzah]

How much does cloth/slik weight compared to metal armor?

[toomanysecrets]

How much does cloth/slik weight compared to metal armor?

Most cloth/silk clothes seem to weigh 1 Urist, with some upper body pieces sometimes weighing 2 (shirts, robes).

Steel breastplates weigh 17. Copper BP's weigh 19.

Unfortunately replacing BP's with mail shirts will NOT lighten your dwarves:  Steel mail shirts weight 19, copper mail shirts weigh 22.  Leather Armor only weighs 1.

Greaves and leggings are heavy, weighing 25 and 22 (copper vs steel). Leather trousers only weigh 1.

Everything else is negligible, boots only weigh 2-3 and a helm is 6-7.

Recently I tried to find a good, "lightweight" uniform for military recruits. Using leather leggings and armor instead of Breastplates/Greaves/Mail shirts will lighten them tremendously, but it's risky.

[krenshala]

Remember, in real life, one set of normal modern clothing weights in the 5 to 8 pound (2 to 4 kilo) range.

Myself, I tend to use the default armor set, with a few clothing additions now that dwarves care about being nude.

[Noobazzah]

Hmm... I'm propably going for a heavy alternative for my marksdwarves and most of the melee soldiers as well. This is because my marksdarves manily camp in archer towers or other static positions, and they'll have a much better chance of survival when a goblin master archer shows up.

[Iosyn]

Yeah, if you're going for realistic make sure they have some clothing beneath the metal-- but getting them to wear two socks can be a pain. Also cloaks were pretty commonplace.

the amount of deflections I've seen from pig tail fiber socks is pretty insane, actually.
so is the amont of dwarves I've seen crippled for life by unexpected toe amputation.

[Owlbread]

Are there benefits to wearing leather clothes rather than cloth?

[Sutremaine]

Leather is thought to be the best shock absorber. Its material properties would suggest this, although I don't think there's been much testing done on how much difference this makes practically.

Everything else is negligible, boots only weigh 2-3 and a helm is 6-7.

Copper shields weigh 11L (steel only a couple of units less) and can be swapped for much lighter leather shields without losing anything in defence.

Swapping upper and lower body metal armour for leather armour is a gamble, but masterwork armour and clothing has better deflection bonuses and it's pretty easy to train a leatherworker (I ordered every leather at max priority from the caravan one year. I ended up with a thousand units of the stuff). Try and get robes or dresses on the upper body, as they cover the lower body for the purposes of blocking attacks.

Thinking about training before you even embark may also be useful. If you set aside at least two dwarves and give them some defensive skills and Teacher / Student skill, you'll have a solid base for training migrants later. Previously I'd give each dwarf Proficiency in a different defensive skill and split the other five points between Teacher and Student, but with the new armour slowdown I'm leaning towards giving all the starting military Armour User / Teacher and letting them pick up the rest themselves so they can pass it on to migrants.

[Owlbread]

Leather is thought to be the best shock absorber. Its material properties would suggest this, although I don't think there's been much testing done on how much difference this makes practically.

Everything else is negligible, boots only weigh 2-3 and a helm is 6-7.

Copper shields weigh 11L (steel only a couple of units less) and can be swapped for much lighter leather shields without losing anything in defence.

Swapping upper and lower body metal armour for leather armour is a gamble, but masterwork armour and clothing has better deflection bonuses and it's pretty easy to train a leatherworker (I ordered every leather at max priority from the caravan one year. I ended up with a thousand units of the stuff). Try and get robes or dresses on the upper body, as they cover the lower body for the purposes of blocking attacks.

Thinking about training before you even embark may also be useful. If you set aside at least two dwarves and give them some defensive skills and Teacher / Student skill, you'll have a solid base for training migrants later. Previously I'd give each dwarf Proficiency in a different defensive skill and split the other five points between Teacher and Student, but with the new armour slowdown I'm leaning towards giving all the starting military Armour User / Teacher and letting them pick up the rest themselves so they can pass it on to migrants.

This then begs the question - is the best "realistic" armour set a combination of metal armour and leather clothes e.g. leather trousers, metal greaves etc?