Design: Lamellar Armor [2+1-1, 6+1-1, 2]
The prohibitive cost with Lamellar Armor is the manhours it takes to assemble a full suit for a soldier and the steel required. Luckily, with a surplus of men from the plains, we can assemble guilds to crank out enough lamellar to cover every foot soldier in the Moskurg army by next year. Plus, the flexibility of the armor allows us to sheath even those who require mobility - such as our archers, horse archers, and even our mages - within its protective confines. We've even played with the idea of making suits for our horses and giving ourselves our first unit of Heavy Calvary, but we've had our hands full designing it for the common soldier.
It's certainly much better than padded armor (which it can be worn on top of in colder areas) but it comes with its own set of problems. The steel plates, requiring a resource we have less of than our opposition, is made as thin as possible to stretch our supplies. They'll still turn a spent arrow at long range or a glancing blow from a broadsword, but at medium range their longbows still punch right through. The armor also requires frequent maintenance, and our soldiers who are used to having nothing made of metal beyond their buckler and spear-tip tend to let the armor go to rust. The string that holds the plates together is likewise in need of frequent maintenance, as it will fray on its own in time. In combat the armor will deflect a glancing blow, but the string can be frayed or cut and result in portions of the armor coming apart at the seams in the midst of a fight.
It's certainly better than padded armor on its own, but still utterly inferior to the enemy's plate armor. Surprisingly enough, Cheap.