I figured I’d have a look at armour weights to decide on an effective loadout that doesn’t weight down inexperienced dwarves too much… and I’d be interested in corrections or alternative takes.
Boy, is armour heavy! Weights for dwarf-sized items, iron/steel unless stated otherwise - obviously, copper or bronze will be even worse.
leggings, greaves: 22
mail shirt: 19
breastplate: 16
shield: 10
buckler: 8
helm 7
mace, battle axe: 6
pick, hammer, spear, high boot: 3
low boot, short sword: 2
gauntlet, cap, bone greaves, leather armor: 1
other bone, wood, leather pieces: <1
80Γ (and 11 metal bars) gives us a full set of metal armour without duplicates: mail shirt, breastplate, helm, greaves, low boots, gauntlets, shield. Why low boots? It shouldn’t matter much either way, but as I understand it:
High boots' additional layer on the lower leg doesn't help much, and may cause us to lose our foot protection to accumulating damage there (greaves protect the lower legs and seem less prone to breakage).
We can fit two more mail shirts if our dwarves are legendary armour users and don’t feel the weight. but at 118Γ and 15 metal bars that seems excessive – especially if we consider that 2 cloaks should do more for protection if I understand the mechanics correctly.
37Γ (and 5 metal bars) gets us most of the protection: Steel mail shirt, helm, high boots and gauntlets, leather armour, bone greaves, some lightweight shield. This offers almost full protection against immediately crippling hits, but accumulating blunt damage (no rigid metal layer on torso and legs) and item wear affect staying power.
Non-metal shields break quickly, perhaps a second weapon is attractive instead: insurance against disarming, more concentrated training or a mix of attack types, still lighter than a metal buckler. However, shields seem superior against ranged and especially firebreathing enemies.
We need high boots here - otherwise there's no metal layer on the lower legs.
5Γ or so would give us my preferred starter/civilian kit: leather armour and boots, bone greaves, helm and gauntlets, lightweight shield. Metal cap and gauntlets would be a weight-efficient upgrade if we can spare the resources; metal gauntlets and boots should also improve unarmed attacks.
I usually don’t bother. We get better use out of our metal by fully armouring real soldiers, or arming everyone – a naked civilian with a good weapon is a threat to a fully armoured invader in melee, a somewhat experienced miner fights at an advantage.
I've always liked to armour my civilians - leather armour and boots are enough to keep their non-existing panties un-twisted from nudity concerns, and they don’t wear out. Very convenient and thematic enough: sturdy workwear seems dwarfier than flimsy fast fashion. I’ll produce some regular clothing as accessories and for misguided nobles, courtiers, elf-lovers and other delicate degenerates.
Obviously leather is not the end of it: Bone is a superior material, allowing for gauntlets, greaves and helms - a bolder fashion statement, but now we have full coverage in lightweight materials. It won’t make much difference against well-armed invaders, but it’ll help against wildlife and will train armour user skill wtihout slowing us down.