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[Jetman123]

"Plate mail" sounds like it would be full-plate with mail worn underneath, though I'm not sure what good that would do anyone.

Now, wearing silk should be an armor type that can go with any other armor, which would reduce damage dealt in removing arrows.

Plate armor is great against piercing or slashing attacks, but not so good against bludgeoning. A layer of chain mail with padding was often worn underneath to cushion the impact of blunt blows, and provide extra protection if the first layer of armor was pierced.

[Tamren]

Plate armour is actually good against everything, including bludgeoning weaponry.

The key is that the vast majority of hits that strike a curved metal surface will be deflected and lose much of their energy.

You can get around this by striking a flat surface dead on (of which there should be none, unless your plate armour is especially crude). Or concentrating the force of your weapon to a smaller surface. This is where needle bodkins and flanged maces shine.

[Othob Rithol]

I've got no real objection to Greaves as the Plate leg armor. "Cuirass and Greaves" was a common archaic combination.

What I'd like to see is a full separation of the three armor types: no overlap.

	Leather	Chain	Plate
Head	Leather Cap	Chain Coif	Helm
Body	Leather Jerkin	Chain Hauberk	Plate Cuirass
Arms	Leather Gloves	Chain Mittens	Plate Gauntlets
Legs	Leather Leggings	Chain Chausses	Plate Greaves
Feet	Leather Boots	Low Boots	High Boots

The reason why is that usually the Fortress goes through a few stages of technology. Before mass metal working becomes possible, I deck my dwarves out in leather. Later, while training up my smiths I go to Iron or Bronze Chain. Finally, once the Armorer consistently makes high quality, I convert over to (if available) Steel of Adamatine Plate. With the system as it is now, I have to forbid/claim or be creative with doors to get the army to rid itself of all the low quality iron or bronze gauntlets, boots, and helms.

[Granite26]

Nice post

[i2amroy]

The problem that I see with changing the names is that not everyone knows what all of those medieval names mean. I personally had to look up a couple of things that were in dwarf fortress already so that I could know what they were.

[Granite26]

I'd rather have words that the ignorant (no offense) have to look up than the knowlegable mistake for something else.

[Techhead]

The name for a mail skirt is "Chausses"
Coifs are often substituted in mail sets as mail does not protect well against head trauma.

[Muz]

Chain mail does suck against bludgeoning. Plate mail does much better. I think that should be an important point in DF, not sure if it's already implemented or in development. Important as so many fighters use maces and hammers and the humans do love wearing chain mail.

[Mephansteras]

Yeah, I do recreation combat with  blunt weapons, and almost no one wears chain because it does almost nothing to soften the blow. Plate, the other hand, does wonders. But a good blunt attack is still the most effective thing against plate armor, since slashing and piercing attacks mostly slide off.

It's kind of interesting. Against an unarmored opponent, slashing/piercing is the easiest way by far to kill. With an armored opponent, you're better off beating them to death.

[Techhead]

There are stabbing weapons designed to puncture holes in plate armor.
Namely, halberds, poleaxes, tucks (estocs), and guisarmes.
Some schools of swordsmanship specialized in aiming for the weak points in armor.

Also, longswords and greatswords could also be used to deal bludgeoning damage against armored targets, mainly because of the large size of the plate itself.

[Tamren]

All stabbing and bladed weapons are vulnerable to deflection, even more so than maces and hammers. This is because they concentrate all force on such a small area, if that hit gets deflected then all of the force is wasted. Even if you do hit correctly and the material holds, it spreads out the force to make it less dangerous. Blunt weapons simply have an advantage because they have a lot more force to begin with, but the same pros and cons apply.

Polearms are good against plate armour because of overkill. They have the same effect on armoured knights as a fire ax would have on a can of tuna. Axes and spears work the same way but polearms generally combine this with an advantage in reach.

[Lord Dullard]

I've got no real objection to Greaves as the Plate leg armor. "Cuirass and Greaves" was a common archaic combination.

What I'd like to see is a full separation of the three armor types: no overlap.

	Leather	Chain	Plate
Head	Leather Cap	Chain Coif	Helm
Body	Leather Jerkin	Chain Hauberk	Plate Cuirass
Arms	Leather Gloves	Chain Mittens	Plate Gauntlets
Legs	Leather Leggings	Chain Chausses	Plate Greaves
Feet	Leather Boots	Low Boots	High Boots

The reason why is that usually the Fortress goes through a few stages of technology. Before mass metal working becomes possible, I deck my dwarves out in leather. Later, while training up my smiths I go to Iron or Bronze Chain. Finally, once the Armorer consistently makes high quality, I convert over to (if available) Steel of Adamatine Plate. With the system as it is now, I have to forbid/claim or be creative with doors to get the army to rid itself of all the low quality iron or bronze gauntlets, boots, and helms.

Well, I for one will go ahead and say that I totally endorse this scheme. Thanks, Othob, and nice job.

[Mephansteras]

It would also be a good idea for off-duty dwarves to automatically check to see if there is better armor available periodically. If I've got a nice new *Steel Helm* that just got forged, I'd like my dwarf using the old -Iron Helm- to go upgrade.

[Paul]

It would be nice for them to upgrade, but it's easy enough to micro manage. Just set them to not wear armor, unpause for a second, forbid the pieces you want upgraded, then set them to wear armor again. They'll pick up the bits that you didn't forbid and then go get the new parts. Then you can melt down their old or hand it off to some new recruit.

[Othob Rithol]

The "drop it" "forbid it" "get it" routine can get really, really old. Especially when a soldier insists he want to go get that (iron shield) a goblin dropped instead of the *steel shield* you made for him.

Another good example is when you are exporting obsidian short swords. You'd like your army to only equip the masterworks, but when you have three stockpiles and 4 workshops, it is hard to make sure all the exceptional and below are forbidden.

I support the idea of soldiers periodically upgrading their equipment.