Jump to content

Plate armor ineffective?!?


vivsavage

Recommended Posts

my experiences

 

addressing Petes thoughts...

 

From my experiences as another long term reenactor...

Armor penalties are all about Penalty Skill levels... The first time I fought in full plate, I was knocked on my ass so hard I had to have two Marshalls help me to my feet. The fellow who did so, however, was capable of doing a kip in his armor. Of course he was also a judo instructor...

veteran warriors should have PSL's to counteract some or all armor penalties.

Bodies in plate floating? I recon its possible, but probably not until decomposition produced enough gas to add the extra lift...and assuming the body cavity isn't breached. (ewww)

Guns are extant in my game, and uncommon enough that "proofed" armor isn't in common manufacture... I do my guns as Penetrating, with Extra DC reduced by range to represent "Point and Blank" impact. I do proofed armor as Hardended, with a limit on the hardneding "only vs gunfire" (-2)...actually I may end up posting my stats for guns in a new thread.

Act to the activations rolls, etc...

I've thought them up to add "fear and loathing of mass combat". That and almost every suit I've ever worn has had had weak points...its kind of a requirement to be able to move. And while there is a bit of manuvering to take hits on armor, it becomes nigh impossible with too many fighters around..more of a hope and pray situation... although I used to block with the back of my gauntlets on a regular basis when fighting with my bardiche. I agreee that the basic rules work well for grunts and "casual" combats and the like.

My campaign aims for a lot of dirty gritty realism to counteract some of the fatastic elements. They aren't actually even in the same category... it's combat realism vs background reality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah... forgot a couple of other bits....

I still haven't figured out how to do plate deforming under impact, but it does happen, and REALLY sucks... plate is far and away the best armor I've ever fought in, protection-wise, but i recall watchinhg a fight where a bloke took a real haymaker to the side of his helmet...not only did it stun him, but it also snapped his chinstrap, rotated the helmet about 90 degrees, and dented it in so bad they had to cold chisel it off his head... while he sat there with his concussion and bled.

And I am a touch boggled by the Armor listing in the new FH...why bother listing Studded leather armors if they are identical to the non studded forms? Why is the one type of armor classically called scale listed under reinforeced leather instead of scale? And real cuir-bouilli is heavy (like saddle weight) stewed in hot liquid till the leather polymerizes (sp). its just under plate for rigidity. Its bloody tough stuff, IME. No one whos ever seen it will ever mistake it for anything other than armor. Oh and on the bashing/slashing/peircing thing.. as a note... double mail and 6 in 1 both take Impact rather well, as does reinforced 4 in 1 (my gorget was reinforeced 4 in 1 with vertical spines of double mail, and I took several shots to the throat that it stopped beautifully)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...