User blog:Aramirtheranger/On the high amounts of plate-type armor in our faction armies

Okay, I am here mostly to talk about why having thousands of soldiers in full plate armor suits is unrealistic. First we will start by why this should not be a thing. Quite simply, the cost! Do you know how much a full suit of plate armor cost a knight? Try, "as much as a car costs today". Atmora can outfit lots of troops with plate armor because Roman designs don't cover the whole body. Even then, most of the troops (Vigilants, Hastati, and Sagittarius Auxilias) wear either layered boiled leather (cuir boulli in gambeson form) leather lamellar (such as was worn by the Mongols) or gambeson/aketon. As discussed in this video gambeson is probably the most underestimated armor of all time. But what about factions like the Merchant Houses, which are rich enough to afford plate for all their soldiers? That brings us to my next point.

Second reason, logistics. You cannot march in full plate armor. You'd die of heat exhaustion after a day or two, or even less than a day. This means that the armor must be carried in a cart or by a horse. Any sane commander would vye for the cart instead, since a cart would allow transport of multiple suits. However, the rigidness of the individual plates means that only so many suits can be carried in one cart. Furthermore, it takes several minutes even with an assistant to properly put on a full suit, since there are lots of parts that need to be attached a certain way lest they become more of a hindrance than an asset. Now, I know Dwarves are really hardy and could march a very long distance with the weight(approximately 60 pounds). But Dwarves having lots of stamina and Dwarves being immune to the internal bodily ailment that results from wearing plate armor for days and subsequently getting a heat stroke are two different things.

And that leads to my last point. Plate armor in full suit form is damn near invulnerable to cutting, extraordinarily tough against thrusts(save at the gaps, if your sword is good for thrusting) and highly resistant against blunt weapons(and that isn't accounting for the- suprise, suprise- gambeson-type thing that would be worn underneath any warrior from Europe's metal armor). But, there's one thing wearing lighter armor or a partial suit let's you do that a full plate suit won't. In warm weather, plate will be very hot after a while of fighting. The metal covering your entire body will trap heat, with nowhere to escape from. But a lighter armor, such as gambeson, or a partial plate suit or mail hauberk(I mean what you think of Vikings wearing) will allow you to go on longer.