Non period arms and armour

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

I'm planning a saga set in an alternate setting. The ars rules are proving wonderfully flexible and the changes i've made are minimal.

The one thing missing at present are the rules for some typical fantasy/historical armour and weapons.

Are there any official rules for any of the following? If not can anyone suggest stats for them.

Plate reinforced chainmail (i.e. metal breastplate, pauldrons, greaves, bracers).

Full plate armour (i.e. 14th century man-tank)

Lorica Segmentatum, i.e. roman splint mail (i know 4th ed had rules for this but the rules have changed and i don't know what they might be now)

Byzantine style Lameller armour (i'd previously had this as metal scale but recent reading is leading me to believe it is more comparable to western chainmail).

As for weapons
Giant Axe (aka, the DnD "Big axe", not very historical but would the stats for a pole axe fit here? i always picture poleaxes being long, over 6 foot) with a small blade like a halberd)

2

This weekend I made some changes to the system, mainly regarding all weaponry, and included more armour, I shall post them tomorrow morning, but am too tired to type them out right now.

3

I'm interested :wink:

4

At least i would say that lamellar armour is "alot" better than chainmail. Compared to scale my guess is similar protection but not in the same way.

As a one-off thing, its wouldnt really be a problem, lots of "excentric" people have through history used quite outrageous specialty weapons( to a degree that if you start looking hard, you soon realise that fantasy, the movies and comics often pales in comparison ). So pretty much anything you can think up that should be effective somehow, and the character had a way to get it or pay for it being made specially for him/her then dont bother with wether it was a normal weapon at the time.

Aside from "in general", i vaguely recall that there was at least two types of axes for combat that were of the "insanely huge" type.
How much they were used or how common, who knows(i cant even recall what era they belonged to, but based on my recollection of the pictures i would guess 13th or 14th century, so not even severely anachronistic if you run regular timesetting).

Im not even going to try coming up with stats for you though, not my good side.

5

I can't find them now, wrote them down on a copy of that part of the book while I was on the other side of the country doing home improvement.

I do know that I just picked the same formula so as not to change game balance
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=11 inexpensive single
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=14 standard single
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=17 expensive single
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=16 inexpensive great
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=20 standard great
int+dam+1/2load-str+2(atk+dfn)=24 expensive great

And I made sure that the formula for single+shield would amount to the same number as great for same price weaponry Shields have better protection, but lose initiative and its load is more, this is from personal experience, it protects very, very well, but is clumsy to lug about, also, those who heve trained in it almost always parry the first blow (either on shield or with weapons) then close in when the opponent is recovering.

I gave almost all great weapons greater initiative (longer, are better able to strike first), but removed a bit of defense (when opponents are within reach it is harder) and added load (those things are clumsy to haul about).
I made differing polearms, more spear-like and more axe like, subtle changes.
Warhammer has been scaled down to inexpensive with differing stats (how does a daneaxe deal less damage than a hammer? It also cuts the flesh)

The poleaxe of later date is best an expensive weapon, with better stats in defense (poleaxe with +1 defense, +2 init would do fine). The poleaxe described in Ars Magica fits daneaxes and other two handed axes of earlier date better

On top of my head Coat of Plates and Lamellar was mail with an added layer of 2 defense for 2 load, (8/11 for 6/8 load) This does not hold the expensive formula, but it is mostly a standard armour on top of an expensive armour, so the load and protection would better be calculated that way, Lamellar is a heavier and better protecting armour than mail, so uses the same formula, Llorica Segmentata would be a hauberk from this material.

Plate would do best to use 9/12 protection at 4 and 6 load, it is about as heavy and restricting as mail, just a lot better. Note that this breaks all kinds of formulas made to balance the game, but it was not fair to use on a battlefield as well...

Note that the greatsword mayl be fine for a XIIa, XIIIa, XVa, XVIa, XVIIa and XVIIIb sword, but caution should be used when talking about XVIIIe or other renaissance weapons.

6

My guesses:

14th century armor knightsofthenorth.ca/armour.html
Prot: 12

Actually it is rather from the first quarter of the 15th century. One handed swords and other small weapons cannot harm the wearer but longswords, halberds and warhammers can.
[/quote]
Prot: 15
There were also half armors with Prot 10.

Steppen nomads used these, too.
Prot: 11

Poleaxe:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berdiche

Anyway:
Leather, gambeson and metal scale armor are undervalued in ArM.

Brigandine suggested from about 1250. Partial protection only, 7
Brigandine breastplate + chainmail prot 12 (~1250-1350 knightly armor)

The protection of the armors varied by the used material (thin or thick) and the craftsmans' skill.

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