15th Century Gothic Armor Overview

[Aldarion]

Harness Overview – 15th Century Gothic Armour

Gothic armour developed in 15th century. At this time, warfare was in fact highly complex, professional (with few exceptions) and varied. As such, soldiers had to cope with a significant variety of threats. Especially mounted knights and men-at-arms – the only ones to use full Gothic armour (though infantry wore half-plate) – had to cope with:

1. infantry armed with crossbows and spears
2. early professional infantry armed with crossbows and pikes
3. early gunpowder weapons
4. other missile weapons (longbows, short bows, javelins…)
5. polearms
6. artillery

This placed significant requirements on armourers. Armour had to be flexible enough – and, when necessary, provide enough visibility and audibility – for hand-to-hand combat, yet be capable of providing enough coverage to protect wearer against various forms of missile fire. This was very difficult to do, but Gothic armour provided a reasonably good answer to these challenges.

Further, Western European warfare was based primarily around shock action, that is, clash of arms. As such, protection was prioritized over everything else: endurance, visibility and communication were given much lower priority, as fully-enclosed helmet attests. In fact, armour provided such extensive protection that cavalrymen did not wear shields; only infantry did, because it often abandoned leg protection in exchange for greater mobility in close combat. Men-at-arms however often fought on foot, as horses were much more rarely protected, and could number well over 30% of the army.

 

[Rexenm]

Have you ever wondered why armor and armour are the same word? And what is the difference between racial prejudice and special war, in a fantasy setting? A whole world of difference.

 

[pmmg]

You can blame a us president for that missing u thing.

You know, its funny, cuase we spend all this effort to get all this right and i think i can count on one hand the number of times armor seemed to really matter any media ive consumed. I think creators kind of get to a point where much of the nameless characters don't matter and making their armor work right just kills the flow of the story.

 

[Rexenm]

Also, as time goes on, armor becomes more of a hindrance than a boon. But if you change the material, then armour becomes lighter and heavier - as the sci-fi moves on. Probably fluctuating on potential saga level violence. You’d probably have to ask a cherub for any common sense at that point.

 

[Aldarion]

Also, as time goes on, armor becomes more of a hindrance than a boon. But if you change the material, then armour becomes lighter and heavier - as the sci-fi moves on. Probably fluctuating on potential saga level violence. You’d probably have to ask a cherub for any common sense at that point.

That is only true if you have gunpowder in the setting but no magic or super-light materials that would alleviate the issue.

 

[Rexenm]

I still come back to the issue of simulacra with armor, or simulacrum; but there is something mystical and magical about scars. It is like the big brother issue, all these monitors, but no shows. To remove gunpowder however, that would scare the mothman. Also, armor, is less magical than amour - but only some times.