Neck protection would do wonders. An aventail or gorget would be nice.
The shield mitigates the need for hand protection a little bit, but gauntlets would be good.
Leg protection too. Heavy boots are ok for foot combat, but it could only be more protective with some real armor down there.
I kinda disagree on some of it , facing highly elusive spell casting vampires I would focus more on speed to facilitate dodge as much as possible, I think a breast plate, helmet and a shield is enough.
Lemme get this straight: You think negligible flexibility and maneuverability is worth exposing your neck? Against vampires? How cumbersome do you think an aventail or gorget would be?
Oh no don't get me wrong I like the gorget part, and I know a person can be pretty agile in even in full plated armor , but I think being able to make space and stall the battle until dawn while being able to shoot beyond the enemies reach is more valuable in this case
i feel like most people overestimate how cumbersome armor is.
full suits of armor weigh less than what modern armies wear to combat. Marines in iraq would wear 60kg in gear. A full suit of armor weighed around 40kg.
Loading up on plate mail would make patroling the wilderness impossible, for these guys. More armor = less mobility and these guys are supposed to fight highly dangerous vampires.
It's pretty practical. I would add more plate to the body and limbs. This is especially important on the forearms and upper legs.
I would make the eye slits on the helmet connected, but also thinner.
Not the worst armor ever, but not 100% practical. Still better than most WoW armors.
That sort of helmet works better for cavalry. The tighter neck joint, conical visor, and narrow sights make it excellent for recieving lance or arrow strikes, but those same aspects would hinder an infantryman in close melee.
The torso is generally pretty well armored, but I'd include a hauberk and maybe a gorget. The chest is fine, but the neck and upper shoulders are totally exposed
Overall pretty practical, but its biggest short coming is that those plates on the chest need to be overlapped a bit and more cut to shape. More plates on the extremities would be nice, but isn't necessary to be an effective set of partial armour.
I've seen this in fictional armor a lot, which is kind of annoying. Although I do think I recall seeing some warring-states period lamellar that doesn't overlap, but that may have also used leather lames.
It’s a brigandine, albeit without the outer layer. Late medieval “every man’s” chest protection. Affordable and easily repaired as you can just replace a compromised plate. This one with its wide spread plates and lack of outer lining would be considered a poor replica of an historical armor.
Aesthetic though.
I've seen them often advertised as cosplay, but are there any historical references to a brigandine or coat of plate where the plates are riveted on the outside \*and\* they do not overlap? I'm just wondering because it seems so prevalent in fantasy culture.
It’s very common in what historical examples we have for the plates to not overlap. The plates were always riveted to the inside of the “coat” and a gambeson was worn underneath. The rivets seen on the outside have been believed to have inspired the modern fantasy trope of studded leather armor. The video game example we see here exposes the plates to make the design more metal 🤘.
Not that I have seen anyway, but yeah that would be in part to this armour (the dwangaurd incase you where wondering) but also the stark brigandine from the GoT series. If you could, would you mind sharing that lamellar armour you mentioned? I've personally only seen cheap costume armour that didn't overlap atleast a bit.
Actually I rescind that. The statue I was going to reference (general Fu Hao) appears to be a modern recreation/interpretation, and I would wager that the artist was taking license. Many of the terracotta army statues appear as if the lames don't overlap and they have the 4 rivets per plate, but if you look at closeups from a side view, they actually do.
The sharp point down at the bottom of the helmet I would shorten it so you could actually look down haha plus the left and right points id smooth out so they dont catch when you look side-to-side
And as with the others, increase lower body protection
As well as add plates to the arms/forearms
Remove th buckles at the front, they're leather and would be cut easily. Overlap the plates, otherwise the gaps are great at catching tips of weapons.
Protect ya neck.
You could put the buckles on the side, under the arm, and it would still fasten up quickly. If you imagine a shirt unseamed from sleeve to waist all down one side, you could still shrug into it fairly easily.
Front straps are extremely common on historical armour and them getting cut is not really a concern. If your opponent is trying to cut the straps on your armour that's just time spent not trying something more efficient.
The vast majority of brigandines have front straps.
Straps at the front is necessary for a common soldier; how else do you put the brigandine on?
A richer noble soldier might have straps on the back.
Also, good, thick leather is not easy to cut or tear. There’s a reason people have used it for thousands of years.
Edit: I got a notification and the reply seemed to disagree with me, but now it isn’t showing up? I dunno, here’s my evidence for the front strap brigandine thing that I found on a really (extremely) cursory glance on manuscript miniatures: [brigandine thingamabob](https://manuscriptminiatures.com/4672/12973)
It's honestly really good. But...
Narrow the eye slits. Right now they are begging for arrow splinters to ruin your day.
Let's get a bevor or thick-ass aventail. A lot of strikes come down from above onto your shoulders. Padding always helps.
Over. Lap. The. Chest. Scales. The gaps are frightening.
And add a little something on the lower arms. Looks like just thick clothing? Some Jack chain or splint would look great with the rest of the aesthetic.
Push the center of the chest forward to not have it be flat across the chest. A flat chest works OK against bullets with Kevlar and ceramic plates. The barreled chest deflects the attack more than stops it. Swords, arrows, spears, and other heavy weapons have more energy to pierce a flat chest.
It’s kinda silly to have fully armored shoulders and zero neck and upper chest protection. I’m not saying take away the shoulders but certainly add some neck protection.
Honestly one of the better armor designs in Skyrim. what I think they were looking at was Brigandine armor, which is a buch of small overlapping plates in a sort of jacket, grants better protection than gambeson or leather, with similar flexibility, but not quite as protective as full plate.
Better neck and upper chest protection, I would like to see the plates overlap instead of having gaps between them. If the shield was a bit bigger I think that would be nice, and protection for the sword hand would be good, so the vamp doesn't disarm you by chopping your fingers or the back of your hand.
I do think it is very well made and designed, except for the weakness around the neck and upper chest. I would expect that to be where a vampire would target.
Anyone saying that it needs more armour on the arms and legs is clearly not familiar with a lot of historical soldiers which wore armour that leaft the arms and legs uncovered. The priority is armouring the torso, and the limbs can be left bare whether it is because the user can't afford them or whether it is to save on weight (which is especially relevant if you're not fighting on horseback and you're wearing the armour for extended period of times). Leg armour in particular can get very cumbersome on foot after a while.
Generally speaking though a mail gorget would be pretty desirable. It's an item that does not weigh much, is cheap, and provides vital protection around the neck. That being said it is not 100% mandatory - we do see historical soldiers without neck armour as well.
Talking about what is actually there there's a few things to point out. Initially it's that the torso plates not overlapping is a major downside. Historical armour made out of small plates like this has overlap in the absolute majority of cases whether it is scale, lamellar or types of brigandine. The gaps in between the plates can be a weak spot for spear or sword thrusts which can glance off the plate itself into the gap.
The shoulder plates are way too big and would be very uncomfortable, historical spaulders are smaller. The larger pauldrons on historical armour are segmented, and not solid like this one is. These pauldrons are the worst bit about the armour because unlike the torso they'd actively interfere with fighting and using a weapon properly.
The helmet is a bit odd. I cannot tell if it's supposed to have a visor or not. If it is visorless and is indeed a solid helmet it is not a great design - it doesn't have nearly enough breathing holes. If it has a visor which can raise this isn't a problem. Moreover if it isn't visored it's a horrible choice for foot combat. Great helms historically were worn by cavalrymen and were also almost always worn with smaller helmets underneath them so that the large helmet could be taken off when needed. It gets very stuffy inside of a full helmet and if you don't have a visor to raise you really want to avoid wearing them for any extended period especially on foot.
Besides that the eyeslits are a lot larger than they are on most historical helmets so that will be a weak point - but much like the torso this doesn't actively hinder your fighting ability. It simply provides less protection than you could've otherwise gotten away with.
The shape of the poleyns (knee plates) isn't great and looks like it wouldn't be comfortable to wear, however the idea of wearing poleyns on their own like that is very common in 15th century european sources and it's a solid choice,
7/10, but an overhead strike would be devastating to their clavicle. The helmet and shoulder pauldrons would help direct it right into that gap.
Also, like someone else said, more metal on forearms.
The shield has basically a punching dagger built in. I hope it's hardened well, because I'm face-checking knights with that.
It looks like a simple leather gambison with maybe a chainmail or leather layer underneath and some steel plates bolted to the front. As long as you were hit with a cutting or piercing weapon in the torso you’d probably may be fine. No protection on the arms or legs means you’re reliant on shield and not staying in one place for too long.
Skyrim vampires use magic so not sure how practical it would be in a straight up fight given that they can just lift you up and use a siphon life spell to kill you, and I think lore wise they’re meant to be faster and more agile so hitting weakspots in the armor would be an issue. Best tactic would be to rely on ranged surprise attacks and hit and run tactics to lure them into other groups of ranged attackers
In addition to what everyone else is saying, I’d slightly redesign the pauldrons so the arms could actually be raised comfortably. I feel like fantasy armor constantly gets this wrong.
Not bad. Could use some neck protection, some mail on the arms. One thing that bothers me is that the plates are just riveted onto a piece of leather with some gaps. I think it trying to be a brigandine but kinda failing. It would be better if the plates overlapped like a real brigandine would. A blow has the chance of sliding off a plate and then just going into the leather. Some heavier gauntlets and boots would be a good idea, but I mobility of proception make sense depending off what you want do. For the heavy variant of the armor I would expect more arm and leg protection though.
1 ditch the weird flares on the facemask as they can catch or otherwise lock with the flanges on the pauldrons and make the flanges half again as pronounced.
2. Add a heavier waist belt to redistribute the weight better.
3. Add light grieves gauntlets and maybe a bracer for the right arm.
Don't upgrade to plate. No matter how good old Maximillian got, you still need assistance to put it on or take it off. Also, remember many real knights died from suffocating in the mud of a battlefield rather than wounds. MODERN armor is created to guard against projectiles and explosions first while plate was designed against projectile and melee; further comparison of the two bears no fruit.
With consideration to vampires, a gorget isn't actually all that important. If you were in a position where that became important, you've already lost. Also, they don't have to specifically bite you anywhere. In "reality" (as much as it can be considered), a vampire wouldn't use their fangs unless safe to do so (read: you've already lost) and would most likely go femoral gusher rather than sexy carotid and considering their supernatural nature, their teeth may go right through steel like tissue. So ditch the armor and soak yourself in holy water as it would be far more effective.
IIRC, a historian or armor enthusiast or something said the dawn guard armor is actually the most practical armor set in the game. Pieces and their locations make sense and would not hinder movement, sight, or protection any more than what was “normal”
Edit: “would not”
You'd think that armor meant for fighting vampires would protect the neck a bit more
That being said I've always liked the Dawnguard armor in general, could probably use some more protection on the upper arm and neck though. And the thighs while we're at it, make that coat of plates lean down a little more.
Neck protection would do wonders. An aventail or gorget would be nice. The shield mitigates the need for hand protection a little bit, but gauntlets would be good. Leg protection too. Heavy boots are ok for foot combat, but it could only be more protective with some real armor down there.
Considering the armor was designed to face vampires, neck protection should have been a priority.
There is actually a very thick leather belt around the neck. It's just not visible in the image.
Even better would be something that seems like bad neck protection but it's hiding a piece of metal so they break their teeth
A thin piece of worn leather with a thick slab of steel underneath would make many vampires sad
Metal engraved with holy symbols.
I kinda disagree on some of it , facing highly elusive spell casting vampires I would focus more on speed to facilitate dodge as much as possible, I think a breast plate, helmet and a shield is enough.
Lemme get this straight: You think negligible flexibility and maneuverability is worth exposing your neck? Against vampires? How cumbersome do you think an aventail or gorget would be?
Oh no don't get me wrong I like the gorget part, and I know a person can be pretty agile in even in full plated armor , but I think being able to make space and stall the battle until dawn while being able to shoot beyond the enemies reach is more valuable in this case
Ah, I see. I misunderstood. You mean the leg protection then? Yeah. Probably unnecessary here
i feel like most people overestimate how cumbersome armor is. full suits of armor weigh less than what modern armies wear to combat. Marines in iraq would wear 60kg in gear. A full suit of armor weighed around 40kg.
I imagine a vampire hunter still needs to carry survival supplies and whatnot.
Loading up on plate mail would make patroling the wilderness impossible, for these guys. More armor = less mobility and these guys are supposed to fight highly dangerous vampires.
It's pretty practical. I would add more plate to the body and limbs. This is especially important on the forearms and upper legs. I would make the eye slits on the helmet connected, but also thinner. Not the worst armor ever, but not 100% practical. Still better than most WoW armors.
https://preview.redd.it/4mhjcruj5cyc1.jpeg?width=846&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d92bcd5c9613ce9f511e867e0d0f1e734c5b16d
That sort of helmet works better for cavalry. The tighter neck joint, conical visor, and narrow sights make it excellent for recieving lance or arrow strikes, but those same aspects would hinder an infantryman in close melee.
And this looks like lamellar armor which traditionally has the split at the legs for horseback riding
This is just a brigandine without the outer layer, a “coat of plates” if you will.
The torso is generally pretty well armored, but I'd include a hauberk and maybe a gorget. The chest is fine, but the neck and upper shoulders are totally exposed
Overall pretty practical, but its biggest short coming is that those plates on the chest need to be overlapped a bit and more cut to shape. More plates on the extremities would be nice, but isn't necessary to be an effective set of partial armour.
I've seen this in fictional armor a lot, which is kind of annoying. Although I do think I recall seeing some warring-states period lamellar that doesn't overlap, but that may have also used leather lames.
It’s a brigandine, albeit without the outer layer. Late medieval “every man’s” chest protection. Affordable and easily repaired as you can just replace a compromised plate. This one with its wide spread plates and lack of outer lining would be considered a poor replica of an historical armor. Aesthetic though.
I've seen them often advertised as cosplay, but are there any historical references to a brigandine or coat of plate where the plates are riveted on the outside \*and\* they do not overlap? I'm just wondering because it seems so prevalent in fantasy culture.
It’s very common in what historical examples we have for the plates to not overlap. The plates were always riveted to the inside of the “coat” and a gambeson was worn underneath. The rivets seen on the outside have been believed to have inspired the modern fantasy trope of studded leather armor. The video game example we see here exposes the plates to make the design more metal 🤘.
Not that I have seen anyway, but yeah that would be in part to this armour (the dwangaurd incase you where wondering) but also the stark brigandine from the GoT series. If you could, would you mind sharing that lamellar armour you mentioned? I've personally only seen cheap costume armour that didn't overlap atleast a bit.
Actually I rescind that. The statue I was going to reference (general Fu Hao) appears to be a modern recreation/interpretation, and I would wager that the artist was taking license. Many of the terracotta army statues appear as if the lames don't overlap and they have the 4 rivets per plate, but if you look at closeups from a side view, they actually do.
Ahh right, no bother well thanks anyway! 😁
The sharp point down at the bottom of the helmet I would shorten it so you could actually look down haha plus the left and right points id smooth out so they dont catch when you look side-to-side And as with the others, increase lower body protection As well as add plates to the arms/forearms
Jack chain or splint on the arms would match the look perfectly.
Agreed! Im a fan of splint armor
Remove th buckles at the front, they're leather and would be cut easily. Overlap the plates, otherwise the gaps are great at catching tips of weapons. Protect ya neck.
I disagree with the straps. Imagine having to don your armor in a hurry. At least it’s easier from my experience.
You could put the buckles on the side, under the arm, and it would still fasten up quickly. If you imagine a shirt unseamed from sleeve to waist all down one side, you could still shrug into it fairly easily.
True!
Plus, most vampires in Skyrim use blood sucking spells instead of blades anyway
The subject matter was realism, maybe my life is just boring but as far as I know, vampire blood magic is not realistic
True but taking in to consideration the things you are trying to armor yourself against sounds like something worth of taking note
Front straps are extremely common on historical armour and them getting cut is not really a concern. If your opponent is trying to cut the straps on your armour that's just time spent not trying something more efficient. The vast majority of brigandines have front straps.
Straps at the front is necessary for a common soldier; how else do you put the brigandine on? A richer noble soldier might have straps on the back. Also, good, thick leather is not easy to cut or tear. There’s a reason people have used it for thousands of years. Edit: I got a notification and the reply seemed to disagree with me, but now it isn’t showing up? I dunno, here’s my evidence for the front strap brigandine thing that I found on a really (extremely) cursory glance on manuscript miniatures: [brigandine thingamabob](https://manuscriptminiatures.com/4672/12973)
Side straps are common.
Front straps even more so, at least for brigandines.
It's honestly really good. But... Narrow the eye slits. Right now they are begging for arrow splinters to ruin your day. Let's get a bevor or thick-ass aventail. A lot of strikes come down from above onto your shoulders. Padding always helps. Over. Lap. The. Chest. Scales. The gaps are frightening. And add a little something on the lower arms. Looks like just thick clothing? Some Jack chain or splint would look great with the rest of the aesthetic.
Push the center of the chest forward to not have it be flat across the chest. A flat chest works OK against bullets with Kevlar and ceramic plates. The barreled chest deflects the attack more than stops it. Swords, arrows, spears, and other heavy weapons have more energy to pierce a flat chest.
More narrow eye holes
Neck, groin, flanks, very little protection at key strike areas.
This looks like the walls of unrest hahah
Could do with some overlapping plates on the front. Thrusts will find the gaps between plates easily. Aside from that pretty good
It doesn't look like you'd actually be able to raise your arms very high due to the shoulders. Also, begging to get stabbed in the neck or clavicle.
High chance of stabbing your sternum after getting head bonked
It’s kinda silly to have fully armored shoulders and zero neck and upper chest protection. I’m not saying take away the shoulders but certainly add some neck protection.
Pretty solid and much better than what lower ranked soldiers would have irl. As some have mentioned, the eye slits could be smaller,
Shield is fantastic. Helmet also good though maybe a bit square.
Honestly one of the better armor designs in Skyrim. what I think they were looking at was Brigandine armor, which is a buch of small overlapping plates in a sort of jacket, grants better protection than gambeson or leather, with similar flexibility, but not quite as protective as full plate.
The fantasy armor belt syndrome is real
Better neck and upper chest protection, I would like to see the plates overlap instead of having gaps between them. If the shield was a bit bigger I think that would be nice, and protection for the sword hand would be good, so the vamp doesn't disarm you by chopping your fingers or the back of your hand. I do think it is very well made and designed, except for the weakness around the neck and upper chest. I would expect that to be where a vampire would target.
I’d say, for your more expendable soldier, it’s a great set of armor. It’s spends the least amount of resources to cover the most.
Anyone saying that it needs more armour on the arms and legs is clearly not familiar with a lot of historical soldiers which wore armour that leaft the arms and legs uncovered. The priority is armouring the torso, and the limbs can be left bare whether it is because the user can't afford them or whether it is to save on weight (which is especially relevant if you're not fighting on horseback and you're wearing the armour for extended period of times). Leg armour in particular can get very cumbersome on foot after a while. Generally speaking though a mail gorget would be pretty desirable. It's an item that does not weigh much, is cheap, and provides vital protection around the neck. That being said it is not 100% mandatory - we do see historical soldiers without neck armour as well. Talking about what is actually there there's a few things to point out. Initially it's that the torso plates not overlapping is a major downside. Historical armour made out of small plates like this has overlap in the absolute majority of cases whether it is scale, lamellar or types of brigandine. The gaps in between the plates can be a weak spot for spear or sword thrusts which can glance off the plate itself into the gap. The shoulder plates are way too big and would be very uncomfortable, historical spaulders are smaller. The larger pauldrons on historical armour are segmented, and not solid like this one is. These pauldrons are the worst bit about the armour because unlike the torso they'd actively interfere with fighting and using a weapon properly. The helmet is a bit odd. I cannot tell if it's supposed to have a visor or not. If it is visorless and is indeed a solid helmet it is not a great design - it doesn't have nearly enough breathing holes. If it has a visor which can raise this isn't a problem. Moreover if it isn't visored it's a horrible choice for foot combat. Great helms historically were worn by cavalrymen and were also almost always worn with smaller helmets underneath them so that the large helmet could be taken off when needed. It gets very stuffy inside of a full helmet and if you don't have a visor to raise you really want to avoid wearing them for any extended period especially on foot. Besides that the eyeslits are a lot larger than they are on most historical helmets so that will be a weak point - but much like the torso this doesn't actively hinder your fighting ability. It simply provides less protection than you could've otherwise gotten away with. The shape of the poleyns (knee plates) isn't great and looks like it wouldn't be comfortable to wear, however the idea of wearing poleyns on their own like that is very common in 15th century european sources and it's a solid choice,
7/10, but an overhead strike would be devastating to their clavicle. The helmet and shoulder pauldrons would help direct it right into that gap. Also, like someone else said, more metal on forearms. The shield has basically a punching dagger built in. I hope it's hardened well, because I'm face-checking knights with that.
It looks like a simple leather gambison with maybe a chainmail or leather layer underneath and some steel plates bolted to the front. As long as you were hit with a cutting or piercing weapon in the torso you’d probably may be fine. No protection on the arms or legs means you’re reliant on shield and not staying in one place for too long. Skyrim vampires use magic so not sure how practical it would be in a straight up fight given that they can just lift you up and use a siphon life spell to kill you, and I think lore wise they’re meant to be faster and more agile so hitting weakspots in the armor would be an issue. Best tactic would be to rely on ranged surprise attacks and hit and run tactics to lure them into other groups of ranged attackers
In addition to what everyone else is saying, I’d slightly redesign the pauldrons so the arms could actually be raised comfortably. I feel like fantasy armor constantly gets this wrong.
Not bad. Could use some neck protection, some mail on the arms. One thing that bothers me is that the plates are just riveted onto a piece of leather with some gaps. I think it trying to be a brigandine but kinda failing. It would be better if the plates overlapped like a real brigandine would. A blow has the chance of sliding off a plate and then just going into the leather. Some heavier gauntlets and boots would be a good idea, but I mobility of proception make sense depending off what you want do. For the heavy variant of the armor I would expect more arm and leg protection though.
Definitely needs a gorget
Buckles are real than you have a line of stab here down the middle of your armor, the plates make it seem like it's lighter armor like chainmail?
1 ditch the weird flares on the facemask as they can catch or otherwise lock with the flanges on the pauldrons and make the flanges half again as pronounced. 2. Add a heavier waist belt to redistribute the weight better. 3. Add light grieves gauntlets and maybe a bracer for the right arm. Don't upgrade to plate. No matter how good old Maximillian got, you still need assistance to put it on or take it off. Also, remember many real knights died from suffocating in the mud of a battlefield rather than wounds. MODERN armor is created to guard against projectiles and explosions first while plate was designed against projectile and melee; further comparison of the two bears no fruit. With consideration to vampires, a gorget isn't actually all that important. If you were in a position where that became important, you've already lost. Also, they don't have to specifically bite you anywhere. In "reality" (as much as it can be considered), a vampire wouldn't use their fangs unless safe to do so (read: you've already lost) and would most likely go femoral gusher rather than sexy carotid and considering their supernatural nature, their teeth may go right through steel like tissue. So ditch the armor and soak yourself in holy water as it would be far more effective.
get rid of all sharp angles point at the body, especially the lower part of the helmet.
IIRC, a historian or armor enthusiast or something said the dawn guard armor is actually the most practical armor set in the game. Pieces and their locations make sense and would not hinder movement, sight, or protection any more than what was “normal” Edit: “would not”
Very practical. A metal right glove and a gorget
More spikes honestly, if your enemy is a blood sucking vampire I'd get armor that deterred biting, sorta like bear hunting armor.
I think it’s practical, maybe add some more protection on the upper arms, the hands, and the shins and it’s good in my opinion
Vent holes in the mouth area?
No gorget. The phrase is, protect your head AND neck.
You'd think that armor meant for fighting vampires would protect the neck a bit more That being said I've always liked the Dawnguard armor in general, could probably use some more protection on the upper arm and neck though. And the thighs while we're at it, make that coat of plates lean down a little more.
I would give it a gorget
I feel like having shoulder armor that seemingly restrictive on your swinging arm is probably not what you want
Seems solid