Ceramic Low-Tech Armour

[Sindri]

What tech level is required for ceramics useful for armour? What are the technological prerequisites for alternate TLs?

Would there be different types of ceramic with advantages and disadvantages to choose from or would the choice be obvious given different types? What stats should ceramic armour be given based on type and TL?

How brittle are armour grade ceramics against melee weapons?

How would you suggest a low-tech (Or if the required TL is too high a low-tech inspired.) harness incorporating ceramic armour be constructed? Is it worth trying to put something less brittle on top or would that not help avoid the ceramics being broken?

[gilbertocarlos]

LT ceramics are brittle, if you put something else, the ceramic will break if you do more than DR damage, if you put even a plate above, but the ceramic underneath takes damage, it breaks anyway.

[Bruno]

Ceramic armour is supposed to break when hit. The energy expended on shattering the plate and sending bits wherever is energy not expended on the victim. It's the premise behind ceramic trauma plates in modern body armour.

That said, that may make it a bad foundation for a low TL armour, if the intent is to be in an environment where you might get shot/hit more than once or twice between chances to replace broken plates. Which as far as I know is the norm in warfare, rather than the exception, and off the battlefield I think just about everyone would vote for clothes over the weight of ceramic.

For anything more than a really one-shot plate, I think you'd want stoneware and it would probably be "Traditional stoneware" rather than one of the more refined types. Semivitrified rather than vitrified would be my guess, but that's only a guess. I've done reading about traditional ceramics but I don't have a good head for materials properties.

If I had to guess, a scale armour might be more suitable, to limit crack propagation and prevent your entire armour from being rendered useless. Individual scales would be easier to mass produce and would make repair easier as well (post fight).

Stats would be as per stone armour in Low Tech, or near-enough to make a good first-order approximation (well, besides cost - it'll be cheaper than jade anyways).

[Sindri]

Yeah ceramic armour is supposed to break but I was concerned that when layered it might break even if the attack was already sufficiently stopped by upper layers.

Stone huh? The semi-ablative is pretty generous though that might just be because of GURPS low ablation resolution. (It really seems like there needs to be something between ablative and semi-ablative. 1/5 maybe?) Should the weight be the same?

High-Tech's stats are obviously much better than stone. Are there ceramics that would fall in between the two? How advanced could a low-tech society get in ceramics? What other than knowledge is required for the better types?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Sindri

What tech level is required for ceramics useful for armour?

There won't be any attacks before about TL 6 where ceramic armor is useful, regardless of when you can make high grade ceramics.

[Bruno]

Stoneware was in mass production in the Han dynasty so you have it in a state suitable for armour production back to 200 BC or so. TL 2ish. But again, that's stoneware.

[Bruno]

I'd call Earthenware full-on ablative (TL1, basically).

And yea, a step between the two (Semi ablative and ablative) might or might not be warranted for stoneware, like I said, I don't really know that much about the materials properties of stoneware (or jade for that matter). Stoneware is pretty tough... I'm thinking of the thick rustic stuff, not the thinner "trying hard to be fine china" type.

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Anthony

There won't be any attacks before about TL 6 where ceramic armor is useful, regardless of when you can make high grade ceramics.

Why is that? It seems like ceramic armour would function against TL 4 guns. Sure it might not be better than steel but part of the reason behind the thread is I'm working on a setting with rather limited metal resources. So the choice for many people isn't between a steel breastplate and ceramic scales but ceramics and other non metal armours.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Sindri

Why is that?

Because ceramic armor is only a good choice against high velocity projectiles (well, and even less likely threats, such as heat and corrosives); there's a reason it's only used in armor intended for protection from rifles, not any lesser threats.

Originally Posted by Sindri

It seems like ceramic armour would function against TL 4 guns. Sure it might not be better than steel but part of the reason behind the thread is I'm working on a setting with rather limited metal resources. So the choice for many people isn't between a steel breastplate and ceramic scales but ceramics and other non metal armours.

Ah. Against lower tech weapons, the main virtue of ceramic (over, say, leather or cloth) is that a hard ceramic isn't really vulnerable to cutting. The drawback is that any large pieces are prone to shattering. The best you can manage is probably stringing beads on wire or string, with stats equivalent to the stone armor in low-tech.

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Because ceramic armor is only a good choice against high velocity projectiles (well, and even less likely threats, such as heat and corrosives); there's a reason it's only used in armor intended for protection from rifles, not any lesser threats.

And no TL 5 rifles are high enough velocity?

Originally Posted by Anthony

Ah. Against lower tech weapons, the main virtue of ceramic (over, say, leather or cloth) is that a hard ceramic isn't really vulnerable to cutting. The drawback is that any large pieces are prone to shattering. The best you can manage is probably stringing beads on wire or string, with stats equivalent to the stone armor in low-tech.

Beads are an interesting alternative to scales.