[LT] Knight field plate harness, three-quarter plate and leg coverage

[Icelander]

A lot of plate harnesses made for mounted warriors had fairly limited coverage over areas that would be hidden by the horse or saddle. The groin and more-or-less half of the thighs, the inner part.

When fighting on foot, these areas would be vulnerable.

How would I represent that in game terms?

I know how to subtract 5% weight for Abdomen coverage without Groin coverage, sure.

But how much does armour for just the outer upper thighs weigh compared to total coverage armour for the thighs (45%)? I've been using half weight and cost, making it equivalent to Front and Rear coverage, but I don't know if that's right.

And when fighting on foot, are the outer thighs hit on 1-3 on a 1d or 1-4? Or something else?

Also, what's the Cover DR of a Riding Saddle? Horned Saddle? And a War Saddle? Attacks that would have hit the groin would have to get through the hard cantle, so I expect it's substantial, but I could see anything from DR 4-6 being plausible for a war saddle, with DR 2-8 being possible.

[DanHoward]

The upcoming loadouts book covers most of this.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

The upcoming loadouts book covers most of this.

Happy news indeed.

Any guess at an ETA? Suggestions for the rules to use until it arrives?

And, oh! Did I miss the playtest?

[Polydamas]

The back of the thighs aren't a target except from behind or from the rare time that a hooked weapon goes between the legs and is pulled back. I have never seen a suit that exposed thigh from the point of view of an enemy to the front. Armourers knew their work. Right now, I would just treat "fitted for riding" as a +0% modifier to leg armour with no special effects.

[Bruno]

The insides of the thighs were frequently exposed by armour until plate articulation got rather good. You could get away with it because they're partly protected simply by human anatomy (giving a further -3 to hit). Human anatomy protects that area of course because the high-value femoral artery is sitting there (giving a damage bonus/massive bleeding, depending on rules used). That location is roughly 1/6 coverage of the leg according to chance to hit, so I'd treat armour with a gap there as having 5/6ths coverage of the legs.

Martial Arts, page 138, for references.

Backs of the thighs not being covered means you can be targeted from behind. It's a gap, it's less material, it should weigh less and cost less than full coverage. If you're in a game tracking partial coverage (which Icelander is) then you can't handwave it. If you're in a game NOT tracking partial coverage it's a special effect that does not leave you exposed from behind when standing, because you're not tracking that :)

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Bruno

The insides of the thighs were frequently exposed by armour until plate articulation got rather good. You could get away with it because they're partly protected simply by human anatomy (giving a further -3 to hit). Human anatomy protects that area of course because the high-value femoral artery is sitting there (giving a damage bonus/massive bleeding, depending on rules used). That location is roughly 1/6 coverage of the leg according to chance to hit, so I'd treat armour with a gap there as having 5/6ths coverage of the legs.

Can you show three authentic examples of full harness where some inner thigh is exposed from the front? Keep in mind that a lot of examples are missing faulds or tassets which covered the joint of the greaves and the body defense. Its not a practical target from the front, and I suspect not from the rear. One thing that the chinks rule can represent is attacking lightly protected targets which aren't sensible points to strike at.

Armour for a horseman didn't leave out the inner thigh because of problems with articulation, it left it out because its hard and painful to ride with a layer of steel between rider and saddle.

Edit: Have a look at attachment no. 3 in this thread. The back of the knees are protected by the fan of the knee cops, when they end there is a bit of plate, and above that the maille skirt would start, so the main openings are "knee gaps" and "groin". That is classic 15th century armour for a horseman. Some armour from after 1500 would just protect Thigh Front and Knee Front though ...