[Low-Tech]Question about silk horse armor

[Inky]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Low-Tech isn't supposed to be Euro-centric. Silk is only +19CF if the product is sourced locally. If it is imported then you add other modifiers on top. Pricing in LT was determined by both historical pricing and utility. If the price was based purely on historical prices then mail would cost a lot more than plate.

I've possibly read somewhere (Wikipedia possibly) that mail armour might in fact have been cheaper than plate armour in some times and places. Something to do with plate armour being tricky to shape and requiring an experienced smith and/or special equipment, whereas mail, though obviously very labour-intensive, could be worked on a bit at a time by apprentices. Makes sense - after all, there must have been some reason why anyone bothered with mail.

You seem to be one of our armour enthusiasts though so you possibly know more about this than I do :-D

(Also, this is just a guess, but mail armour looks as if it would be a lot easier to repair than plate, so there might have been more of it in circulation at any given time).

The Romans, of course, do seem to have used plate of sorts rather than mail, so apparently they did have the infrastructure to make it cost-effectively. Seems like a prime example of what was said earlier about relative prices varying wildly depending where and when.