[Suggestion] Splinted greaves and bracers

[Belisarius]

My suggestion for new items is splinted greaves and bracers. These thin metal splints would protect forearms, at least the one holding a weapon, and your legs below your shield. Since mail protection for legs and hands, as chausses and mittens, were still far way in time, I guess warriors clad from tip to toe would not disregard such areas exposed outside the shield area, apart from the helmet protecting the head. Not pretty taking an axe blow in a wrist or a spear to the knee!

Now stop staring at the long axe and discuss.

 

[Chief_Einherjar]

New armor options couldn't hurt at all....

隐藏

maybe a certain type of axe could though.....

 

[matmohair1]

隐藏

 

[Belisarius]

Regarding splinted and lamellar armour, these were most likely foreigner, brought via the Volga trade route into Scandinavia. There could be even scale armour from Frankia as well, since swords and mail were mostly imported from there. Now, should these items be in the game? Yes, but they should also be really rare and hard to acquire. Roaming franks and svear could be loot sources?

 

[Yeyo]

The ‘splinted armour’ like the Valsgärde 8 find is quite ‘problematic’. These 21 plates of iron and leather straps are supposed to be the remains of a pair of gauntlets and greaves. Dated between 635 and 650 AD, they are not from the Viking Age. The Swedish king buried in this mound had an equestrian military equipment, and the presence of greaves is logical, as the rider's legs are more exposed. Some Byzantine military treaties ensure that these pieces of armor were typical of the heavy cavalry, and thus the Taktika of Leo VI mentions armbands (manikellia) as greaves (podopsella) made of iron or wood.

As there are documented similar protections among the Khazars between the ninth and tenth centuries, Peter Beatson considered that these pieces of armor influenced the panoply of the Byzantine and the Rus cavalry. However, their use by the ‘Western’ Vikings is questionable, since the cavalry was not widespread in the Nordic world and the Valsgärde 8 is a tomb from the Vendel Era.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/limb_defences/limb_defences.htm