Armour Values in Lords & Servants

Hi,

Apologies if this has already been done!

Looking at writing some crusades era lists I was struck by the fact the troops appear to be either "unarmoured" or have Heavy Armour (??)

There are large numbers of troops who had armour and shields, but did not have what we might reasonably call "heavy" armour.

I was thinking there should be better graduation between unarmoured and the typical Wars of the Roses Full Plate e.g.

Light Armour at +2points
Heavy Armour +4pts
Partial Plate +6pts
Full Plate +8pts
Shield +2pts

There is no option to take a Shield with Full Plate.

Thus with a shield, an armour class would cost the same as the next armour class above (unshielded) and also have the same effect on missile damage e.g.

Unarmoured & Unshielded 6
Shield 5+
Light Armour 5+
Light Armour & Shield 4+
Heavy Armour 4+
Heavy Armour & Shield 3+
Partial Plate 3+
Partial Plate & Shield 2+
Full Plate 2+



So a Varangian Gurdsman would count as Heavy Armour & Shield (unless slung)

A Skutatos as Light Armour & Shield, a Psilos as Shield only.

Likewise 1st Crusade Knights would be Heavy & Shield, Sergeants Light & Shield, Crossbowmen Light no Shield, Pilgrims Unarmoured.

Later Crusades/Europe 1250AD onwards (ish)

Knights - Partial Plate & Shield, Sergeants Heavy/Light & Shield, Crossbowmen Heavy/Light no Shield, Pilgrims Unarmoured (still)

Wars of the Roses

Knights & Men-at-Arms - Full Plate - No Shield


For Melee any armour and/or shield forces a re-roll

For Movement: Light, Heavy, Partial Plate & Full Plate all impose the same movement penalty (for simplicity - and because troops with some form of armour can be assumed to be trying to keep some type of formation/order)

Of course that means Full Plate is no better than a simple mail shirt (Light Armour) in a melee, and a man with a simple mail shirt (Light Armour) can't move quicker than a man in Full Plate.

That "might" need tweaking a bit - OTOH I don't want too much extra complexity.

It does allow Men at Arms to march into an arrow storm with a reasonable chance of survival (unlike their horses) - which I think is fairly historical - but it's costly so you can't overwhelm your oppoenent with equal numbers of "walking" tanks. The lists would be used to impose retsrictions on who can wear what.

What do you reckon?