OK, I'm now wading through the different types of armor, and as I mentioned previously in this thread, how the default values for armor (in combat.txt) are actually larger than the first advances in armor (the file is from 2006, so I'm assuming this is originally from CK 1.05)....in addition, things like "plated_hauberk" and "chain_hauberk" actually seem to be more advanced than the first game advances in both leather armor (soft leather) and chain armor (chained leather). This also leads to the game definition of "hauberk" (both implied and actually written in some of the later chainmail descriptions)...according to Wikipedia (I'm going to do all my research for free!), a hauberk is a shirt of chainmail (interchangeable with the term haubergeon which is a shorter shirt of such), and this does seem to have existed in history actually going back to apparently late Roman times (if not earlier), however, in the game, for a default 1066 scenario, we have pretty much either soft leather or chained leather as being the first advance in provinces...
(interestingly, the Oman text A History of the Art of War: The Middle Ages From the Fourth to the Fourteenth Centuries [first edition] calls a hauberk "'hals-berge', or neck-protection...for the defence of the throat, neck, and sides of the face." [page 126]...Oman also talks later about the "the universal wear of well-armed warriors in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The poorer men had only the short mail-shirt, the richer supplemented it by the hauberk. [page 127]. I am choosing the more recent definition of a hauberk as the "correct" one for now)
Of course, the Bayeux Tapestry depicts nearly full length hauberks being worn by troops, however, it seems we do not have this advance in the game (in the beginning), so, I will need to rebalance a few things, and I might need to modify some text (uh oh, this mod is getting bigger)...then again, I might decide to alter only the default level definitions (to simulate less or incomplete armor [and this would also bring it in line with the Oman definition mentioned]), but this is still problematic as certainly soft leather and probably chained leather is less effective than a hauberk of mail...either way, I will figure it out and report back...
Jeff
(interestingly, the Oman text A History of the Art of War: The Middle Ages From the Fourth to the Fourteenth Centuries [first edition] calls a hauberk "'hals-berge', or neck-protection...for the defence of the throat, neck, and sides of the face." [page 126]...Oman also talks later about the "the universal wear of well-armed warriors in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The poorer men had only the short mail-shirt, the richer supplemented it by the hauberk. [page 127]. I am choosing the more recent definition of a hauberk as the "correct" one for now)
Of course, the Bayeux Tapestry depicts nearly full length hauberks being worn by troops, however, it seems we do not have this advance in the game (in the beginning), so, I will need to rebalance a few things, and I might need to modify some text (uh oh, this mod is getting bigger)...then again, I might decide to alter only the default level definitions (to simulate less or incomplete armor [and this would also bring it in line with the Oman definition mentioned]), but this is still problematic as certainly soft leather and probably chained leather is less effective than a hauberk of mail...either way, I will figure it out and report back...
Jeff