[quote=@Kho]
<Snipped quote by Cyclone>

Eh, full-plate armour was actually pretty light compared to the stuff everyday soldiery were trekking around in back in the day. You could easily roll around and even do back-flips (if you're acrobatic, of course) in full-plate armour.[/quote]

You're right of course. Good armor didn't restrict movement very much at all, but that wasn't my point. I was just saying that it's heavy and the extra encumbrance will slow you down, be a huge pain on the march (whether you wear the armor or just lug it around), and of course affect your stamina in a fight.

I have some first hand experience since I've actually worn some replicas of Spanish conquistador arms and equipment. A suit of steel plate was easily something like 50 or 60 pounds, and while it distributes itself better than one might imagine that's still obviously going to be a big disadvantage over someone lightly armored.

It was actually a fairly common tactic to just skirmish a heavily armored enemy until they got tired and sloppy, then start half-swording to try to stab them through the joints and gaps in their armor. Of course, failing that you could always just shoot them with a longbow, bludgeon them with a mace or warhammer, stick them with a rondel knife...

I really like ancient and medieval warfare if you can't tell :lol