Why Russians didn't use plate armor?

Why Russians didn't use plate armor?

Any kind of plate or do you specifically mean like steel?

The kind of plate knights wore.

Pretty sure you can find imports if you want to.

Because lamellar armor is rad as fuck

It's cheaper, and the threats that encouraged plate armor are less prevalent in Russia.

What dangers do you mean?

Knights on spent a ton of time fighting on foot, because there are lots of locations in Europe, and espically Italy, where plate armor was developed, where fighting on horseback was a hindrance. The degree of protection offered by full set of plate armor wasn't actually justified when fighting from a horse, because the enemy doesn't have a way of maneuvering a blade into position to get at the gaps in your armor.

The Russian nobility primarily fought on horseback, and rarely on foot. Lamellar armor was good enough because it covered the most likely areas where you were going to be hit. It was also considerably cheaper and easier to make, which is the biggest bonus in a relatively poor region like Russia.

Making plate armour actually is anything but a straightforward matter (otherwise people would have made it before the 14th century). You need large steel plates, which only became available after the blast furnace was invented. Operating a blast furnace is however not economically viable just anywhere. You need a lot of charcoal nearby, you need rivers with strong currents to operate the bellows and hammers, well educated craftsmen to build and maintain the machinery, people with an understanding of metallurgy and how the metal behaves under what kinds of temperatures, how to oxidise it, how to homogenise it, when to quench it, etc.; which is why armour was mostly made in the city states of Southern Germany and Northern Italy. In general, it was very much an urban thing. Russia probably didn't have the technology to make it at that point. However, I'd be surprised if armour wasn't imported at least. Northern Europe, the Baltic states, Poland, etc. did so too after all.

I might add: and of course you need a source of raw iron nearby.

Didn't realise medieval Russians looked so terrifying.

>Ivan and Vlad got real weapons and I got stuck with fucking maracas

They were steppeniggers.

A lot of people who had lamellar also spent a lot of time fighting on foot. The Russians for one in OP's picture.

The Chinese for another. Which is why their lamellar armor wasn't like those huge hanging dusters the Steppe people have, instead of a piece of lamellar armor that "follows" the limbs, and have shorter "faulds", with the lower arms and legs protected by vambraces/greaves respectively.

They used sabers instead of straight swords, plus they didn't have the technologies.

>They used sabers instead of straight swords
you're fucking retarded

What's wrong with what I said?

Everything? Russians did have straight swords you american idiot.

I'm not American. Yeah, they had them before the Mongol invasion, when they were viking LARPers. In the 15-17 centuries they used sabers.

>early Russian sword
>early

>master the art of fighting with maracas
>nobody knows how to fight against you
>conquer the world on your own

>that badass drummer

I can picture him playing bitchin drum solos during battle.

> Which is why their lamellar armor wasn't like those huge hanging dusters the Steppe people have
Not necessarily,the Chinese and their steppe foes used the same equipment.

After the Wei Jin period front opening lamellar(almost like an armored coat) wasn't revived until the Ming,though it was used sporadically during the Tang.

Some lamellar suits had an extra plackart that was secured with large cummerbunds,others had a back flap or a groin guard,even the "faulds" may be integrated with the cuirass.

Spaulders were mainly worn like a poncho,while the Yuan versions were secured with straps.

>Not necessarily,the Chinese and their steppe foes used the same equipment.
Doubt.jpg. Considering the Steppnig heavy cavalrymen just wore this and called it a day. Vastly differnt from Song period armor. Though the T'ang had something similar, including a lamellar coif.

The Chinese never used #2 but #1 without the top half is shown in Tang murals.

I recommend you go over the Jurchen,Khitan,Tangut and Mongol(though their brigandine is questionable) sections in the book.

> Chinese never used #2

The Jin Dynasty used it.

...

Nope,that's lamellar made in the same fashion as their Song adversaries.

Here's a Jurchen officer from the same painting.

Southern Song Tomb mural from Sichuan.

Russia adopted guns before and more aggressively than Europe since it was their counter to horse archers.
The period where plate armor would be viable just wasn't there for them.

Eastern Influence
Try to find difference between this

And this

The second armor is from the sequel cuz it has got better graphics.

And by eastern you mean Byzantine ?

>mfw the Romans created both Western AND Eastern identity

Byzantine too, but also Persian, Mongol and Turkish.

The poorfag from the first picture can't afford a cool helmet with fancy writings on it. Here's the helmet of Czar Alexei Mikhailovitch.

That's utter bullshit. Even the Roman identity is half Greek and half Etruscan, and the Byzantine culture is Greek with eastern influence. The cataphracts were a Parthian and Persian thing. And sabres were introduced to the west by Turkic invaders.

More like Persian which was later adopted by Byzantines

Looks exactly like Ottoman helmet

>I recommend you go over the Jurchen,Khitan,Tangut and Mongol(though their brigandine is questionable) sections in the book.
No friggin shit, those are Steppe peoples.

But as they settled in China they seem to start using Chinese kit too, if that drawing of Subutai is any indication.

By the way Basil II's armor was extremely cool

No wonder, that's literally the same helmet. And yes, it was made in Turkey. By the way, here's the helmet of his father Mikhail Feodorovitch, this one was made by a Russian master, but it still has an Arabic inscription on top of it. It reads "Give good tidings to the believers with a promise of help from Allah and near victory".

That's interesting. I remember watching some Russian movie clips where they battled Polish troops in 1612 and some of the Russians were wearing mail armor, while the Poles had cuirasses or plain clothes. The Russian were well armed with many firearms, thought.