[HoneyBadger]

Sombre:

I don't see why that would be silly, given the confines of the game. Just because this is represented by an effect that can *also* be produced through magic, doesn't necessarily mean that it's always a supernatural effect. The "Air Shield" supernatural effect represents (atleast in my imagination), the deflection of arrows and the obfuscation of the shape of the target's body, through a "heatwave" type distortion effect. Maybe I'm somehow wrong in that interpretation, but I consider it reasonable and viable.

And that's exactly what samurai armour was designed to do, to deflect blows and arrows, and to obfuscate the shape of the samurai's body.

I would ofcourse want to see the Prot value of Samurai armour to be lowered, accordingly, to balance against the suggested "airshield" effect, but samurai armour (especially the heavy version) is so bad, as it stands, that the Prot is about all it's got going for it.

There was a big difference in the relative sharpness of medieval European swords (which were commonly pretty blunt, when used in larger battles), and pre-colonial Japanese swords, and the way each was used, and the differing armour styles reflect those differences.

European swords were meant to be used over and over, to hammer the target into submission, with the side-effect of the possibility to ransom the still-living loser. Japanese swords, ideally, were intended to be used once, fatally.

So, European armour was designed to resist blows and distribute damage, whereas, if you got hit by a well made katana, by a samurai who was skilled in kendo, you'd be lucky if a blow just crippled you.

Impact was still a consideration, in Japanese armours, just like deflection was considered in European armours, but it's a matter of degree of emphasis.

Both styles had their advantages and disadvantages, but the way samurai armour is currently simulated in the game is quite a bit off. It could be bulky, but not nearly as bulky as it's portrayed in the game, and it was designed to allow a lot of flexibility and freedom of movement.

Another consideration is the respective size of horses, and the way mounted combat tended to be handled. Horses tended to be smaller in the East than in the West, being bred from rugged Mongolian ponies in the East, and bred for toughness, compared to the horses in the West, which were bred for size. That means that armour in the East were more likely to be lighter, designed for mounted use with bows and light lances, compared to heavy Western armours, that would actually lend their weight to the impact of a heavy lance-charge. Both used swords in mounted combat, and both developed weapons to combat mounted enemies, including the aforementioned 'Nagamaki'.

Keep in mind that what the game represents as samurai armour, and the katana, were both developed relatively late in Japan's military history, after the Mongols had already made their abortive invasion attempt, while European types of armour, as represented in the game, are considerably less specifically defined. Armour in an "Early Era" of Japan, would certainly not have involved the No-Dashi/katana, or the O-yori "great armour" of the Samurai. Both items, realistically, would have been confined to the Late Age, only.