Animal Armor

Animals involved in combat or hunting can be armored, too – although they must be specially trained to tolerate the armor! Protection for beasts is sometimes called barding. Below are four common types. All weights and costs are given as percentages of the base figures listed for equivalent human torso armor on the Armor Table (pp. 110-111). Example: A light mail shirt is $500, 12 lbs. Light mail elephant armor (below) would cost and weigh 200% as much for the chanfron ($1,000, 24 lbs.), and 1,200% as much for the caparison ($6,000, 144 lbs.).

Men have armored horses since the Bronze Age, when all the great civilizations from the Aegean to China fought with chariots and archers. The earliest armor was made from cloth, leather, or metal scale. Mail appeared during the Iron Age; solid plates, toward the end of the Middle Ages.

Horse protection consists of one or more of the following (for important details, see the hit location table for quadrupeds on p. B553):

Caparison: A flexible armored blanket (cloth, scale, or mail) covering neck, torso, groin, and legs, and reaching down to the knees or even lower (protects the legs on 1-4 on 1d). Also called a trapper, it sometimes has a hole for the saddle. Cost and weight are 500% of human torso armor.

Chanfron: Head armor, protecting the skull and face. It can be made of flexible or rigid armor. Cost and weight are 50%.

Crinet: Protects the neck. It can be made of flexible or rigid armor. Cost and weight are 50%.

Crupper: Plate armor protecting the hindquarters and upper legs. It protects the torso on 4-6 on 1d, and the hind legs on 1-3 on 1d. Cost and weight are 150%.

Flanchards: Plate armor attached to the saddle, covering the flanks. It closes the gap between crupper and peytral. Flanchards protect the torso on 1-3 on 1d. Cost and weight are 50%.

Peytral: A rigid plate that protects the torso from the front only (sides and back are unprotected). Cost and weight are 100%.

Armorers experimented with leg armor, but it proved impractical on the battlefield.

Camels were sometimes armored and ridden into battle. They were covered with a chanfron (25% cost and weight) and a peytral or caparison (as Horse Armor, above).

Elephants were considered the ultimate shock unit. Their main role was to charge the enemy ranks, striking fear and causing men to rout, or to crash through lines of spearmen. They were also effective at countering enemy cavalry charges. India was the main region in which they were deployed, but they saw battle throughout Asia, in Africa, and even in Europe. Elephant armor consists of a chanfron on the head (200% cost and weight), and a caparison covering the body and reaching to the knees (1,200% cost and weight). These can be made of cloth, leather, scale, mail, or mail and plates.

Dogs were used more often for hunting than for warfare, so their armor was designed to protect them from other animals – e.g., boars – rather than from humans. The most common dog armor was a heavy collar protecting the neck (5% cost and weight). Other parts of the body were covered with armor very similar to the components of horse armor (above). Find the cost and weight of equivalent horse armor, and then divide by 10 for a large dog; reduce cost and weight further for smaller breeds.

Notes:

• [1] Gives mount the No Peripheral Vision disadvantage (p. 151) while worn.
• [2] Split DR: use the lower DR against crushing attacks.
• [3] Weight and cost are per pair of legs protected. Each pair gives -1 to Move.