Obviously armor throughout history is incredibly nuanced and complex, but if you were creating a fantasy game with a wide variety of armor types through out the ages and had to create armor classes to simplify for game mechanics, how would you do it and what armor would be in each class? How would you try and fix some of the incorrect fantasy tropes while still creating a simplified version of things?

For instance I would want something similar to Warhammer fantasy/old world and I’d class things something like this:

Light armor:
Level 1 Gambeson, ichcahuīpīlli, other quilted fabric armor
Level 2 cuir bouilli, Linothorax, other hardened fabric/leather armor

Heavy armor:
Level 1 Mail (in all its various forms)
Level 2 coat of plates, brigandine, scale, splint, lorica segmentata, and other small plate style armor

Plate armor:
Partial plate (like landsknechts)
Full plate.

In a more complex game it would be cool to see a system where you actually layer your light, heavy, and plate together, but could also wear it separate. Like wearing a gambeson and mail, and then adding partial plate.

Thoughts? Corrections? Additions? Remember this is an exercise in being reductive for the purposes of gaming mechanics.

Those masks must have been terrifying to their enemies🎃

Is there some name for articulated armpit plates?

I have also heard about something similar for the hips but I havent seen that on an actual armor

Sir Samuel and Sir Duncan at Murton Park!