Battle Armor

[Steven Blakely]

What are minimium specs on arma armour. what i mean is short of being able to afford a full 16th century maximmillian harness for severall gand. What should i go liiking for when purchasing armor that arma would support and would allow me to do armored freeplay in?

[Aaron Kavli]

ARMA minimum standards are basically just your uniform (or at least wearing enough clothing to keep you from being arrested in the middle of practice). I'm not quite sure what you are asking, but here are my two answers to cover what I think you may be talking about.

1) Free play sparring: This is basically up to you and should be based on how comfortable you are with your abilities and those of your sparring partner. I always suggest a cup, and prefer to fight with some manner of head protection (to allow safer use of high strikes). I've seen folks free-play in everything from just their clothes to those who used helmets, chest protectors, hockey gloves, knee/elbow pads, and/or padded gambesons.

2) Armored techniques: One can practice armored techniques without the armor, though it does admittedly loose a bit in translation without being able to really feel how armor reacts to the binds and traps. ARMA is about learning the actual techniques, so if this skill is important to you, then you will have to get a period kit of some degree. You could go the way of "sport armor" but then the techniques are not going to work very well. (I've not sparred in full armor, I'm just going by what I learned at the IG07 from Matt & Shane).

So basically, ARMA has no armor "rules" except that you use what will allow you to safely practice the techniques we are trying to learn.

Is that what you meant?

[Shane Smith]

I'd recommend 16 gauge plate for the most part because un-treated 18 gauge is too fragile and 14 gauge is too heavy for historically-accurate techniques.

My basic rule is "don't show up wrapped in a plastic pickle-barrel" like some folks are known to do in play-acting groups. It's fine for larping and the like but it's just not suitable for historical techniques and applications.