Armour Flexibility

[Alanus]

Hello guys,

I have a question I was hoping some you could help answer, esp. those of you who own and use reconstructed Roman armour and as such have experience with it:

How flexible is Roman segmented armour ? (Lorica Segmentata specifically) Does it impede movement in any way ? Are stabbing and slashing movements made more difficult, like an overhand strike?

I have a set of segmentata (made by Hanwai). It's designed like other forms of segmentata, and I was curious if it could be used by an archer like myself. Wrong! It was too restrictive, so I removed the three lower segments and rounded off the remaining ones. It actually looked fairly cool!-- BUT it's just a tad restrictive, not as bad as before yet not flexible like scale or mail.

Someday, I hope to make (or have produced by Suhel) a leather tunic in the combo of scale (for elbow-length arm pieces), plates (for chest & shoulders in Eastern fashion), and lamellar for the two below-the-waist pieces. However, segmentata is not restrictive for "over the head" sword swings (the pieces simply lift) or for (more Romanish) sword up-thrusts. :grin: