Armor has been used by many virtually evey culture across the world for warfare. Armor evolved over time from leather to metel in ancient times, in modern times body armor is typically made out of ceramics and other materiles like kevlar. Body armor evolved out of the need to protect against weapons, and as weaponry evolved armor had to evolve over time as well. On the show most armor is tested in a for ancient warriors and is normally either Plate Armor, Chain mail or, Lamellar. Armor is such a huge factor in the fights that it is often one of the biggest resons for either a warrior winning or losing their battle.
Types of Armor
Armor can be broken into three varaiations helmets, body armor, and ,sheilds.
Helmets
The helmet guards the most vital part of the body, the head. Most warriors who wear armor usually don't wear helmets as often as often as body armor. While the head is more vulnarable than the torso, it is a much smaller target against ranged weapons. Addtionally helmets tend to obscure the warrior's vision and hearing, making in harder to keep an eye on the enemy and hear their movments. Different types of helmets offer both protection and varying amouts of vision. Helmets worn by warriors the Knight and Gladiator cover the whole head but make it very hard to see and impared their hearing. Warriors like Vikings and Samurai wear helmets that cover the crown of the head and the back of the neck and offer a much bigger feild of vison but leave their faces open . Arguably the best designed helmet of the anceint world was the Spartans corinthian helmet. If offered complet head protection while allowing the warriors seeing and hearing un-impared. This was due to the eye's openings extended to be open to the peripheral vision of the wearer and openings around the ears.
Body armor
The most common area covered by armor is the torso. This was due to it being both the largest target on the human body and having most of the body's vital organs. Different cultures used different types of armor to protect their torso's. Most early cultures used leather shirts but many cultures started using metal when they could, However some, mainly some East Asian cultures and nomadic tribes, continued to use leather due to it's availability and mobility.
The earliest types of metal armor were normally lamellar, made out of scales of bronze. However in the Europe Lamellar fell out of favor for bronze cuirass, which proved as an effective protective gear until widespread use of steel.
After steel became widely used, the most popular European armor were plate armor and chain mail, which preformed better in the field and held up better over long use. Plate armor was easier to make than chain mail but made movement harder. Chain mail is historically believed to be invented by the Celts and was used mostly in Europe.
Medieval Knights used both chain mail and plate armor. Chain mail with plate covering was widely used in Eastern Europe and later in the Middle East. In India, chain mail was used in combination with leather until better armor from Europe and Middle East was introduced. Some Asian cultures used lamellar armor made from steel. After the invention of gunpowder full plate armors fell out of favor in Europe and European armies started to use the lighter steel cuirasses. These armors were comparatively lighter while effectively protected the warrior's torso but left the rest of the body unprotected.
Shields
The shield was largly used in Europe to add protection against missile weapons, although quite a few cultures in Asia, Africa, and the Americas developed shields, however they never were as prominent as in Europe. Warriors like the Celts and Spartans considered weapons like the bow for cowards and used shields as a way of neutralizing them so they could close the distance between them and their enemies. Shields could often be used as a weapon as well. Vikings and Centurions had shields with a steel or iron boss in the center used for punching there opponents. Spartan shields were famous in their effectiveness. It covered almost the entire warrior, could be used offensively and interlocked with the soldiers to their left and right to make a wall of bronze that was almost impossible to get pass.
In Show
In the show armor is normally tested in pieces as opposed to whole sets, which can give inaccurate results. Armor can be the bigger game changer than any weapon. Armor can swing the results to the advantage to an warrior. Example of this are the Ming Warrior vs Musketeer and Persian Immortal vs Celt. In both cases the warrior who had the better body armor won by a large margin. Another big example of armor efficiency was the Joan of Arc vs. William the Conqueror matchup, where Joan's plate armor proved vastly superior to William's chain mail huebark and played a vital role in effectively making up for Joan's lack of experience, physicality and training.
Sometimes armor isn't always properly represented or warriors aren't given the armor they would of used. Chain mail is often said to be butted, when in history it was riveted. In the case of the Celt, he was given little to no armor. When historically they would sometimes wear a chain mail and leather combination, specially Celtic leaders were well known for having good quality armor.
In season three, armor metallurgy has been included as one of the X factors that are entered into the simulation.