# Uniforms & the Old World



## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

Right, at the moment (well, just taken a break to write this  ) I'm painting up a unit of empire state troops and I got thinking - I know, I know....dangerous.

Empire state troops are supposedly a professional army and as such I would expect the various states to have smiths working specifically to arm and armour the troops. Why then are ALL of the state troop armoured differently? Surely there should be some sort of standard design that can then be modified to individual taste but instead you have one guy who has a massive steel breastplate and another who's wearing what can only be described as a crappy leather jerkin. Why is there such a big difference? 

Fair enough you could explain it as 'spoils of war' or some such but as a professional army there must be some kind of uniformity of armour. Random, thrown together bits and pieces is the ilk of the militia. 

Also, in complete contrast to this, Chaos Warriors; nomadic savages from the northern wastelands all have perfectly uniformed armour and shields.


Basically apart from being a bit of a rant, can anyone explain this to me? Why do empire state troops have such diverse armour types within the same unit where as other units that aren't equipped by their governing bodies have almost completely uniformed armour?


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## ExtraCrew (Jan 22, 2012)

Well simply numbers, in the lore their are hundreds of state troops to very Warrior of Chaos.
Basically with so many troops you are going to have variety, the empire has troops in the hundreds of thousands,.

Second the full plate armour Warriors of Chaos is made in the forges of demons and chaos dwarfs. 
Were as the full plate of humans is made in the forges of normal dwarfs, which you will notice is fairly uniform beside the minor decorative difference. 
Comparing full plate to full plate is a more apt comparison to begin with.

Compare marauders to state troops and the state troops depending on how you paint them, state troops will be more uniform.


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## karlhunt (Mar 24, 2009)

I'm with you Turnip. I get it with the elves and their levy armies. But these are the Emire State Troops. A fully professional army where the government should reasonably be expected to provide equipment for their soldiers. I'm fine with variations between states but when I open a box of state troops and I am presented with four different sets of armor it irks me!


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

ExtraCrew said:


> Well simply numbers, in the lore their are hundreds of state troops to very Warrior of Chaos.
> Basically with so many troops you are going to have variety, the empire has troops in the hundreds of thousands,.


Actually all the fluff points to each state having only a few hundred state troops at most with the bulk of armies being made from militia or flagellants. Reading through books like uniforms and heraldry of the empire it's mentioned that most towns have a garrison of around 10-30 state troops, and that's a large town. With such numbers you'd assume that whoever is paying these troops' wages would equip them all similarly. I'm not saying there shouldn't be variety but the base of the armour, in other words the breastplate, should really be the same basic design for all troops with embossed decoration the main difference or just the various trinkets soldiers add as trophies etc. 

Also - back to the numbers part... even if there were hundreds of thousands, state troops are still issued with basic armour when they enroll so would the basic armour design change so dramatically over even a long period of time? Trade in the empire is flourishing so supplies aren't a massive problem and I doubt there's a shortage of weapon or armour smiths... in fact, considering they all have the same basic type of weapon, is it inconceivable for them to have the same type of armour as well? 

Anyway, discuss!


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Well, if there are four basic types, build four differant units from twenty boxes! Problem solved. :laugh: 

If you read history, very few nations (before modern times) had truly uniform uniforms. If a soldier received a basic allotment to start, it might be the only one they received their entire career and they would replace and repair as needed until not much was uniform. Plus, before the factory age eveything was manufactured in cottage industry were nothing was truly uniform. 



> With such numbers you'd assume that whoever is paying these troops' wages would equip them all similarly.


 You are ssuming they get paid!! Once deductions for rations, weapons, gifts for the Count (and the Count's Lady and kids), etc etc, I figure they didn't get many crowns to spend.


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## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

Professional just means you get paid to do it, not that whose paying you in competent or caring really. They will be issued weapons before the battle but what they're wearing is probably more down to what they turn up in. If someone has a few coin spare he might invest it in some armour etc.


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