Hey Guys,
Hoping to come to Empire for the first time in 2020 and I was looking for sites to source Kit from and I came across www.armorarena.co.uk/. They seem to do reasonably priced armour so I was just wondering if anyone had bought stuff from them before and what the quality was like ? Any help would be appreciated or other good sites for sourcing Kit.
Many Thanks
Ryan
Welcome along Ryupiko, to the game and the forums!
That does look like some good value kit! I havenāt purchased anything from them myself, but I suspect others haveā¦
Iāve purchased quite a few bits from White Rose Apparel and Darkblade over the years, theyāre on the page of links below, armour section.
Are you looking for kit generally? Do you know what nation youāll be playing as, given there are a lot of style differences?
Hey Geoffrey,
I was thinking about playing a knight errant looking for a worthy house to call my own. Itās my first time so I wasnt going to spend loads but I wanted enough armour to count as heavy in phys-rep I really love a lot of the epic armoury stuff but itās so expensive.
Ryan
Right. Well, good news for you 
I play Dawn and can talk about from experience
Knight Errant is an excellent (and cheap) place to start.
To count as a suit of heavy you need to cover the torso and at least one other location. So for heavy, what often appears is torso + greaves (1/2 legs) + bracers (1/2 arms). For example, something like this:
combined with some extra parts like the shin guards and arm guards at the bottom of this pageā¦
https://www.gdfb.co.uk/larp-steel-armour-232-c.asp
That would get you brand-new shining armour for under Ā£150. Good coverage, and would count as heavy. Shopping around, you can probably find similar cheaper.
I would reccomend, though, that you wait for the event, arrive early (Thursday, early Friday), and buy on site. There will likely be some chainmaille, or indeed plate, at a cheaper price than onlineā¦ possibly second-hand. The bonus of buying on-site is that you can try it on before you by,. The downside, of course, is that you might not find anything you like.
Alternitively, I suggest you ask your fellow players, and especially those of Dawnā¦
ā¦who may well have spare armour, outgrown armour, etc, which they may be willing to sell or even lend at the event.
I reccomend against investing in a helmet. Because they tend to be expensive and cumbersome, and head hits are strongly discouraged in the system anyway.
For the rest of kit, you may well need a gambeson (padding under armour). Depending on the armour, a heavy flannel shirt/rugby shirt could do the job here.
Shirt, neutral trousers, belt, possibly a belt pouchā¦ reasonably cheap to acquire and all purchasable on site.
Knight Errant kit calls for the Dawnish tabard; Golden sun on royal blue. This can be as complex or simple as you like. Simplest version is a long rectangle of cloth, with a hole cut for your head, and the sun done in fabric paint across the chest.
Again, some or all of the above is likely available by asking politely from other players.
Knight Errant, in addition to having a minimal kit (you donāt even need the armour, to be honest. Itās uncommon, but many a knight has attained nobility without taking the field of battle. And thatās not even counting the magesā¦), is an excellent starting character type. Because you have an in-game reason to be an ambitious stranger, chatting to everyone, asking stupid questions, and wanting to have lots explained to you.
ā¦I could go on for a whileā¦
I am happy to discuss kit, weapons, Dawnish Houses, playing a Knight Errant, or whatever else. Be warned, I may try to recruit you to the House Iām inā¦ 
Thanks for the help man. What House are you in ? I wasnt sure of the best way was going about finding a house, I did a little reading on the forums so I know thereās quite a few. House Tallstag sounded interesting from what I read. Im really up for the combat elements of the game and I was wondering what skills would be best if I want that to be my focus.
https://www.armorarena.co.uk/plate-armors/Full-Arms-Bracers-Couters/Full-Arm-Guard
So would this be enough to count as heavy ?
There are several ways to find a House to join. You can ask about on these forums, you can ask on the Dawn FB page, you can turn up at the event and ask about.
As a Knight Errant, you can turn up in-game and ask about, seeking a worthy House to joinā¦
Tallstag are good lads. I helped them set their group up But there are many Houses, in many flavours. Donāt pick the first one you find
My House is Tour de Cendres (āTower of Ashesā, itās a long and interesting storyā¦). Off the top of my head, other Houses include de Rondell, de Soliel, Orzel, Seren, Hearthsong, Myriad, Montrose, de Gauvain, Carsenere, Navarrion, Rakshasa, Vexille, Vandale, Ossieneā¦ there are many. Dawn is strong and proud. Or arrogant and loud. Or perhaps both 
Certainly big.
Note that while there is a strong combat element to the game, especially in Dawn, you will spend most of the time not fighting. You should probably find an additional interest (suggestions available on request), something to do, a way to interact with the game off the field of battleā¦
In terms of skillsā¦ Heavy armour is free. Shield skill, Weaponsmaster (for greatswords etc), might be of use. The Heroic skill tree is a good one for combat fans. Particularly Relentless and Cleaving strike. Extra hit points, extra bleed timeā¦ Itās your call. With your Personal Resource (for example, a business passing you money), you can also look into buying quite a few magic items, which can supplement your skills. And if you join a group, they may well be able to lend/make you some shinies.
Profound Decisions are understanding of mistakes and misjudgementsā¦ if you need to re-arrange your skills in or just after the first event, theyāll generally let you do so.
As for the armourā¦ that looks good, but Iād personally be looking to pick up a backplate and perhaps some shoulderpads too. It might count as a full suit of heavy, but the only people able to make a call on that are the refs in the field. Certainly as material and look, itās very Dawnish Heavy Plate.
Have you done much LARP fighting before? Have you tried fighting in plate?
No I havenāt fought in plate I imagine its quite restricting but Iāve always liked the idea of playing a knight in shiny armour. I was going to spend my first time at empire out of battles having a look at everything meeting and talking to lots of people and just getting to know the lore and groups in play. Plus I wanna get to the houses of dawn and find the right one for me. I was wondering what kinda things people do for there test of mettle ?
Knight in shiny armour is fun 
Spending plenty of time wandering about exploring sounds like a good start. Asking each group why they are glorious, what they have achieved, their histories and talesā¦ thatāll get you plenty of lore
Come ask at Tour de Cendres (black and gold livery), weāve got an interesting story, and an example of how groups change and evolve in play.
As for the Tests, this has come up before. So instead of re-iterating everything, let me point you at a few threadsā¦
Oddly enough properly fitted plate is easier to fight in than chainmail as the weight is distributed all over your body. Do get some proper padding to go underneath like Gambeson though whatever you choose, I tried chainmail over a thick shirt once and my shoulders hated me for daysā¦
I wear plate as i play a highguard cataphract. Here are my learnings as a new player from E1 through to E4 2019.
Cons.
Its a pain to put on, so if you are asked to join a skirmish quickly its a bit of a rush, if you dont get through the gate you then have to take the stuff off again.
Most off the shelf plate will not fit you 100% properly, expect to do some diy.
It can be a shock to your system carrying the extra weight and fighting and running etc. If its anchored correctly the weight is spread but its still extra weight.
You have to maintain it, it rusts.
You make a ton of noise moving about.
Can be bought in peices and built up over time.
Pros
You look awsome
You gain 4 extra hit points
You are immune to impale and cleave (as long as the caller strikes your armoured areas)
Archers leave you alone and look for easier targets.
You naturally find yourself at the front line, so yoy get to play whack an orc more often.
Often cheaper than propper rivited mail
You can paint it to your house / chapter colours if you wish.
Chain
Pros
Slip it on and off easier
Gives same protection as plate if its steel mail.
More mobile, less chance of not fitting if you buy the right size.
Cons
Dont buy cheap, you need rivited mail
Still rusts
Cant be repaired by yourself easily if it breaks
Dont look as awesome as plate.
From my pov i wish id invested in rivited mail and just added some plate sections.
I will probably do this at some point.
I bought my plate from mythlon and epic armouries.
The site you link looks like its cheap enough to be suspicious. But check the fb groups someone may have used them idk.
Thanks for the input guys. I really prefer how plate looks so Iām definitely gonna go for plate pieces first. The company does do stuff cheap but its made in Pakistan so it takes 6-8 weeks to get here so any returns or issue would also take a while to get sorted. Although I have emailed them and theyāve been responsive and there willing to modify any item per my request. They also have some good reviews via Facebook so I think Iām gonna roll the dice on a couple items.
Remind me, do you need back coverage for it to count as a full suit of armour?
Yes. I believe so. Mine does.
Also if you are getting plate. Make sure you get lower leg protection. Thats where most cleaves get you imho
there is the option to by it without a back plate which I thought might be more comfortable. as it would be lighter but I wasnāt sure if it would still give me heavy armour.
My advice would be donāt go for cheap armour. It will save you money in the long run, as cheap plate is often ill-fitting, rusts quickly, and might break quickly.
I would find out the measurements of the cuirass / breastplate to see how much bending you will need to do.
well they said they would make it to what ever parameters I wanted. I imagine I wanna leave myself some room so the gambeson fits underneath properly.
