My militia is not equipping their chainmail armor

[Naraga]

Is there something i'm missing or is there a bug? I have chain mail armor but my spear militia is not equipping it (shows 0 when hovering over it)

[Aspect]

got same issue

[Jannes73]

I think only peasants drafted from tier 3 houses will equip chain mail

[Granaten-Rainer]

Originally posted by Jannes73:

I think only peasants drafted from tier 3 houses will equip chain mail

Yes, this is it.

[ESDP]

chain mail is for retinue, not for militia.

[Templar]

Like the other dude said, need tier 3 families. Level 1 and 2 can not equip chain mail.

[bc02]

Level 1 burgage residents can only wear their standard clothing, but helmets are available for any level.
Level 2 burgage residents can wear gambesons.
Level 3 burgage can wear chainmail / plate.

[Alienpope]

Originally posted by ESDP:

chain mail is for retinue, not for militia.

Chain mail is for population living in level 3 houses. Retinue starts with chain mail but can be upgraded to use plate armor.

[Alienpope]

Originally posted by bc02:

Level 1 burgage residents can only wear their standard clothing, but helmets are available for any level.
Level 2 burgage residents can wear gambesons.
Level 3 burgage can wear chainmail / plate.

Level 3 can't wear plate, only retinue can wear plate.

[dduncan]

This seems like a silly rule, the only thing that historically prevented troops wearing chain mail is the inability to afford it. If the city militia equipped them that was no longer an issue.

[Jabberwocky]

Originally posted by dduncan:

This seems like a silly rule, the only thing that historically prevented troops wearing chain mail is the inability to afford it. If the city militia equipped them that was no longer an issue.

It is implied that residents of level 1 burgage plots are poor peasants, level 2 residents are simple burghers and level 3 residents are wealthy townsfolk.

Therefore level 1 peasants can, at most, "afford" a helmet.
Level 2 residents can get themselves a light armour like a gambeson.
And level 3 residents are rich enough to "afford" chainmail.

I wonder if level 4 residents will be able to afford plate armour....

[Chilled Sloth]

Originally posted by dduncan:

This seems like a silly rule, the only thing that historically prevented troops wearing chain mail is the inability to afford it.

That is exactly what this rule is representing.

The game does not track individual wealth of peasants, only abstracted 'regional wealth' of the whole town. That doesn't mean any mail shirts produced in the town or imported are owned but the entire community - the same simply doesn't track who owns what.

And the lord owns none of that. We need to raise wealth taxes to access the proceeds of selling that armour (or any goods). So we obviously cannot freely give away the armour that armoursmith Kunrad crafted to some poor subsistence farmer that cannot afford it. The same way as we cannot order anyone in town to give away their produce for free to another town/region, just because that town is also under our jurisdiction, on our land.

The lord may want to ensure that enough weapons and armour are kept within the region and available, but the militiamen are still expected to buy them themselves, to provide their own weapons and armour (and obviously there's a high incentive for them to get the best they can afford).

The only silly part really lies in how easy it is for a region to massively overproduce everything, including a huge number of chainmail armour pieces. But I'm sure that balance will be tweaked near the end of EA.