Kingdombuilding: All My Inventions Are Novelty

A set of plate armour consisted of many components. With the help of the craftsmen, Lancelot successfully put on the armour.

Once the helmet was in place, Lancelot looked like a steel monster. He excitedly walked around in the armour.

"Not bad, very flexible," Lancelot said with excitement. "But I wonder if this plate armour can withstand swords and blades."

"That’s easy to test. Thomas, go ahead and give him a slash." Simon said.

Thomas immediately broke into a cold sweat. "My Lord, this..."

"What are you afraid of? Just do it. Are you a soldier I trained or not?" Lancelot scolded.

Hearing this, Thomas’s face darkened. He drew the steel sword from his waist and slashed at Lancelot’s abdomen. With a metallic clang, the blade left only a shallow scratch on the armour. Lancelot took a few steps back but was unharmed and didn’t even cry out in pain.

"My Lord, I’m completely fine. Give me a few more slashes!" Lancelot said excitedly.

Thomas was also amazed. Now feeling more confident, he swung his sword at Lancelot repeatedly.

Lancelot kept retreating, but just like the first slash, after several strikes, he only felt a slight discomfort.

Thomas, however, was getting into it. He swung his sword again and again without stopping, until Lancelot finally kicked him to the ground.

"You brat, look what you’ve done to my precious armour! It’s covered in scratches!" Lancelot said, heartbroken. Then, with a pleading look, he turned to Simon. "My Lord, can I get another set? Look at what this kid did to this one."

Simon smirked. "It takes at least thirty caps of silver to produce one set of plate armour. You really have the nerve to ask."

"Thirty caps?" Lancelot exclaimed. "That’s a year’s worth of my salary!"

Simon was, of course, exaggerating to make Lancelot value the armour more. However, if the armour were produced using traditional forging methods, it would indeed cost around thirty caps. But with the hydraulic hammer and free labour from slaves, the cost of this set of armour was actually comparable to the price of a Plow ox.

"And that’s the low estimate. Your armour is a general’s set, thicker and with more intricate engravings." Simon added.

Lancelot immediately regretted his actions and glared at Thomas. "You’re paying for this!"

Thomas protested. "You told me to slash it! Besides, I don’t have the money."

Seeing Lancelot’s distress, Simon decided to stop teasing him. "Fine, considering your contributions in Dunmere, I’ll give you three sets of plate armour."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Lancelot was overjoyed.

As he lovingly touched his full-body armour, Lancelot added. "My Lord, this armour is truly incredible. It’s practically impenetrable. If you give me ten thousand soldiers equipped with this, we won’t have to fear the reavers!"

"Don’t speak so carelessly," Simon said sternly, wanting to prevent Lancelot from becoming overconfident. "While the plate armour is sturdy, it does reduce mobility to some extent."

Lancelot moved around a bit and spoke. "It’s a little restrictive, but not too bad. The real question is whether arrows can pierce it."

"Ordinary cast-iron arrowheads won’t be able to," Simon said bluntly. The forging techniques used for his plate armour were roughly equivalent to those of the 17th or 18th century in the modern era. Without specialised arrowheads, the armour would be difficult to penetrate.

In fact, even early firearms couldn’t penetrate plate armour. It wasn’t until firearms became more powerful that plate armour was eventually phased out.

Simon was equipping his army with plate armour to deal with the current situation in the Eldorian Empire. Moreover, given the technology he had access to, producing plate armour was faster and cheaper than producing scale armour.

That’s why he had chosen plate armour.

"Is that so?" Lancelot’s grin widened, and he couldn’t wait to don the armour and go to war.

"Of course, this is just speculation. The true test will come in battle." Simon said. This was his honest opinion. Only through war could the effectiveness of any equipment be truly determined.

Lancelot, however, was too enamoured with the high-quality armour to fully process Simon’s words. "My Lord, I’ll take these three hundred sets of plate armour back to the barracks now."

"Wait, don’t be in such a hurry. There’s more." Simon said, waving his hand. The craftsmen brought over a long-handled, long-bladed weapon.

"Your Highness, is this the sword you mentioned?" Lancelot asked.

Simon had previously mentioned taking him to see the weapon, and Lancelot had been eagerly awaiting it.

"Exactly. This is the long sword, specifically designed to counter the reavers’ heavy cavalry." Simon explained.

Currently, most of the reaver cavalry on the grasslands were light cavalry, but there were also many heavy cavalry units, which were the elite of the reaver forces. Typically, the reavers employed a tactic where light cavalry harassed the flanks while heavy cavalry charged through the centre.

This strategy had proven nearly unstoppable against the Eldorian Empire’s armies.

Lancelot picked up the sword and tested its weight. "My Lord, this sword is quite heavy. It must weigh at least twenty kilos."

"That’s why, when swung, it can deliver a fatal blow to both man and horse." Simon said. The sword was entirely made of fine steel, with a long handle and a blade resembling a spearhead, long, wide, and extremely sharp.

As Lancelot ran his hands over the sword, he realised that, combined with the plate armour, this weapon would be a nightmare for cavalry in battle formations.

In addition to the sword, the steel workshop had also produced a significant number of spears, swords, and other weapons for the army. For ranged weapons, Simon had chosen crossbows.

Although crossbows were more expensive to produce and had a slower rate of fire, for Simon, training a competent archer took at least three years, far too long.

In war, soldiers were expendable. It was a race to see who could field an army the fastest. This was why firearms eventually became the dominant weapon, once one batch of soldiers was lost, another could be trained in just three months.

Crossbows were similar. Compared to bows, soldiers using crossbows didn’t require as rigorous training, making them ideal for the current state of the domain.

Moreover, Simon could address the biggest drawback of ancient crossbows. Generally, crossbows were inferior to bows largely due to their painfully slow reloading speed, a disadvantage that even early firearms couldn’t overcome.

Ancient crossbows were often referred to as foot crossbows because they required both hands and feet to reload. However, Simon had incorporated pulley mechanisms into the crossbows.

This meant soldiers needed less strength to operate the crossbows efficiently.

Currently, these pulley crossbows were still in the research and production phase and hadn’t yet been mass-produced in the steel workshop. However, modern technology had proven its feasibility, and it was only a matter of time before they were ready.

After showing Lancelot the various weapons and equipment for the army, Lancelot immediately had people transport the gear from the steel workshop back to the barracks.

The recruits were still wearing their own clothes, indistinguishable from ordinary civilians. With these new weapons and armour, the soldiers finally had something to look forward to.

Bjorn and Simon watched helplessly as Lancelot busied himself. This was just the beginning. As the steel workshop became more efficient, the production of plate armour would accelerate, and his soldiers would never again be left without proper weapons or armour.