Mod: MA Ulm : \

[Saulot]

As someone who knits maille for fun, I feel I have to speak up in a discussion about it.
Maille is highly effective against slashing weapons, moderately effective against broad/slow thrusting weapons like spears or daggers, lightly effective against blunt weapons, and ineffective (*and possibly harmful) against ranged piercing weapons.
To understand why, one should examine how maille protects a user. It would usually consist of about 40** pounds of a coif and hauberk, and various other assorted pieces. It consists of one ring, connected to four other rings, this allows it to be both flexible, and to distribute shock through overlapping rings. Mass, gained by the weight of the armor itself, also assists in the absorbing some impact.

So to answer your question, would a warhammer or mace simply ram through the armor? No, probably not. Would it fragment some rings, probably yes. Would the armor prevent a broken bone? Probably not.

You see, maille was worn over several multiple layers of cloth or untreated leather, to create a buffer zone between the maille and the user's skin. This would catch most fragmenting rings that move inward, and most fragmenting rings would actually fly off and away from the armor. Medieval physicians (even in Roman times) could actually mend and set bones with some skill. What the maille would do is prevent infection from significant skin loss/cut, and the medieval physicians did little against that.

* - I recall reading some information from a historical document about how an arrow shot from a longbow when through a shield, through plate armor on the leg, maille armor underneath that, the leg itself, the other side of maille and plate armor, the saddle, and the horse itself. In cases similar to this one, one can assume that there will be some minor mail fragmentation, but it's likely that it will go deep inside a wound.

** - A maille shirt can weigh as little as 20 pounds, depending on how long it is (how far down it reaches). It must be noted that most professional/wealthy soldiers actually wore two layers of maille.

Edit:
Oh, and in terms of Dominions, it wouldn't be totally unrealistic to make warhammers/mauls and similar weapons do AP damage (since most of the damage is impact/shock/bonebreaking ) . So a maul for example, could instead of doing 9 damage, would do 3 ap damage.
Just a thought.