Armor

**Armor** is defined as any covering worn as a defense against weapons. This applies not only to personal protection, but also protection for vehicles and fortified positions. The levels of armor in the New World greatly varies due to locations, usage and the amount of firepower it was meant to defeat. Additionally, the evolution of armor also led to the development of ways to overcome it. This is known as anti-armor or armor-piercing.

## Armor in the New World

### Outside Civilized Areas

Being outside of the so-called civilized nations means that armor is haphazard and the inhabitants use whatever materials are available. This can include crude armor made from animal hide, bone or leather, wooden shields, or any kind of metallic armor that can be scavenged or stolen. Of course, if one possesses the right kind of magic, then defensive magic shields are also an option.

### Third Civilization Area

The concept of personal protection is very similar to what occurred on Earth during the Medieval Era. For the common foot soldier, it was a combination of leather, chain mail, and metallic plates. Other pieces of armor may include shields, helmets and various types of body armor, depending on the nation. Cavalry were typically given heavier metallic armor plate, due to the fact that their mounts bear the heavier load rather than themselves. For Wyvern Riders, armor is kept light since their mounts' ability would be hindered with extra weight. For locations like a fort or town, towering walls, barriers or fortifications became their armor.

As for vehicles or in this case, wyverns and land dragons, the only armor they can count on is their own scaly hides, and whatever added armor plate the nation can provide. For the most part, the armor for both personal and vehicle protection was meant to defend against blades, arrows and spears, which they do well enough. For naval vessels, ships were fortified with plates of anti-magic steel armor. However, when magic and later the musket was introduced, then the face of warfare changed and so did the concept of armor. With the arrival of science-based nations like Mu, the Gra Valkas Empire and Japan, as well as the rise of the Holy Milishial Empire, medieval-level armor began to show its shortcomings. Even a man in full plate armor was not protected against bullets, bombs, rockets or high-level spells. Despite charging at full speed toward the JGSDF during the Pacification of Jin-Hark, the entire infantry and cavalry units of the Louria Kingdom were mowed down by a few heavy machine guns.

One interesting thing to note was that the Third Civilization did have a brief period of both modern armor evolution and anti-armor methods. During the Japanese-Parpaldian War at Aruni, rebel forces utilized Compound Bows and shields that had Kevlar sandwiched between the wooden layers. As a result, the rebels were able to defend against the Parpaldian soldiers' musket volleys, while the rebel arrows were able to pierce through the scaly hides of the land dragons.

### Second Civilization Area

Like the other nations that use firearms rather than arrows, the idea of personal armor protection was dropped at the soldier's level. Furthermore, since the people of Mu did not possess any magic, there was no way they could produce any counter to magical attacks. Since Mu initially had no engine powerful enough to drive a heavy land vehicle, the idea of an armored tank also eluded them. Consequently, there was no reason for them to develop anti-armor weapons until the invasion by the Gra Valkas and their tanks. However, during the Gra Valkas Empire's Invasion of Mu, they managed to deploy one prototype tank based on the Hound Medium Tank.

For their ships, Mu depended on heavy armor plate to protect their navy, though this proved to be inferior to the Gra Valkas' naval guns. It wasn't until the La Kasami dreadnought was upgraded by Japan, was Mu able to hold its own.

### First Civilization Area

Not much is said about the Holy Milishial Empire's and the countries that belong to this area about their armor usage aside from the fact that their ships' hulls and decks are all magically strengthened. However, this was insufficient against Gra Valkas shells and torpedoes. There's also insufficient data regarding their personal armor usage.

### Gra Valkas Empire

Like Japan, the Gra Valkas military did away with personal suits of metal armor, due to the fact that they were heavy, cumbersome and didn't stand up to modern firearms. However, unlike Japan, the Gra Valkas soldier does not have body protection to speak of. As a result, they were at a disadvantage against the JSDF with their Kevlar vests, bullet-resistant fabrics and ceramic plates.

For vehicles, like their main battle tank, crews were protected by two inches of steel plate, which were resistant to small arms fire and shell fragments. However, this was not effective against rockets, bombs and especially the SABOT and HEAT rounds of the Japanese tanks. The most armor the Gra Valkas fielded was in their navy, in which all destroyers, cruisers, and battleships were protected by armor plating similar to the Krupp steel used by the German battleship, the Bismarck. This armor plating was resistant to even the bombs dropped by the Beta-2 Bomber planes of the Holy Milishial Empire. However, this armor plating proved to be no defense against anti-ship missiles. For the submarines, however, they are not well-trained due to their armor plating lack sound suppression technology and the crew are also not trained to deal with the opponents that can track their positions.

For anti-armor capability, the Gra Valkas battleships were able to take down a Pal Chimera flying battleship with armor-piercing shells, thereby defeating its magically-strengthened hull.

### Japan

In terms of personal protection, the average soldier of the JSDF does not wear any heavy armor. However, since their military doctrine makes use of long-range firearms, there is no need to have such cumbersome protection since close-quarters combat is a rarity. However, the JSDF does make use of body armor made from bullet-resistant fabrics such as Kevlar and ceramic trauma plates. As a result, military forces of more advanced nations are stymied when their bolt-action rifles fail to kill their Japanese opponents.

As for vehicles, armor is available in many formats, most of which are far stronger and lighter than ordinary steel plates. Everything from Explosive Reactive Armor, (ERA), Kevlar laminated materials, and even Chobham armor or composite armor are utilized to defeat just about all enemies so far encountered by Japan in the New World. The newest armor, nano-crystal steel plating is used on Type-10 Main Battle Tank.

As for surface ships, the JMSDF ships aren't as heavily armored as Battleships due to the naval doctrine of most forces back on Earth: trading off the thick armor for speed, agility, and BVR capabilities, although Modern Surface Ships are still incredibly durable, more than enough to withstand most of the Naval forces of the New World. With this, battleships are a thing of the past on Earth. The last military deployment of battleships on Earth was during the 1991 Persian Gulf War I and after the war, battleships already retired in service. To counter enemy attacks, Japan uses guided missiles to prevent attacks from reaching the ships. If the missiles failed to intercept the attack, JMSDF ships use point-blank defense system or the Phalanx CIWS as its last line of defense. As for submarines, the primary defense is the use of sound suppression haul coating to prevent enemy sonar pick up Japanese subs and the use of sonar decoy that acts as a false target for enemy torpedoes. The crew was also trained to deal with the enemy Warships that aims for the submarine that went submerged to avoid being tracked.

For anti-armor capabilities, Japan has a variety of ways to deal with armor of its enemies in the New World. The JGSDF infantry uses semi-automatic pistols, assault rifles, light machine guns (LMG), submachine guns (SMG), heavy machine guns (HMG), grenades, anti-personnel mines and cluster bombs to defeat their New World counterparts. During the JGSDF's deployment in Topa Kingdom and Magicaraich, shoulder-mounted anti-tank missiles are very effective in dealing with the bio-weapons of the Ravernal Empire.

For defeating Gra Valkas tanks, the HEAT and SABOT rounds can easily defeat the 2-inch steel armor of the GVE tanks. Anti-tank missiles fired from helicopters as well as the shoulder-mounted ones are very effective against enemy armor.

For naval and aerial anti-armor, the guided missiles are Japan's main weapon to destroy enemy ships. Used by surface ships, submarines as well as fighter-bombers planes like the F-2, it gave Japan the advantage of destroying her enemies beyond visual range. During the Rodenius War and Japanese-Parpaldian War, the 127/54mm naval guns of the JMSDF destroyed the 1,400 ships of the Lourian Navy and the Parpaldian Imperial Navy's main force by out-of-enemy-range and accurate attacks. With the introduction of Pal Chimeras and flying warships, the JSDF are starting to reconfigure some of their anti-ship missiles to hit and destroy these sky behemoths.