socialcommentary2000 t1_irvhzb2 wrote on October 11, 2022 at 10:53 AM

Armoring up a castle that could withstand artillery of the time period would require the mass production of iron plate. The problem with this, beyond the obvious, would be there's no way to roll it effectively until the first legitimate rolling mills that could work iron came about in the 1600s...and even then it only really took off in the 1700s when James Watt came up with the steam engine.

Short answer : Fabricating iron plate at scale was unobtainable until later.

HDH2506 OP t1_irx1xdp wrote on October 11, 2022 at 5:58 PM

This is fictional but: in a game they use plated to armor only the corners of important towers, which are polygonal - have weakness at corners?

I suppose a defender might do that and recycle the metal after reinforcements defeat the attacker