A History of Lamellar and Scale Armour in the West

[Macedon]

I do agree with Dan, that the Byzantine sources praise the Latin chain armor excessively and strongly suggest that it offered better protection than what armor their troops would usually be wearing. I leave technical details to those who are proficient working with materials that make an armor but the Byzantines did admire Latin armor and there has to be a reason for it. Maybe, assuming that a lamellar or scale armor could under circumstances be as effective, they could produce non-chain armor of even better quality in small numbers but not en mass, it truly seems that in later years, the Byzantine army was not as uniformly well-armored as in older times, possibly because of financial and organizational reasons, so maybe the comparison is intended to be at unit instead of at an individual level.

I would also add that there are many instances in which the Latin horses were attacked rather than their steed by archers (I have 8 examples from 3 sources atm), although, to be fair, I have another 2 regarding Turks attacking the Byzantines in that manner and even one regarding Byzantines attacking Turks.