A somewhat deep dive into the potrayal of Cuman armor
The portrayal of the cumans' armament in the first game was one of the biggest sources of criticism from anyone who is familiar with eastern european armour and weaponry. Now the first game wasn't that accurate when it comes to western armour either - but the cumans had it worse. Several items were entirely made up and most of the rest did not belong in the time period of the game. The most egregious example being the plated mail armour which was based on 18th century examples from the Philippines (while forms of plated mail armour would've begun to appear in early 15th century western europe they absolutely did not have that layout of plates).
Do I think this game will do it better? Probably not, but regardless I'm still going to analyze the little which was shown in the trailer and talk about what would and would not be fitting to see. Before that though it bares mentioning that none of this is actually that fitting for Hungarian Cumans - by this time period the Cumans in Hungary were already integrating into Hungarian society and their arms & armour would've reflected that of Hungary. However the devs chose to instead use aesthetics more fitting of the Golden Horde Tatars - so the rest of this post will talk about things out of that viewpoint (I do not agree with this choice and thinks it misrepresents the Hungarian Cumans rather heavily but I can't change it).
First off let's talk about what we have seen.
In the screenshot above we can see a reconstruction of the helmet from Tagancha, Ukraine.
It is a pretty good take on this helmet, but unfortunately it's out of plate as this helmet type is generally dated to the 13th century. It would not have been found in use by the early 15th. The choice to portray this helmet is a bit unfortunate but at least it looks good and accurate to what it is so it could've been worse (the first game had helmets which didn't even exist at all).
Besides the helmet we don't get to see much else in this screenshot. I am not that knowledgeable on Tatar kaftans so I can't comment on whether it's proper or not. We do get to see a quiver worn on the hip - which is how quivers would be worn and and definitely an improvement compared to the first game.
The second look we get at their armour is the thumbnail for the reveal:
And of course this contains the infamous masked helmet. This is actually a better portrayal of it than the first game had - in the first game the skull was inexplicably done in a segmented fashion which is not now the originals looked at all. The example above is a pretty good rendition of the Tatar helmets from Lipovets and Kovali.
While these helmets used to be dated to the 12-13th centuries by earlier Soviet researchers such as Kirpichnikov, and associated with the Cumans in Rus lands, more recent sentiment has shifted towards labeling them 14th to early 15th century Golden Horde (an attribution held for example by M.V. Gorelik). In light of that it actually does fit the game's setting time wise, if we ignore the bit about them being Golden Horde and not associated with Hungarian Cumans but I already talked about that.
We also get to see a mail shirt worn by the cuman - obviously mail was very popular and the find from Kovali above was found with a mail shirt and a sabre.
Now however to talk about what we don't see, what I'd like to remain not seen but also some things I'd like to see.
We don't see any lamellar - this is good. We don't have evidence for lamellar remaining popularly in use in early 15th century Eastern Europe or West Asia. I sort of expect the devs to add it in anyway however I'd be neat if they didn't, as it doesn't really fit the setting. If not lamellar though, then what would they have been using as an 'equivalent' to western plate and what should they be given for in-game purposes? Initially, there is plated mail. Not the type which was portrayed in the first game however, the plated mail armour we find in this period has smaller plates. A drawing of a late 14th century Golden Horde cavalryman wearing one can be seen below by M.V. Gorelik:
In this image we also see two other important things which the cumans definitely should have. One such thing is the Bazuband - the forearm protector which by this time was essentially ubiqutous all over central and west asia, and also in use by the Ottomans and the Golden Horde and related cultures. The lack of Bazubands in the trailer is a tad sad as I don't think they actually will include them and it's a giant shame if they do not. The scond are the greaves, which once again are pretty distinct from contemporary European ones.
Below is a reproduction of these bazubands and greaves, based on a grave find from st. Dmitrievskay, alongside a black and white photo of th original.
However there's one more option for torso armour which definitely should be represented - brigandines. Now there was a 'cuman brigandine' in the first game but it was entirely fantasy without basis. The brigandines found in use in Western Asia and Eastern Europe at this time would've looked somewhat similar to western ones. We have a 14th century example from Tuva Cave, associated with the Mongols.
In overall form it resembles this 15th century Ottoman one
A reconstruction of the Tuva Cave brigandine was done by (once again) M.V. Gorelik, using the Ottoman one as a reference, to end up with this:
The shoulder and waist armour is based off Persian artwork, which while at first glance seems a bit of a stretch is actually not that far of a stretch since we have a fragment of a waist piece like that found from the Golden Horde
Of course the Brigandines would've mostly been worn on their own, but additional metal armour to supplement it is not out of the question. So at the very least I'd like a proper representation of an Eastern brigandine in use by the Cumans in KCD II.
And lastly let's talk about helmets a bit more. I mentioned that the Tagancha helmet was outdated for the 15th century, so what would've actually been in use by the Tatars? Besides the masked helmet we also have basis for early 'turban helmets' in use in those areas, no doubt an influence from the Caucasus:
Modified western armour was also in use, such as cut down bascinets:
Both of these helmets would've been a more fitting choice than the Tagancha helmet, and I hope that maybe we will still get to see some of this in the final game. Lastly there's also the choice of the helmet from Csengele, which was actually found in Hungary (although in Golden Horde style, probably belonging to a mercenary from there):
While this helmet is from the early-mid 14th century and probably a bit old for the early 15th, once again a better choice than the Tagancha helmet.
Anyway that was my brief overview of the portrayal of Tatar armour in KCD II, and what I'd like to see.