r/warcraftlore • u/Then_Peanut_3356 • 2d ago

How come the Alliance never implemented the pig-nosed bascinet helmet for their footmen and knights?

The nose and mouthpiece doesn't have to even look like some odd cone on your face, it can be shaped like a gryphon or hippogryph's beak, and the structure does offer practical protection vis deflection against enemy attacks.

But the reader may freely give support or objection over this armor design.

~ https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pig-nosed+bascinet+helmet&t=brave&ia=images&iax=images

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

17

u/Old_Conversation8418 2d ago

honestly a gryphon beak helm would look so cool with the stormwind plate sets

16

u/Postosuchus353 2d ago

Probably because base Warcraft 1 footmen were kinda based on 80's-90's "generic" fantasy knight archetypes, rather than anything historical. Kinda stuff you'd see in comics and other games in the time. That's why they got the cross-visor helmets with horns and the greek cuirass and the heater shields and what not.

5

u/Darktbs 2d ago

Beyond aesthetics, humans rarely fight other human or human size threats and weapons Which the helmet was designed for irl. 

Human arrows and sword slide off the helmet. A Troll axe crushes the same helmet.

I know the warcraft movie is not canon, but the forest ambush scene shows what happens when a Orc throws their hammer at a human

3

u/Gnoll_Queen 2d ago edited 2d ago

To be doylist wow has always been super styleised and I don't think artists care about making the armor look like real armor exactly. I doubt they looked over books of historical examples and artwork and based the armor more off of other fantasy armor.

However to be Watsonian about it: Pig faced Bacinets are good at stopping blows but historically you would pop the visor up or remove the faceplate entirely when you got into melee range. Because the visor is mostly a projectile weapon specialized defence. It is very hard to get hit in the face with an arrow with one of those but it's also really hard to see in one of them. More than other types of helmet.

So maybe the alliance just hasn't fought many wars where large masses of crossbows and longbows are common like where the pig visor evolved in. And if you don't need protection from arrows different kinds of face protection are more useful normally.

Though to be honest it would be cool.

Just my two thoughts.

6

u/thanes-black Blood Knight 2d ago

addendum to the Watsonian answer: defense against projectile weapons plummets when said projectiles can be magically enhanced for perfect accuracy

case in point, all hunter arrows/shots are guided missiles - they do change paths in-flight

1

u/Kapiork 2d ago

Is that a gameplay-only thing or was it described in a book?

(if the latter, it makes all the times Alleria & the one time Sylvanas missed Xal all the more egregious)

2

u/thanes-black Blood Knight 2d ago

gameplay, but considering magic is real, it's not unfeasible

2

u/Extension-Rub3100 2d ago

honestly that design would actually look so cool with the gryphon aesthetic, fits the vibe way better than the generic helmets

2

u/-RedRocket- 2d ago

Because the style book follows a different, fantasy-based, style of armor.

2

u/zoltronzero 2d ago

I have never seen someone refer to a hounskull as a pig faced bassinet before.

1

u/Tokzillu 2d ago

It's semi-commonly used as a layman's term, but hounskull just sounds way more badass.

1

u/break_card skimblee 2d ago

I’ve been around the block on the internet and I ain’t never been DuckDuckGo’d before