Wigwerth, please forgive, but I must disagree:

I have tried on Lorica Segmentata as a reenactor, and while it IS difficult to put on, Rome preferred to fight pitched battles anyway... and in any case mail is no piece of cake either.

Its remarkably lightweight, and quite comfortable as armor goes. Mail, which I've also worn, is by contrast much heavier and more awkward. I found segmentata to be pretty unobstrusive - and you have to keep in mind that the Roman soldier was not expected to be particularly agile in combat. Walk/jog into position (which is easier with segmentata because mail has a tendency to bounce around), lock formation, hold shields out, block incoming blow with shield, shield-punch, sword stab, lather rinse repeat. While on a strategic and grand-tactical level Roman armies were flexible, on a tactical level their troops were not meant to be as such.

Segmentata's segmented form allows it to absorb blows better than a comparable amount of mail, and does so not only weighing less, but also costing less as well. Probably its biggest fault is its dependence on leather straps to various bits together, but with good leather (unlike a lot of cheap stuff you find in some bad segmentata's today), that's not particularly likely, and the straps are easily replaced after the battle.

I should like to see EB extend until the British and Dacian conquests - till about 105 AD. I think it would be a particularly cool touch if, ONLY in the Dacian provinces, the Roman's could recruit "heavy" legionaries; that is to say, soldiers wearing the manica armguard on their right arm (far right here), which was adopted because of Roman encounter's with the falx.