Quote Originally Posted by Intranetusa
Ah I see. thanks...sorta resembles an inverted scale armor though. So that means that lamellar provides better protection than coat of plates?
Coat-of-plates is a spinoff of the scale principle AFAIK, and you're even more correct if we go into the "brigandine" version - that is, plates on the inside riveted to an outer textile layer. The Chinese called that something like "armour of thousand nails" which does a pretty good job describing what it looks like (later they came up with a purely decorative version, for court wear and such, that had the shiny rivets but not the armour plates...).

The type in the picture is, however, AFAIK made by riveting the plates directly onto each other and/or backing, so it's not so much "modified scale" as "solid cuirass built up of a lot of small plates". I've read the officers' versions were triple-overlapping and made of good strong steel - a hard nut to crack by any standards - whereas the rank and file had rather less impressive models.

As for how it compares to lamellar, no bloody idea. Depends probably on the specific designs and material qualities involved; my hunch is they break more or less even, but coat-of-plates having the advantage of being rather easier to mass-produce.