I just wanted to know if they preferred light or heavy armor. Thanks in advance.

I'd imagine, living in the desert, they'd prefer light.

True, but the one's in the cities and going out to war outside of their province would likely be very capable with heavy armor. In Morrowind redguards had an endurance bonus which governs medium and heavy amor. They also had a +5 bonus for both medium and heavy armor, so I'd say that they do like heavy armor quite a bit.

Yes but not all of Hammerfell is a desert right?

They would most likely prefer medium but that doesn't exist anymore so I would just call it light armor. But that's me. We don't really have all that much info on them anymore in terms of what they specifically wear. But they are usually portrayed in medium looking armors like chainmail or scalemail. Best I could find was this. http://images.uesp.net/7/73/Lore-people-Frandar_Hunding.jpg looks like something a Dunmer would wear but it is a sword singer supposedly named Frandur Hunding. He was kind of a big deal....

I feel like they would favor cloth inlaid with scale/chain mail armors but that is the best I got. They seem like they prefer no armor when operating as individuals. As far as actual armor that they are known for...well maybe legion armor for one as they were a big help to the legion for many years.

Mail and scale armour is not light armour in real life terms. But I guess we're working in videogame logic here

Anyways, real life cultures that I would think are similar to Redguards would be Mamlukes, Ayyubids, Seljuks, the various Persian dynasties,... They all had their elite troops covered from head to toe in heavy mail, lamellar and so on.
It's pretty easy to do a google image search and get dozens of examples of what such soldiers would wear.

Most likely they use a combination of light or medium armor with various clothing attached to certain areas to allow breathing in the hot temperatures. From what we know about some Redguard warriors is that they wear clothing with their armor or that a lot of Al'akir wear clothing in favor of armor.

I know lol but I was classifying under bethesdas logic. I would prefer to call them a more middle range armor type.

back in Oblivion I think they valued heavy the most, but on Skyrim Bethesda have changed all the racial stats so who knows? I haven't studied the new stats. I did breifly look them over.

Nords used to favor heavy armor, now they are better with light???!!

They'd go for light, and if you want an idea on what it may look like, check out the outfits of soliders in 16th century Africa and Middle East. Lots of loose fabric with metal scales or reinforced leather. You'd be a broiled pig in a metal suit.

That's mostly myth, there's no shortage of heavily armoured cavalrymen and elite troops in the Middle East and North Africa.
The entire concept of a rider covered head to toe in iron or steel was even a Persian invention, and the Mamluks and Ottomans were certainly no stranger to it either.

Just to illustrate: Mamluk cavalry armour from 1550:
Low grade soldiers wearing mostly lighter forms of armour is usually a matter of cost, not because they didn't want to wear it.

Hmm, true. Granted, I think Turkey is a bit more mild than Hammerfell which sounds more like Morocco or Ghana, but I can definitely see heavy Raga Da soldiers fighting in something like that. It's not the armor material that's the problem really, it's how it can breathe in the heat. Considering that Redguards are used to life on the desert, they probably don't have to worry about that.

I always imagined Hammerfell as Tamriel's version of North Africa (coastal forests, rocky and desolate mountains, arid badlands/Savannah, and vast dunes of sand). The Dunedweller Redguards would wear light armour (a necessity in harsh conditions like that; you exert yourself less), while the Redguards of the cities along the coast and in the mountains would tend to favour heavier armour for adventuring, mercenary work, etc.

The problem though is there is little documentation that any groups in the TES universe even used Cavalry. I believe there are a few but not many. So as much as I'd want to say the Raga Da used similar armaments to people of like the Songhai Empire, Persia or even the Ottoman empire I think they must be different. Fully armored infantry men were rare as foot soldiers. While the myth that it took a crane or whatever to lift a knight into their saddle is certainly BS it is however true that most places would only equip cavalry men in incredibly heavy armor. The heaviest armor a traditional medieval(this is a touchy word as there was not really a medieval period for a lot of cultures) infantryman would wear would like be something akin to this. I imagine they wore something similar to that if anything. But I could easily be wrong too.
Even the most heat resistant people will still suffer in heavy armor in a desert. Not to mention it is very disadvantageous to fight in heavy armor in a desert for many reasons. But it also depends on the type of desert they are in. Is Hammerfell a packed dirt kind of desert or a sandy type? Either is disadvantageous in heavy armor but the sandy desert would be much much more so. They also seem to be a heavily Naval based society iirc. So I think most of the evidence points to the greater majority of their military forces fighting in light armor but I am sure there are heavy variants. They could be all types.

Where are they fighting? What's the warrior's pedigree? Who/what are they fighting; and is this a duel?

In Skyrim they do not get any armor bonus and the Redguards we see who are native to Hammerfell do not wear armor so I'm guessing the majority are in hammerfell garb (clothes).

Back in Oblivion they were best suited for heavy armor but received bonuses in both. Heavy armor was highest due to a higher stat on endurance over the speed stat.

Just to add, there used to be something in the lore where many Redguards value Dwemer armor. This probably due to a large amount Dwemer ruins within Hammerfell and are entwined into Redguard lore.
The Redguard country of Hammerfell is named after a Dwemer ruin.
Redguard going into the military have to first brave a Dwemer ruin. I'm guessing this is why Dwemer armor became a part of Redguard lore. Dwemer is a heavy armor.

In my imagination place I like to see them wearing Lamellar styled armour primarily with bright reds, blues, and yellows in silks.
Ceramic Lamellar being a popular thing because it's cheap, somewhat sturdy, and very light.
And some kind of armour similar to Trollbone or Bonemold for the heavy-heavy armours.

I don't want to take credit for this but I read somewhere that the test for a redguard warrior is to go into a dwarven ruin and bring out materials for his armor. So you gotta think that the warriors fashion some variation of dwarven armor.

Fun fact: Hammerfell is actually named after an event in which a dwarven ruler (forgot his name) was traveling west with his clan and after a great battle he flung volendrung up in the air and proclaimed wherever it landed to be their new home... Hence "hammerfell"

We literally just went over this misconception in another thread. The First Pocket Guide states that Redguards who want to join the Knights of the Scarab "must sail to the Dwemer Ruins of Stros M'kai, to avoid its deathtraps and 'wrestle its mechanical men back into shape'." It doesn't say anything about "Redguards joining the military" (and, btw, it had just mentioned that Hammerfell had no standing military.) The text only refers to a very select group of Redguards, and it makes no mention of a Redguard affinity for Dwarven artefacts.

And, on top of that, it's information from a text that's hundreds of years out of date.

Like Skyrim inhabitants I guess, given the harsh weather. No armor as "civilians", light armor for those who need mobility (hunters, thieves, pirates, guards, etc) and heavy ones for the serious business: knights of the various orders, officers, mercs, etc.

Tbh, I think it is open season for us to create some fanon Hammerfell armors. Anyone want to take a swing at it? Any artists?

I too am imagining http://images.wikia.com/deadliestwarrior/images/a/a8/Lamellar.jpg. I imagine http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mitchtanz/aftrcanknight.jpg only because of Skyrim though. Before Skyrim I always imagined them to wear http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1166/hannibalw.jpg. Sometimes http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs44/f/2009/057/e/6/Fantasy_Chinese_Armor_by_garang76.jpg too. Might use this as a concept if I do a sketch of what I would imagine redguards to wear. In any case I assumed there would be some asia meets Europe kind of armor. Kind of like the Blades armor.

Wasn't there a Raga-dialogue duel in this thread before?

EDIT: My mistake.

Porcelain.

Hammerfell is not all desert. I'd imagine desert warriors would have different armor than the coastal men, and that the Crowns and Forbears, with their fundamentally different philosophies, would also have different styles of combat and therefore different armor.

Although, their precision-based sword moves would imply that whatever else, they needed some degree of mobility, especially in their upper body. Make of that what you will.

http://hammerfell.daryam.com/ConceptArt.html

Aren't those all fan-made though?