One of the ways in which a samurai body armor in World War I would be considerably different from, say, a Roman or medieval Christian knight rework is that the armor was not made of metal. It was made largely of layers of leather. This removes the weight and bulk issue, but on the other hand, but without the strength of metal, it becomes even more useless than the metal plating.
However, if we suppose that the Japanese, wishing to incorporate the armor into their fighting tactics, researched better, stronger, lighter materials. We could assume that they make some early discoveries into kevlar or a related material.
For my mod in which all of the civilizations have different tech trees, this is quite workable.
It's a thought at least...
So much like a Roman Musketeer, the iron goes to steel and the leather goes to kevlar.
A quick internet search shows that silk could be used to make armor capable of stopping some black powder rounds, and a combination of that and light metal plating could be even more effective. Then nylon could be used for a World War I-II era unit.
The footwear could also remain largely the same. The "two-toed" boots on a modern Japanese infantry could add some flavor.
Could be easily used as an Isshin Shishi, "Meiji Samurai," or late-medieval/early Industrial era infatry unit in even a non-alternate history setting.
Almost forgot about this thread...wow, time sure does fly!
. But I doubt that would really show up to well at Civ-scale anyhoo.
