Armor and defence - what's the difference mechanics wise

So my impression of armor is that your armor stat is subtracted from the total damage you take. That means a boar with natural armor seven can roam through bushes without taking any damage from thorns and other defences. In combat its mostly useful against opponents that strike a lot of times with low intensity blows.

Not sure on defence though.

 

Kind of like shooting a .22 at an Abrams. You are just going to scratch the paint. Makes sense to me.

 

When is defense used?

 

Its on every piece of armor, thereas natural armor is something living things have. So basically it is used whenever somethings strikes armor (or walls, golems, etc.)

Another number error found. At this point I don't really care, but shouldn't he have 24 defense above instead of 27 armor? Hmm unless he has 3 armor from his undergarments as well as natural armor - that might actually make sense. If so armor and defence may simply be the same value. Thing is, i'm pretty sure i've seen armor subtracted directly - on the other hand with zero modifiers defense would also just be subtracted. hmm

It also seems it should be fairly easy for a determined enemy to blow a hole in the walls.

 

Just make sure to use the correct type of damage. You don't want to slash when you need to bash.

 

Would you have to blow through the durability to be able to blow a hole through the wall?

 

I'd assume so. You need to grind down the durability before that section of the wall collapses completely. I guess you could blow a hole through, but even with a cannon you need time to break through stonework. In the land stonework is even more durable.