Ok, so far we've got five armor types: Leather, Hardened, Light Plate (LtP), Plate, and Heavy Plate (HvP), two shields, and a bunch of nondistinct weapons.  Also, speed is swing speed, not to be confused with movement.

Let's add a little spice (and some ways to get an attack strength of more than 8).  I'll let you all handle the materials to iron to crystal to whateverotherresouresyouadd ratios...the ones here are suggestions only. 

Initially available items:

Club: Cheap, 1 atk, .25 speed.

Troll Club: Cheap, 2 atk, .25 speed but you can't use a shield (it's a two-handed weapon, k?)

Iron Rod: Cheap, 2 atk, 0 speed.  Gold and mats

Quarterstaff: Cheap, 3 atk, 0 speed.  Gold and mats.

Enchanted Staff: Cheap, 2 attack, 1 speed, 1 magic strength.  Gold, mats, crystal.

Tech items:

Short Spear: 3 atk, .25 speed, gold and mats

Long Spear: 5 atk, 0 speed. gold and mats, but you can't use a shield

Dagger: 4 atk, .5 speed, gold and iron

Short Sword: 4 atk, 1 speed, gold and iron (a well-balanced blade)

Long Sword: 6 atk, .25 speed, gold and iron

Long Sword (with no shield equipped): 7 atk, .25 speed

Rapier: 5 atk, 1 speed, 1 defense, gold and iron

Great Sword: 10 atk, -.5 speed, gold and iron (cannot use shield)

Claymore: 9 atk, -.5 speed, gold and iron

Claymore (with no shield equipped): 12 atk, -.5 speed, gold and iron.

Katana: 7 atk, .25 speed, gold and iron

Katana (with no shield equipped): 8 atk, .75 speed, gold and iron

Ninjato: 5 atk, 1 speed, adds assassination, gold and iron

Axe: 7 atk, -.5 speed, gold and materials

Battle Axe: 11 atk, -.5 speed, gold and materials (cannot use shield)

Obviously, add some more stuff to go with the new techs, these are mostly setup for troops to be able to get a reasonable offense relative to the existing defense cap.

Armor is broken down by set here.

Leather

Head, Wrists: .5 defense, .125 speed, gold and some mats.

Body, Legs: 1.5 defense, gold and some mats.

Hard Leather

Head, Wrists: 1 defense, gold and few mats

Body, Legs: 2 defense, gold and some mats

LtP

Head, Wrists: 1.5 defense, -.05 speed, gold and little iron

Body: 3 defense, -.1 speed. Gold and few iron

Legs: 2 defense, -.05 speed Gold and few iron

Standard Plate

Head: 2 defense, -.1 speed, gold and little iron

Wrist: 1 defense, 1 attack, -.1 speed, gold and few iron

Body: 3 defense, 1 hp, -.1 speed.  Gold and few iron

Legs: 2 defense, 1 hp, -.1 speed.  Gold and few iron

HvP

Head: 2 defense, 1 hp, -.1 speed, gold and few iron

Wrist: 2 defense, 1 attack, -.1 speed, gold and some iron

Body: 4 defense, 1 hp, -.1 speed, gold and some iron

Legs: 3 defense, 1 hp, -.1 speed, gold and some iron

Shields, as of this point, are much cheaper and more effective than wristguards.  I'd suggest letting the wrist guards allow 2h weapons to be equipped, but not with shields.  Then, make shields a bit more useful by...

Wooden Shield: 2 defense, -1 to physical damage received, gold and some mats

Iron Shield: 3 defense, -2 to physical damage received, -.1 speed, gold and some iron

Heavy Wooden Shield: 3 defense, -25% damage taken from ranged attacks, -1 to physical damage received, -.1 speed, gold and many mats

Heavy Iron Shield: 4 defense, -25% damage taken from ranged attacks, -2 to physical damage received, -.2 speed, gold and many iron

Tower Shield: 6 defense, -75% damage taken from ranged attacks, -3 to physical damage received, -.4 speed, gold, some mats, some iron

Special items like the scout's pack...limit them to 3 per troop and add the following:

Counterweights: Increase attack speed by .5, and attack by 1  (gold and iron)

Poison Coating: Weapon deals +1 damage per hit (gold and mats)

Ring of Physical Power: +1 attack, +1 hp (gold and crystal)

Ring of Finesse: Add daring, +1 defense, +.25 speed (gold and crystal)

Spyglass: +2 range of vision (gold)

Endurance Training: +3 hp, +.1 speed. (gold)

Special Operations: Add thief, add assassin, +1 attack (gold and materials)

Pioneer Pack: Allows use of pioneer commands (materials)

Arksangiel's Almighty Artifact: +30000 to everythi...oh, sorry, that's unbalanced.

Cloaks and whatnot are moving to the adventurer tech tree at some point I hope...also, make their production cost scale with the stat bonuses.  Currently you've got +1 sight for 10g 10m, +1 sight, +1mov for 10g 10m, and +2 sight for 10g 10m.  I'd like to see cloaks affect something related to the back, vs...vision...and walking.  We all know how really useful a cloak is for seeing things.  Last time I checked, it was glasses.