Steam Armor and Drill?
 

I'm in Mehgard and two items for sale are a "Steam Armor" and "Drill".

The armor gives +30% to attack and +30% to defense with -1 speed but has a "special influence" on short humanoids which I assume means dwarves and alchemists and cannoneers and such. The drill gives +25% to physical damage with -1 initiative and has a "special influence" on melee warriors.

Does anyone know what this special influence is? I've equipped them and didn't notice anything unduly interesting. Maybe a hidden influence in combat?

the changes you see only in combat-mode and "special influence on short huamnoids" just means - as you said - for dwarves and no other species.

That is completely not true, as it affects most of the humans and elves. IMO "short humanoids" is there to exclude things like giants.

And the special influence is, what?

I'm wondering this as well and it never got answered. I noticed that equipping the armor does in fact give +30% defense and attack to my units, (with the exception of the green dragons, weird) which can be seen even outside of battle on the information screen. I don't notice anything from the drill.

But this doesn't answer the question. What is the special influence? It can't be the defense/attack bonus, since none of my troops are dwarves, and it gives that bonus regardless. Anyone know for either item?