Bronze is such a pita for how quickly it gets outclassed. If you go troll into root, youll have some scary moments here and there (elder, abominations, ☆draugr) but the speed of troll/root vastly outdoes bronze's paltry protection imho.

I think each set should have small side effects that help differentiate it from the others, like give us a real reason to make bronze 😅

troll for sure. you dont want to need to rely on extra armor. make an upgraded bronze buckler and that should carry you until the iron one. If youre playing vanilla, with some exp. you could take troll armor into the plains. Just dont get hit too many times. My preference is speed and low stamina costing offense.

I'd do it the other way about: mine the iron and get an iron mace and banded shield (say) before tackling Bonemass. Personally I went from Troll Armour to Iron Armour as soon as I could and skipped Bronze but that was before they introduced Root Armour.

Once you find a couple of crypts, getting enough iron shouldn't be a problem other than transporting it to your smelter.

All I did with bronze by way of kit was to get a bronze mace to tide me over until I could get an iron one.

All my runs I aim to not die. Some people like troll armour, I preferred upgraded bronze for the additional armour.
Take your risks and go with what you think better, but do not underestimate two main things: skill points (in case you are expecting to die) and each armour point.

Skip bronze. Bronze armor is far too much a hassle compared to all other armors. Full troll at least gives you a sneak bonus and is lighter. The most important thing about the swamp area is poison resist potions; Once you can make them, you are good to go.

It's up to your play style. I like to barge right into mobs and tank a lot of damage, so I went for upgraded bronze. My friend doesn't - she likes to be sneaky - so she used (and still uses) troll and root.

@ShaftAlmighty is correct that bronze is a hassle to get, plus it slows you.

I don't think the movement speed penalty is worth the extra AC from bronze.

Go full troll until root/iron ( and if you get tricky to mine some obsidian in mountains can upgrade to full lvl troll ) , you can bypass bronze

I always skip the bronze age and only make a hatchet out of it, but I already know this game and I know what to expect.

I usually stay in troll gear with bronze weapons until mining iron. The introduction of the new enemy in the swamp makes things more interesting, for sure. Make sure that you have poison resist potions and high quality food and that you're always rested before venturing into the swamp. You'll always be wet, so that will affect your stamina.