I generally skip both bronze and iron armor. I prefer troll armor because it does not slow a viking down as much as bronze, iron, or heavier armor. With a buckler or round shield, it works fine for the Meadows, Black Forest, and Swamp biomes.

I would probably use it all the way through the Mountain if wolf armor did not have cold resistance. I haven't started a new game since Hearth and Home so I haven't tried to use root armor in the Swam; for poison resistance.

Two things to keep in mind. First, I do not like to stand and slug it out with powerful beasties. Stick and move is more my style. Second, I do use wolf and padded armor for extended stays in the Mountains and the Plains. Beasties and the environment there can severly restrict the move component of stick and move. Occasionally, I will get myself into making a corpse run to a dicey spot in the Swamp. I will make bronze or iron armor if I can't make heavier armor for those occasions.

If a viking prefers the "tank" strategy, bronze and iron armor will be crafted and used as soon as possible.

"Tank" is in quotation marks because, in real life, tanks use the stick and move style. At least the ones with crews interested in survival do.