Shedu Assault Battle Armor - Technical Readout 3075 page 41
Quad.
Okay, okay, if I must...
The sole quad among the Demon series, the Shedu is a powerful-looking, heavily armored Assault Battle Armor design. Despite the potential of the chassis, it's perhaps also the most disappointing of the Demon suits, with weapon configurations that fail to fully exploit its hefty payload, in my opinion. On the positive side, the Shedu is cosmetically pleasing - for a quad - but more importantly it can take a beating and can prove to be a danger in urban combat when handled well.
Maelwys: Strangely, the writeup for the Shedu goes on about how its "radical and an experimental departure from the rest of the Demon battle armor series." I don't really see it. Okay, sure, it’s the only quad, but quads are a 2 decade old technology by the time the Shedu puts in an appearance in 3072. I can see it being a departure from the other suits, but radical and experimental? Published in Technical Readout 3075 and first introduced within the universe in 3072, the Shedu is just pipped into second place by its Assault-class stablemate, the Nephilim, for the position of most heavily armored suit among the Demon series of Battle Armor that serves in the Shadow Divisions. Sheathed in fifteen points of Advanced plating, the Shedu has just enough armor to take a hit from a Gauss Rifle and still keep fighting, a trait shared by few designs, whether Clan or Inner Sphere.
The Shedu's mobility is equally finely tuned, although only average for the quad Assault chassis, with a ground speed of three Movement Points, which does indeed make it excellent compared to the more common bipedal designs. Most importantly, the Shedu is quick enough to generate a Target Movement Modifier unless slowed by terrain, enhancing survivability by avoiding being hit in the first place. Like other suits with a fast ground speed, the design is an excellent urban warfare design, able to outrun the majority of Battle Armor, which are typically limited to the same pace as foot infantry when unable to use their jump jets.
Maelwys: Are we beginning to see a pattern here? Only the Asura and Djinn's movement falls along the "traditionally accepted" values. The Se'irim is a fast mover..on the ground. The Tengu both jumps and runs along the ground. The Nephilim is a fast mover...on the ground (for its weight). And now the Shedu (for the obvious reason of course). I don't know if it worked out that way, or if it there was a plan, but its an interesting tidbit to me. Adding to the Shedu's plus points, it also has the heaviest payload among the Demon series and one of the heaviest in the Battle Armor world, with the suit able to mount an impressive 690kg of weaponry and equipment. With that auspicious start, you would be forgiven to expect the Shedu to truly be a demon on the battlefield, but unfortunately its variants and configurations are all somewhat lacking. To be fair, in part that is due to the Shedu being published long before the latest construction rules for quad Battle Armor, thus its canon variants were restricted to just six slots for their armament. With relatively few slots for its payload size, the Shedu was thus forced to mostly opt for weapon and equipment choices with a high mass-to-slot ratio. Two of the variants address this issue with the use of Detachable Weapon Packs, which only require a single slot no matter how bulky the weapon, but this comes with its own problem, namely the greatly reduced mobility.
jymset: Really, the Shedu is yet another somewhat lackluster suit that does not use the chassis' potential to full extent. The basics are really good, actually, with movement 3 being quite smart, but the woes begin at the armor. Fifteen points of Advanced armor are awesome by itself, but rubbish when put next to the sublime Nephilim's sixteen points of Mimetic.
This stipulates awesome weaponry and in that context, the Shedu is an epic fail. If the chassis, or at least the armor, were more inspired, the weaponry would get away with being run of the mill. Starting off the list of missed opportunities is the Standard variant, which for effectively cosmetic reasons mounts part of its weaponry in a turret, with its wider firing arc only of any importance in roleplaying scenarios. Despite the name in Technical Readout 3075, the turret is not modular, an issue addressed in the latest Technical Manual errata, and the installed Heavy Recoilless Rifle can for all intents and purposes be considered a fixed weapon. Although a powerful weapon, unfortunately the Heavy Recoilless Rifle doesn't offer much more performance than the Medium version, for the cost of an extra 75kg and a vital slot, but what really holds the Shedu Standard back is its secondary weaponry. A pair of Heavy Machine Guns might appear worthwhile at first glance, inflicting decent damage for their mass, but the problem is their all but negligible range, that requires the Standard to get deep into the enemy's kill zone to be able to use its machine guns. The only plus point is that the Shedu's affinity for urban combat can mitigate the range issue of its backup armament, particularly for any gunfights that occur within the confines of a building.
Maelwys: It's hard to object to this really. You've got the range of the Heavy Recoilless Rifle, but to use the heavy MGs you're forced to come in close, which is where you generally don't want to be. On the other hand, if you do get stuck in close (such as urban terrain), then you can hit up to 18 times for 3 points of damage, which isn't too bad at all. The Support variant continues the pattern of strong, but short ranged secondary armament, that in this case is the only firepower once the main battery has been salvoed. Mounting a pair of SRM3 launchers, the Shedu Support can inflict some serious damage at range, but due to the lack of reloads it's a one-time deal for a full salvo and then it's forced to rely upon its pair of Small Lasers. Players familiar with the old Sloth will be comfortable with this weapon arrangement, although they would have the advantage of triple the armor, which does at least mean that they actually might survive getting into firing range and staying there. Yet again, try to keep the Shedu Support in confined areas and thereby reduce the impact of the limited range of the lasers.
The third of the original trio of Shedu variants, the Recon is perhaps the least objectionable, although it's not without its worrisome points, even with the latest buff for its chosen weaponry. Mounting a single Light Mortar for offensive firepower, under the 2nd edition Tactical Operations rules the weapon is now capable of indirect fire, although the short range can reduce that advantage. Perhaps more importantly, the mortar can fire smoke rounds to help block incoming fire, allowing the suit to concentrate on the job of gathering data. Together with a Camo System, an ECM suite offers further protection when the latter is used in Ghost Target mode, but in some circumstances a better choice might be to switch to ECCM mode to thus cancel enemy ECM that might otherwise block the integral C3I network if the Manei Domini inside are so equipped. On the subject of cyberware, sensory upgrades combined with the VDNI neural control system can boost the range of the Improved Sensors, although personally I'd rather they relied upon the cyber sensors alone and instead installed a Light TAG. Despite its light weapon load, the Recon can sometimes be the most dangerous variant when it acts as a C3I spotter for the remainder of its Level II, although as noted earlier, that role does require the Manei Domini troopers be implanted with the appropriate cyberware.
In 3074 the next pair of Shedu variants were encountered, both taking advantage of the Detachable Weapon Pack technology acquired by the Blakists in the previous year, and both opting to install part of their armament in a turret. The more usable of the two models mounts twin Support PPCs in its turret and is appropriately labeled the PPC variant. Offering a reasonable combination of range and firepower, the PPCs could be replaced with better weapons, but given the available rules at the time Technical Readout 3075 came out, they aren't a bad choice. What really lets the Shedu PPC down is its third weapon, which in my opinion is little more than new toy syndrome at its worst. By exploiting the mass-reducing capability of Detachable Weapon Packs, Precentor Vapula managed to squeeze a 150kg Heavy Machine Gun into just 115kg, Unfortunately, until the machine gun is jettisoned, the suit is limited to being able to move just a single Movement Point per Turn, thus increasing its vulnerability to incoming fire. Personally, I believe a standard 100kg Machine Gun would have been a far better choice, keeping the majority of the secondary firepower without the need to cripple the suit's mobility, and with better range as an added side-benefit.
The fifth and final variant is without a doubt the worst of the bunch. Like the design in general, the Shedu Capture Team starts off well enough, with the superb Magshot mounted in a turret, but the installation of a pair of 'Mech Tasers turns the variant into the Battle Armor equivalent of a turd in a punchbowl. It's true that occasionally a player might get lucky with the Tasers and bring down a target that the suit would otherwise have zero chance of defeating, but more typically the result is a big fat zero, or even that the Battle Armor fries itself instead of its foe. Adding insult to injury, the Tasers are mounted using Detachable Weapon Packs, thus limiting the suit to a single Movement Point until they're dropped. At least the Tasers are one-shot weapons and thus the suit won't be losing any firepower after the Packs are discarded, but that is small comfort for such a hideous weapon and such a poor use of a weight-saving technology that can provide such massive benefits in more efficient designs.
So how to use the Shedu? By now you've probably noticed the hints that the suit works well in urban combat; the high ground speed allows the Shedu to rapidly move around within buildings, where jump jets can't be used, or to quickly dash from one to another. Combining the suit's superb inherent toughness with the extra protection provided by the heavier, more robust buildings, Shedus can be a real pain for opponents to kill, although as always area effect weapons can greatly ease the task of clearing structures of the any Battle Armor. Outside of cities, the Shedu isn't necessarily impotent, but like other Assaults it does suffer from the inability to perform Mechanized Battle Armor operations, and thus relies upon traditional APC-style transport to move to and around the battlefield. The Shedu's own mobility is just enough to keep up with slowly moving battles by itself, however there's no reserve left to deal with poor terrain, and if there's a river or similar impediment, the quads can end up unable to reach the fight.
My general distaste for quads aside, it's true that the Shedu has perhaps suffered more than its fair share of whacks by the Inefficiency Bat, but at least it has the virtue of survivability to balance its less than desirable weaponry. One of the rarer Demon suits, the Shedu was unknown outside the ranks of the Shadow Divisions at the time of the publication of Technical Readout 3075, which doesn't bode well for its future. For good or bad, the Shedu will undoubtedly go the way of the Dodo now that the Word have been defeated, and barring the incredibly faint possibility of a much improved variant or two being added in some future publication, I can't say I'll be that sad to see it go.
Next up:
- Nephilim
- Se'irim
- Rogue Bear
- Hauberk
