SH-** Shiro75-ton Inner Sphere BattleMechSource: Technical Readout 3145: Draconis Combine"Snicker-snack. Kill all FedSuns. Snicker-snack."
This week we're discussing the largest of the Combine's Three Billy 'Mechs Stabby, the
Shiro. The
Shiro is manufactured on Luthien and distributed to those warriors who catch the attention of the Combine's warlords, but it comes in two very different flavors. The SH-2P probably lives up to its status as a prestige unit. Being given an SH-1V
Shiro, on the other hand, is somewhat akin to receiving a "Get Well Soon" card when you're not actually ill; you know they're thinking of you, and the sentiment
sounds positive, but it might not actually
be positive at all.
That sounds dire. Start with the basics?Thankfully, the variants are pretty similar in a lot of respects. 75 tons, 375 XL fusion engine, Endo-Steel structure, XL gyro, all available actuators. That's a lot of weight-saving tech, which would bother me a lot, except you know what it spends all that tonnage on?
Guns? Please say guns. I hope it's guns.Hmm, not really. Armor! The SH-1V mounts twenty-one tons of hardened armor, giving it almost thirty more points than the maximum for
hundred-ton 'Mech. The SH-2P is no slouch either, with nineteen and a half tons of the Combine's new Ballistic-Reinforced plate. That gives it even better protection than the SH-1V against missiles and ballistic weapons, at the expense of "only" having the maximum protection for a seventy-five-tonner against energy weapons. Oh, and for added protection, the SH-1V has Guardian ECM.
Basically, the
Shiro compensates for its soft, soft internals (XL Engine, XL Gyro, no CASE) with outrageously durable externals. Whether or not this is a good trade is hard to evaluate, but it does mean that it's very difficult to quickly degrade a
Shiro's capabilities with a few big hits. An SH-1V can take two improved Heavy Gauss hits to the center torso without losing all the armor, and the SH-2P only takes one point of internal damage after
three. So, the
Shiro gains additional protection from its allies simply by usually being a less immediately profitable use of firepower.
Okay, but what about guns?Yes, well, some sacrifices had to be made. Again, let's start with what they have in common.
Both variants mount a sword in the right arm. Ordinarily I'm not a big fan of swords, with their limited damage, but I think it's appropriate here. It only does nine points of damage, but it does so with a -2 to-hit modifier. As
Shiros are given to some of the most distinguished of the Combine's soldiers,
Doloires to Donars the guy in the
Shiro is some kind of VIP. A VIP, and therefore a juicy target for fast backstabby units like the Federated Suns' new
Prey Seekers and
Gunsmiths. The SH-1V in particular is exactly the sort of prey the
Prey Seeker's re-engineered lasers seek. However, even at nine points the sword will cause horrific problems for the
Gunsmith or
Hollander III (which are armored with reflective plate and take double damage), or the
Prey Seeker (which is armored with hope and cellophane), and at -2 it will have a much easier time hitting fast targets.
Both variants also mount a quartet of Clan LRM-10s, two to a torso. As far as the IS is concerned, these things are basically magic. Long range, no minimum, decent damage for their mass, tolerable heat. Splitting them into four tens instead of two twenties runs a little hotter, but reduces AMS effectiveness and gives you more control over ammunition usage. That control over ammunition is often invaluable because neither
Shiro mounts enough of it. A mere three tons gives you only nine turns of fire from all four launchers. Enough to mess an enemy up, but really only enough to mess
an enemy up. On the bright side, once they're all gone, you don't have to worry about them exploding!
The SH-IV also mounts an LB-2X in the left arm with a ton of ammo. I'll be charitable and say that that's one of the best AC-2s it could have mounted. Good against flying stuff, nice for fishing for crits against conventional vehicles, long range. It just, y'know, doesn't really do any damage. It has five times the ammo longevity of the LRMs, at least, so it can not really do any damage for a good long while. Of course, that means there's ammo to explode on an unCASEd 'Mech, even after the LRMs are gone. It's not that big a deal, though, since getting to heat levels where that's dangerous requires engine hits and a lot of external heat, and eighteen points of hardened armor should give you plenty of warning to dump ammo before it goes internal.
The SH-2P, on the other hand, mounts a Clan ER PPC, three more heat sinks, and a coolant pod. The coolant pod is mildly infuriating at first glance because it could have been a fourth ton of LRM ammo, but in practice the SH-2P has better ammo longevity because firing all four LRM-10s with the ER PPC (which you should really always be firing) will heat it up fast. The coolant pod helps in case you really need something dead Right Now, or if some jerk Infernos you after you fire all or most of your guns (ammo explosions being Game Over).
Well, that sounds...alright. What do I do with it?It all depends on what variant you have. Contrary to what I said at the beginning, I think receipt of an SH-1V is supposed to imply that the DCMS Powers That Be like you enough that they want you alive, and would prefer that you not take insane risks. It's extremely durable, and promotes a degree of caution in its application. Contrary to the implications of the
Shiro's aesthetics, honor and
bushido are inappropriate for SH-1V MechWarriors. At 5/7 it's fast enough to get around but not fast enough to encourage wild flanking maneuvers. It should rely on its allies to open holes in enemies so it can crit-seek with the LB-X and LRMs, and it should probably retire from the battlefield once the LRMs run dry. Basically, it's a 'Mech for people who need to be
at a fight, but not really so much
in the fight. If you have the option, try to emphasize piloting skill over gunnery in your SH-1V MechWarriors. The LRMs will be gone quickly either way, and LB-2Xs only do a point or two less damage if you miss. However, high piloting skill will enhance your ability to swat fast 'Mechs with the sword, compensate for the PSR penalty from hardened armor, and reduce the likelihood of pilot damage from falls.
Being given an SH-2P, on the other hand, says something more along the lines of "we have noticed that you are proficient at killing things, and we would like you to kill lots more things in the future." The Clan PPC is essentially an infinite-ammo Gauss Rifle, and should be used mercilessly. Unlike the SH-1V, it can open its own holes for the LRMs. You still don't have that many of them, so you should probably wait for good TNs, but if you have a nice shot, remember that the coolant pod gives you some extra leeway on the heat scale. The SH-2P still isn't the most optimized design, but it can do a lot of damage, it's fast enough to get around, and it's extraordinarily difficult to kill outright. Try to get in the face of the enemy's ballistic- and missile-heavy units and dare them to shoot you. As much as possible, you want to use your armor blocking gauss rifles and LRMs, not lasers and PPCs.
I am a brave Player Character of the Federated Suns (or the Rasalhague Dominion, or the Raven Alliance). How do I blow it up?The first question you should ask yourself when fighting a
Shiro is "can I just ignore it?" If you are fighting an SH-2P, the answer is pretty much "no." On the other hand, the SH-1V is often not an immediate threat unless you have a stuff with holes in the armor. If your stuff is still in good shape, you should probably just shoot at other stuff and let it use up its LRMs on your armor instead of your internals.
If, for whatever reason, you
do have to fight a
Shiro, shooting it a bunch is probably not the best way to go. It has a stupendous amount of armor and the firepower you need to get through it is rarely worth it for the firepower you'd be taking off the other side of the board. Fortunately, you have a few better options:
First and most obvious is using re-engineered lasers. If you happen to have had the dubious fortune of receiving a unit with them, then by all means point them at the SH-1V. They'll be a lot more efficient pointed at hardened armor than almost anything else. If you can, get around behind the
Shiro, since a medium re-laser will punch through rear side torso armor and a large will go through the rear center torso. Once the armor is gone, the SH-1V has very little in the way of crit-padding unless the LRMs have dried up, so even a few re-laser hits will make it extremely wary of anything with SRMs or LB-Xs.
Of course, SRMs and LB-Xs are our second good way of killing it. Or, rather, killing the pilot. After all, hardened armor doesn't do a thing to protect the MechWarrior from pilot damage, so a head hit is a head hit and that means a consciousness roll. Also, hardened armor makes through-armor criticals much less likely (10+ instead of 8+), but it doesn't make them impossible, so you may get lucky there as well while fishing for head hits. If you go this route, make sure to do at least twenty damage each round and get some kicks in if you can brave the sword. You want them making PSRs with the hardened armor penalty. The
Shiro may have one of the lowest ratios of fall damage to total armor in the entire game, but any fall means a pilot damage roll, and maybe even more pilot damage. Ultimately, you want to be able to salvage the thing with a replacement MechWarrior and a hose.
Option number three is external heat sources. Plasma weapons, flamers, Infernos, etc. The SH-1V only has the base ten heat sinks, so if you can deal the maximum 15 external heat, you cut its already meager firepower down by about three-quarters. If nothing else, that takes it from "probably just ignore it" to "definitely just ignore it" territory. IS plasma rifles also do a fair amount of damage on their own, so eventually they'll wear the SH-1V down, but you still may want to return to options one or two to actually kill the thing. Or, just wait until all the other enemies are dead and kill it with all your remaining firepower. Point is, external heat is just short of an off switch for the SH-1V.
Killing the SH-2P is pretty similar, actually. Any kind of energy weapon will suffice, not just re-lasers. The SH-2P has a higher absolute number of points of armor, but you'll still want to use energy as much as possible. SRMs will have their damage halved, but they still crit-seek just fine (and do full damage against internals). LB-X pellets are even better, since Ballistic-Reinforced armor doesn't actually reduce their damage. With three extra heat sinks, external heat won't reduce the SH-2P's firepower
quite so entirely, but it
should make firing the ER PPC a dicey proposition, and that's a pretty big deal. Do yourself a favor and try not to use ballistics or missiles against it. Seven-point gauss hits and two-point LRM clusters are just depressing.
Wow, yeah. Plasma and LB-X it is.The Federated Suns have a pretty good selection of designs that work against either
Shiro. The Omni-
Centurion has some LB-X and plasma rifle configurations that might prove useful, and the TLR2-OD
Templar III is basically built for
Shiro-hunting. The Silver Bullet Gauss rifles on the Challenger XV tanks are essentially LB-15Xs, although the rest of their arsenal will suffer against an SH-2P.
The Rasalhague Dominion and Raven Alliance don't have a lot in the way of specialized solutions and will probably have to beat
Shiros will sheer technological superiority. Woe is them. That said, there's some pretty SRM- or SSRM-heavy
Vulture IIIs, and the
Deimos and
Karhu have configs with a lot of energy weapons, plus the double LB-10Xs on the
Deimos A and the plasma cannon on the
Karhu Prime. Oh, and the
Dark Crow 2 has a pair of LB-5Xs, but it also has a targeting computer with LB-Xs, so using it is technically a sin.
Alright, anything else?No, that about covers it. The
Shiro is a 'Mech for impressive people, but not necessarily for the best MechWarriors. Nevertheless, the MechWarrior in the
Shiro will probably die last or not at all, through skill and courage or just by being more armored than threatening.
