Resources for the video: Master Unit List: www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6416/shiro-sh-1v www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6417/shiro-sh-2p TRO Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-technical-readout-dark-age Record Sheets: Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheets-dark-age Shiro Miniatures: Shiro- SH-1V (listed incorrectly as P): www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-bm/product/battletech-20-425/category_pathway-2 Shiro- SH-2P (online exclusive to IWM): www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/product-listing/product/battletech-bt-292/category_pathway-2 Music for the video was made by Audacius Cues, he has great music, check him out: www.youtube.com/@audaciouscues7219
While LB-2X is objectively a bad weapon on the tabletop, I'd argue that lore-wise and doctrinally its inclusion is a great design decision. 1. Shiro is meant to be in the backline. VTOLs are a major threat to the backline lore-wise. LB-2X is good against VTOL. 2. Give DCMS commanders a proper gun - they would charge into the thick of it every single time. With LB-2X there is hope that they will actually hold back and, well, command.
Glory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the Dragon
I like the idea of TotemMechs. Many minitaries used it, especially in XX century in uniforms and you can see it even now, so showing it in form of a mech sounds like natural evolution of this idea
I love "totem" mechs like Shiro. The Dracs, Cappies, Falcons, and Horses, have the right idea: Make a mech/fighter/armor that visually represents your faction or an ideal of your faction, and name it as such, but not too on the nose. I hope more faction do the same. Meanwhile, the Wolves just take a mech and name it something wolf. To reference the based Primarch Rogal Dorn: The Wolf clan is incredibly uninspired.
24:17 So effective that Davion said "Okay, to hell with it we're building Clan PPCs now" after Kurita started shrugging off the ballistics they've been in love with since the game first released.
Or it's a reflection of how bad most ballistics are in comparison to energy weapons. Ballisitics should be lighter or more lethal. Advantages like less heat are moot when double heat sinks, limited shots and ammo explosions exist. The weights are also ridiculous when you consider modern 40mm-57mm autocannons weigh around 2 tons and an AC2 weighs 6 tons. LAC should have never taken a hit to range and should have been used as correction to weight penalty by halving all AC weights. Even such a change wouldn't dethrone clan energy weapons but at least will provide more variety.
Well before anything else I think one of my favorite things about the design of the Shiro is that is has a Sashimono. Like, normally you wouldn't think it but seeing a gigantic Battlemech waving about your house's flag in the middle of battle as a standard bearer can easily boost morale without even really trying. Also yeah the LBX-2 is, and I have said this many times before, easily the most depressing of all the LBX autocannons and possibly of all autocannons. It's an AC/2 but with cluster roudns that are just depressing. Atleast the Ultra 2 you can make arguments for, considering 4 damage in 2 damage clusters if on a paired system of two Ultra 2s. Especially for a skybroom, which you could make a genuine argument for the Shiro being with its primary loadout being long ranged weapons. The 2P is a monster though. Balls re armor meaning it can go its full speed profile, even having the bonus of having increased defense against one of their House rivals' favorite thing in ballistics, is really good. Not that the hardened armor wasn't also good, because you can take a lot of damage with it. Plus it has an actual gun now! Also uh, swords are like a genuine sidegrade to hatchets, not defective hatchets. If you wanna talk defective hatchets, look at maces. I'm declaring batchall on your right to your opinion! Not really though because I'm lazy.
The funniest thing about this (as someone who doesn't play dark age) is that the expensive Shiro makes the changes I'd expect. Was literally sitting here thinking - "need to remove that lbx2 and put in a clan tech ppc and some extra heat sinks".
I think the Shiro's important, not just in and of itself but in combination with the Rokurokubi and the Hitsume Kozo. A trio of tough, relatively fast mechs that spearhead the DCMS as rebuilt after the 2nd Combine-Dominion War. The DCMS took a long look at where they'd been failing since the Jihad and these three were their solution - whereas the LCAF, AFFS and RAF seem to have sat on their laurels in comparison.
Add in the shiny new clantech Dragons and Lancelots taking the field that move as fast as most medium mechs (or light mechs in short bursts), with healthy amounts of Dragon-IIs providing artillery support with their standard issue Arrow-IVs, and that’s a pretty well rounded force.
@@cobalt968 No wonder lots of Dark Age Inner Sphere fans want to join the Combine, it's practically the only faction trying to actively learn from the past... Not like the others aren't but... I'll be honest, a new model of Heavy mech is more impressive than an Atlas variant (I mean, even the Free Worlds League have new shiny stuff).
Like the video. I don’t get the Dark Age obsession with light autocannons. I can only assume they had a Mech-olympics where hitting the target was more important than the damage…
AP ammo is a nasty surprise for anyone not wearing ferro-lamellar or hardened or other armours that block the piercing effect, at the very least. Edit: whoops, I thought you meant the actual light ac2s and ac5s that can take specialised ammo. Yeah, things like lb2xs are generally only good trying to force try-not-to-crash rolls on aerospace units.
Combined arms is the norm in the Dark Ages, or so it is said. A flyswatter AC isn’t a bad idea, especially on a mech that is supposed to stand in the back lines.
It came about because a lot of Dark Age designs where made for the Wizkids game that didn't care about the specific weapons of a mech and just assigned a weapon type, damage value, and range to the attack, when converting those designs to classic stats Catalyst decided to treat long range ballistic damage values as AC 2s which resulted in a bunch of underwhelming mechs.
I keep thinking its keeping in lore as the dark age of this universe appears to favor lighter armoured units that moved faster and required less heat syncs. Lasers make for greater heat production but the carried ammunition makes for greater chance of damage by ammunition explosions.
Long form video idea. "Totem mechs" an overview of house specific assets and how they shape or embody faction tactics. Sometimes its hard picture which units are notorious to which factions especially when much of history was dictated by availability not ideology. A lot of people are making history videos and unit videos but there arent really any videos painting a picture of what the houses look like on the field.
Gotta say I'm loving these more stylish mechs, as well as the many other ones that the Clans get. Thought I am very conflicted because one of the greatest appeals of Battletech is the more western industrial approach to mech design rather than the more eastern hyper personalized approach. I mean dang can you just imagine imagine what a Davion, lieo, Stinner, or Marik totem mech would look like?
I have to imagine the designers of this thing probably wanted to murder the person who told them to make it look like a ancient samurai due to how much harder it would it have made their job
A bit of odd trivia: the Shiro’s sword being called a Naginata was technically accurate when the Mech first appear in Dark Age, but a more accurate name would be less well known Nagamaki, which is a traditional Japanese sword with an extra long handle, unlike a Naginata which has a shorter blade on a traditional Japanese pole arm. The Shiro’s sword should be referred as a Nagamaki.
impressively done. used the rare shiro Yami in mechwarrior. the shiro, Hitosune kozo, and Rokurokubi all utilize hardend armor and are to be feared on the battlefield.
Loved this mech as soon as i saw the look, and both your video and Mechfrog's have made me really appreciate this beast. Its such a cool mech. I love the hardend armor and the sword... Just needs wome TSM to fix the speed and double the sword damage... And to just get rid of the LB 2-x. Just swap it to a snub PPC and add an extra double heatsink.
As a Combine player, but not a fan of the Dark Age, I really appreciate you introducing me to this mech. I play mostly in the Succession Wars, some Clan Invasion, so I am really looking forward to the Dark Ages videos.
I love the Shiro. It is a great Combine mech. Could you do a video on the Capellan command mech as well, the Tian Zong? It is in my opinion superior to the Shiro but both are great.
I was wondering why This video didn't pop-up in my notifications. I pressed The Thing to specifically be notified when it came up earlier got busy. Have my phone ready now I had to go and search for when I realized that I've been working around the house that it's been out for over 2 hours.
the name itself is just beauty. shiro having the connection to a founder. shiro can also be interpreted as white, signifying purtiy and honour, core tenets of the combine. and then the shortcode sh-1v, or shiv, showing the Kuritans true colors to a degree. from a design perspective its a weird one. it uses all kinds of things to save weight, then overcompensates for the added fragility limiting the effectiveness of some of that weight saved, and rounds it out wasting a lot of the gains on ineffective for tonnage weapon systems. the c-bills for this one looks to be pretty steep and clan tech inclusion, while strong, brings its own problems in logistics and futureproofing the design.
My inner weeb is pleased. Can you cover the Hatamoto Suna in the future, I think it's a big enough departure from the chi to be considered it a different mech in its own right.
The SH-2P has a hidden weakness compared to the standard variant: though it's faster running and has no penalty to piloting, it gives up the advantage Hardened armor has against attacks going internal before the armor is depleted, making it more vulnerable with its weak and explosive internals.
Shiro could also mean the color white, which is associated with death in Japanese culture. Does anyone know if the mech’s name is written in Japanese characters somewhere?
@@Vash0006 Correct on the white bit. As to how they write it, I could find neither Kanji or Hiragana for either mech or leader. I imagine that the mech is named after the leader so whatever Kanji would make up the leader's name would likely be the same that are used for the mech. What I /did/find though is that a character in the Shenmue video game is named Shiro Kurita, written as: 栗田 士郎. So Shiro could be: 士郎. (Shirō in romanji with a ou sound at the end in English vocalization.) Written as such the first Kanji 士 has meanings going from warrior/samurai to gentleman and scholar. The second part 郎has a distinct male significance (male (young) adult, son in law). 城 would be the Kanji for castle proper and 白 would be white. Apparently there's like 26 legitimate ways to write the name Shirō using kanji, none of them use the castle Kanji. One variant does use the white Kanji. japanese-names.info/first-name/shirou/ a link if you want to follow me down the rabbit hole.
From what I've been told, it's got a surprisingly dedicated following in Japan. Moreso its that tabletop gaming itself isn't very popular - both Japan and China are bigger CCG/TCG gamers than RPG/Wargame players.
@@EnderPrydeThat is FASCINATING! I guess the style of mecha popular and the whole harmonygold legal debacle just made me assume it wasn't well loved in Japan. Despite knowing now that Harmonygold is an American company of ill repute.
I remember seeing this in Dark ages packs, going yes that’s a Dragon command mech. Then seeing the AC/2 and going nope fed rats have gotten into the “Company” and it was dead to me. I got better but that kind of nonsense kill the original dark age for me.
Instead of the LBX2, I would give it a Pair of ER Med Lasers or an ER Large Laser, evtl. 2 Pulse Lasers or one Large Pulse Lasers and some more Double Heatsinks... but as Always, maybe there isn't enough critical Space left in that Mech for this. ^^
Nice mech, I'm very underinformed on anything post Clan invasion so this all helps me to catch up. I would have thought that a light AC5 would have made more sense than an LB2-X for the arm cannon, simply as it doesn't lack for long or short range but the mid range is poorer in comparison. Even a standard PPC or brace of medium lasers, much like the Archer, would be a better combination and remove some of the ammo dependency but that's just the way I'd want to build it :)
The only thing to dislike about the Shiro, is the fact that (as far as I know) there is not a single video game where you can use it. SHAMEFUR DISPRAY!!!
Unfortunately the Sword is such an underwhelming melee weapon, I can't recommend any mech that uses it unless they also have TSM, as it's simply better to just use Fists.
The Shiro in the VI versions has one glaring problem. The LRMs have enough ammunition for 9 rounds of fire. LRMs are spam weapons. If you aren't firing them every round, you are using them wrong. And most engagements go longer than 9 rounds. The AC/2 hardly adds anything to the Shiro. The PPC variant is truly impressive. With the PPC variant the operator would conserve ammunition by using the PPC when possible. The 2P doesn't need additional ammunition for the LRMs. For a variant of the base Shiro I'd recommend removing the LBX/2 and its 1 ton of ammunition. Shift 2 tons to additional LRM ammunition giving it a total of 15 rounds per launcher. 3 of the remaining tons into ER Medium Lasers (Clan or IS) so the Shiro has some non-ammo based weapons. This leaves 2 tons that can be used for additional armor. With these changes this variant of the Shiro will gain reasonable endurance to last an entire engagement.
Honest question since back when I played tabletop "mixed tech" mechs were very rare - Red, you say it has no CASE, but wouldn't the Clan LRMs need Clan LRM ammo and therefore have the built-in case? Or does it have to have clan "structure" to get the auto-case? Not that it matters too much given how frail the internals are - maybe to save the pilot. The AC2 ammo would still be a liability - like the rest of the gun - but it'd make the 2P a hair more survivable.
I think the best way to get the most out of the SH-1V single LB-2XAC if it drops one of the LRM 10 for an extra LB-2X and with the extra weight that's leftover can go into extra Ammo or Armor
While the LBX-2 isn't a fantastic choice, it's not useless. I scored a through armor engine crit on an Atlas in my last game with my Shiro. Would I rather have something else? Yeah, but if you replaced it with a laser or PPC the mech would have heat issues.
Yea, I think the problem is that the missiles are long-range crit-seekers, and the LBX-2 is a.... long range crit seeker. The mech has no armor poking ability whatsoever (ok, other than the sword). It's probably not so bad if paired with a mech that's bringing Gauss or PPCs, and the Shiro can follow up. Ironic, given that crits are it's biggest fear.
"Swords are just defective hatchets" Nice approach to melee combat. Why design the sword for two hands when its more likely to use it in a one handed swing?
30:02 The LB-2X is an odd choice for sure. Unless... Unless it was, in fact, intended to protect the rest of the troops from aerospace and VTOL threats. In addition, there is the idea that maybe, just maybe, the weapon was intended to keep the Mechwarrior in the mindset of 'Ranged Fire Support ' instead of 'I charge in with my Katana! '. It could be both.
Not a fan of the prime variant, that ac is just unforgivable and im not a huge fan of hardened armor and the piloting checks that come with it. 2p on the other hand yeah this thing is a monster. Reactive armor is just great on larger mechs and the weapons load out is something to be feared.
Great canadate for some TSMto boost the speed up but more deadly....boost the damage of that sword up to 18 points...... enough to take any mech head off.....
@@BigRed40TECH Yeah I know, it's just funny that they made it to look and feel more graceful than a Hatchet while Comstar just decided to keep the hatchet's more aggressive weight-balance with the sword's aesthetics.
I don't understand this 'Mech? A sword with 4 Clan-tech LRM 10s and a single LB2X-AC. A sword with hardened armor I get, but an LB2X-AC is pointless... 😛
@@BigRed40TECH I love the 2P. I'm aware that it's a rare one. I'm trying to find a way to use it in combat without people throwing a hissy fit. I have a long time friend who would probably have an issue with my using it.
@@attiladukai2121unless you have been in the hobby for years like a bunch of people apparently, anything after the fedcom civil war is a bit of a sore subject. So people decide to just run succession wars and if it's after succession wars then people seen to think "what's the point in even telling someone else about something that they're not going to be able to ever use in a game?"
The sword is so useless. I don't know why they bothered differentiating swords/hatchets/maces just call it a Battlemech melee weapon, use the hatchet rules, describe it however you like and call it a day. My favorite custom mech was an Awesome with TSM and a sword shaped hatchet. It could cut medium mechs in half with a single ct blow. On the mini I just styled the 'hatchet' as a big ass anime buster sword
Red, i love your videos, but you're butchering the title of Gunji no Kanrei every DC mech... It's pronounced "Kan-Ray", hope this helps in future videos.
Resources for the video:
Master Unit List:
www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6416/shiro-sh-1v
www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6417/shiro-sh-2p
TRO Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-technical-readout-dark-age
Record Sheets: Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheets-dark-age
Shiro Miniatures:
Shiro- SH-1V (listed incorrectly as P): www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-bm/product/battletech-20-425/category_pathway-2
Shiro- SH-2P (online exclusive to IWM): www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/product-listing/product/battletech-bt-292/category_pathway-2
Music for the video was made by Audacius Cues, he has great music, check him out:
www.youtube.com/@audaciouscues7219
Luthian really went "fuck mechs, we're building mecha now"
While LB-2X is objectively a bad weapon on the tabletop, I'd argue that lore-wise and doctrinally its inclusion is a great design decision.
1. Shiro is meant to be in the backline. VTOLs are a major threat to the backline lore-wise. LB-2X is good against VTOL.
2. Give DCMS commanders a proper gun - they would charge into the thick of it every single time. With LB-2X there is hope that they will actually hold back and, well, command.
It's quite handy for marking targets too. Imagine a Kurita Officer frantically plinking an advancing Fafnir and screaming, "No no shoot at THAT one!"
Glory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the DragonGlory to the Dragon
I like the idea of TotemMechs. Many minitaries used it, especially in XX century in uniforms and you can see it even now, so showing it in form of a mech sounds like natural evolution of this idea
I love "totem" mechs like Shiro. The Dracs, Cappies, Falcons, and Horses, have the right idea: Make a mech/fighter/armor that visually represents your faction or an ideal of your faction, and name it as such, but not too on the nose. I hope more faction do the same.
Meanwhile, the Wolves just take a mech and name it something wolf. To reference the based Primarch Rogal Dorn: The Wolf clan is incredibly uninspired.
They don’t need inspiration with naming schemes, they’ve inherited Kerensky’s extra chunky soup stock
It is to my eternal annoyance that Clan Wolf has never designed a mech called The Big Bad.
Heck, the Fenrir is arguably a better animalistic totem than anything I know the Wolves built.
24:17 So effective that Davion said "Okay, to hell with it we're building Clan PPCs now" after Kurita started shrugging off the ballistics they've been in love with since the game first released.
Given how scary clanner energy weapons especially ER PPCs are I think the Dracs played themselves all things considered
Or it's a reflection of how bad most ballistics are in comparison to energy weapons. Ballisitics should be lighter or more lethal. Advantages like less heat are moot when double heat sinks, limited shots and ammo explosions exist. The weights are also ridiculous when you consider modern 40mm-57mm autocannons weigh around 2 tons and an AC2 weighs 6 tons. LAC should have never taken a hit to range and should have been used as correction to weight penalty by halving all AC weights. Even such a change wouldn't dethrone clan energy weapons but at least will provide more variety.
Or restore lost utility ammo to the faster firing ones.
Something to keep pace.
Well before anything else I think one of my favorite things about the design of the Shiro is that is has a Sashimono. Like, normally you wouldn't think it but seeing a gigantic Battlemech waving about your house's flag in the middle of battle as a standard bearer can easily boost morale without even really trying. Also yeah the LBX-2 is, and I have said this many times before, easily the most depressing of all the LBX autocannons and possibly of all autocannons. It's an AC/2 but with cluster roudns that are just depressing. Atleast the Ultra 2 you can make arguments for, considering 4 damage in 2 damage clusters if on a paired system of two Ultra 2s. Especially for a skybroom, which you could make a genuine argument for the Shiro being with its primary loadout being long ranged weapons.
The 2P is a monster though. Balls re armor meaning it can go its full speed profile, even having the bonus of having increased defense against one of their House rivals' favorite thing in ballistics, is really good. Not that the hardened armor wasn't also good, because you can take a lot of damage with it. Plus it has an actual gun now!
Also uh, swords are like a genuine sidegrade to hatchets, not defective hatchets. If you wanna talk defective hatchets, look at maces. I'm declaring batchall on your right to your opinion! Not really though because I'm lazy.
The funniest thing about this (as someone who doesn't play dark age) is that the expensive Shiro makes the changes I'd expect. Was literally sitting here thinking - "need to remove that lbx2 and put in a clan tech ppc and some extra heat sinks".
ANGRY AC/2 NOISES!!!
I think the Shiro's important, not just in and of itself but in combination with the Rokurokubi and the Hitsume Kozo. A trio of tough, relatively fast mechs that spearhead the DCMS as rebuilt after the 2nd Combine-Dominion War. The DCMS took a long look at where they'd been failing since the Jihad and these three were their solution - whereas the LCAF, AFFS and RAF seem to have sat on their laurels in comparison.
Add in the shiny new clantech Dragons and Lancelots taking the field that move as fast as most medium mechs (or light mechs in short bursts), with healthy amounts of Dragon-IIs providing artillery support with their standard issue Arrow-IVs, and that’s a pretty well rounded force.
@@cobalt968 No wonder lots of Dark Age Inner Sphere fans want to join the Combine, it's practically the only faction trying to actively learn from the past... Not like the others aren't but... I'll be honest, a new model of Heavy mech is more impressive than an Atlas variant (I mean, even the Free Worlds League have new shiny stuff).
Like the video. I don’t get the Dark Age obsession with light autocannons. I can only assume they had a Mech-olympics where hitting the target was more important than the damage…
AP ammo is a nasty surprise for anyone not wearing ferro-lamellar or hardened or other armours that block the piercing effect, at the very least.
Edit: whoops, I thought you meant the actual light ac2s and ac5s that can take specialised ammo. Yeah, things like lb2xs are generally only good trying to force try-not-to-crash rolls on aerospace units.
arm piercing rounds + LAC2= 20 rounds of armor crit chance at reasonable range for like 5 tons.
Combined arms is the norm in the Dark Ages, or so it is said. A flyswatter AC isn’t a bad idea, especially on a mech that is supposed to stand in the back lines.
It came about because a lot of Dark Age designs where made for the Wizkids game that didn't care about the specific weapons of a mech and just assigned a weapon type, damage value, and range to the attack, when converting those designs to classic stats Catalyst decided to treat long range ballistic damage values as AC 2s which resulted in a bunch of underwhelming mechs.
I keep thinking its keeping in lore as the dark age of this universe appears to favor lighter armoured units that moved faster and required less heat syncs.
Lasers make for greater heat production but the carried ammunition makes for greater chance of damage by ammunition explosions.
Oh the Shiro, I have that moddle, primed but not painted. That sword is out of control big.
Mine are primed and are getting ready to be painted. I'm debating between the Genyosha or Dragon's Fury.
Long form video idea. "Totem mechs" an overview of house specific assets and how they shape or embody faction tactics. Sometimes its hard picture which units are notorious to which factions especially when much of history was dictated by availability not ideology. A lot of people are making history videos and unit videos but there arent really any videos painting a picture of what the houses look like on the field.
Excellent for fighting giant bars of butter with that cutlery.
Wizkids had a lot of weird designs but at least they eventually got the look right.
Gotta say I'm loving these more stylish mechs, as well as the many other ones that the Clans get. Thought I am very conflicted because one of the greatest appeals of Battletech is the more western industrial approach to mech design rather than the more eastern hyper personalized approach.
I mean dang can you just imagine imagine what a Davion, lieo, Stinner, or Marik totem mech would look like?
In a time where Infantry and Vehicles where more common than mechs. Lighter ACs kinda made sense
I have to imagine the designers of this thing probably wanted to murder the person who told them to make it look like a ancient samurai due to how much harder it would it have made their job
The SH2P is a fun design. If played straight with a veteran pilot, you can really work over a target from long range.
One of my favorite Mechs. Definitely my favorite Combine Mech. Really looking forward to this video.
Nice job love this mech Honor to the Dragon
A bit of odd trivia: the Shiro’s sword being called a Naginata was technically accurate when the Mech first appear in Dark Age, but a more accurate name would be less well known Nagamaki, which is a traditional Japanese sword with an extra long handle, unlike a Naginata which has a shorter blade on a traditional Japanese pole arm. The Shiro’s sword should be referred as a Nagamaki.
Glory to the Shiro!
How do you not love the mustard soldier-y? Haha
impressively done. used the rare shiro Yami in mechwarrior. the shiro, Hitosune kozo, and Rokurokubi all utilize hardend armor and are to be feared on the battlefield.
Loved this mech as soon as i saw the look, and both your video and Mechfrog's have made me really appreciate this beast. Its such a cool mech. I love the hardend armor and the sword... Just needs wome TSM to fix the speed and double the sword damage... And to just get rid of the LB 2-x. Just swap it to a snub PPC and add an extra double heatsink.
As a Combine player, but not a fan of the Dark Age, I really appreciate you introducing me to this mech. I play mostly in the Succession Wars, some Clan Invasion, so I am really looking forward to the Dark Ages videos.
I've covered other Dark Age and Ilclan mechs, including the Tenshi. I love the Tenshi btw. Great Dark Age Combine Mech :D
> "Swords are defective hatchets"
Here, here.
This thing? A totemmech?
Are we gonna ignore THE DRAGON?!
YES XD
Nothing like having a Japanese death poem at the end of the presentation. Nice synopsis of this mech.
Back when mechwarrior was a hero clix style game. I used to play house kurita and it was a lot of fun
Another excellent video. *Chef's kiss*
For the glory of the combine and house Kurita!
I love the Shiro. It is a great Combine mech. Could you do a video on the Capellan command mech as well, the Tian Zong? It is in my opinion superior to the Shiro but both are great.
That one was in the vote that the Shiro won. lol
Maybe next time XD
I was wondering why This video didn't pop-up in my notifications. I pressed The Thing to specifically be notified when it came up earlier got busy. Have my phone ready now I had to go and search for when I realized that I've been working around the house that it's been out for over 2 hours.
the name itself is just beauty. shiro having the connection to a founder. shiro can also be interpreted as white, signifying purtiy and honour, core tenets of the combine. and then the shortcode sh-1v, or shiv, showing the Kuritans true colors to a degree.
from a design perspective its a weird one. it uses all kinds of things to save weight, then overcompensates for the added fragility limiting the effectiveness of some of that weight saved, and rounds it out wasting a lot of the gains on ineffective for tonnage weapon systems. the c-bills for this one looks to be pretty steep and clan tech inclusion, while strong, brings its own problems in logistics and futureproofing the design.
My inner weeb is pleased.
Can you cover the Hatamoto Suna in the future, I think it's a big enough departure from the chi to be considered it a different mech in its own right.
The SH-2P has a hidden weakness compared to the standard variant: though it's faster running and has no penalty to piloting, it gives up the advantage Hardened armor has against attacks going internal before the armor is depleted, making it more vulnerable with its weak and explosive internals.
Ah yes, the Shiro SH-1V also called "The Shiv".
Shiro means castle. They literally named a mech Castle :p.They named one of their leaders Castle. The Draconis combine is very silly
Shiro could also mean the color white, which is associated with death in Japanese culture. Does anyone know if the mech’s name is written in Japanese characters somewhere?
@@Vash0006 Correct on the white bit.
As to how they write it, I could find neither Kanji or Hiragana for either mech or leader.
I imagine that the mech is named after the leader so whatever Kanji would make up the leader's name would likely be the same that are used for the mech.
What I /did/find though is that a character in the Shenmue video game is named Shiro Kurita, written as: 栗田 士郎. So Shiro could be: 士郎. (Shirō in romanji with a ou sound at the end in English vocalization.)
Written as such the first Kanji 士 has meanings going from warrior/samurai to gentleman and scholar. The second part 郎has a distinct male significance (male (young) adult, son in law).
城 would be the Kanji for castle proper and 白 would be white.
Apparently there's like 26 legitimate ways to write the name Shirō using kanji, none of them use the castle Kanji. One variant does use the white Kanji.
japanese-names.info/first-name/shirou/ a link if you want to follow me down the rabbit hole.
Impressive....most Impressive.
Also I think this thing wants a Snub PPC and SRM variant for more Honor.
That's called himoto-chan the thuggy man
I doubt we'll get a plastic version for a long time. Would love an stl for 3d printing thought
Red recently said that we may be getting ilClan plastics sooner than expected - conjectured it'd be "house boxes". Am I remembering that right?
@@leoismaking
Yes, that’s what the rumors has it, Ilclan house sets with iconic Dark Age/Ilclan units.
Excellent video red.
Another amazing video 🎉
Something tells me Battletech isn't popular in China...or Japan. though for very different reasons.
Yet surprisingly popular in Germany.
From what I've been told, it's got a surprisingly dedicated following in Japan.
Moreso its that tabletop gaming itself isn't very popular - both Japan and China are bigger CCG/TCG gamers than RPG/Wargame players.
@@EnderPrydeThat is FASCINATING! I guess the style of mecha popular and the whole harmonygold legal debacle just made me assume it wasn't well loved in Japan. Despite knowing now that Harmonygold is an American company of ill repute.
@@Aceshot-uu7yxI'm from Germany and you bet, my IS forces are Steiner. 😅
for a command mech its pretty decent, has good long range firepower and is very tough.
Great video Red
Those LRM-10s don't have enough ammo, but at least if it runs dry, their bins can't explode. Can't say the same about the LB 2-X AC, unfortunately.
I remember seeing this in Dark ages packs, going yes that’s a Dragon command mech. Then seeing the AC/2 and going nope fed rats have gotten into the “Company” and it was dead to me.
I got better but that kind of nonsense kill the original dark age for me.
Instead of the LBX2, I would give it a Pair of ER Med Lasers or an ER Large Laser, evtl. 2 Pulse Lasers or one Large Pulse Lasers and some more Double Heatsinks... but as Always, maybe there isn't enough critical Space left in that Mech for this. ^^
Nice mech, I'm very underinformed on anything post Clan invasion so this all helps me to catch up. I would have thought that a light AC5 would have made more sense than an LB2-X for the arm cannon, simply as it doesn't lack for long or short range but the mid range is poorer in comparison. Even a standard PPC or brace of medium lasers, much like the Archer, would be a better combination and remove some of the ammo dependency but that's just the way I'd want to build it :)
Yay.
The only thing to dislike about the Shiro, is the fact that (as far as I know) there is not a single video game where you can use it.
SHAMEFUR DISPRAY!!!
Wait why does my DCMS force not have a Shiro? One more thing to throw on the to do list.
Unfortunately the Sword is such an underwhelming melee weapon, I can't recommend any mech that uses it unless they also have TSM, as it's simply better to just use Fists.
The Shiro in the VI versions has one glaring problem. The LRMs have enough ammunition for 9 rounds of fire. LRMs are spam weapons. If you aren't firing them every round, you are using them wrong. And most engagements go longer than 9 rounds. The AC/2 hardly adds anything to the Shiro. The PPC variant is truly impressive. With the PPC variant the operator would conserve ammunition by using the PPC when possible. The 2P doesn't need additional ammunition for the LRMs.
For a variant of the base Shiro I'd recommend removing the LBX/2 and its 1 ton of ammunition. Shift 2 tons to additional LRM ammunition giving it a total of 15 rounds per launcher. 3 of the remaining tons into ER Medium Lasers (Clan or IS) so the Shiro has some non-ammo based weapons. This leaves 2 tons that can be used for additional armor. With these changes this variant of the Shiro will gain reasonable endurance to last an entire engagement.
I wonder if the PPC armed Shirio might even be a match for the Timber Wolf....
Honest question since back when I played tabletop "mixed tech" mechs were very rare - Red, you say it has no CASE, but wouldn't the Clan LRMs need Clan LRM ammo and therefore have the built-in case? Or does it have to have clan "structure" to get the auto-case? Not that it matters too much given how frail the internals are - maybe to save the pilot.
The AC2 ammo would still be a liability - like the rest of the gun - but it'd make the 2P a hair more survivable.
No, because Clan Cases are built into the chassis, not the weapon.
glancing at the thumbnail, i could only read it as "the SHIRD" haha
I think the best way to get the most out of the SH-1V single LB-2XAC if it drops one of the LRM 10 for an extra LB-2X and with the extra weight that's leftover can go into extra Ammo or Armor
It really should have 4 LB2X's, with 1.5 tons of ammunition.
@@BigRed40TECH yup but it would be somewhat decent having Twin LB-2X's at minimum but with Quad LB-2X's it becomes more dangerous
While the LBX-2 isn't a fantastic choice, it's not useless. I scored a through armor engine crit on an Atlas in my last game with my Shiro. Would I rather have something else? Yeah, but if you replaced it with a laser or PPC the mech would have heat issues.
Yea, I think the problem is that the missiles are long-range crit-seekers, and the LBX-2 is a.... long range crit seeker. The mech has no armor poking ability whatsoever (ok, other than the sword). It's probably not so bad if paired with a mech that's bringing Gauss or PPCs, and the Shiro can follow up. Ironic, given that crits are it's biggest fear.
"Swords are just defective hatchets"
Nice approach to melee combat.
Why design the sword for two hands when its more likely to use it in a one handed swing?
30:02 The LB-2X is an odd choice for sure.
Unless...
Unless it was, in fact, intended to protect the rest of the troops from aerospace and VTOL threats.
In addition, there is the idea that maybe, just maybe, the weapon was intended to keep the Mechwarrior in the mindset of 'Ranged Fire Support ' instead of 'I charge in with my Katana! '.
It could be both.
It's just undersized even for that tbh.
Nah, that pop gun would just make a VTOL pilot laugh and drop a squad of BA on the shiro
This mech reminds me of the Japanese mech from red alert 3 lol
I have to ask, with the sword's long handle, does the mech get a damage bonus when wielded with both hands?
Sadly no.
ahhh, the breakfast boy himself
I can only assume the AC2 and all its variants persist out of hatred for the battletech community.
This is likely correct.
I want to see the Akira missile armed scout bike.
Totem mech of the Dragon should be not Shiro... but the Dragon himself. :D
Well, there is no doubt about which house turned this one out. LOL
Excellent video. I hadn't played one as yet but I'd like to just to fafo
Take the AC-2 out, add CASE in. Add double heat sinks. Add MASC.
Supercharger would be better imo.
Not a fan of the prime variant, that ac is just unforgivable and im not a huge fan of hardened armor and the piloting checks that come with it. 2p on the other hand yeah this thing is a monster. Reactive armor is just great on larger mechs and the weapons load out is something to be feared.
Stupid Dracs, Davion needs to invest in laser ams systems for all Mechs. Also, why the hell did they not mount MRMs on this boondoggle?
Great canadate for some TSMto boost the speed up but more deadly....boost the damage of that sword up to 18 points...... enough to take any mech head off.....
I hope you do more Free World League Mechs.
I'm covering the Juliano after Halloween. :D
@@BigRed40TECH Yes
The Guardian also negates Artemis, doesn't it? that might have been the aim- lessen missile barrages' effectiveness.
This is where a Light AC-5 would be better then the LB-X for the SH-1V.
Aren't swords usually worse than just "Sword shaped hatchet" or so?
There is a specific "sword" that gets developed by the DCMS, unfortunately. More accurate, but way less damage.
@@BigRed40TECH Yeah I know, it's just funny that they made it to look and feel more graceful than a Hatchet while Comstar just decided to keep the hatchet's more aggressive weight-balance with the sword's aesthetics.
I don't understand this 'Mech? A sword with 4 Clan-tech LRM 10s and a single LB2X-AC. A sword with hardened armor I get, but an LB2X-AC is pointless... 😛
Would be better with like, 8 machine guns and more ammo.
@@Eleolius Super Piranha eh?
Check out the Shiro SH-2P. Packs a wallop.
It's not bad barring the AC2, but the 2P is a huge step-up.
@@BigRed40TECH I love the 2P. I'm aware that it's a rare one. I'm trying to find a way to use it in combat without people throwing a hissy fit. I have a long time friend who would probably have an issue with my using it.
Lmao, this mech has targeting system called Cat Glasses in Japanese.
Leave it to the Combine to make a questionable mech design choice.
I think the 2P is pretty great.
@@BigRed40TECHOh not the 2P, that’s a fantastic mech. It’s the original variant that’s questionable.
3135? Are we really that far along?
Nah, I'm covering 4 mechs that members voted on. :)
Is this a thing?
It is. lol
@@BigRed40TECH Never heard about it.
Thanks.
@@attiladukai2121unless you have been in the hobby for years like a bunch of people apparently, anything after the fedcom civil war is a bit of a sore subject.
So people decide to just run succession wars and if it's after succession wars then people seen to think "what's the point in even telling someone else about something that they're not going to be able to ever use in a game?"
Most Dishonorable question.
The sword is so useless. I don't know why they bothered differentiating swords/hatchets/maces just call it a Battlemech melee weapon, use the hatchet rules, describe it however you like and call it a day.
My favorite custom mech was an Awesome with TSM and a sword shaped hatchet. It could cut medium mechs in half with a single ct blow. On the mini I just styled the 'hatchet' as a big ass anime buster sword
LB2 has to be one of the most useless weapons, that tonnage could be used in so many better ways!
Red, i love your videos, but you're butchering the title of Gunji no Kanrei every DC mech... It's pronounced "Kan-Ray", hope this helps in future videos.
Expect more butchery. Your lucky I can speak English. lmao
The True reason only Drac Elites can pilot It? It is so crappy only and elite pilot can make it look decent
I don't agree with that one. :|