Converting Heavy Gear

[Deleted]

So, My primary goal with Gruntz is to convert Heavy Gear and possibly some of my old CAV models to start playing with them again. Right off the bat there are a couple of things I'd want to add to be able to reproduce some of the things that Heavy Gears can do.

Secondary Motive Systems
Lots of models in Heavy Gear have built-in wheels / treads /etc that pop out of their feet (or are brought into play by some mechanical reconfiguration). I'd like to continue to build the gears and walkers as mostly mecha (a few need to be built as artillery, for obvious reasons). I'm thinking about simply paying for the extra movement mode (walker is included in mecha, and costs 0 for armor, but armor has a 1 point cost for tracked or wheeled movement) and use an action to switch modes, but was wondering how other people (perhaps familiar with the system) would handle it.

Mecha Close Combat Weapons
Again, many of the models in HG have giant swords,axes and maces to get up close and personal. in HG these are generally based on how big the model is (which is easily handled by RAM) + some bonus for the weapon type. My question here is, how much would you think a bonus of +1/2/3/4 ram damage is worth as a mecha main weapon?

Commanders in Mecha
What's the best way to represent a commander piloting a robot instead of leading as a footsoldier? A Walker Command vehicle seems an obvious choice (since it can transport the commander) but I don't really like the limited weapons choices. I can sort of emulate one of the small or medium gears, but not much else.

Thanks in advance for your comments and assistance.

[comstar]

I would suggest use the flight mode points for your secondary motive system and use the flight speed for ground movement but you can still use your weapons as usual

I think that your Mecha Close Combat Weapon should be +1 AP per size so an Assault Mecha would be AP5 or a Scout would be AP1 and so on.

As for the commander just pay the points for the command module on a Mecha that is the way I would go

Hope that helps

[Deleted]

I like the idea of making the bigger weapons more damaging, but how would you cost it out?

[comstar]

Probably a point per plus would work.