This article was written with particular vehicle miniatures in mind.
The author uses the old scale Heavy Gear walker miniatures as Combat
Walkers for Stargrunt in the 25mm scale. These miniatures are about the
right size in scale for a single-pilot vehicle. These "Mecha-style"
vehicles often have weapons and equipment outside the main armour,
either held in one of the "hands" or strapped to the back, mounted on a
shoulder or leg, etc. The style is very common to combat walkers as
depicted in Anime/Mecha style art, and as such is applicable to a wider
range of models and miniatures than those produced by Dream Pod 9 for
Heavy Gear.
Combat Walkers have several advantages to their
design. Perhaps the main advantage is the ability to carry greater
firepower than a conventional armoured vehicle of similar size, because
the mounting and aiming mechanisms (their "arms") are part of the basic
vehicle structure and because the weapons are carried outside the main
hull. In some cases, the weapons are interchangeable, and the Walker
pilot can choose from several different weapons, with the "arms"
grasping the required weapon from a rack or mount on the back or leg.
According to the Vehicle Design rules in the Stargrunt II rulebook
(page 31 - 32), a standard armoured vehicle may be fitted with 5
Capacity Points worth of weapons, equipment, or troop carrying space per
Size Class of the vehicle. A size 2 vehicle, for example, has 10
Capacity Points for equipment and weapons.
Turreted weapons with
wide arcs of fire take up a considerably larger amount of space than
non-turreted weapons. A turreted weapon takes up three times the weapon
size class in Capacity Points, while a fixed mount weapon requires only
two times the weapon size class in Capacity Points. A turret mounted
RFAC/2 would thereby take up 6 Capacity Points, making it impossible to
fit this weapon system on a size 1 vehicle.
The "Heavy Gear"
style combat walker design seems ill suited to this design methadology.
These vehicles clearly cannot carry any infantry (they have room for
only one pilot), but due to the nature of the design, greater
flexibility in weapon and equipment capacity requirements should be
considered.
For example, these vehicles have "arms" and a
rotating waist as part of the basic vehicle structure. These mechanisms
provide what is in effect a turret for weapons without taking up
internal volume or detracting from carrying capacity. The weapons
themselves are carried externally, requiring less internal space. As
such, "turret mounted" weapons on these vehicles should cost less
Capacity Points than the equivalent weapon on more standard armoured
vehicles. However, there should also be a limit to the maximum size of
weapon available for Combat Walker mounted weapons. As the weapons are
mounted "off center" and the vehicles walk rather than roll on wheels or
tracks (or a stable gravitic platform for grav vehicles), weight and
balance would be a concern. A size 2 Combat Walker could theoretically
mount a size 5 fixed weapon (10 capacity points), but if carried on one
of the arms, the vehicle would be very poorly balanced. In addition, for
game balance reasons I suggest there should be a limit to the maximum
size weapon carried on a Walker.
These rules enable Size 1 and 2
Combat Walkers to carry a larger weapon load than equivalent size
conventional vehicles, but places a strict maximum limit on the weapon
classes carried.
Combat Walker Capacity for Weapons and Systems
Size 1 Combat Walkers
Capacity Points: 5
Maximum Weapon Size Class: 2
Size 2 Combat Walkers
Capacity Points: 10
Maximum Weapon Size Class: 3
On either Size 1 or Size 2 Walkers, each "arm" can carry only 1 weapon.
Weapon Capacity Point Costs
Size Class 1 Weapons: 2 Capacity Points
Size Class 2 Weapons: 4 Capacity Points
Size Class 3 Weapons: 6 Capacity Points
"SAW" type infantry support weapons: 1 Capacity Point
Vehicle Mounted Automatic Grenade Launcher: 2 Capacity Points
Heavy Flame Thrower: 2 Capacity Points
Also, GMS systems have "non-standard" space requirements:
GMS-L: 3 Capacity Points
GMS-H: 5 Capacity Points
In addition, shoulder mountings can carry 1 "SAW" type weapon "for
free", including SAW, Multiple Launcher Packs (MLP - same as that found
on PA) and single shot GMS/L tubes (may be used once during the battle,
otherwise acts exactly the same as a standard GMS-L).
As with
other vehicles, ECM, fire control, guidance systems, decoy launchers,
smoke dischargers and other similar small external fittings do not
require Capacity Points.
Arcs of Fire:
There are two ways to
account for arcs of fire for this type of vehicles, and either is
appropriate. Choose whichever suits your sense of aesthetics for these
vehicles. The first is to allow all "arm" mounted weapons a 360 degree
Arc of Fire (the arms themselves allow a 180 degree Arc of Fire to the
side, and the waist can rotate 90 degrees in either direction, allowing a
total coverage of 360 degrees). The second ignores the waist rotation,
so arm mounted weapons have a 180 degree Arc of Fire to the side they
are mounted on. In addition, all "shoulder" mounted weapons have a 180
degree Arc of Fire to the front only. In my gaming experiece, arc of
fire on these type of vehicles rarely is rarely an issue and we
generally do not worry about it, but either of these methods provides a
simple justification for a GM to make a ruling on line of sight if
necessary.
Drawbacks
The main drawback to this design
methodology is that the exposed weapon systems are more likely to suffer
damage in combat than equivalent systems on more conventional armoured
vehicles.
So I saved 20 bucks on the above....not bad!
