Well, I've been investigating different smaller scale sci-fi rules and miniatures.  Everything from Epic:Armageddon, to Classic Battletech and miniatures ranging from Germy's 2mm sci-fi to Minifigs 10mm modern/historical stuff.  As well as Heavy Gear, CAV and a variety of 6mm sci-fi manufacturers.  Rules wise, my short list included CAV, Future War Commander, Iron Cow, Epic:A, Prophecy of War, Heavy Gear, etc.,.

I eventually decided on Wardogs and 10mm/N Scale stuff.  The reason is pretty much the design system and availability as a PDF.  There are certain elements I like in a game and while Prophecy of War, Future War Commander, Epic:A and others can handle them, Wardogs is pretty much the only one that does so and doesn't require large numbers of miniatures to be used to get a good game in.  Epic:A, FWC, Prophecy of War and others run at normal levels with 20+ tanks, 20+ stands of infantry and then just a few walkers tacked on if you're so inclined.  And it can get a lot higher as well.  It just seems like an awful lot of stuff on the battlefield given how battlefield troop density has been dropping since the 1800s.

I generally don't game with hexes.  I've done a lot of hard core chit based hex historical consim type wargaming and I generally cringe at hexes now.  So I'll just be doing a simple conversion to inches.  1 hex = 1" should work, but I may also try 1.5 and 2 if I have a larger table for a given game.

For N scale stuff, I'm going to go with DP9's Heavy Gear line for light mechs, Reaper's CAV for the heavy stuff and EM4's nice cheap plastic mechs for middle of the road type stuff.  They might look a bit small for 10mm/N-Scale, so I may also have them be remote operated virtual reality controlled mechs, or entirely AI controlled mechs.  I won't really be able to tell for sure if they'll work with an N-scale person piloting them or not.  I ordered 2 sets of 5 from EM4 to see what I think of them up close.

My next CAV order will wait a while.  I got a bunch of their VTOLs/Gunships off of eBay for a good price and those have arrived.  But no local store carries their CAV stuff and the one I want to deal with just placed an order with the distributor that carries Reaper stuff and won't be doing so again for a while (next month for Christmas releases, I think).  There's one local store that has an account with DP9, but unless the order is over $100, they insist that I pay their shipping charges.  So I may as well save the local sales tax and have it delivered right to my door.

Infantry are a bit harder of a choice.  Both Reaper and DP9 make excellent N scale size infantry (if a bit large).  Very sci-fi looking.  But I think there's nothing wrong with modern or even WW2 style infantry in a sci-fi game.  There's been some changes, but I don't see infantries appearance changing all that rapidly over the last 50 years.  Even the futurist magazine articles about the soldiers of the future don't look that different in their concept art.  So I'm probably going to order some infantry from minifigs.com and go for either their near future stuff or their modern Americans.  A couple packs will be more than enough infantry for both sides.  DP9 is also still a serious possibility.  When I finally do place an order with them, I'll probably add a platoon of their infantry just because.

Another benefit of N-scale/10mm over the traditional 6mm/1:285 (used by battletech and others) is that they're just big enough that some 15mm stuff can work as super heavy tanks and whatnot.  As well, it's just small enough that some larger 6mm stuff can work as well.  For example, the CAV VTOLs/Gunships are actually in 1:285 scale. 

Now terrain is where I'm really jazzed about N scale.  There are a variety of n-scale model railroad terrain manufacturers.  The Japanese stuff has the greatest use for sci-fi stuff and there are some great kits out there.  For example, here's a thread on a guy's collection of N-scale buildings for Heavy Gear (link to Dream Pod 9's forum):
http://dp9forum.com/index.php?showtopic=4072

I have some stuff en route from Japan myself.  An excellent factory made by Greenmax as well as a big pack of shipping containers.  My plan is to make a bunch of terrain pieces that are a transport hub/industrial settlement.  I'm planning on hitting a local model train shop and getting some tracks and some flat bed train cars. 

I'm not 100% sure about the layout yet, but I'm thinking I'm going to make sectional train track pieces.  Since a hex/inch is like 200 metres or something, the train tracks will represent transit corridors rather than just train tracks.  So they'll represent roads/highways as well as train tracks.  Anything can use them as roads.  The buildings will functionally form area terrain that counts as a city.  When you're miniatures are in 1:150 or so and the ground is in 1:8000, fudging is unavoidable.  Even if I want with the 2mm mico-minis, I'm still looking at 1:600 or so.  The vertical scale will be over 10 times the ground scale.

In a way, it's a good thing.  Having the ground scale be looser than the figure scale means you can get away with stuff like using the smaller 1:285 aircraft miniatures.  It basically puts the onus on it just looking right.  The smaller EM4 plastic mechs might end up looking fine alongside N scale buildings and infantry.  Since it all doesn't matter to the ground scale and Wardogs doesn't have silly ideas like using true line of sight with a laser pointer to see if you get cover or not, as long as it looks right, it'll work.

Anyway, if you ever consider using railroad track for terrain modelling and you don't need it to work as a model railroad, go for the lower code track.  Sure, it means that less cargo cars can actually go on it, but having a lower code track means the railroad tines are lower and it'll look less like a toy.  So there's scale (N, HO, O, Z, etc., and then there's code, which is the height of the tracks.  I'm going with N scale, code 55.

The main advantage to having things like trains and buildings, other vehicles and whatnot is that it really makes mechs look impressive.  Infantry help a little, but nothing helps quite like seeing something tower over a bus or a train.  Even smallish trees don't quite have the same effect as seeing a tiny bus or car beside a mech.

So I'm also thinking of getting some N scale construction equipment, maybe a bus or two and some cars.  I'll probably also get some N scale people, which I'll base up on stands as bystanders or hostages or whatever.  I'm going to have to hunt around for miniatures as the railroad people usually come prepainted and are expensive.

So the next step is getting the VTOLs painted as they are what I have.  When the first package of N Scale buildings arrive, I'll start on those.

Notable Links:
Germy's Micro Minis (cartoony 2mm sci-fi)
http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1/commerce.cgi?product=gmm&exact_match=on&cart_id=6263066.14818

Minifigs 10mm moderns
http://www.minifigs.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41_2_43_44&products_id=2290
Minifigs 10mm near future
http://www.minifigs.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=41_2_295&products_id=2610

EM4 mecha (scroll down)
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Science_Fiction.html

Dream Pod 9 infantry:
http://tyler.provick.ca/?p=220
http://tyler.provick.ca/?p=183

Reaper Gunships/VTOLs I have:
http://reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=988&cat=0&page=1
http://reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=998&cat=0&page=1
http://reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=944&cat=0&page=1

N Scale Track (not mine, just an example)
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/N_scale_test_track_1_.jpg
http://www.larkmodelworks.com/images/weekend/nv03.jpg

N Scale Flatbed Cars:
https://secure.atlasrr.com/mmMOD1/Images/38190A_TQ.jpg

The N Scale factory on it's way:
http://kampfgruppe144.blogspot.com/2006/01/greenmax-factory-diorama.html</r>