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Going through the field manual/ locked and loaded and coming across a few things that Im not understanding or can't find where the books explain a specific rule.
It would be helpful if page numbers were listed where the answers are if replies are posted.

These are things Im having trouble with(more may be added later):

How do you make units into veterans?
Example: I can't find how you make aller heavy tanks unto veterans in order to use them for WFPA. All I've been able to conclude is that I simply purchase a veteran option to make a aller heavy tank model a veteran model.

The number of units that can be upgraded to veterans is based off the priority level you select. There are 4 priority levels and you may take any level you like when creating an army (though some priority levels are difficult to build if you play lower point games because of the required units that must be taken.) Priority levels are described on p.38 of the Locked and Loaded book (I'm basing this off my pdf copy.) As long as you meet the requirements for fielding a particular priority level you can choose any unit to upgrade to a veteran (unless your force list says otherwise.)

For example, if you choose a priority level 2 force you may upgrade two units to veteran status. What veteran status gets you is listed in each unit's entry. In your case, using a WFPA force, a veteran heavy tank squad allows you to purchase a Naval Support Aller, upgrade to level 3 Attack and Defense skills and level 2 EW and leadership. However, before you can even purchase those heavy tank squads you need to first purchase at least two core units to have a legal force (the requirement is listed in the PL2 force list.) For WFPA this is going to be General Purpose squads, Dragoons, or infantry. Tough to do if you're playing say a 500pt game (though not too bad if you take full advantage of all the downgrades the WFPA can take.)

From a fluff perspective the WFPA doens't/shouldn't be toting many (if any) heavy tank units since their whole background is that they get the shaft when it comes to newer units and tend to use lots of older, obsolete or just easy to fix gears and equipment (which is why a lot of their units fill special or elite spots.) Naval support Allers are cool but it's a lot of points sunk into one unit. Since a lot of games are more than "kill everything" you may find you have a lot of difficulty winning some scenarios. I can see their usefulness in larger games but in small games they rarely are as useful as you'd like them to be (it's the same with Southern heavy tanks too only we have to upgrade our light tanks to heavy instead of having a separate entry for them....boo.)

It does make a cool centerpiece though and fluffwise I could see a unit that sinks all their resouces into keeping the tank up and running at the cost of using a lot of downgraded gears and infantry.

Sarcastro1 is correct.

At a lot of small TV levels, like the common 'tournament' point values of 800-1000, I find that veteran slots are not something I'm running out of.

I'm guessing that Gutstuf Ugfang is looking into just getting 'regular' Allers: the WFPA's special rules have those mandatory downswaps. The Hardy Aller is pretty impressive compared to the base Aller, though. The Field Gun gets indirect fire and splash damage instead of being the 'Death Ray' of the Rail Gun.

I do like the current Southern system where you get neat 'mixed' squads of tanks with a couple Gears as escorts. Very cool fluff idea.Uding the light Gear as escorts for the big armor makes perfect sense and has a cool feel to it.

after playing a couple more small skirmishes with the 2 player starter kit i found a couple things im getting confused on is when adding up the attackers modifiers and defenders modifiers for the MOS roll:

i apply a negative modifer of -1 at top speed to my MOS roll when the hunter gear that i currently activated is shooting right, because on its data card it has listed in the attack row as 1 for stationary, 0 for combat speed, and -1 for top speed?

cover and concealment stack MOS modifers correct? for example if a gear has at least 1" of building theyre hiding behind conffering a +1 to their defense roll and the gear has partial cover the attacker has a -1 to their roll, right?

concealment stacks the defenders MOS when the concealment on a building is providing more than 1" of concealment then they get X amount of inches as X amount of a "+" modifer to their roll right? also, is there a standard way of measuring the X amount of inches of concealment to see how much of a "+" modifer the defender's roll recieves?

after the few skirmish game were played i noticed that if you stayed back, deployed in cover and made sure your models had line of sight of the shooting lanes that if you stayed still that your would stack the modifers mostly in your favor. the purpose of the MOS system is to tacticly stack the odds in your favor right? how does a usual 800-1000pt game go really?

The major modifiers to attack/defense rolls are those on the movement grid of the data card. It sounds like you get this:
Most models have a minus to attack at top speed, but are at a bonus to defense. You also need an action to attack at top speed.

Cover/Concealment: You appear to have this a bit wrong. Basically, cover is, well, putting a big piece of something between the attacker and the defender to absorb bullets. Concealment is hiding from sensors, etc.

Forests might provide concealment, but no cover.

Where this comes in is the chart for an attack on page 8 of the Field Manual. Basically, if the target is in the open, you can attack freely. otherwise, you need to use sensors to 'see' the target.

Most units are size 6-ish, and if within the size in inches, you can always achieve combat lock. If you don't have a clear shot because of concealment, you can make an Active Lock test: Roll EW skill + Sensors against the the unit's Concealment.*

If you make it, you have 'Combat Lock' and can attack. If not, your weapons can't lock on, etc.

Cover comes in for the actual attack roll and is 0 to -2, with attacks prevented if there's no visibility at all.

Basically, only cover modifies the roll, but concealment may prevent the roll at all.

In general, standing still to control a fire lane is very risky. It's generally a +1 to attack and a -1 to defend. If you're in cover, that might be worth it, but it makes you very vulnerable.

* My PDF of the Field Manual says cover in the flowchart, but the rules say concealment. A type, I assume...

So cover is physical peices of terrain that helps the defenders roll and they only add that to their roll not the attacker?

Concealment only comes into affect when you can't see your target.

I'll give the field manual another read and get some more skirmishes in.

Went back and read the concealment section of the field guide and understand the concealment part now.

In my sadly limited experience, 'Concealment' if often a very quick step unless you have a jungle board or similar.

(The old Heavy Gear RPG had some very evocative art for things like Gears fighting in tall grass similar to Vietnam war infantry... but this grass would be around 8 feet tall...)