Army Construction

MegaMekNET has specific army construction guidelines that apply to all armies regardless of Operation. There are only two easy-to-grasp rules for constructing armies: The stairstep rule and the BV spread rule. As mentioned, these both apply regardless of the operation in question. The spread rule is enforced automatically through the MekWars client and will not allow you to use the illegal army. However, the stairstep rule is not something the client is able to enforce so all players should be aware and have good sportsmanship when playing.

Stairstep Rule

No Mech or Vee may be more than 1 weight class distant from another Mech or Vee. Using three heavy Mechs/tanks and then one light Mech/tank would be illegal under this rule. Instead, you could use two heavies, a medium and a light or go with three heavies and a medium instead.

The Stairstep Rule discourages min/maxing whereupon an army constructed around a single high-BV unit is surrounded by a number of cheap light units, while encouraging a diverse army composition to make battles more interesting. The rule is currently unable to be enforced via the MekWars Client so players must abide by it on their own or risk punishment.

Variable BV Spread Rule

BV spread is the spread between the highest BV unit and the lowest BV unit within your army. Let's just say a 1450 BV Marauder is your highest BV unit and the lowest BV unit is a 900 BV Stinger. The spread of that army would be 550.

The fixed BV spread that existed in previous cycles has been replaced with a variable BV spread rule which allows for a great amount of flexibility depending on the overall size of the battle in question. Smaller BV battles will have a lower spread while larger battles will have a much higher spread, almost to the point where the spread becomes a non-factor at the highest levels. The formula for determining the spread is:

BV Spread = (Army BV x 0.1) + 400

Here's a quick guide chart:

BV of Battle	BV Spread
2000	600
3000	700
4000	800
5000	900
6000	1000
7000	1100
8000	1200
9000	1300
10000	1400

Unit Customization

There are many options to customize how units work available in game, such as through loading specialty ammunition or changing a weapon's firing mode. However, due to the 3025-era setting and a desire for overall balance, many canonical customization options are available only in certain special cases, or not at all. Note that ammunition must be loaded in advance of the battle, as no combat reloading options exist in the game engine.

All Units

• Rename pilot: Can be renamed freely outside outside battle.
• Disable autoeject: Guarantees that the pilot will not survive if their unit is destroyed. Can be toggled freely outside combat.
• Targeting system: Can be toggled between standard and anti-air outside battle. (Note that there are no operation types that use both ground and air units in the game)

Energy Weapons

• PPC field inhibitor: Can be toggled on/off in combat.
• Flamer mode: Can be toggled between damage and heat in combat.

Missiles

• Fragmentation ammo: Available in all launchers.
• Narc-capable ammo: Available in all launchers.
• Artemis-capable ammo: Available in all launchers(even when the unit has no Artemis system).
• Inferno ammo: Only available in SRM2.
• Thunder ammo: Only available in LRM5.

Autocannons

• Flechette ammo: Available in all autocannons.
• Flak ammo: Available in all autocannons.
• Precision ammo: Only available in AC/2 and AC/5.

Machine Guns

• Rapid fire mode: Can be toggled on/off outside battle.

Design Contests

A design contest took place on the forums in 2015, and the winning units have been added as rare options on each faction's build table. The following units are non-canonical, but available on the server:

Light Meks:

• Salamander SA2
• Wolf Spider WSD-8R
• Sub-Urban Mech
• Mule ML-1
• Sand Flea SFL-2L
• Spinosad SPI-1

Medium Meks:

• Honeybadger HBR-01
• Handaxe
• Centurion CN9-AP
• Scorpion SCP-1C
• Ra RA-1

Heavy Meks:

• Rifleman RFL-3L
• Rifleman RFL-3Y
• Ragnarok
• Samurai OR-S1
• Strike Valkyrie STRK-VLK
• Yeti YTI-1

Assault Meks:

• Victor VTR-9GLI
• Berserker BKR-2B
• Ant Lion AL-10N
• Sky Guardian SG-2D
• Banshee BNC-3X
• Aegis AS-AG1